Hard Drive Hack On Archos 6000 MP3 Player

Richard Holdman writes: "A few weeks ago the Archos Jukebox 6000 was realeased and only comes in a 6GB version. For those wanting to upgrade to a larger drive you might want to check out this page. It explains how to take your Archos Jukebox 6000 apart and install a 20GB hard drive. Be warned though, it will void your warranty." Or, you could pick up a Toshiba Libretto on eBay and pop in a 20GB drive for an MP3 jukebox you can telnet from.

Re:'Cause the sound quality might suck

Specifics:

I've tried several varieties of MP3: ripped with cdparanoia and encoded with bladenc and lame, downloaded from mp3.com, downloded from Napster.

I've used mpg123 and XMMS as players.

In an MP3 discussion on Slashdot (about 1.5 to 2 years ago) I asked what cards people had good results with because my Soundblaster16 didn't sound very good under Linux. I replaced it with a Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI because that card was specifically recommended for use with Linux.

The problem has also survived two versions of Mandrake and possibly Red Hat 5.0, although I'm not sure if I was trying MP3s back then.

It's not a big deal really. I just play regular CDs in a regular CD player. The CDs accumulate in the back seat of my car and every couple of weeks I clear out the pile and put them back in the racks.

I may eventually buy a NEO25 just to lend moral support to the people who are consumer friendly enough to not only allow the user to upgrade hard drives, but specifically sell a driveless version for people who want to supply their own.

Re:'Cause the sound quality might suck

I've got a machine that plays MP3s fine under Windows 95, but under Linux the exact same MP3s sound scratchy and staticy.

Two possible reasons:

- Your MP3s have defects (I have a couple, too, because I got them through a German TV-channel offline distribution system, don't ask) and your Linux MP3 player cannot cope with them, while your Windows player can do some error-correction (WinAmp is known to accept MP3 files with defects).

If you think that this is the cause, try different mp3 players. But more likey, I assume that

- Your particular soundcard is not supported as well in Linux as it is in Windows.

Unless you mention the name and version of your soundcard, your anecdotical evidence is just that: anecdotical. Here's my anecdote: I have half a dozen of computers running with all kinds of hardware inside, each having a different soundcard. One of them is not supported at all under Linux, another (an old Ensoniq Soundscape) shows the symptons you describe, all others sound exactly as good or bad as they do with Windows. At least to my ears.

From a technical standpoint, a MP3 file will sound the same on the same soundcard, there is nothing that Linux per se does "wrong" with MP3 and nothing that Windows does "better".

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The Libretto is a poor MP3 player

I used to own a Libretto 50ct. A great product.

(I want it back desperately, especially because of some of my thesis files left on the harddisk when the laptop was stolen from a hotel room... sniff.)

However, its sound quality is poor with a lot of background noise from the mainboard circuitry and the harddisk. It features a not-quite-standard 2.5 mm headphone jack that requires using a bulky adapter (I always feared that I might rip the audio jack apart if I touched that adapter while plugged in). Battery time was 60 minutes, rarely more.

I haven't compared more recent models of the Libretto, but I doubt that audio quality was the engineers' main concern.

So yes, there's a good reason to build a dedicated MP3 player with a harddisk to overcome these problems.

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Has anyone thought of . . .

using it to play "on hold" music on a company's automated button-pushing phone number? Some of the music (like for United Airlines) never changes, and it gets old, fast. I think one of these with a hard drive would provide enough music to handle a lot more customers. Sure, it sounds stupid, but when you're on hold waiting for someone, do you really want to hear "Please hold . . . your call is important to us." (30 second gap) "Please hold . . . your call is important to us."

Why not buy the libretto / laptop option?

There are several reasons why I recently decided to buy a Archos 6000 over a libretto / laptop:

1) size - the 6000 is small enough to put in your pocket! Imagine trying to use a laptop to listen to music while rushing around a busy town or city centre...
2) battery - the 6000 now ships with two pairs of rechargable batteries, one charged pair lasting over 5 hours. Can any (non-transmeta) laptop hope to last that long which so much hd access? No.
3) cost - at $350, the 6000 is still the cheaper option, and the fact that it can be used as an external USB hd as well as a good mp3 player is an added bonus.

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ManicHawk

I find it hard...

...to think of enough tracks to make up my paltry (that's paltry as in small, not poultry as in chicken) 1.7GB collection.

How on earth do you amass 6GB of tracks, let alone 20?!