Radio Reviews

Mine broke w/in 4 months of having it. The alarm ceased going off when you set it to, and instead began going off at its leisure! Also, the buttons are not that easily mastered. I found myself going to the book every time I needed to use it.

It's hard to get excited about an alarm clock that has to wake you to go to work, but the GE 74894 is terrific. The numbers are large enough that I can see them at night without my glasses. The radio works very well. The dual alarm, time set, nap features are great. I love it that I can change the time for the snooze feature. All in all, a terrific buy. VERY highly recommended.

This is a neat little clock. It is "loaded" with lots of nice features not found on many other alarm clocks. Straight out of the box, you only have to set a switch to your time zone and the clock will automatically set the correct time as soon as you plug it in. It can even be set to adjust for daylight savings time automatically every spring and fall.

The design is rather small and attractive. My only gripe is that the rounded clear plastic housing on the front of the clock can exaggerate glare from lights and windows.

The buttons that would be used every day are large and easy to find, even when still half-asleep. The AM/FM radio sounds nice enough for what it is (a clock). You can set 2 different alarm times, there is a "nap" feature which you can set during your day to allow you to take a quick nap and yet have an alarm go off to wake you if you oversleep that is completely separate from the normal alarms. You can also set that 'nap' time from 10 minutes to 2 hours. And the Grad-U-Wake beeping tone of the alarm slowly grows louder, starting off at a level loud enough to wake light-sleepers and growing until it could wake your neighbors. Oh yeah, and there is a weekend mode so that your alarm goes off every morning during the week but disables itself on the weekends. It doesn't get any cooler than that!

GE has always made very good clocks and this one is the cream of the crop. (Circuit City is very good at shipping your item fast!)

I bought the Phillips AZ1155 because it could play MP3 CDs. It was a bonus that it came with a remote control.

The good points first. It has very good sound, can autotune and can be operated by remote control. Thats it. It plays CDs - so does everything else. However, It is supposed to be a MP3 player as well. It is useless. Unless I burn to CD-R at a speed of 16x or lower, I frequently have to unplug and re-plug it in before it will read them. It cannot read any of my CD-RWs, nor can it read any MP3 CDs burnt from Windows Media Player 9. My no-name (Star-media) DVD player has no trouble playing anything I through into it. I am so sick of it that I have given it away - only because I had been seen by a friend when I was throwing it into bulk rubbish. I feel really let down and as though I have been taken for a ride. I have always bought Phillips first. They were always well priced and good quality. allowing me to experience and enjoy until I could afford a top end bit of equipment. This has put me off Phillips products for life. Don't buy it.

There isn't many Boomboxes that even play MP3s (believe me, I've looked). This is the first that I've found that has the quality and features that you need with MP3 playback. It has Nice looks, decent sound, colorful back light, cute little remote, and most important of all it will play your hundreds of MP3s in a Random Order (which for some reason, is every Rare!). If you burn you own CDs than you probably know that you can get about 80 min of music on a regular CD (about 22 songs) and about 10 times that with MP3 format (about 13 hours and well over 200 songs). It not only lets you shuffle you songs but will recognize and let you select different folders of MP3s on you CD. So if you're looking for a nice CD/MP3 player in a Boombox with MP3 Shuffle...this is it!

Yes, there's no headphone jack. Yes, the remote only shuts the unit off, and cannot turn it on. Yes, a real equalizer would be nice. Yes, a "Surround" function would be cool too. BUT -- the bass boost, the remote, and the fact that this baby reads all my MP3 discs (even dirty / scratched ones) without a single skip, and sounds great, makes this product a winner in my book. My discs have MP3's varying from 128-320 Kbps and VBR -- all play with no problems. The sound quality is quite good, (I did not notice any "tinny" sound or anything, mine sounds pretty full and "warm" to me) but there is some room for improvement. There is some mild hiss from the amp once you've got the volume up more than halfway, but you probably won't even notice it if you're sitting across the room. Mine is in my living room so I can listen to nice quiet tunes while I read or visit with friends -- it's totally cool to have that many tunes at your fingertip with this MP3 boombox. The shuffle and repeat functions all work very well, and are all accessible from the remote. The AM/FM tuner pulls in stations that my Sony home system can't, and they sound quite good. Nearly every function is available through the remote (you can't program the radio; and as mentioned elsewhere, you can't turn the unit ON with the remote.) There are other units out there with these features, but none sounded as good to me (I listened to several RCA units, then this one), or had the features that this one does; or if they did, the cost was twice as much or more. If you need a headphone jack, you should probably be looking at RioVolt or something more appropriate. This is also not a home stereo replacement. Realizing these things, and for the price, this little boombox puts out good sound that everyone in the room will enjoy, and gets the job done well! Good job, Philips...

The radio didn't turn on when I plugged it in. Pressing the reset button didn't seem to help. Persistence helped by inserting the plug several times.

I had trouble programming the tuning buttons for preset stations. The instructions do not state that the preset buttons must be held for more than an instant. Persistence paid off---I tried over and over.

If a person has been humbled by years of computer problems, he can deal with the the Sangean RS-330 clock radio. But I wouldn't recommend it as a gift to someone who is not computer literate.

I recall the clock radios of the 1960s, which were fitted with levers as sleep switches. If you were still awake at the end of sixty minutes, you could pull the lever again without turning on the light or consulting a manual. And the simplicity of turning a knob to change stations---priceless.

I own both this radio and its predecessor. Overall, this is one of the finer radios available (and I did a considerable amount of research.) The advantages:

(1) LED, not LCD, display for nighttime viewing

(2) earplug port tp listen in bed

(3) 6 presets for easy switching of stations day or night

(4) does not require battery backup as it has a capacitor to save memory in case of brief power outage (see disadvantages below)

(5) Great Sound. No buzz. (the buzz referred to in another review was probably fromplacing radio too close to a computer, or alarm panel, or similar).

(6) EASY time adjustment. has up and down. No need to go all the way around if you miss your alarm or time setting.

(7) Fairly well built. Takes a knocking.

(8) Plus all the usual other features like sleep timers, snooze, etc...

The disadvantages:

(1) the little buried adjustment knob for brightness is buried underneath and can EASILY be damaged when adjusting

(2) the former model had a better power backup capacitor. It could be unplugged or power lost for an hour and it would remember time and presets. New one is a minute or two.

(3) Actually there are 12 presets for AM and 12 for FM, but there is an additional key that needs to be pressed to switch to those modes. Should have been more straightforward, like pressing the preset twice to activate the second preset for that button. (Proton take note!)

Well, that's about it. Good luck.

While Amazon lists this as a Sangean unit, it is actually boxedand labelled as the more familiar and highly reputable Proton brand,model RS-330. (The name Sangean is nowhere to be found.)

This radio is the perfect solution for those who don't want to spend hundreds more on a Bose Wave, but find very little satisfaction from "plasticky" clock radios with horrible sound, analog tuners, and controls unusable by humans. I looked at lots of "junk" before I bought this. Add the companion RS-332 amplified speaker and you have an integrated stereo clock radio "system" with independent alarms and controls for two sleepers. (Each sleeper is awakened by sound from the component on his or her own side, but in normal listening you have stereo.) In my opinion, the extra speaker is a must; without it, you have one speaker monaural sound.

The radio and companion RS-332 each contain a four watt amplifier and 5 inch speaker, together offering great fidelity. The case and controls are extremely well crafted with excellent look, materials, and feel.

Headphone out, power backup (not via battery but deep capacitor), ramp wake volume, light sensitive auto dim, digital tuning, auxilliary inputs, displayed wake time for two sleepers, sleep timer... etc. etc. etc.

FM reception is exceptional with the wire dipole antenna included. In summary, this thing works and sounds GREAT (especially with the RS-332 attached in stereo) as long as you do not expect to blow the walls out at high volume.

I purchased the Koss QZ-5 Headphones.
THESE ARE NOT ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONES!!!
I was duped. I believed these were active noise cancelling headphones, but they reduce noise by adding a ton of padding. These headphones are HUGE. The picture displayed is very decieving, only showing you the profile of the headphones. If you wear it and look in a mirror, you will look like a geeky mickey mouse. They stick out of the sides of your head making you look like a weirdo.

In addition to that, the sound quality is extremely poor. At the moment I am listening to the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack, and any bass makes the headphones crackle. Bass performance is absolutely poor. Do not get these headphones, they are a waste of money. Do not get these headphones!

The Koss QZ-99 is a very nice product, for certain things. I would never recommend this type of product, without knowing the context. I use it for listening to books on tape, on the street or in a gym, on an old portable tape player. Since I am just listening to narration, I care much more about outside sound being blocked out than I care about sound quality. If you use Bose headphones in this context, you are going to get much better sound, but that is a drawback: you will hear the crackles and rattles and pops on the your 8 year old Walkman and the 5 year old library book-on-tape. Noise reducing headphones can be too good. If I were listening to classical music on a CD player, in an airplane, a higher quality, and/or active noise reducing product would be better. But for my situation the Koss is very nice. I did not realize, until recently, that I could swivel the ear pads as well a lengthen and shorten the band between the pads. It works very well.

Overall I enjoy these headphones. I love the way the look and feel, the weight of them and the comfort factor. I have only a few complaints; One, they are not as sound proof as I was hoping they would be. Random noises still manage to creep in and disturb the your listening. Two, Although they don't hurt at all to wear for long periods of time, if by chance, someone knocks on the ear piece your in for a world of hurt my friend. Three, I bought a [less expensive] pair of headphones for [a few] dollars and noticed the bass and treble are slightly better than in the KOSS pair. At times I wondered if too much bass would blow them out or if they were really designed for music at all.

I'm not saying KOSS isn't a great headphone maker, but if your looking for something soundproof avoid these headphones. If your looking to block out ambient noise and the majority of sounds then these are definitley yours all the way. Very comfortable and well made, KOSS is an amazing company I was looking for total soundproof protection though. In the end I kept them and still use them for my music. I very much enjoyed this product and highly recommend it to anyone out there.

The player is pretty good in general. The sound quality is excellent, fairly easy to use. The firmare was a bit buggy but Frontier Labs now has an upgrade on their site. I just downloaded it and it offers a few fixes. Hopefully, they improved on a generally good product. Among the flaws are the memory card door that just wouldn't stay closed, the battery indicator that is virtuallty useless - the player goes dead with the indicator showing the battery 75% full. And absence of a belt clip on the pouch. The download time through a USB port is pretty long, but then I have a 512 meg CF card that takes 10-15 min to fill. I bought a CF card PCMCIA laptop adapter which is much faster for loading files. The player also doubles as a protable storage device - you can drag and drop any files on it. Also, a bit bulky for jogging.
Overall, very versatile device with great basic functionality and sound quality. CF cards now come up to 1 Gig, giving plenty of storage on an industry standard memory card.

Since I'm only 15 and don't have a saturday job or anything, this Nex ia (I got the + model) did exactly what I wanted for a mere £59.00 I bought the player with 4 batteries and a charger and Sennheiser earbuds and the sound quality is AMAZING. I bought the player off www.advancedmp3players.co.uk and the service was great. Because my cashflow is very limited i found this to be a complete bargain and I conveniently already owned a 128mb Cf card for my digital camera. There was a problem with the joystick 'up' but I sent it back and the replacement was fine. Overall, I think this Mp3 player is the best value for money possible and the sound quality is just so much better than i expected off such a cheap product.

Pros: Looks soooooooo sweeeet!!, Easy to transfer mp3s and WMA files, good inline remote, incredible sound, feels solid ( i like my technology to feel like it has some substance and is not made of polystyrene) and perfectly weighted, amazing value
Cons: Poor software (I don't see the point), Manual included is not full comprehensive, have to download the PDf off the cd to read all the instructions, unreliable joystick, awful FM radio.

I can't quite agree with the other reviews of NEXIA. Mine player functions as I had expected. It plays MP3, great sound, FM works ok, Recording is clear, LCD is large and informative. The battery life is adequate, about 10 hours. For less than $100, I think its great value for money.

The player is pretty good in general. The sound quality is excellent, fairly easy to use. The firmare was a bit buggy but Frontier Labs now has an upgrade on their site. I just downloaded it and it offers a few fixes. Hopefully, they improved on a generally good product. Among the flaws are the memory card door that just wouldn't stay closed, the battery indicator that is virtuallty useless - the player goes dead with the indicator showing the battery 75% full. And absence of a belt clip on the pouch. The download time through a USB port is pretty long, but then I have a 512 meg CF card that takes 10-15 min to fill. I bought a CF card PCMCIA laptop adapter which is much faster for loading files. The player also doubles as a protable storage device - you can drag and drop any files on it. Also, a bit bulky for jogging.
Overall, very versatile device with great basic functionality and sound quality. CF cards now come up to 1 Gig, giving plenty of storage on an industry standard memory card.

Since I'm only 15 and don't have a saturday job or anything, this Nex ia (I got the + model) did exactly what I wanted for a mere £59.00 I bought the player with 4 batteries and a charger and Sennheiser earbuds and the sound quality is AMAZING. I bought the player off www.advancedmp3players.co.uk and the service was great. Because my cashflow is very limited i found this to be a complete bargain and I conveniently already owned a 128mb Cf card for my digital camera. There was a problem with the joystick 'up' but I sent it back and the replacement was fine. Overall, I think this Mp3 player is the best value for money possible and the sound quality is just so much better than i expected off such a cheap product.

Pros: Looks soooooooo sweeeet!!, Easy to transfer mp3s and WMA files, good inline remote, incredible sound, feels solid ( i like my technology to feel like it has some substance and is not made of polystyrene) and perfectly weighted, amazing value
Cons: Poor software (I don't see the point), Manual included is not full comprehensive, have to download the PDf off the cd to read all the instructions, unreliable joystick, awful FM radio.

I can't quite agree with the other reviews of NEXIA. Mine player functions as I had expected. It plays MP3, great sound, FM works ok, Recording is clear, LCD is large and informative. The battery life is adequate, about 10 hours. For less than $100, I think its great value for money.

If you intend to bounce this radio down the street then you picked the right one but for listing purposes forget it! JUNK! I've bought radios at the 99 cent store that have better reception than this battery charger with a roll bar. Your workers will spend more time trying to find a station than working on their project. Unless you're in a situation where you need to defend your life by beating someone to death with this radio... make another choice!

I also have the Dewalt radio/charger; like everyone else I too am dissapointed by the reception. I love this radio/charger becuase it is indestructable (I have left it out in a pouring rain, knocked it off a 2 story roof,dropped tools and ladders on it and yet it still works like new.) It charges all my Dewalt batteries (9.6-18.) I can take it up on a roof, in the middle of a field, to the beach, camping, and the list goes on. the radio will never die during the day because of dead conventional batteries.
Think of the money you save right there. Many people complain that there is no cd player. This is fine with me because I would worry about dust on the lense or a jarring impact would ruin it. Also the dust/dirt would get on my cds and scratch them.
One final note: this radio is loud and the sound carries far and clean. I can hear this radio from at least 100 yds.

Too many times over I here folks complaining that DeWalt should have come out with a CD Charger or that this particular unit has a tough time playing in indoor environments. We need to be reminded that this is a Charger first with the ability to play Radio and line in CD/Tape. I find the DW911 particularly useful when it comes to charging different batteries (9.6 to 18 volt). The unit is tougher than it looks...only the antenna has given me problems, but they are an affordable replacement part. Good unit that is perfect for a small cookout or a resting stop during a long road trip.

I love radios and have owned over thirty. I am constantly looking for the holy grail - a radio with great reception and plenty of features. I haven't found that yet but I can do comparisons. Here are the pros and cons of this one:Pros:1) This is truly a pocket radio and very light. It feels lighter than a deck of cards.2) Digital tuning - a rarity in pocket radios. You can quickly scan from station to station and from AM to FM to TV.3) Has a speaker built in. You don't need headphones. The sound quality is adequate for talk radio and AM music. The volume is adequate for quiet environments.4) It has TV audio and the reception was ok on the four major stations in my area.Cons:1) There is no built in FM telescoping antenna. You need to insert headphones or the included wire and switch it to speaker in order to get most FM stations. A small telescoping antenna would have been an improvement. I find the hanging wire annoying and I think it is just a matter of time before I lose the wire.2) The reception is not as great as the Amazon review suggests. I found that there was a good deal of static on several AM stations and AM is very dirctional. FM was great on headphones, though.3) The cary case is a joke. It looks like an afterthought. It is a membrane thin piece of vinyl that will not protect the radio.4) The ear buds are also a joke.5) Weather reception was the worst I have ever heard on a modern radio.6) The tuning light is bright and, no doubt, draining the batteries like crazy.If you are looking for a pocket radio that is digital and has a built in speaker, this will do. I see lots of room for improvement, though. I also think it is overpriced. I think it should be 39.99. It would be about right at that price.

Sangean has made an innovative little radio that is easy to use and a pleasure to listen to hour after hour. The DT-300VW crams a lot of features into a very small package. It slips comfortably into a shirt pocket, and it's a perfect portable radio to bring to baseball games and other sporting events. I have had mine since 1998, and I still use it fairly regularly.

It is easy to flip through memorized channels with the up-down buttons. The digital readout tells me the station instantly, without the guesswork of analog radios. I can change bands with the touch of a button, and another button allows me to search for a new station. There is also a stereo-mono button for improved FM signal reception. The radio provides 9 memory positions for each band (including weather), which is plenty for most users. When favorite channels are memorized, it becomes extremely simple to find something to listen to.

Sangean did not scrimp on performance. Reception is very good, and sound quality is excellent, especially on FM. I personally find the FM sensitivity above average but not awesome, although "your mileage may vary." The headphone cord acts as a de facto antenna, so it is impractical to listen to the radio's external speaker without a headphone attached to attract signals.

I like the simple blue on/off button at the top, which is very easy to find quickly and without looking. I also appreciate the lock switch, which keeps from changing the controls unintentionally. But, if the radio does switch on accidentally, it turns off automatically in about 90 minutes, saving battery power.

Battery consumption is very respectable. Having used my radio for probably more than 250 hours, I can say the average battery drain for a set of AAA batteries has been about 9-10 hours. That is well along par with any Walkman-type radio, especially considering the battery size and the radio's features. Of course, using the radio's external speaker for extended periods will reduce battery life significantly.

Judging from its small size, it's clear that the external speaker wasn't meant for demanding use. However, in a generally quiet room, with the radio less than three feet away, the speaker does just fine at low to moderate volume. Anything more is asking too much. This is primarily a headphone-oriented radio, and the speaker is simply a nice extra for some flexibility.

I've gotten several interesting reactions from people encountering the radio for the first time. On one occasion at work, the radio was hidden in my shirt pocket as I listened quietly with the external speaker. A visiting co-worker was truly puzzled at the mysterious sound coming from somewhere around me, until I showed the radio. His look of incredulity was priceless. On another occasion, an envious teenager wanted to know what it was, because he had mistaken it for a pricey MP3 player.

I have used several ultra-small radios like this. In the 1980s, Toshiba produced a very small, analog AM/FM stereo that was about the size of a Zippo cigarette lighter. It performed very well, although the retail price was prohibitively high. Today, this Sangean radio tops it in all respects, and at a reasonable discount price. It is well worth the money.

What an impressive piece of electronics: small, stylish and a great performer. Once a convinced Sony fan, this Sangean radio has earned my allegiance. It's so small your hand almost engulfs it. Easy to use, and what great sound. The earbuds are comfortable and the AM/FM reception is superb. I haven't listened to its small one-inch speaker, but it comes with a pigtail antenna to capture radio signals. I especially liked the auto scan and auto-timer features. I usually listen to radio in bed and invariably fall asleep, only to be awakened by the radio still playing. With its built-in 90-minute timer this no longer happens. The Sangean is powered by 2 AAA batteries. Looking for a quality AM/FM radio, with weather channel and TV channel reception included? You can't go wrong with this one.

IT is easy to review Radio Your Way, because it does EXACTLY what the description says. You set it to record shows by DAY and Time and it does that fine.

But be warned, it does not allow you to adjust the Bit rate of the recording. All recordings are recorded in a compressed .RYV format that, for people who understand MP3 sample compression, I would say couldn't be higher then like 20KHZ, The worst thing is that if you have an iPod like me, you then have to convert .RYV -> .Wav -> .Mp3. This sucks, the recorder should just record strait to Mp3 format.

Yes...the recording quality is horrible. DO NOT CONSIDER THIS if you plan to record music radio. I personally bought it to record Howard Stern, as I am a huge fan. Unfortunatly, the RYW audio quality is so low, it is almost too annoying to listen to the recording. If there is any reason not to get RYW it is the awfull recording quality.

Everything else, controls, etc, are adequate. By adequate I mean HORRIBLE...but dueable. The MP3 player does not display ID3 tags. The controls are completely illogical. And OS is jerky at best. But who cares about those things right? As long as I can get my Stern fix everyday? Wrong...because the audio quality is the dagger in the heart.

Simply put: This product is bad. I gave it two stars because it does everything it says it does without deception. But the audio quality is so low, you might not be able to sit through one of your recordings. Wait for something better to come out because this is simply a gimmick.

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I recently read a review that states "all people who think that this is a bad product must work for a competitor." This is rediculous. I can assure you that as a student, I work for nobody! Simply put, this is one of the crappiest products on the market today. I returned mine. The quality is so awful.

You know, I went to camp and lost my CD/mp3 player. SO I decided it was time for an upgrade. I am saving for a car, and I'm being very VERY careful with my money. At first i thought i wanted an mp3 player, with an fm tuner, atleast 64mb built in and expandable. As I researched about 100 different mp3 players, from every single company I could think of, and many hours, I found FM and Voice Recording. This seemed like a miracle for me! I no longer have to struggle to find the name of the song i'm looking for! Just record it! I did contact the tech support from ......(which has very good service) and they said it will record in some strange file type, but I can convert it to mp3 on my computer. Kinda a hassle, but easyier and way cooler than downloading. The super good parts are that:
1. The earbuds are the fm antenna, giving it great reception.
2. There is a speaker on board, and when listening to the radio on the speaker, it has an fm antenna to plug in, giving it great reception.
3. The audio-in port. This means, I could plug in my friend's cd player to this machine, and use it as a speaker, or record directly from that or any source.
4. It's able to switch to an external hard drive mode
5. The great price from Amazon.com, from the pogo website, it is $$$ and has a 10% restocking fee. Amazon.com is much cheaper, and I trust them.

The bad parts:
32mb on-board memory, but its expandable. And with the $$$ i saved buying form amazon, i will buy an external memory card.
to recieve radio, you have to use earbuds (which i find uncomfortable) or the antenna, which will be bad for working out.

I ordered this machine this morning, and i cant wait til it gets here. As you can see, with all these plusses, and no restocking fee except S&H, if returned in 30 days, The only thing that can POSSIBLY go wrong, is the antenna being bothersome. But, from the xtensive research, I think I will be extremely pleased.

The batteries on this unit last longer than 3 hours unless you are using used batteries or those sold at the 99 cent store. Batteries on the unit will last from 8-10 hours and if you understand electronics you can get the most life from them. There is an AC adpater that you can buy for 9.99 to record at home (so you only need to use batteries if you want to take the radio with you) Since most recording will be done at home, you will not be using batteries at all. As far as Customer Service goes before you buy the product email or call them and you will see two things.

1.In the case of email a reply usually in minutes.

2.Actually beiing able to get through the phone lines and talking to someone who knows the product.

You can't beat the service. People like "Greg" are just IDIOTS who bash a product with other agendas.

All I wanted was a mp3 player that I could listen to while riding my motorcycle. This unit gave all the promise of being just what I needed: large memory, easy to download through window explorer (drag and drop), easy to make playlists (I use Winamp). The addition of a "Rockbox" download makes managing the playlists better (I'm able to put up to 20,000 songs in a playlist while the Archos program only allows 999 songs per playlists; I wanted all 4600 of my songs in one playlist). The problem, as almost everyone stated, is that it locks up a whole bunch with any steady vibration, most times not playing more that a minute or so. After trying many tricks and bad words, I stumbled upon a setting called "Disc Spindown". It was defaulted to 5 secs. I raised it up to 40 seconds and the locking up ceased. The bad side to this is that the increased time will eat up the battery. Sooo, even though I not very pleased with this product, I think I can make it work for me. When I'm home and the player is not moving, I set the spindown to 10 seconds. When I'm on the road, I set it for 40 seconds (actually, I still trying to find a sweet spot) and plug the player into a DC power adapter. Note: the increased spindown time will result in some buzzing coming across the speakers or headphones. There's a whole bunch of other things I learned about it that the book didn't point out, but I let you learn those for yourself. Consider it a "learning experience".

Initially, I had my share of gripes with this product as when I listened to my mp3's every 27 - 45 seconds, the hard drive would make a metal "sliding" or locking sound which would also make the right & left equalizer bars to lock up for a few seconds (even thought the song did not lock up). I sent the jukebox back to archos for repair/maintenance twice (first time, they replaced the recharable batteries which didn't help at all and the second time they replaced the hard drive). Both times, their help desk reccommended I reformat the hard drive after I received the product back from them. Neither times did it fix the problems. I was ready to sell the thing and purchase an iPod when I came out to AMAZON and read on the reviews the same problems I was expiriencing were corrected if a different software (ROCKBOX) was installed. I went out to their website, downloaded the software, reformatted the hard drive, installed the ROCKBOX software and then reinstalled my songs. Since then, the product has not only been not locking up or making sounds but the software has additional features (fonts, display formats, clock timers on/off, etc.) that are wonderful!!!

I would suggest to any person who's been even a little bit discourage with the lack to performance with their ARCHOS to checkout the ROCKBOX website and see if what I have mentioned in my review corrects their problems.

I will say that I would give ARCHOS'S help desk a B- grade as they were very friendly, quick response turn around time in getting email/verbal correspondence as well as quick return of my product. The only issue I had was that when I contacted them the second time with my problems, at the time, I had not had the item for more than 6 months and I asked for them to replace the item. They explained to me that their policy is repair 3 times, after this, then they replace. I'm hoping I won't have to do this now.

Just bought the archos. Amazing. Buy this now! Although it is about one and a half times as thick as the ipod, it is about the same height and witdth, and it has twice the features for half the price!

If you buy this, upgrade to the rockbox firmware. It is much faster and works a lot smoother. Unlike an ipod, almost every feature is customizeable, and there are plenty of accessories at low prices.

Almost all of my songs (about 2,000: 9 gigs worth at average 2hundred something kbps) are recorded off of cd's in variable bit rate, and the archos recognizes all their bit rates perfectly. The sound is awesome and you don't have to scroll through any menus menus to get to the features that you use most.

I don't know why people complain about battery life. IT'S A HARD DRIVE! OF COURSE IT IS NOT GOING TO PLAY AS LONG AS A CD PLAYER ON A SINGLE CHARGE! Once I upgraded to the rockbox firmware, it worked for 13.5 hours playing continuously(which is comparable, if not more than the ipod). Just make sure to charge it completely before you use it for the first time.

My only gripe about this player is that the fm tuner sometimes is a little more static than a regular cd player and sometimes the player takes about a half a second to access the hard drive. (however this can be changed by adjusting spindown time; you can legnthen it, but it drains battery life.) However, the FM tuner works as well as you would expect it to in a portable device.

The hard drive can hold anything. I was in the process of switching to a new computer, and I backed up my entire hard drive onto the archos and it is recognized as a hard drive by any machine, so it is easy to transfer files.

Overall, I find the archos to be the best player out there for the money. If I had to do it all over again, given a choice between two of these or one Ipod(the ipod does not have an fm tuner and also has a smaller hard drive for twice the price), I would definitely go archos, wouldn't you?