The menu

The menu has classic divisions : Artist, Album, Title, Style, Year, Notation, Playlist, Hard Drive. A simplified access to the uPnP network is avaible directly from the music menu. It will allow you to stream music from your local network.

A "Cover" menu will theorically make its apparition in a near future. As the player’s firmware is still in beta, it’s not implanted yet. However, we could of see that feature in action this summer, but at that time, it wasn’t optimized at all.

When playing a music file, we will be able to see the title of the track, the artist, the lenght, its cover and the next track. It is also possible to access the full characteristics of the file within the menu. However, no menu for the lyrics.

We regret the (too) little size of the displayed covers.

The "Sound" and "Playing mode" parameters are still accessible. The first gives access to the equalizer, the second allows you to definite the playing orders.

It is possible to create musical lists from your computer. Archos didn’t change its manner to do so, you will still need to copy/paste your files from a window to another. Not very complicated ;).

It is possible to attribute grades to the tracks and to insert shortcuts.

Why not profit of this WiFi connection and create an application able to manage podcast subscriptions ? That could be a nice feature...

Multi-tasking !

It is possible to play music while :

 You are watching a diaporama
 You are surfing on the Internet
 You are reading a PDF file

A nice improvement compared to the GEN5 players !

The new button to adjust the volume is nice but you will probably rather use the touch screen.

Take note that when you use the sound button at the top of your Archos 5, the screen won’t turn on again (a nice improvement compared to gGEN5 players). Archos seem to have listened to our comments, that’s nice... !

Compatibility :

 Stereo decoding MP3 @ 30-320 Kbits/s CBR & VBR, WMA and protected WMA, WAV (PCM/ADPCM).

With the optional plugins :

 AAC files
 Stereo sound AC3 and 5.1 sound

Audio quality

Expected part of this test, the audio quality of the Archos 5.

Compared to the 605, the Archos 5 sound seems to have a bigger relief but the sound quality betwen the two players are roughly the same. An "Ok" sound for all those who already listened to a Cowon player, a very good sound for the others. Obviously, you will rapidly change the earphones provided with the Archos 5 for a better quality pair.

Another imporant detail, the sound volume can go much higher than on the 605.

And you don’t like the sound of the audio output, you can go check out the equalizer. But it’s unfortunatly not so good. Archos kept its old pre-configured settings, which are considered by a lot of people as being of very low quality. Here are the pre-configured settings : neutral, rock, techno, jazz, classic, live.

Fortunatly, you can also configure your own settings. Adjust the bass, mediums, ... Audiophiles will surely like that.

We suggest you let the Archos 5 at "Neutral" and buy nice earphones adapted to your needs (Koss for boom boom, etc.).

The earphones that come with the Archos 5 are still very bad.

About the integrated speaker, it’s less powerful (for the Archos 60GB) than the Archos 605. However, we couldn’t expect miracles from this little speaker...

The hard drive is completely silent. Maybe the 120GB / 250GB will make a little bit of noise, as they use 2,5 inches hard drives. However, we didn’t test those models. We will try to test them as soon as possible.

 Read more : The photo feature