Jukebox Machines

Irvine says:

this player works like a gem. great sound quality. the equalizer has many different styles to choose from. it has a radio feature with recording capabilities( which the ipod can’t do). very portable & easy to use.
iriver is a great company & one of the most underrated mp3 makers to rival the ipod powerhouse.

Iribe says:

Ok, I picked up this player on a whim really. I have a phone that does a lot of what this does, but I wanted a better picture and something that would kick out more volume. In both of these the lPlayer does fine. When I loaded some videos onto it, I watched them on the train and was very please with the picture quality and the sound.

Now, the problem is getting videos onto it. I’m a PC tech, so I figured it shouldn’t be too hard. Not true. The software is comes with is very picky about what it will convert. You can’t rip from a DVD. You can’t play MP4 files from iTunes. I spent several hours trying to find suitable converters. Try Extra DVD Ripper Free to get suitable AVI files. I’m not sure why iRiver made a video player with few options of actually playing videos. Once you have a system down, it’s fine. Setting it up is a headache.

Pictures are good and I’ve loaded up several. I haven’t tried out the music player yet, but I’m sure it sounds good.

The file organization is a problem. I spend about an hour trying to get XP to recognize it with no luck. Vista found it and the hard drive is much like a flash drive, but once the files have been uploaded to the player it seems to have problems with folders. I ripped my Blue Planet DVDs onto it into a folder called ‘Blue Planet.’ But on the player it still reads as ‘New folder.’ Whatever. Annoying but it could be worse.

All in all for $50 or so you’re probably going to be happy. Don’t expect to much, be willing to deal with some bugs and annoyances and you’ll be good to go.

Caceres says:

UPDATE: After about 3 months of rare use, the unit stopped responding to remote commands; due to the limited controls actually on the unit, I can no longer operate the CD player (at all) or change the volume. I’ve tried new batteries, and even an additional remote; very disappointing. The lights are still working, but without audio, it’s almost pointless.
2nd Update: The unit DOES still respond to remote commands; but I had to unplug the unit for a few minutes, then plug it back in. Now it’s working again. I don’t know why this happened, or why it worked, but I’ve used this “fix” twice already.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I bought this Crosley Bubbler iJuke CR-16 after seeing a similar Crosley in a store locally last Holiday season, but was gone when I went to buy one. I did a lot of research deciding which one to purchase; mostly within the Crosley line.
What I wanted (so you know the basis of this review): a pretty speaker set-up for a new Zune mp3 player which could also play CD’s, and ideally be controlled by my universal remote.
What this is: Very pretty, unobtrusive when the lights are off, OK quality machine.
How it works:
The built-in radio is controlled by a dial tuner which is usually hidden behind a flip-down piece of decoration.
The CD player is hidden within the “Crosley” slide-out tray.
There is a 1/8″ (mini stereo / standard TRS connector) input on the back for connecting mp3 players, etc.
A mostly-full-function remote, in 50’s styling, can be hidden/stored inside the back of the unit to help it from getting lost (nice touch).
There are auxiliary speaker output wiring jacks, which I haven’t tried, which I would assume from the data sheet would be OK but not very powerful.
Options/controls:
There is a toggle switch on the back where you can select to have the led “infinity” lights steady on, or flashing.
There is a toggle switch on the back by the mini jack input where you must select whether the radio/CD player are active – or the mini jack. (see complaint # 1 below “control”).
The push-button switch which turns the lights on or off is hidden behind the flip-down radio control display (see complaint #2 “control”)

Opinion / Review:
I wanted to put all of that information first, because it’s hard to find out the specifics of each of these units – and one should know what one is considering purchasing.
Sound Quality: “Good”. You must keep your expectations real; if you want a 700watt surround-sound speaker system; this is not for you. If you just want to be able to play a little music or listen to the radio – and don’t mind not having heavy bass; this can handle it.
Lights: “Great”. They claim there’s neon – but I’m a designer and I don’t believe them. I think there are either fluorescent tubes or LEDs behind there – which is fine with me. The lights are pretty exciting, and the bubbles are fun.
Bubbles: “Very Good”. When you turn the lights on, it takes about 15 minutes to “warm up” before the bubbles begin to bubble. Before then, they look just like one of the regular light tubes. I’m OK with that, not always patient, but physics are what they are. The challenge here is that often (about 40% of the time, informally) one side or the other doesn’t begin to bubble. You can usually hear an audible “chung” when the bubbles begin; to unstick the side that’s stuck, you lightly tap (brush-punch) the bottom housing of that tube. Not wonderful, but it does work easily every time.
Control: “Poor”. I purposely got this unit because it has a CD player and a mini-jack for my zune. The radio was a bonus – unfortunately, you have to flip a manual toggle switch (black by the way, surrounded by black) on the rear of the unit to go between auxiliary input OR the CD/radio. Why couldn’t this be a switch on the front? Better yet, why not make it electronic so it can be controlled by the remote?
The lights – let’s face it: that’s why you buy a mini juke box…for the light “show”. Otherwise; there are better speakers for you out there. My #1 complaint is that to turn the lights on, you have to flip-down the front of the unit, push a button, and flip back up the decoration. Not hard, but very inconvenient. Again; why not an electronic switch so it can be controlled by the remote?

If not for the poor control choices, this unit would have gotten 5 stars.

Alkes says:

The bubbler feature on the juke box did not function. I contacted price pros and was told I would receive a shipping label and a new product neither of which I received. A week later I emailed them to finally get a return label to be told they are going to try to fix my NEW product by shipping it back to the manufacture. This was a gift?!?! Very Frustrating. The juke box looks good and sounds great. Waiting on the refurbished juke box. I was not offered a refund.

Agop says:

Someone had this and gave it to me because he didn’t want it anymore. Radio reception in an office building is poor and the sound quality mediocre. It is a conversation piece, however.

Giannini says:

If I had to do it over again I’d probably go with the 40G version just because of the problems others have had with the 80G. With that said though I’ve had no problems whatsoever. I’ve had mine about 8 months now. My main use is recording TV shows and then using the Archos on trips. The 2nd use would be as an MP3 player and I also use it as a portable hard drive.

If this product were released right now I’d probably have to give it 4 stars, but considering it’s almost 2 years old now I see it worthy of being 5 stars. Archos is way ahead of the competition in this market.

Problems -
All the problems I’ve had are very minor.
1.) The battery life is not great. It’s good for about 2 hours of video.
2.) The screen is difficult to clean. Fingerprints wouldn’t be such an issue if there was a case that had a clear cover so you could see the screen.
3.) My biggest problem is with the playlists for music files. It’s not easy to use. I never did figure out how to add a song to a playlist without creating a new playlist. I ended up taking all my songs off and organizing them in folders and then putting them back on the Archos.

I won’t list all the great things about Archos as I think they’re pretty well known.

Harwood says:

I whole heartedly agree with other bad reviews: my AV400 was seriously flawed – from an engineering standpoint – from the day I bought it and it is still not repaired (and most likely not repairable). Bad battery!!?! The battery has started to expand destroying the whole unit. It doesn’t even boot now. For the amount of money I spent I would hope that the unit would last at least a year. It didn’t. I would never spend another dime on Archos gear having dealt with their horrendously bad customer and repair service – you can forget about an ARCHOS warranty completely! What use is the warranty if Archos makes it nearly impossible to get something repaired by them?