From: Arno Wald <arno.wald_at_netcologne.de>
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:54:01 +0200

Rocker wrote:
> Music transfer is a little slow. I don't know if it's an Rb issue or, if we
> are talking USB 1.1 here.

File transfer does not work with rockbox yet, does it? So it will not be
a RB issue, because you have to switch to the original firmware while
booting. (But this also is no big problem.) It would be great if this
feature would be show up some day in RB. Is there work being done on it
currently?

The freezing of the unit does occur here from time to time, too. But as
it happens very rarely and you can reset the unit by holding down the
power button for some seconds, this also is not a big problem.

So the pros (+) and contras(-) are:

-- background noise (ok, on some type of phones. In my case KOSS ThePlug
in ear phones.)
- sometimes the unit does freeze
- RB does not yet support file transfer.
- you need a special cable to connect it to the PC so do not loose the
one that comes with the player.

o battery handling might be suboptimal, but it is ok.
o the buttons of the sansa are a bit to small. The wheel does hang
sometime, but this might be a problem of my unit only.

+ small and handy unit
+ no hard disc, so I hope it is robust.
+ cheap compared to other players (currently only 108 EUR for 8 GB and
radio at www.mp3-player.de!)

+ expandable with micro-SD cards (up to 2GB) and with Rockbox also with
micro-SDHC (high capacity) cards up to 32 GB. Currently available there
4 and 8 GB if I am right. But for SDHC you need a separate
card-reader/writer because RB cannot fill the card yet and the original
firmware does not handle SDHC.

+ The display is quite good and big enough IMO.

So as conclusion I really do not know if I can recommend the player. It
is not bad but I am not sure if I would buy it again. The problem is
that RB is so cool that I wanted a player that runs RB. Only a Trekstor
Vibez can play ogg/vorbis gaplessly. Other players only do when running
RB. This is a very important feature for me.

If you do not buy a Sansa e200 which else? iAudio X5 might have the best
sound, but it is very expensive and much bigger than the Sansa. An iPod?
Isn't it looking very uncool as every clueless one has one? ;) Well,
maybe an iPod with RB would be an option. But Apple becomes to get as
evil as Microsoft is so I do not want to support them.

It really is difficult. The optimal player is not yet born. It would
have no memory but only SD-slots. If it breaks you can reuse the
SD-cards with the next player. Sound quality had to be great, even if
connecting the player to the stereo....

Bye,
Arno
Received on 2007-10-22