From: Jason Hamilton <jason_at_superlink.net>
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 15:17:23 -0500

At 02:49 PM 2/4/2003, you wrote:
>The FM has a Lion battery, which apparently can be changed; apparently
>it's also a non-standard Lion battery, and I'm not about to try slipping
>it out to admire it.

I saw a screenshot of an archos that had a battery pack that was removed from
the top of the unit. I'm not sure if it was the FM recorder or the MM version.
That's what got me interested -- if it can be removed, it's already one step
closer to being able to be replaced.


>I get about 6 hours continuous play. While I use the recharger, I find I
>don't use it that often, as it keeps a decent charge just from being
>plugged into the USB, which I generally do nightly. Nevertheless, I carry
>the recharger with me. ;-)

6 hours isn't very long. Does the FM recorder have 2 megs of memory too,
like the recorder 20? This is my major beef with the unit. Everything else
has 16-32 megs. Repeated disk access sucks :(


>The FM is physically smaller and lighter than the Recorder, basically
>because it doesn't have those bulging battery packs. To me, this justifies
>the upgrade.

I don't mind the weight so much -- the form factor of the recorder 20, the
zen, or even
the ipod, is so similar that none of them will do much else than go into my
pants pockets.
I have the iriver 190TC which hangs from my neck. Only in that type of form
factor/weight
does it change the situation IMO.


>The FM radio doesn't get the greatest reception, but it is a radio and it
>does work.

I don't really care about FM. Does the FM have any improvements sound
quality-wise
over the older recorder 20?

I do have to admit the Zen and iriver 190 have great sound. The recorder 20
has decent
sound, but doesn't seem to be as impressive. Still, the Zen had hardware
problems, and
the recorder 20 I picked up didn't....

I also LOVE the fact that the archos doesn't use proprietary software to
transfer music.
To me that is a Major drawback of any unit. I also like how I can scandisk
and defrag
the unit as if it were a normal internal HD. I couldn't with the Zen. The
other thing
was being able to replace the batts with standard AA. I am now using 1850's
in the
recorder 20, and it looks to be able to go 10-11 hours on a charge.


>The FM firmware is somewhat lacking (very lacking compared to Rockbox). No
>matter what I do, I can't (contra the FM manual) get it to display the
>time, /except/ when it's plugged into the USB (at which point I have no
>need for it, as I have clocks on my PC screen).

I have a watch -- so the time doesn't matter :)


>You want radio and a slightly smaller form factor? Willing to wait for
>good firmware? Get the FM.

I can bring back my recorder still, so I'm still contemplating my options.


>But if I /had/ a recorder, I'd wait for Rockbox to target the FM, and I'd
>wait for Archos to put out an FM with a larger harddrive too. (Never
>thought I'd use 15.9 GB for mp3s, and all of them legally acquired too;
>now that I have, I see the need for even more space, on the order of 60 GB.)

heh. I have about 4 gigs space used right now. I don't expect to run out
for a little while.
It's quite a change to bring along ALL my music, instead of just 30 songs.
I find the unit to
be more in the way than the iriver though :(
Received on 2003-02-04