Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Vosonic/Wolverine ESP and Archos Information

May 4, 2008 12:41PM PDT

I currently have a DMC Xclef 500 and am looking to upgrade to a PMP. I know that I need a hefty amount of storage because I have a lot of music right now (over 100gb) and I would like to utilize the photo and video features. That being said, I am stuck between the Archos 705 and the Vosonic 8860 that comes out in May. My problem is, there is a lot of information and user comments about the Archos, but not a lot about the old Vosonic/the Wolverine ESP. So, I have a couple of questions to ask before I make my choice.

On my DMC Xclef 500, I have a pretty long startup period before I can actually listen to my music. My Brother's Ipod starts up immediately. How fast does the Vosonic, Wolverine, or Archos seem to load for you guys? Is it fast or does it take awhile to get going?

On my DMC Xclef 500, if I want to skip a couple of songs, I have to wait a couple seconds between each song before I can go to the next one. Example: Lets say I have 10 songs in the folder and I am almost done listening to song 1 and I want to go to song 5. If I were to press fast forward to go to the next song, it takes about 2 seconds to load up the next song. I hate that it has this lag because I really only want to load that 5th song, not every song in between. With the Ipod, you just press the fast forward button until you get to your song with no lag. So, is there a lag like this between songs on the Vosonic, Wolverine, or Archos? If so, how bad is it?

Lastly, I noticed that all of these were drag and drop mp3 players. I am used to this with my DMC Xclef 500. I currently have my music seperated in folders as follows: Artist/Album Title/Track Number - Song Title. While this formatting work on the Vosonic, Wolverine, or Archos? Or, do I have a specific folder or number of folders I can put it in?

Thank you for answering my questions. I know it took a lot of time to go through and read all of these and I really appreciate your help. Also, if you know of any better PMP with a high capacity please let me know about it. I am always interested in getting the best thing for me.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
vosonic tests
May 30, 2008 12:13PM PDT

Hi I cant comment direct on the 8860 ( looks great eh ) So the following is based on the 8390 ( effectively the same as 8360)

The unit is not as fast as an ipod , probably due to the hdd vs flash thing, but what you lose you certainly make up for 100 fold in capacity . Mine has a 250 gig hard drive.

from boot up it takes 15 seconds to play the first song. as far as switching between song in a playlist it is super fast , the only delay is when the hdd is sleeping and you want to exit the playlist and choose a new selection, in that case it takes about 10 seconds.

file structure doesn't matter it reads id3 tags so you can set it up any way you want , personally I let media monkey sync it all for me.


My wife has ipod touch and ultimately I prefer the vosonic , for capacity , functionality and it's ability to read a bunch of raw file
camera data , cards and divx support . So while it has it's shortcomings it is a fantastic unit .

If you have any other questions, I'm happy to help out.

- Collapse -
More vosonic info
May 30, 2008 5:08PM PDT

When you say the unit is not as fast as an ipod, what do you mean? Regarding the id3 tag thing, if I were to set it up by folders could I navigate to it that way or does it automatically sort it by artist/album for me? My concern is that some of my files do not have id3 tags that are correct, but I do have them separated by artist and album correctly. So it could pose a problem if it were only listed by what the id3 tags say. Im glad to hear someone comment on the vosonic, I am wanting to get one based on its capacity but its hard to find extensive reviews on it. Thanks for your time.

- Collapse -
vosonic more
May 31, 2008 10:43AM PDT

from start up it take about 15 seconds the ipod is about 5 .you dont need idtags(i think) you browse your hard drive just like explorer. so yes you can configure the paths and folders any way you want. If you want something based on capacity this is the only device I know of .
When it comes to putting together playlists of many different artists it is better to do that on you pc as it can get a bit tedious sorting through 100gig of music on a portable device.


If you do get one some people recommend the slower 5400rpm hard drives as they don't drain the battery as fast as the quicker ones.

Cheers

- Collapse -
notredameqb4:
Aug 1, 2008 12:22AM PDT

I'm in exactly the same situation as you are. I also have Xclef-500 and looking for a larger capacity mp3 player. I've tried the old Vosonic model VP8360 and obviously in terms of usability it is much better then Xclef (and I think better then Archos too). However in terms of audio quality it was disappointing, so unless VP8860 has better D/A converters I'll not go for it. I've asked this question on Vosonic forums, but they didn't reply so far:
http://www.vosonic.twmail.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=949&forum=15

As for your questions about wait and starting times, HD-based players will always be slower, then flash ones, but overall VP8360 performed better then Xclef-500. It also supports your folder structure. Yes, I have the same one Happy

I've asked the same question on 2 more forums:
http://www.dapreview.net/p/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?76859
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32849

Please let me know if you've found anything relevant!

- Collapse -
2 more units
Aug 4, 2008 12:13AM PDT
- Collapse -
Two more devices
Nov 10, 2008 3:39PM PST

I dont know if you are still around hniu, but the cowon o2 and archos 5/7 look pretty sweet. They have good (not excellent but much better than vosonic) reviews for sound quality too. The are more appealing too. I was hoping the vosonic would get its act together, but sadly it doesnt look good. Oh well.

Does anyone have reviews for the o2 or 5/7?

- Collapse -
scratch the o2
Nov 10, 2008 3:49PM PST

I didnt look closely enough. The o2 doesnt have enough hdd space. That leaves us with the archos still though.

- Collapse -
I recommended the Archos Gen 5 to a friend
Nov 12, 2008 3:19PM PST

He was considering getting an iPod Touch 2nd Gen, which I have. I steered him to the Archos 5 because he was looking for more space and a louder speaker. He really likes it a lot. He thinks it has excellent sound quality. The only thing he doesn't like is its battery life. It runs down pretty quickly and he'll need to buy something that will allow him to charge it while plugged into a wall. It takes a looooong time to charge via computer. It's pretty hefty player that has a good build quality.