SanDisk Sansa c140 1 GB MP3 Player (Black)

• Sleek, ultra-thin digital audio/image player with 1 GB of flash memory
• Compatible with MP3, WMA, and WMA-DRM10 music files (PlaysForSure)
• FM tuner with record capability and voice recorder
• 1.2-inch color TFT LCD displays album art, photo thumbnails
• Single AAA battery provides up to 15 hours of continuous play

The SanDisk Sansa c140 is much smaller and easier to carry than a CD/MP3 player, and that is a plus for traveling. Several reviews below gave a low rating to the player's sound fidelity, but it sounds clear and rich to me on voice or music. My main for purpose for using it is voice Podcasts. I have been using my player for about three weeks.

There are two volume levels in the Settings. The highest volume in the default or low setting is not very high. This means any background noise can easily overshadow what is playing. Changing to the higher level is a distinct help when walking along the street or listening on an airliner.

Several previous reviewers also complained about short battery life. The AAA alkaline battery that came with the unit gave out before its listed time, but it may have been weak from sitting on a shelf. The battery meter in the display does not give any reliable clue as to when the battery will fail. Always carry a spare battery with you, especially if you are using rechargeable batteries. Otherwise, it seems to be a great little unit and I am looking forward to getting a lot of use from it.

The player is easy to use without installing the factory software. As long as "MTP" shows on the screen when connected by cable to the computer, just drag and drop files. It does not matter if files are in a folder or not. The player finds and plays them in alphabetical order. If properly shut down, it remembers where you stopped and begins there the next time the player is used. It will even save your place during a reasonably quick battery change. When a battery fails, the player starts again at the beginning of the file playing when the battery failed.

The PDF manual on the software disc is far more detailed than the printed quick start guide and is worth reading soon after your purchase.

It is not difficult to navigate the menu, but a little practice makes use of the controls much easier. The FM radio feature is nice to have.

The voice recorder works well. Files are stored in the Record folder in the unit's memory. You are supposed to be able to play them on the player, but I had to move them to my computer first. The files appear with a WAV extension on the player, but appear on the computer as MP3 files. The microphone does not produce a loud recording and must be held close to the mouth, making it easy to get a lisp on the recording.

The player will not accept an external memory card, but with 1 GB of internal memory, it is large enough to hold an entire MP3 audio Bible.

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I bought the C140 solely for Rhapsody-to-Go music. It's cheap, ultra-portable and plays "to-go" music without any problems. In fact, the CD that comes with the C140 includes Rhapsody Jukebox software and required Windows Media Player 10. Set up was easy and navigation on the little tiny screen was fine (although graphics are not clear and appear in low-resolution). I wouldn't want to use it for viewing images which it is capable of. Having the FM is a plus. Everything was good until I listened to the music from Rhapsody. I used decent headphones, Sony MDR-V700. Unfortunately, the sound quality I was getting was not good enough. Volume was low so I had to crank it up high-and at a high volume level, there was too much distortion. Bass was boxy and mids and highs were tinny, fuzzy and weak. So I returned the C140 and purchased the Samsung YP-Z5. After using the Samsung, it was clear that it wasn't that the quality of the downloaded to-go music was bad-it was the quality of the c140. I never even had a had a chance to play higher bit-rate MP3/WMA files. Perhaps they'll sound better. But I still wouldn't recommend it since I found that there are better players out there (although they are more expensive).

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I bought this player mainly for its FM recording abilities. I have an Ipod that i use for most everything in my library. So for under $100 i thought this would be great for what i needed. I was wrong. When the backlight turns off the sound on the FM is drown out by an annoying hum. This also travels over to recording. You can leave the backlight on all the time, but that will just eat power like no tommorow. Sadly disappointing becasue it seems this is the same on all this model not just the one I had. Dont by it for FM anything! Get a Creative Labs Zen Nano Plus like I did cheaper & it works!

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Between driving my car, working out in the gym, walking my dog and doing chores around the house, I spend at least 10 hours a week listening to audio-books from and lectures from The Teaching Company. Over the years I've tried tapes, CDs and a variety of book readers including the iPod and Zen. No book reader I've found works as well as this model c140 from Sandisk. It's small, light, inexpensive, easy to control, makes bookmarks reliably, makes it easy to load and unload Audible books, and makes it easy to manage MP3 files using Windows Explorer. This player takes ordinary AAA batteries that you can get anywhere.

My gym displays several TV screens in the "hamster room" and uses short-range FM transmissions so members can pick up the station they want to watch. So when I see a TV program I want I switch over to, it lets me quickly and easily switch to the Sansa's FM tuner and keep on running. When the Sansa's battery goes dead--about once every 12 hours--I it takes seconds to put in another AAA battery. They're cheap and when I've forgotten to put one in my pocket, I've gotten replacements from road-side convenience stores and from the little convenience rack at the gym, but I've always been able to keep on listening.

Audible recommends that you download audio-books for the Sansa in level 4 format. At that level, sound quality is excellent although, admittedly, the player cannot be turned up loud enough to pound your eardrums unless you plug it into an external amplifier and play it through a good set of speakers.

I got the model c140 to replace an older Sansa e140 that I used for two years. The older one never gave me any trouble but this one is said to have an improved operating system making it easier to control. I debated getting a c150 with twice the memory and only $ higher price, but the largest books I own (a biography of Harry Truman and the fantasy book A Storm of Swords) are each over 40 hours long, and either one will fit on the c140 with enough room left for two ordinary length audio-books.

The c140 delivered all I hoped for and then some.

I bought this player for 2 reasons. One, my son had a similar, smaller version that he was very happy with. Second, I wanted a small flash player device that would work with Rhapsody and their Rhapsody to go service. Initially the player performed well. I was syncing about 90 songs which consisted of subscription and MP3s from my own CD collection. After I added a second playlist which was mostly subscription music, the player froze up. At first, I thought I had tried to sync too much music, but I was well under the 1 gig limit at 650 meg. So, I started doing all the usual things to reset the device (pop the battery, hit different control key combinations, etc.). But everytime I turned it on, it froze on the Sandisk screen which is the initial screen. After 1.5 weeks of working with Sandisk support, they decided to have me ship it back and they would send a new unit.

The new unit arrived and things worked well for one day then the unit started to stop playing after each song and freeze. Popping the battery would unfreeze this time and I was able to follow technical support instructions by reformatting the device using Windows Media player and resyncing with Rhapsody. After the resync, the device froze again and now I cannot reset.

I suspect that the problem has something to do with the Rhapsody service and the "Play for Sure" code, but that is only speculation.

If I can't get my money back, I will try to get another unit and only sync it with MP3s. If that fails, I will crush it underneath the tires of my car and call it a day.