bradshawcl's Full Review: RCA M4001 (1 GB) MP3 Player
My oldest kept wanting to listen to my ipod- true I had a few songs on there she liked, but it had become an all too often occurrence. I knew somewhere out there it had to be an MP3 player made for kids. I saw the SanDisk Sansa Shaker advertised on TV some, and I thought I would check it out.
I ended up buying the Sansa Shaker 512 MB MP3 player in pink, for $29.96 from QVC. They also have a blue version, and a 1GB version as well, for a little more in cost. The 512 MB version holds up to 125 songs, so I figured it would be fine for my 6 year old.
Now then, the player is probably about 3 to 4 inches tall and made of heavy plastic, and has a 1 year limited warranty. It has an hourglass shape to it. In the box, you get the player, a set of earbuds, a USB cable, and an AAA size battery. You also get an SD card (which is what you put the music on rather than internal memory), stickers to decorate your player with, a quick start guide, a CD ROM with directions, and a belt clip that ties onto the player. To access the battery compartment and the SD compartment, you screw off the bottom lid of the player.
What I thought was really cool about this player was that you shake it to switch songs while holding down the play button- no worrisome buttons to deal with. As far as controls go, there are two white bands on the player, the top one being the volume, and the bottom one being where you can change the songs manually. You twist the bands to the right or left to go up/down or forward/backward.
Also, the play/pause button has a light behind it, and when the light is off, then the player is off, and when it is flashing, the player is on. Also, you have the ability to plug in 2 sets of headphones on either side of the player, or you can unplug your headphones all together and listen to your music via the speaker in the top. To turn the player off, hold down the play/pause button, and to turn it on, just press the same button once.
To get music onto the player, you must have Windows XP or greater, Windows Media Player 10, a CD ROM drive, and a USB port. This is suggested for ages 8 and up, but what perplexes me about this is the pre-programmed music that comes on the unit- it’s songs like “Wheels on the Bus”, and other children’s songs, which no 8 year old would be into. In fact, my oldest said when she heard all those songs, “I want some rock music on there!”, and she is only 6, so I know no 8 year old would want it either. So, my age suggestion would be 6 and up.
You can remove the preprogrammed stuff from the player, by connecting it via the USB port and the folder containing all the player’s music will pop up, and you can just delete what you want. Also, to add to the player, you need to drag and drop your MP3 and WAV files into the folder.
As far as the sound quality goes, well it was pretty decent- nothing sounded too distorted while listening to it. I accidentally broke the belt clip trying to get it on there, so they could have done a little bit better job making that. But, as far as durability of the player, it is pretty tough, and it got knocked over quite a bit but it did not effect the music at all.
I really wasn’t thinking about how in the world I was going to get music onto this player when I bought it- I really just had in mind the durability of it all and how it was more made for kids than actual performance of the product. As far as battery life goes, well it is supposed to last 15 hours, but I can’t attest to that, because I ended up having to send it back- and the following story will tell you why.
Like I said, I really hadn’t thought about this thing only accepting MP3 and WAV files. My husband and I both have ipods, and we use iTunes as our default media player, and all the stuff we buy from the iTunes store is in the ACC format rather than MP3 or WAV. No big deal right? Yeah, I thought so too. I figured there had to be some way that I could convert my iTunes stuff into MP3 files and then put them on this player. After fumbling around a few minutes, I decided to call SanDisk’s technical support and see if they could tell me. After calling them, they told me to call Apple, so I did, and then they told me that the stuff I had bought off iTunes could not be converted into MP3 format. Well, I didn’t believe that, but it turns out it is true- so I really had no way to put any kind of music on this player- so I had no choice but to send it back.
I really wish this player could have worked out for us- it had such simple operations and it was made out of tough plastic. Too bad the whole MP3 format conspiracy made me have to return it- I bought an ipod Shuffle in place of it. But, if you don’t happen to have any Apple products and use Windows Media Player to put all your music on your MP3 player, I’d say this was a good buy- it’s inexpensive, very tough and durable, and I think it is mighty cute how you shake it to go to the next song. Also, it is simple enough for young kids to use. The sound quality is pretty decent as well, and because of the durability, it will last a few years.
But, I have to give this a below average rating, just because it took me forever to figure out this was not going to work with my iTunes- would be nice if they could format it to go with other types of files, but I guess they can't. Also, tech support was not all that helpful either- I had a real disappointed kid, and I was so frustrated.
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1gb flash mp3 player - rca 1gb flash mp3 player- holds up to 340 songs- plays open mp3 and windows media audio- compatible with most secure music down...More at UnbeatableSale, Inc.
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