SanDisk 8GB Clip Jam MP3 Player, Black – microSD card slot and FM Radio – SDMX26-008G-G46K

I like to keep my music collection on this little thing (augmented with a 64GB memory card). I use it as the main music source with a pair of amplified speakers, then my phone need not be tied up. This is a replacement of almost the exact same device that I had for about ten years. Eventually the battery life got rather short, but most annoyingly, the on/off button stopped working and the only way to turn it on was to plug in the charger. Perhaps that’s why this new version does not have an on/off button? Or at least I haven’t figured out how to turn it off, but if I unplug the headphones or speakers then it does not seem to use any power and it eventually turns off by itself at the end of the album. Not sure what it would do on “shuffle” as I never use that.The sound quality with my Sony earbuds or even with the old Apple earbuds with the stereo jack is quite acceptable. My tastes are classical and acoustic, so it is all about the midrange and with the Sonys it is very good. The device provides enough clarity to appreciate the difference between earbuds. There is also a sound equalizer and several presets, most of which I do not use unless the recording is somehow deficient. The standard setting works most of the time.A minor complaint is that the buttons are too close and the menu navigation not the easiest. If by some accident a button gets pushed during play, which is perhaps too easy, I find myself in a never-never land, having to navigate through weird menu options to get back to the music, and then usually to the beginning of the song rather than where I left it. That is not good for a long analog recording with no markers. But most people will not have this problem. Keep your fingers away from the device and it will play well.

A few points for perspective of my review. I’m a Runner, so my review is from that perspective of primary use. Second, I’m an Apple products user with a MacBook Air, iTunes as my primary PC. I’ve owned multiple Apples Shuffles and Nanos and found the Shuffle was the best product for Running up to this point,.. with the exception that if the Shuffle gets wet it will die out.Because of your body sweating during long runs, I can go through 3 to 4 Shuffles a year. I know there are ways one can waterproof a Shuffle, but I’ve not done this. The other issue I have with the Shuffle is it doesn’t have an FM Radio (which the Clip Jam does).I know there is an Apple Nano that has an FM Radio, BUT it doesn’t have a built in clip to the product and I wanted something smaller to the Shuffle that I could attach to my running shirt of short without any weighing my clothes down.I did a lot of research prior to me buying the Clip Jam and there is really nothing on the market that met my requirements of lightweight, small, that I could transfer my iTunes music to and had an FM Radio, except the Clip Jam.I was concerned how hard it could be to transfer my iTunes music over to the Sandisk Clip Jam, but it was extremely EASY to do. And from a quality of sound I find no difference in quality from the Apple Shuffle to the Clip Jam.And my main goal of having something with an FM Radio was achieved. The Clip Jam did great getting all my favorite local stations. The plus is that you can set stations for easy changing while on your Run.It is true the Clip Jam does not have the metal casing as the Apple Shuffle has. It’s made out of a plastic type material,.. but it doesn’t feel cheap or that it would break easily,.. it just feels light, which is what I wanted for my Runs.It also has the ability to use a microSDHC card to expand the 8GB it already has. Which will make it easy to download a lot of music for longer Runs where you may want more diversity.It also has a screen to search and put your music into folders which makes it easy to organize on the go,.. and to top it off it not expensive. Comparing it to the Shuffle, I was able to get the Clip Jam for $5 cheaper. A very small price to pay to keep one focused on Running to Music which is a life saver.I love it! I’m a Clip Jam fan for sure,.. it will now be my new go to music product for Running.

I bought this for my husband for our anniversary & he loves it! He uses it at work the 6-8 hrs, 5 days a week that he is outside playing the cardboard guitar for a pizza joint, as well as in the car & anytime he wants to hear music that I do not (which is often)! He is very hard on MP players & goes through them about every 6 months or so. Here is his feedback to me, resulting in the final opinion that this is the best anniversary gift I have given him in the 11 years we have been together!1) Easiest he’s ever had to move music from his laptop to the player. He has a Mac laptop & uses both iTunes & a number of non-iTunes formats for his songs, including some that are finished products from his recording studio (his “real job” if you ask him).2) The ‘random’ option is truly random! He often has full albums as well as individual songs & other players will only random songs in an album then go to the next album & random songs from it, but this player will truly random-a song from one album, then a song from the 59th album stored, a single, a song from a 3rd album, a song from the 20th album, … you get the picture.3) Great size. Small, but big enough for him to both see (he wears glasses) & navigate (he fat fingers his phone all the time- he doesn’t fat finger this).4) Great battery life. He makes sure it’s fully charged before going to work & it lasts the whole time and beyond.5) It holds SO MUCH music!!! 40GB memory (8GB built in + the max opt of 32GB SD card that I included for him) holds a lot of songs +!6) He can listen to local stations, too, with the FM tuner so he can check on the weather or listen to PRI & George Bell7) He can listen to his podcasts also. (rolling my eyes)8) He can listen to audiobooks. Plus he can stop listening or turn the player off & the player stores his place so when he goes back it automatically picks up right where he left off.9) He can lock the screen so his pocket can’t change the settings on him, also has an actually useful clip which helps with the same issue.10) He can organize everything easily & in a way that makes sense- audiobooks under audiobooks, podcasts under podcasts, etc.11) It has great volume span- from what I consider nicely quiet background noise to…well, I have clearly heard what he’s listening to despite him having the earbuds in – what he calls ‘it’s not that loud, you must be too old!’12) It has great sound. As someone who records & mixes music for a living (when not playing the cardboard guitar for the pizza joint), he is very sensitive to sound quality. He says this has some of the best sound quality of all the players he’s ever had.I paid around $30.00 for the player, included the 32GB SD card(so he had a card dedicated only for the player), & invested under $20.00 in the Accessories Bundle Kit for it (which upps the color options, adds some protection for the player & added all 3 charging options {USB, car, & wall} with a dedicated charging set) which is also available through Amazon. As that old commercial says, ‘Less than $75.00 spent total for a gift that my husband calls “The best anniversary gift in 11 years!”? Priceless!’

Overall, not bad. It is fairly easy to accidentally bump a button and skip, repeat, or pause a track. Yes, you can hold down one of the buttons to ‘lock’ the other buttons, but it’s not such a big issue that I feel the need to do this.One comment that I’ve read from others is true: The volume does not go high enough. I would prefer a volume setting that goes so high that I think is too loud, then be able to turn it down from there. With this, I can turn it all the way up and think it could still be louder. I mean, it is loud enough, but would like a bit more headroom for noisier environments.The other thing that I noticed is that on a couple of occasions, the thing just shut off. I heard a couple of chirps or beeps, then nothing, and it would not turn back on. When I plugged it into the charger, the display didn’t light up like I would have expected, so I thought it was dead (read other reviews where this happened). I even tried plugging it in to my PC and it wasn’t recognized as being plugged in. Fortunately, after leaving it plugged in, it came back to life. This happened maybe 3 times. What I had noticed prior to the thing shutting off was like static in the headphones. I was using 3-year old earbuds that had been working well with my other player (that sadly died, RIP after many years). I ordered exact replacement earbuds and have NOT had any such sudden stoppages. Not sure if there was some odd short in the wires or what, but this player seems highly sensitive to any issues with headphones or earbuds. The old earbuds measured 16.2 – 16.7 ohms, while the new ones are 15.8 – 15.9 ohms. So you wouldn’t think that would be enough to matter, but maybe the old ones had an intermittent short that the player didn’t like and it shut itself off to protect itself? Anyway, that is no longer a problem.Battery life is about 18-20 hours. I use it for about an hour a day Mon-Fri, and needs a recharge after a good month. No complaints there.Maybe one other complaint is that I play all my tracks on ‘shuffle’ and it has a habit of shuffling back to a track that had played maybe 5 tracks ago, and repeats the same sequence. This happens even if the player has been on for a while, not like I can remember which tracks were playing yesterday. It may do this once or twice in a 1-hour session (that’s how long I have it on – have not had it on for longer sessions). It is kind of annoying. I can’t imagine going on a 3- or 4-hour bike ride or hike and have this happen every 20 minutes. That would be like listening to the radio.

When my SanDisk Clip finally bit the dust after many years of use I knew to look no further than SanDisk for a replacement. I have not been disappointed with my choice of the SanDisk Jam. Ease of operation is actually simpler than the Clip and requires no learning curve. A third grade child can figure this player out easily! I use it strictly for music and radio when I’m walking so I can’t speak for the audio book feature but can’t see where there would be any problem. Radio reception is great, depending on how strong the signal is in your area. Music is easy to load and has great sound. Some have said this player has no volume. DON”T YOU BELIEVE IT! It is loud and clear. Only be sure to set the settings for North America for some countries have a limit on how loud a player can play in order to not damage hearing. No such regulations that I know of in North America. Player picks up where you left off as long as you don’t change functions. In other words if you stop in the middle of a song when listening to music in order to listen to the radio when you go back to the music function it begins with a a different song. As long as you don’t change functions it resumes where you left off. Should do likewise with audio books but I can’t guarantee it because I don’t use that function. I only have a few songs on mine at the moment so can’t judge the shuffle functionality but it seems to work fine thus far. You can spend more and get more functions such as blue tooth and video but if all you want is good dependable sound, easy loading and don’t mind using wired headphones, you can’t beat this player.————————————————————————————————————————–EDIT: In regards to my previous comments on the shuffle feature. I’ve now had this player for over a month an currently have only 24 songs installed. However I have noticed that whenever I turn it on it plays the same few selections each time. Over half the songs are not being played. This may be determining factor when considering purchasing this player. I am, however, still satisfied with this player and will continue to recommend it because of its ease of operations even if the shuffle feature leaves a lot to be desired.