My six-month old Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 is developing a very noisy hard drive. Kind of a high-pitched whine. The noise is prominent every time the disk spins up (boot-up, file navigation, playing music), and is heard not only externally (with the unit held up to my ear), but also thru the headphone-out, which is extremely annoying thru my Ety's (ER4P's). I've read where others have experienced this as well, even though this did not seem to be the case for mine until now. I don't have reason to question the integrity of the hard drive ATM, but that is always a possibility, of course.
My question is that, since a replacement warranty was purchased thru CC when I got the Archos, I can probably return it for a substitute. Of the players currently available at CC, which has the quietest hard drive and/or headphone-out?
Creative Nomad Zen Xtra 30G - $269
RCA 40 GB Lyra - $299
Rio Karma 20GB - $299
Apple iPod - $299-$499 (15-40GB)
I loved my old, 2nd-gen iPod (10G), and only sold it to get a bigger HD and a digital-out. I no longer require the digital-out, and never should have sold it. I would have to pay the difference between the original Archos price ($229) & the new player.
Are any of these players worth considering, or are some of the others on the market leaps and bounds better that I should consider buying somewhere else? Is the hard-drive noise prominent on most HD-based players (I don't recall this being a problem at all on my old iPod)? I've even considered the possiblity of going back to a CD-based mp3 player like the iRiver 550 if that were quiet, except that the convenience factor of a DAP is so great.
Any thoughts are appreciated. TIA.
My question is that, since a replacement warranty was purchased thru CC when I got the Archos, I can probably return it for a substitute. Of the players currently available at CC, which has the quietest hard drive and/or headphone-out?
Creative Nomad Zen Xtra 30G - $269
RCA 40 GB Lyra - $299
Rio Karma 20GB - $299
Apple iPod - $299-$499 (15-40GB)
I loved my old, 2nd-gen iPod (10G), and only sold it to get a bigger HD and a digital-out. I no longer require the digital-out, and never should have sold it. I would have to pay the difference between the original Archos price ($229) & the new player.
Are any of these players worth considering, or are some of the others on the market leaps and bounds better that I should consider buying somewhere else? Is the hard-drive noise prominent on most HD-based players (I don't recall this being a problem at all on my old iPod)? I've even considered the possiblity of going back to a CD-based mp3 player like the iRiver 550 if that were quiet, except that the convenience factor of a DAP is so great.
Any thoughts are appreciated. TIA.