If you're in the market for a portable digital audio player, you've probably considered all of the well-known devices, from Creative Labs' Nomad line to Sonicblue's Rio line. But if you limit yourself to the big boys, you're going to miss out on one of the top players on the market.
In fact, Archos Technology's Jukebox 6000 is hands down the best player you've never heard of, and arguably better than most of the ones with which you are familiar.
Archos Technology Jukebox 6000
While both the Jukebox 6000 and Creative Labs' Nomad Jukebox contains a 6GB hard disks, aesthetically the products couldn't be more different. While the Nomad player looks like a portable CD player (13 by 13 by 4 cm), the Jukebox 600 resembles an oversized portable cassette player (11.5 by 8 by 3.3 cm), albeit with a few shock-absorbing wedges on its corners.
And while the fact that the Jukebox 6000 doesn't support Windows Media (WMA) files would typically be a knock on a removable-storage based product, but with 6GB of storage, you don't really need to worry about the extra compression that WMA offers. The player also ships with sub-par headphones, and no FM tuner, but neither of these features is critically important.
Considering Creative Labs' recent price cuts on the Nomad Jukebox, we reckon that we weren't the only ones impressed by the Archos Jukebox 6000. Until recently, not only was it arguably the better product, it was around $AU150 cheaper to boot. At this point, the Nomad is the cheaper of the two; Creative have matched Archos' duty free price--($AU799) which is the Jukebox 6000's main point of sale in Australia--rather than its price after import tariffs.
For now, we've got to give the nod to Archos--despite the fact that up until now, we've never heard of them. But, that could change later this year when Creative rolls out its new line of compact Jukebox products.
Archos Jukebox 6000
Company:Archos Technology
Price: AU$879
Distributor: Downtown Duty Free
Phone: 1800 807 127
