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Archos 5 IT?

post #1 of 15
4/30/10 at 8:13pm
Thread Starter 
I'm looking to upgrade in the future and was curious about the Archos 5 as my source. I'm currently on just an iPod nano 3g. How good is the SQ, battery life, etc? Are there better options? I'd like something with tons of space and preferably something able to access wi-fi and browse the web.
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post #2 of 15
5/1/10 at 3:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by leonzill View Post
I'm looking to upgrade in the future and was curious about the Archos 5 as my source. I'm currently on just an iPod nano 3g. How good is the SQ, battery life, etc? Are there better options? I'd like something with tons of space and preferably something able to access wi-fi and browse the web.
SQ
Average. Not that great. My iPods sounded better. There is a 5 band EQ and it helps some but the sound wasn't that great to my Triples.

Battery Life
Very good. I didn't really listen to music on the device but I could get around 4.5 hours of video in. The fact that I watched a lot of short videos and was always around a charger was a big plus as well.

Etc?
It does other things like surf the net (very good browser (opera). I surfed Head-Fi a lot with this thing )
Video player is great as well. With the old Archos 5s (HDD version) you have to buy plug-ins to use some video codecs but if you encoded your videos to AVI you didn't have that problem. You could also bookmark your videos to come back to them.

Oh and of course pictures looked amazing on it too.

Better options?
For pure sound quality? Yes. For a device that does as many things as the Archos does with that great of storage/screen? No. The Archos 5 is a very versatile player with good overall qualities. When I had mine I had no gripes and took the thing everywhere. The built in kickstand was definitely something that worked (and is needed on a lot more devices).
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post #3 of 15
5/1/10 at 3:31pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you very much for all the info. I'm a bit new to this and am having a lot of trouble trying to decide on what I should be getting. Do you have any other suggestions? Also, would the SQ increase at all with amping?

I think the problem is that I want so much space. All the suggestions I've seen in other topics for sources with good quality have all mostly been devices around the 8gb-16gb area. I'd like to put a good amount of albums in FLAC on whatever I eventually decide on, and I really don't want to ever have to worry about space issues.

Also, on another note, something with drag & drop capabilities would be wonderful - just for ease of use. I'd like to be able to hook it up to my computer and simply copy files on, or later if I end up getting a new computer, easily bring my entire collection to it right from my device. This certainly does not take priority though.
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post #4 of 15
5/1/10 at 9:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by leonzill View Post
Thank you very much for all the info. I'm a bit new to this and am having a lot of trouble trying to decide on what I should be getting. Do you have any other suggestions? Also, would the SQ increase at all with amping?

I think the problem is that I want so much space. All the suggestions I've seen in other topics for sources with good quality have all mostly been devices around the 8gb-16gb area. I'd like to put a good amount of albums in FLAC on whatever I eventually decide on, and I really don't want to ever have to worry about space issues.

Also, on another note, something with drag & drop capabilities would be wonderful - just for ease of use. I'd like to be able to hook it up to my computer and simply copy files on, or later if I end up getting a new computer, easily bring my entire collection to it right from my device. This certainly does not take priority though.
Other suggestions? Plenty For pure SQ over everything else you have the s:flo2/T51. The UI could use a little work but overall it's the best sounding player on the market today aside from the Hifi-man.

The Sony players are great too; very warm and have a more pronounced lower end than other players.

iPods are great too but you might have to spend some money to get them to compete with the other players (LoD with a great amp).

And you always have the Clip/Fuze from SanDisk. Great players with great SQ for a low price.

Oh and for the last part of your question, if you want FLAC and drag and drop, you can knock out the iPods right there unless you feel like getting a 5.5/5 gen and rockboxing it.The other players play FLAC files.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask
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post #5 of 15
5/1/10 at 11:20pm
As young Spade said there are other options but none with the capacity of 250+ GB. I'm looking for a good amp to use with mine; but the SQ of the Archos is good, just not great. My 10 year old Minidisc still sounds better. Drag and Drop is no problem for the Archos for file transfer. And the screen is AMAZING.
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post #6 of 15
5/1/10 at 11:24pm
Oh and looking back on your question about amping, amping doesn't..... how to put this... it doesn't make bad things sound great (not saying the Archos is bad). It just amplifies what's given to it.

If your IEMs don't need any more power or won't benefit from the extra power, then amping might not be for you. Also from my experiences if you are going to amp you should save up and get something in the 200+ price range. The amps under that price will give you a small boost in SQ but IMO aren't worth the price.

It also depends on how good your phones are. Buying an ALO Rx and amping some PFE 112s is not a good idea.
Likewise buying say... a T3D for a UM3X will give you small results, but still might not be worth the price.
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post #7 of 15
5/2/10 at 6:45pm
Thread Starter 
I'll be running HFI-680s out of this most likely. Right now I'm still really liking the Archos. The s:flo2 is definitely a second though. How are you liking that, and how does it compare to the SQ on the Archos? Is there a large difference in quality? And by that, I mean, if I were to be listening to the Archos, and I switched over to the s:flo immediately afterwards, would the difference be instantly noticeable, or would it require more in-depth/analytical listening to hear the differences?

I'm not sure how deciding on an amp goes. I'd be better off buying my DAP and headphones, deciding what's lacking for me in the setup, and buying based off that, correct?
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post #8 of 15
5/2/10 at 11:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by leonzill View Post
I'll be running HFI-680s out of this most likely. Right now I'm still really liking the Archos. The s:flo2 is definitely a second though. How are you liking that, and how does it compare to the SQ on the Archos? Is there a large difference in quality? And by that, I mean, if I were to be listening to the Archos, and I switched over to the s:flo immediately afterwards, would the difference be instantly noticeable, or would it require more in-depth/analytical listening to hear the differences?

I'm not sure how deciding on an amp goes. I'd be better off buying my DAP and headphones, deciding what's lacking for me in the setup, and buying based off that, correct?
I love the s:flo2, very, very great sounding player that blows the SQ of many other players out of the water. You should definitely read up on it
Is there a large difference in SQ? It's definitely night and day. Amazingly better. Instrument separation is amazing, there is zero noise floor using the LO and minimal on the HO. Very powerful and a very sensitive touch screen.

And if you switched over you would be blown away and instantly know how much better it is, given how good your headphones are.

And as the amp, yes that's IMO, how you should do it. Get your DAP and phones first and see if you want something more. Some phones don't improve much with amping and some improve a lot. Don't fall into the hype of getting an amp just because you can, IMO amps under 200 bucks aren't..... they're worth it but only if your phones really need it. If you can get an amp in the upper 300 range (if your phones are good) to get the best out of your setup.

Obviously this varies from full sized cans to IEMs, the latter being the only one I have experience in, so keep that in mind

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask
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post #9 of 15
5/3/10 at 7:10pm
Thread Starter 
I think you might have swayed me. What size(s?) does the s:flo come in, and does it have SD support for additional music? I suppose I could just load up different cards with different music and just randomly pick one out at the beginning of the day for a bit of surprise.
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post #10 of 15
5/3/10 at 7:23pm
Nationite S:Flo : MP4 Nation!, :: Low Priced MP4, MP3 Players and the latest scoop on the newest MP4 Player

THere you go
And yes you can put a microSD card in there and it seamlessly combines the flash and SD car memory. I would say to read up through the appreciation/impression threads on it though.
Also search for the T51. It is the exact same player although it only goes up to 8gb of internal storage (everything else is completely the same).
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post #11 of 15
5/3/10 at 8:11pm
Thread Starter 
I think I'll be going with the s:flo2. Thank you very much for all your help.
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post #12 of 15
5/3/10 at 10:20pm
No problem man, you won't be disappointed.
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post #13 of 15
5/5/10 at 5:09am
Maybe I'm a bit late for the OP, but let me add this about Archos 5 (HD version).

Audio: Sound is on the bassy side and it has some background noise when in silence. SQ is so-so: better than my phone, but bad compared to my Sansa Fuze.

Battery: so-so once more. A few hours, but if you use it a lot you will run out of battery often. And take note about this: Included USB cable will charge the Archos in 7 hours or so. You must buy an accessory from Archos if you want it to charge faster (3 hours). This is a very ugly attitude from Archos I must say...

Other negative points: Hard disk version weights quite a lot, and it will die if it falls.

Video: This is the best it can do: very nice screen and good support for different codecs. It plays movies smoothly and the user interface is easy and fast to use. But no h.264 support unless you buy a license (come on, Archos...)

Other positive points: it has wifi support and a very nice web browser (opera). It handles without problems sites doing extensive use of flash and Javascript.

Summing up: If music is your only concern I would avoid it. But maybe you want the other things that Archos 5 can offer, and it is a great video player and web browser.

Hope it helps.
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post #14 of 15
5/5/10 at 7:39am
Just to clarify, leonzill, are you considering the current generation's Archos 5 Internet Tablet or the previous generation's Archos 5 Internet Media Tablet? Archos' ridiculous choice of names for the two different products is a never ending source of confusion.

I think the fellows that chimed in with their A5 experiences may have had the older model. The latest gen runs on Android rather than a custom Archos OS, and that combined with a simple and non-destructive hack that gets you access to the Android Market makes it a REALLY versatile device. It's probably one of cooler gadgets I own. Video support is also slightly improved; h.264 is supported out of the box (though I think it's only activated once you register your device).

However, I doubt the audio quality's changed significantly since the last generation. I'd concur that it's "so so", which was a bit of a disappointment for me as it's the first player that lets me carry around my entire music collection in FLAC. Get one if you want a pocketable tablet for running apps, web browsing, etc., or if you want top notch portable video, but look elsewhere for audio.
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post #15 of 15
5/6/10 at 2:52pm

^Yea I didn't think to ask if it was the newer or older version; but I'm sure the SQ would be slightly better (I have no idea though, just hoping). 

But yea it's great for video and web browsing. Basically if you want something to keep you occupied away from home and already have something that plays great music (don't get me wrong it does play music, but you can get something better) this is the perfect addition to your collection. 

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