Wondering if it's worth it

I have purchased 1 E260, 1 E280, and two Fuze 4GB.  My original E260 has bit the dust.  The wife’s E280 is working fine after 1.5 years and the two kids love their Fuzes.  I was thinking about a View and maybe a Fuze to replace my player.  Problem is, I am wondering after reading about all the problems that Sansa is experiencing if I would be better served with a different make.  While I know that other brands seem to also have issues, the lack of support from Sansa is a real turnoff.  I know this is a loaded question but any thoughts on alternative choices or stay with Sansa?

I used to spend a good deal of time on the biggest iPod forum (ipodlounge), and the question often came up there of why people are having so many problems with their iPods! It isn’t that so many people are having so many problems, its that people don’t post when their player is working just fine.

It does sound like the View has more than a reasonable number of problems, but the Fuze is fine for most things. At least, it has been for me.

Unless you crave video, which does still seem problematic on the Fuze–I’m a music guy, I don’t use the video–it seems the Fuze is still an excellent player.

I use mine constantly, am always moving music on and off, and as long as I run everything through mp3tag to Write the ID3 tags as ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1 and use the Track Numbering wizard with Leading Zeroes–so the track numbers are 01,02, 03, etc.–I have no problems. Ever.

But this is really the wrong place to ask. The really comprehensive (except for a certain excluded gadget) site is Anything But iPod   and they really like the Clip, which is basically the Fuze minus video pretensions or an expansion slot. 

Having worked retail as an audio consultant for many years, I can tell you that customers who call to tell you how much they love what they bought pales in comparison to those who call to complain. Same with these message boards. You won’t see nearly as many people taking the time to post positive reviews. (I’ve also noticed that it seems those with the most trouble have the worst attitudes.) That said, the Fuze is my second Sandisk player and apart from a couple of minor complaints, mostly to do with the power switch and a lack of accessories available, I am satisfied and will likely buy another Sandisk player in the future.

The sad reality is that customer service is very expensive and on low-ticket items like this is not cost effective. Your best bet is to purchase from a reputable retailer, preferably brick-and-mortar. If you pay an extra 10% over an Internet retailer, it’s worth it to have the option of face-to-face negotiations if you have any problems.

Message Edited by qualityaudio on 08-06-2009 06:50 AM

One big advantage for Sansa is the memory slot.  I also use the radio a lot which isn’t exclusive, but narrows the field if I was switching.

I’m using Rockbox on an e270, so most  firmware features people have asked for here have already been addressed  :smiley:

 If you decide to “stray from the flock” I’d suggest checking out the user forum for whatever brand you’re considering.  If there isn’t one on the MFR site, there are a lot on Yahoo. 

I would avoid the View like the plague! Take a stroll through the View board here and you’ll see why.

The Fuze is great (for what it is) and is still supported firmware update-wise. Not so with the View.


Personally though, owning both several 200 series and a Fuze, I’d hunt down a good deal on an ‘e’ series on E-Bay. I think they beat the Fuze hands down except they’re no longer ‘supported’ by SanDisk with f/w updates, so they’re missing the goodies that recent releases have brought to the Fuze.

You can still find brand-new (or gently used) models at good prices. That’s how I got so many. :wink:

@black_rectangle wrote:

Unless you crave video, which does still seem problematic on the Fuze–I’m a music guy, I don’t use the video–it seems the Fuze is still an excellent player.

This is a very good point - we do see an awful lot of problems with video. Familiarity with video codecs might mean this will be less of a problem. Personally, I’ve never had a problem getting video onto my Fuze, but I don’t do a lot of video and the longest thing I’ve put on there is one-hour TV shows.

How much space does a one hour tv program take on the Fuze? I am just curious. I don’t plan to put any video on my Fuze.