Why look at an MP3 player in conjunction with a PC? A couple of reasons. First, MP3 players are often the most commonly used PC peripheral (how else are you going to get the music on the player?). And second, this particular player can double as a USB SD card reader. It also has a built-in FM receiver.
Yes, that’s right. The SanDisk Sansa E140 MP3 Player comes with built-in flash memory up to 1Gbyte plus it has an external SD slot. A mini-USB socket is found on top of the player. Plug it into a PC and the device is registered as two disk drives: one for the internal and one for the external flash memory devices. Music is moved between the player using any file-management application.
Of course, not everyone wants to use Windows Explorer. SanDisk includes a number of programs with the player, including Rhapsody and support for Audible.com. The former can handle playback on the PC as well as media management and transfers to and from the MP3 player.
The player is small and fits into the palm of your hand. A plastic case provides extra protection and a Velcro arm strap allows the unit to be used on the move. The earphones provided are better than most, but you can buy even higher quality headphones if you want. The audio controls are extensive. Hoever, there is no way to set up configurations that are easily selected to make mass changes, although you can reset to factory defaults. This is only an issue if you listen to different types of music that benefit from tuning and you have not made the adjustment on the audio files before downloading them.