SanDisk SDMX2-1024 Sansa e140 1 GB Digital Audio Player with SD Expansion Slot by SanDisk
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Digital camera reviews of SanDisk SDMX2-1024 Sansa e140 1 GB Digital Audio Player with SD Expansion Slot
Digital camera Review: A Decent Unit
Summary: 4 Stars
The sound is excellent. I was very apprehensive at first about purchasing this unit since many mp3 players around this price do not have deep bass resonance, however, this unit had a lot of bass. Not only is the bass response excellent, but the EQ definately makes a positive difference in the sound of the unit. The only drawback is that there is no stop button. In order to "stop"in the middle of a song, you have to either power the unit off, or change functions. The FM radio is rather a challenge to operate but I'm stll learning the functions. All in all, I am pleasantly surprised. This is certainly a good "bang" for the buck.Digital camera Review: A nice mp3 Player
Summary: 4 Stars
Very Good mp3 player. Good Price. It have basically all the features of other more expensive mp3 player.
Good sound!! Good earphones design!!
The posibility of expands memory with cards is a really good idea.
Certainly, it is a litle bit ambiguous at the beginning of use but it is not a really problem.
Digital camera Review: A pretty good player ... unless you like audiobooks.
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this player because it was the first one I found with several features that are very important to me:
1. Solid-state flash memory instead of a micro hard drive. The base unit is equipped with 1 GB, and you can add up to 2 additional GB via a Secure Digital card. (Currently a 2GB SD card will run you about $150 on eBay, but this is certain to become much cheaper.)
2. Works on a single, REPLACEABLE type AAA battery, said to be good for 15+ hours depending on various usage factors. The original battery which came with my unit ran for about 9 hours; but all of my .mp3 files are 320 kbps, and the larger file sizes apparently drain power faster. Installing brand-new alkaline instead of the cheap original would probably help, too. And you can always use rechargeables.
3. Simple drag-and-drop file management, with no lame-brained "jukebox" applications to fumble with. The unit simply appears as a new disk drive on my Windows desktop. (You can use this unit as a portable flash drive for any type of file storage if you like.)
4. Large LCD display screen with full .mp3 ID support and easy navigation. ("Shuffle." Yeah, right, Apple.)
5. FM stereo radio.
I generally like this unit. The volume is adequate, and sound quality is very, very good. A better pair of earphones would probably make it sound even better, but the supplied pair is quite acceptable. There is absolutely none of the annoying background noise or electronic whine you often hear with CD-based players. The audio background is dead quiet. Don't bother with the SRS WOW "feature"; to my ears, it simply makes the sound louder and adds mid-bass. It also eats up extra battery power.
Navigation and UI are easy and reasonably intuitive. I only glanced at the user manaul once for a few clarifications. The unit is very tiny and lightweight.
Now for the disappointments:
1. Do NOT purchase this unit if you listen to a lot of audiobooks. If you put the player on PAUSE to interrupt a book reading, the player will remember where you left off, BUT ONLY IF YOU LEAVE THE POWER TURNED ON. If you turn the power off, or if you let the automatic power-off feature turn it off for you (which it will do after a few minutes), you will LOSE YOUR PLACE in the audiobook! DUH! Did the people at Audible who cut the cross-marketing deal with Sandisk know about this stupid design oversight? With flash memory, it would have been trivial to implement some kind of bookmark system.
2. The USB port and SD card slot are covered with a tiny pieces of pressure-fitted white plastic, which must be removed to access the openings. These cover pieces are NOT attached to the player, and they are very, very easy to misplace. Bad engineers. No doughnut.
3. The supplied USB cable (with its proprietary connector for the player -- GROWL) is only about 5 inches long. This is a big problem if you only have USB ports on the back of your computer! I ended up having to purchase a 6-foot USB extension cord (for twenty bucks extra -- GROWL) so I could attach the unit conveniently.
This unit is worth considering if you want a flash-based music player with good sound and a potentially large storage capacity. It is a BAD choice if you listen to audiobooks, or classical music with long movements ... like me. I like the unit too much to return it, but next time I'm going to check out audiobook compatibility very, very carefully before I buy.
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MORE ON THE LACK OF A BOOKMARK FEATURE
The reviewer Audible_Alex (see above) is apparently confusing the PAUSE feature of this player (which does work, and IS documented in the manual) with the NON-EXISTENT bookmark feature.
It is true that you can PAUSE playback by pressing the PLAY/PAUSE button once, and resume playback at the same point by pressing the PLAY/PAUSE button again ... AS LONG AS YOU DON'T TURN OFF THE PLAYER. If you power down the player while it is paused, or let the automatic power-down feature do it for you, the player WILL remember what track you were playing, but it WILL NOT remember WHERE YOU WERE in that track. When you hit the PLAY button after power-down, the player ALWAYS begins AT THE BEGINNING of the last track played. In other words, THERE IS NO BOOKMARK FEATURE.
This sort of design is okay for pop music; who cares if you have to start a 3 minute song over again? But it's not very useful for audiobooks, classical music, or any other sound files that have long tracks, because you're forced to listen to the ENTIRE track every time you restart ... unless, of course, you're willing to disable the auto power-off feature (which you can do) and leave the player turned on all the time so it doesn't lose its place. This has unpleasant implications for battery life. :)
I stand by my original review. This otherwise fine mp3 player is simply not suitable for audiobooks. Maybe Sansa can offer customers a firmware upgrade to correct the problem. If they do, I'll be happy to give the player 4 or 5 stars instead of just 3.
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Another reviewer mentioned that the player DOES bookmark audiobooks from Audible. It seemed incredible to me that Sandisk would implement bookmarks for only one type of audio file -- and a closed, proprietary format, at that -- but, in the spirit of experimentation, I installed Audible Manager 4.0 (which you MUST use to upload and play Audible files -- GROWL) and loaded part of an Audible book, using the free one-month subscription that comes with the player. And you know what? Bookmarks really DO work with Audible files! AARGH! This makes the TOTAL LACK of bookmarks on regular .mp3 files all the more senseless and infuriating! WHAT WERE THE ENGINEERS OF THIS THING THINKING?
I got a certain grim satisfaction by cancelling my new Audible account. :)
The good news: If bookmarks are POSSIBLE with Audible files on this unit, they may be POSSIBLE with any other type of audio file via a firmware upgrade. I don't know if this player allows user firmware upgrades or not, but if it does, I hope Sandisk is hard at work preparing a new version.
Digital camera Review: Another bad sandisk product
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this MP3 player as a xmas gift for my sister after comparing characteristics and price vs other brands.
It worked for 3 days and then just died. We have tried all the troubleshooting we can think of/have been suggested and nothing has worked
I'm trying to get a replacement or a refund from sandisk
This failure adds to all the ones I've had with flashdrives (512 kb and 2 GB)
I WON'T BUY ANOTHER SANDISK PRODUCT EVER!!!!
Save yourselves all the trouble and frustration and look for other brands.
Digital camera Review: As Advertised
Summary: 5 Stars
Fast, universally portable content control via USB 2.0.
No special software required for uploading data.
FM radio actually works beautifully. High sensitivity.
That's unusual in my experience with MP3 players, such
as the Rio Cali, for instance. Sandisk's FM is exceptional.
The SD slot allows for expanding your portable library.
Everything on this one is what it ought to be.
Nothing is proprietary, and everything works.
Carries about sixteen hours of CD quality 128 kbps mp3s before adding any additional memory. I'm pretty satisfied with it.
The only thing missing is an AM tuner for talk radio.