Help Needed! MP3 Players...

[BigV]

SD, we do indeed think alike. I got one of these. From the pawnshop, the red model, 256MB for $25. You can't beat this little unit. It works great, really great. I think the one you linked to is the newer model of the same basic device. They seem to have replaced the mono screen for color and the joystick for a dpad. Otherwise, the look the same.

On a different note, I had seen the $14 unit before and would urge you to post your review when you get it. I want one for the same reason. I'll only have to cry $14 worth of tears (plus memory card) when it makes that (inevitable) voyage to the island of lost toys. Plus, I feel like I'm making my older smaller SD cards live out their low capacity lives in some sort of useful service.

By the way, the Sandisk unit works great (I know I already said that) with iTunes. Just make your playlist, then drag the playlist onto the device. Boom. I make sure I "unwrap" all my songs, the vast majority of which are ripped from cd and never encumbered in the first place.

LabRat: This thing will fit in your pocket. Or anywhere else you could stash a pack of gum. We're talking a volume approximately the size and shape of my thumb. You could mcgyver an armband if you had to, or use a generic-ish one.

[SteveDallas]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

We're getting the kids these, but then again our main criterion was "cheap enough so we won't scream too loudly if they lose it/step on it/decide to trade it to their 'best friend' for a pack of chewing gum."

Well, this was fun.

These seemed like nice little players. In fact, I'm sure they are. However there must have been a bad batch of them. By Dec. 28 both players were missing audio in one channel (one completely, one partially). I have not seen a batch of disgruntled Sandisk users showing up on product review boards (though I may have missed them), so I just have to assume we got a couple lemons.

So, no biggie, just return them, right? Well, turns out Best Buy is completely stripped of all sub-$150 MP3 players. So we couldn't really exchange them. "We'll be happy to give you a refund." "Well I appreciate that, but these were on sale and I had a 10% off coupon on top of that when I bought them. I don't want to get my money back and then have to buy them at full price later." "Oh, well I don't know if we can give you a raincheck or not. You'd have to wait in that other line with about 15 people in it to find out." (OK, that's not an exact quote.)

After much flailing about, we finally ended up ordering two refurbed ipod nanos from Apple. It's a bit more than we planned to spend, but they're more of a known quantity. Hopefully the kids will like them more than a pack of gum!

Originally Posted by BigV

I had seen the $14 unit before and would urge you to post your review when you get it. I want one for the same reason.

As a stopgap, while we figured out what the heck we were going to do, I ordered two of these. (They were on sale for $10 when I ordered, but back to $14 now.) They came yesterday and I tried one out.

First of all, they are smaller than I expected--about 2 inches square. I had a lot of trouble getting started. I currently have four SD cards, a 2GB, two 1GB, and a 512MB. I just grabbed a 1GB card and started trying to get it set up. No dice; it kept saying it wanted me to insert a disk. If I copied files directly to the card (without having it in the player) the player wouldn't recognize that there was anything there. I then established that it worked just fine with all three other cards. Since the "bad" card works fine in two different card readers as well as my camera, I have to assume there's some kind of weird incompatibility going on.

So I solved that problem, got some files copied over... how is it? The sound quality is fine--I don't exactly have audiophile ears, though. The navigation take a bit to get used to, with the little white button in the center. The manual says that folder names do not show on the unit--not true, I found. You can go through the menu and go into a specific folder so you can keep your stuff organized. On the other hand you will have trouble finding stuff if you don't name your files well. It does not show ID3 tag info, but only the file name. This in spite of the fact that the manual said it would scroll ID3 across the screen.

Bottom line: It's worth $15, but not much more. The interface takes getting used to. If you are still a bit confused as to where MP3 files come from and you can't copy files on your computer (there is no software as such; you just copy the files onto the memory card, either directly or while it's in the player), this is a bad choice for you. You're better off with one that will make use of itunes or Windows Media Player to simplify the process of getting music off a CD (or wherever) and into your player.

However, if you've got an SD card or two lying around that you aren't using, and you have a need for a cheap, small player, and you don't mind the almost complete lack of user interface amenities, it might be worth a buy.