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: Bleh - Terrible Firmware
Summary: 2 Stars
DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT buy this. At least not until there is a FIRMWARE update released. The form factor is nice, but the design of the software it TERRIBLE. Songs are in alphabetical order, no playlists are supported.
The included headphones are THE WORST HEADPHONES I've heard in my life. THE WORST.
Beyond just about everything, it's freakin awesome!
Digital camera Review: Bookmark Works with Audible Not Music
Summary: 5 Stars
I reduce my stars to three for most people, but four or five for me since I listen to Audible books 90% of the time with the MP3 player.
I really liked what I heard about this player for audiobooks until I saw the review that said that it does not bookmark. I thought so, too, but I discovered all you have to do is press the Play button and it brings you back to where you left it. (see details below of the steps, but they are
1. Turn off while playing
2. Turn on.
3. Press play. Starts where you left off.
Sound
The sound is beautiful. It is the only flash drive player I have found that handles Audible format 4 which is the highest and is comparable to MP3. The next lower is format 3 and is comparable to FM radio. Format 3 is the standard for most. I tried it with NetLibrary audiobooks which is available from a number of public libraries. I had the same problems with the Sansa that I have had with the Creative Muvo (see below) so I think it is the NetLibrary format.
Volume Knob
I did not find the volume knob hard to use when it was out of the case. I have not tried it in the case.
Case
There is a trick to get the player out of the case. It goes into the case top first so the top of the player is at the top of the case. All you have to do is press with a little pressure on the the top of the case - toward the bottom of th case - to ease it out of the bottom of the case.
Display
The elapsed and remaining time digits are WAY, WAY too small.
Additional information on the bookmark. I am beginning to suspect that there are different versions of the firmware on different ones.
Works with Audible Audiobooks
Here is what I am able to do consistently. I have tried in different chapters of a book and in different books.
While listening to an Audible book.
It is playing...
1. Hold the side button until it shuts down ...it will shut down when you hold down the side button for 5 seconds - it counts down with squares on the screen and then when you let up, it shuts off.
2. Press the same button to turn it on.It is now NOT playing, but it DOES show the title of the book and its chapter on the screen.
3. I press Play and it starts exactly where it left off.
Bookmarking Does Not Work with Music
I WAS NOT able to get this or any other form of bookmarks to work with music. This is definitely a screw-up.
Problems Using NetLibrary audiobooks.
I have problems with NetLibrary audiobooks with my Creative Muvo MP3 players as well. These are being used by several public libraries, but not all players - iPods don't work at all - work with their files. The problem I have seen is that files longer than about two hours do not show a longer length or they show as 00:00 in the elapsed time.
Cable Not Proprietary
Another point was made that the cable is "proprietary." The cable is not proprietary. It is a USB 2.0 A-Mini 5-Pin B cable. I didn't think it was proprietary because my Creative n200 has the same cable. To be sure, I bought two different makes and designs (one regular, one retractable) from Radio Shack tonight. They worked with no problems with the Sansa e140.
Does NOT take three to four minutes to start up with card. I have an e140 with a one Gig SD card. I timed it. It takes 10 SECONDS!
Digital camera Review: Bookmarks do _not_ work with audio book files in MP3 format
Summary: 1 Stars
Another review says that Bookmarks work with "audible" files. I didn't realize that this is some sort of special file format and that bookmarks do _not_ work with audio book files in MP3 format. I should have read more carefully, I guess. Nonetheless, this thing goes back to the store. With bookmarks in MP3 files, this is a decent player that would get a 4. Without it, it gets a 1 as being nearly completely useless. I bought this for my son, instead of an Cowan's iAudio5, because it was on sale for $85, which is nearly $50 less than the iAudio5. Relative to the iAudio5, it is a pretty good deal, but not without bookmarks. Don't they do any market research?
One other problem: The iAudio5 lets you organize mp3's into folders, and then lets you play everything in a folder. This thinks it is smarter than that, and that it can figure out what your music is and present it to you in virtual folders. But in fact it is too stupid to do that properly. If you just have mp3 files in a folder, and those files haven't been "identified" using for example the freedb identifications, then the e100 can't understand that it should group everything in that folder under the folder's name. The iAudio5 respects the folder names that you put mp3's into.
Digital camera Review: Buy it if it fits your needs and budget. I am loving it!
Summary: 5 Stars
Currently sold for $90-120 with 1GB memory. Comes in silver, blue colors and with a smaller 512mb memory ($70-80).
After using 2 MP3-CD players, and some 2 RCA Lyra models I found that this one - is what I always wanted.
While the footprint is not as tiny as Nano, it is still a very small and light device. Its a "credit card" size, and as thick as a AAA battery. Very convenient button layout, and ergonomic design. Various extra features and playback options. SD expansion option would allow you to add up to 2 GB (or possibly even more if larger SD cards come out). Single AAA battery lasts for 6-10 hours if you don't use the sound effects and backlit display too much, while rechargeable is still an option (check capacity of your rechargeable batteries before you buy them).
Very good quality of FM Radio, if you have a good reception. Good i-pod like ear-plugs with 2 extra sets of plastic thingies to fit the size of your ear, so keep them if you haven't got better pair of headphones. By the way, your MP3s probably never sounded better since you get to customize the equalizer to your like. When the song plays, you can see the Artist's name, Track Name and the Album, elapsed and remaining time, bitrate etc.
I am also very happy with some other little things like custom equalizer, timer, configurable display, timeout and "sleep" option, SRS WOW sound effects similar to the ones you can find in the Windows Media Player. It comes with black arm-band and clear plastic case, which I could digest at first, but then I got to like it a lot. You don't have to take a player out of the case to replace the battery or to connect to USB. You'd have to take it out to replace the SD Card though.
Supports English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Japanese languages. Connects to your computer with USB2.0 and can be opened on your computer as an external drive (no drivers or interface are required). The transfer speed was not too bad.
Few minor issues I've come across so far:
a) If your media is not properly tagged (such as album name is missing), you are likely to have those tracks played in alphabedical order (not by folder). So, either tag your media, or create playlist on your PC before moving your songs to this device.
b) If the player doesn't boot don't assume the battery is bad. Replace a battery with a new one, and let the old one "rest" in your bag or your pocket for couple of hours or even a day. The chances are the next time you'd use it the player would boot perfectly, and the "old" battery would play for 1-2 hours longer. In other words, through it away if it "dies" on you, not when it can't boot.
c) When use "shuffle" playback mode, the system would start from the "last played" track, but then would use a different algorithm every time you boot. In other words, it doesn't cycle through all songs completely if at some point you decide to shut it down. So every time you "shuffle" you'd hear some old and some new songs.
I hope this review helps, and if you buy it you'd be as happy with this player as I am.
Digital camera Review: Buy it!
Summary: 5 Stars
Unit works as advertised and came with the latest firmware already installed. I have not experienced any of the problems others have written about. This model has great sound with the provided earphones. Lack of folder navigation no problem at all since ID3 tags are used to automatically organize your music and books. I also own a Creative MuVo Micro and I think the Sandisk Sansa is far superior to that one in sound and quality. And I can't imagine why anyone would pay substantially more for a comparible iPod.