Wow, I would have never known about Archos. After reading some reviews it sounds like a good brand. Thanks!
You could try Archos, I dont have any experience with them. But you could sure try!
Yeah because they are a French brand they aren’t marketed much outside Europe as far as I know. It is too bad too because they could be a real hit in North America, but I think North America is too dominated by the big brand names and because of that people are reluctant to try newer smaller companies.
I don’t quite understand the largish portable media players that try to do everything. They’re largish, expensive, and fragile which makes them less suitable for use as a portable for everyday use.
Portable MP3 players are already pretty much disposable consumer electronics gear even though the more featured ones cost more than I’m willing to consider disposable. The iPod is built and designed well and relatively sturdy for consumer gear. But even the iPod has a rather short life before it dies or becomes impractical to fix. Something like the Archos would have even a shorter life expectancy given its more fragile design.
I can see paying $400 for home stereo or home electronics gear for music. I’ve got several pieces of spendy home audio gear connected to my computer. But it’s home gear and won’t get the abuse of portable gear. I know it will all still function in 5 or 10 years and is not what I consider to be disposable electronics.
My preference would be for a portable player that is less expensive and more on the durable side. I’d give up on the unnecessary fluff features to get something smaller and more durable and geared to just doing audio.
There’s the philosophical rant out of the way. 
My big feature need is gapless playback. The new iPods now do gapless playback and they do it well. That puts the iPod in my short list. The Archos does not have true gapless playback.
Another nice to have feature is a user replaceable battery. If the battery isn’t easily replaced then the device is more likely to become disposable before its time should be up.
I keep an eye out on players that do gapless playback. One that caught my eye recently is the TrekStor Vibez. It’s new, but something to keep an eye on. Too new to know how well it’s going to hold up. And they still haven’t released all the accessories for it like the dock so we don’t know if the dock has a true line out on it or not and other things like that. Good news is that it has gapless playback and a user replaceable battery. Bad news is that it uses a Microdrive so will have the hard drive related reliability problems. Intriguing but the microdrive doesn’t make me want it too much.
If I was buying an MP3 player today I’d likely get an 8GB iPod Nano. It has gapless playback and the flash memory means reliability. I’d just hope that the battery doesn’t die too soon. Then I’d get a custom dock cable for the line out, plug in a portable headphone amp to it and be happy.
Yes, all of my friends have had a good experience with iPod Nanos. They are relativley cheap, and can store quite a bit of music. Also, there is now hard drive, so all you have to worry about is the battery dying. But their batteries usually have a pretty long life. The downside is that Nanos only do music.
I have used a nano, a H4 and am now happily using a shuffle,
and older one mind you. For portability and lack of a screen to dmg when I fall. The new ones are tiny. My ultra-marathon buddies clip em to their hats for jogging.
plenty of music, as a father my muni rides are shorter then the song length I can place on it.
I also have in the past brought my ZOOM H4 digital voice recorder with me, but that was asking for a smashing…(records to and plays mp3). The nano was great as well, but for the price and performance… for my intentions as a music device (non video) during muni/lifting/etc… i would pick the new shuffle.
MY firends with the zune seem to be very happy with it, but as I have only listened and watched video on once, others opinions are most likely better.
I use the pebble
Not quiet in the same league as the archos (which I have heard good things about) but I love it. iRiver are also a popular/good make.
Archos is a name I know from looking at portable media storage devices/players. I considered getting one of theirs, but ended up with the Epson P-4000. But I wasn’t shopping for a music or video player, and I don’t think that’s this device’s strong point. I just use it for photo storage on long trips, so I don’t have to bring a laptop. It’s excellent for that, with the card readers built right in. Image playback is slow, but the screen is excellent.
If your primary need is music, I’d stick with something smaller and less fragile. If your main need is video then the Archos devices linked above look like good choices. The iPods have small screens.
Like JC said, your first choice is probably whether you need a hard drive or not. This makes a big difference in how well the device will hold up to being jostled around. My iPod is fine, as it’s usually in the house or in the car. If I was going to use it for unicycling, for instance, I’d probably get a Shuffle for that.
I would strongly disagree with the whole mp3 players being disposable items. That is if you buy the right ones. The Gmini 402 series for example has a hard plastic casing around the screen. That is pretty much the only weak spots that I know of on most video/mp3 players is the ones with soft screens. Mine lasted for a few years before I had to replace anything and I abused that thing far worse than almost any mp3 player I have seen my friends have.
wups forgot the link to the gmini series http://www.archos.com/products/video/gmini_index.html?country=global&lang=en
Also if something does go wrong, replacing the hard drive and replacing the battery are both easy tasks. The hard drive just pops out and the new one pops in and the battery just requires you to solder two wires back after cutting them. I did it all in about 5 minutes.