[azncookiecutter]

Anyone have any experience with them? It looks good, but over at the anythingbutipod.com forums, there's been a lot of people reporting on tons of firmware bugs. I'm looking for a new DAP, and it seems logical to go for this one, especially with an 8GB version in the horizon.

 

[russdog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by azncookiecutter Anyone have any experience with them? It looks good, but over at the anythingbutipod.com forums, there's been a lot of people reporting on tons of firmware bugs. I'm looking for a new DAP, and it seems logical to go for this one, especially with an 8GB version in the horizon.

I have no experience with them, but I read tons of stuff on various sites about both their e- and c-series, because I was looking for a flash player myself. The impression I got is that Sandisk is climbing fast but isn't quite there. They've come out of nowhere to take the #2 spot behind Apple. The fact that they're in the memory business gives them both cost advantages and faster access to new memory chips. They started out making junk but, much like Korean car makers, have ramped quality up amazingly fast.

I decided that, for myself, I'd want to give them another generation or two of players. There are quality issues about the firmware and about the device. Not that it's crappy, but just that it's not quite there yet. I like the SD slot. I like their big capacity. I was bothered by some reports that they just sounded flat. For myself, I like the Cowon feature set and reputation for better sound. I decided to wait until Cowon comes out with 4gb or 8gb flash versions, and/or wait to see if Sandisk somehow takes a big step forward in quality. However, many people are happy with the Sandisks. I have no way of knowing how much they care about sound quality compared to other alternatives.

 

[audio_al]

I have one. The build quality is fantastic and the player is stylish indeed. I prefer the tactile scroll wheel over the touch sensitive ipod wheel. Loading music and media onto it is a breeze also.

The player does indeed fall down on it's firmware. Album art is hit and miss, and playlisting is somewhat scrappy. Also, navigating the menus are perhaps not as quick and easy as that on the ZVM or ipod.

I would highly recommend it though.

 

[epithetless]

Does the e200 series still play album tracks out of order?

 

[Fang]

Does this player still has a hissing sound everytime you change the volume?
And how's the transferring of music to it?

 

[drivel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by epithetless Does the e200 series still play album tracks out of order?

That issue has been fixed with an updated firmware.

http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1368

 

[epithetless]

Quote:

Originally Posted by drivel That issue has been fixed with an updated firmware. http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1368

drivel, thanks for doing my research for me.

 

[drivel]

LOL, no problem. My girlfriend actually owns the e260, the only way I'd know. I don't have much experience with it unfortunately.

 

[azncookiecutter]

So firmware is the downfall on this player, huh. I was fooling around with one yesterday at Costco, and the wheel seems tight, and hard to spin around. I was half expecting it to be smooth and easy to spin. Any comments on it?

 

[dodap]

I got my e270 only this morning, therefore cannot tell much yet. The first disappointment: It is a XP-only device, which I learned at work where we have Windows 2000 machines.

The first attempts to fill this thing were not very convincing. At least in MTP-mode, either with WMP 11 or only Explorer. With some albums it simply stopped transferring the last few files and dropped dead. After the "refresh database"-reboot, to my surprise some of the tracks and CDs were missing. After I switched to MSC-mode (I had to reset the player that did not even make it bakc to its start menu) it worked as promised.

It is not as loud as my Apple nano was, at least for my Beyer 770 (80 Ohm)-cans. And unfortunately I too could hear sputtering hisses at the start of some tracks.

The navigating is quite intuitive and reasonably fast, at least for me. The scroll wheel is a little stiff, sometimes I ended using two or three fingers to turn it round. And the extra buttons are far to small especially the on/off especially with a silicon skin put on.

But it is 6 GB and small, who is out there to beat this beast (for now)?

 

[drizek]

It might not be exactly what youre looking for, but I was considering getting a 4gb sandisk a while ago. I got a new iriver h320 from ebay instead. It doesnt have any of the problems of bad firmware or MTP or lack of format support, has a 20gb capacity, lineout and is a lot cheaper as well. At the time I didnt want to go with a full size player, but it just makes sense in this case. There is no reason to pay more money for a lesser player just to save a few ounces.

 

[zip22]

a lot cheaper? not really. it looks like its around the same price or more expensive. the sandisk is also 1/3 the size and weight of the h320 and flash memory, not hard drive (a good thing). the sandisk can be UMS just like the h320 and got 5.3 more hours of battery life in cnet's tests (17.2 vs 22.5).

iriver h320
103 x 62.1 x 22.5 mm 183g

sandisk e200
43 x 88.9 x 12.7 mm 51g

 

[azncookiecutter]

Good point you bring up. I rather have a flash drive at this point, since flash memory is way more durable than a hard drive. And, hard drives really don't allow for the small sizes that these players are getting to.

 

[drizek]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zip22 a lot cheaper? not really. it looks like its around the same price or more expensive. the sandisk is also 1/3 the size and weight of the h320 and flash memory, not hard drive (a good thing). the sandisk can be UMS just like the h320 and got 5.3 more hours of battery life in cnet's tests (17.2 vs 22.5). iriver h320 103 x 62.1 x 22.5 mm 183g sandisk e200 43 x 88.9 x 12.7 mm 51g

Ya, the amazon prices for the e270 confused me. You can get an h320 for about 170-180 shipped on ebay though.

I know that the flash players are much more portable, but you really dont get a lot of bang for your buck. Just thought id bring it up cause I was pretty much set on buying a flash player but just couldnt justify the cost.

 

[IpaqMan]

I picked up a Sansa E260 from BestBuy a few weeks ago. I was trying to use up some expiring reward points. It is a nice music player but the video player leaves a lot to be desired. Compared to my Ipod Nano, the E260 is more scratch resistant, has a larger, brighter screen, and has more battery life, but it falls down on most everything else.

Videos are limited to about 10mb per minute, so a two hour movie would be 1.2gb in size. Then the movie has to be broken into 10 minute chunks. Fast forwarding through videos is very slow. The e260 does not keep your video position through a power cycle.

There is no sleep timer or Audible.com support.

Finding a spare USB/charging cable is challenging right now.

There is no custom equalizer like on the cheap Sansa e130.

The scan to position function is not designed to handle long tracks. The Ipod does this much better.

There is no bookmarking function.

The wheel light cannot be disabled. The light is bright at night.

The record button is easily pressed by accident.

The recordings (FM and voice) are saved in uncompressed WAV format (very large).

The e260 eventually went back to BestBuy and was upgraded to an Ipod Video.