susidee34's Full Review: SanDisk SDMX1 (256 MB) MP3 Player
The abilities to tape or transfer music and make it portable has gone through some real changes in my lifetime. I’ve had transistor radios heavier than a Stephen King novel and some smaller than a cigarette pack, reel-to-reel recorders, 8 track tapes, cassette tapes, boom boxes, portable CD players, CD burners - everything imaginable to transfer or copy ‘my’ favorite music to a medium for myself. Now along comes these MP3 players, simply remarkable.
The SanDisk is about the length of my thumb and twice as fat. I can wrap my hand around it and no one can even tell I’m holding something except for the tell-tale speaker wires dangling from my fingers. Yet even with this minute size it packs a powerful punch.
I’ll admit I jumped right on this thing when I opened the little gift. I didn’t bother to read instructions - how hard could it be?
So easy even a dummy like me can transfer music
I’ll admit I haven’t gone the route of downloading off the internet. Those monthly fees and pay-per-download fees just rankle me. I’ve got enough favorite CD’s that I can transfer the music I like to my MP3 player and I’ve already paid for this music once. It took me about a half hour, from opening the box to listening to music. The major time issue is actually selecting what you want to download.
I won’t bother mentioning again how great and fast my new computer uploads CD’s. I had over 200 songs uploaded into the baby in a heartbeat. Now the necessary evil of selecting what to transfer to my player. Now instructions and advertising say you can enjoy 8 hours of recorded music, or about 120 songs. Maybe I did something wrong.
I was able to download 4 hours of music, around 45 songs. I can live with 4 hours of uninterrupted music on a drive back to Ohio. It’s better than trying to find a dang radio station in the mountains or trying to open and change a CD in my CD player. Four hours is fine.
Transferring those 4 hours, 42 songs, to my SanDisk took about 3 minutes. Holy transfer Batman! It made that drive back to Ohio for the holidays much more enjoyable.
OK, I’m done with that music now. How do I overwrite or delete this group and download a new one? Just go to the handy dandy instruction sheet that was included with the unit. Hmmmmmm ……. No mention on there about deleting files.
2nd step, let’s try the instruction manual on the CD, you have to use your Adobe® for this file. Hmmmmmm……no mention there about deleting files.
Hi audio_freak this is SusiDee34 from Epinions. I was wondering ………………”
What’s a girl to do? That’s simple, I wrote audio_freak, who had already written an Epinion about this baby and asked him. Plus, I figured anyone with a name like that, a shoe-in.
Well, as easy as it is to download to this baby, it is even easier to wipe it out. There are two ways, I elected the one that I could read (more later on that). By plugging the unit back into your computer with the USB cable supplied, it brings up the music in your player’s storage and you simply click on ‘delete’. poof! That quick it is gone. And I mean poof.
The other option is to select from the menu on the display window of the unit and click delete on that. OK, that is all well and good for people that can actually see the damn menu screen.
With every silver lining, there is a cloud
As sweet as the compact size of this baby is, it has its drawbacks. Two major ones for me - I have small hands or so I have been told. Yet even with little hands I have a damn hard time with the buttons. The little round disk on the front that controls little things like - oh - volume, I can’t get my big fat fingers in the little slot to change the volume without a major production. Obviously not something I’d be able to do while driving around the curves in the mountains in W.VA. I have to preset my volume at the beginning of the trip and let it suffice until my first rest stop - good or bad.
The second little aggravation is the cute little screen. I just know it has tons of information scrolling across it all the time, as well as EQ properties, that delete thing, radio stations, etc. I know it because I saw the drawings on the instruction manual on the CD. What I can’t see, because of my own blindness, is the dang screen.
But that’s the price you pay for having a unit so compact.
On the other hand, the ear pieces. What they cut back in size on the other things, they double in size on the speaker earphones. Maybe along with small hands I have small ears, don’t know, but these speakers simply will not fit in my ears. I figure that is best anyway, you need to keep your ears open when driving. I found the simplest method was to hang the wires over my ears and let the speakers dangle by the actual ear canal. Of course this requires louder volume setting than normal and a little distortion to the music because of that.
But I can adjust.
Why am I ready to just settle or adjust? Because, believe me, this baby is sweet.
I’ve listened to the radio as well, reception was remarkably clear. I have not used the voice recorder on the unit but as forgetful as I am getting, perhaps it would be handy to make notes to myself. Of course, I’d have to remember to listen to them.
It comes with 256 MB built-in memory and storage capacity, covers WMA and MP3, has an FM stereo tuner and a voice recorder. It has a quick start guide included as well as an instruction CD. Guess I’d better utilize that instruction CD. Also included are two batteries and earphones and USB cable. It uses one AAA battery for operation, I got 12 hours out of the baby before it went out on me.
Thanks,
Susi
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): Santa Recommended for: Beginners - Easy Enough for Tech Newbies
Includes stereo earphones, 1 AAA battery, belt clip, CD software Plays MP3, WMA, and WMA DRM Stores over 4 hours/60 songs of MP3; 8 hours/120 songs of...More at Amazon Marketplace
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