About three months ago I went to purchase my first MP3 player - I had borrowed some different players once in awhile previous to this purchase. Before I made a decision I ended up studying the Internet reviews pretty hard (for a good three weeks). In the end, I wrote a review for Amazon for the one I bought.

I bought this unit and I'm completely sold on the Sansa Fuse 8GB. You'll find that it has a huge following of users and great tech support. As for reliability ... My mother put her cold drink on my desk (next to my player) ... An hour later I walk in and see it soaking in a puddle of water from the glass dripping on the desk (high humid day). Then to top it off, I accidentally left it on my dashboard one day with the windows rolled up in 90 degree heat. Still works like a charm to this day.

As for this particular player, I'm particularly impressed with these features:

1. Even though it has 8GB internal storage, you can add up to 32GB via an SD card. It has great, easy-to-use controls too and I've noticed that most of the users on this forum are particularly "touchy" over a player's control features.
2. I too read a lot and so this year I joined audiobooks.com. I've been reading books on my player and I also have at least 800 hi quality songs on it along with some videos, still photos and some voice recordings ... I haven't even put 4GB on it yet and I've got a 8GB SD card in it for a total of 16GB!
3. I paid about $80 dollars but last I checked with Amazon you could get this for around $65 dollars -- which if you check, will ultimately be the best price over the Internet (and your purchase is protected -- maybe not so with some vendors out there which is why I stuck with Amazon for this particular purchase). Also, all of the reputable sellers use Amazon.

4. I also listen to Bible studies too and I didn't realize at first that my MP3 player is such an invaluable tool for this. Now that I have my player, I like to listen to these "study episodes" via FM radio while I'm commuting.

When I got my Fuse I also bought a device that plugs into it and allows it to play back via your car audio. This happens all the time ... While I'm listening to my FM channel and if I hear a study I'd like to keep (maybe for my own notes or someone else to hear or so I can pick it up later on), I can easily record the radio program straight to the Fuse. It also has a built-in mic to record with as well -- handy for live Bible-studies, lectures, etc. Oh yes, and it's pretty cool when you're driving and you hear some tune you like but don't know the song title, artist, etc. ... you can record it on the spot with the Fuse and then ask your wife what the song is -- nice too for when you're trying to tell your wife about a new CD you'd like her to buy for your b'day -- worked for me!

Finally, I also like to set my PC to automatically download my fav Bible study programs (daily or weekly podcasts) and then have it automatically sync to the MP player whenever I connect it to the PC via USB -- Wow ... I never have to search for something that interests me since the podcast services (like the Bible study one I use at oneplace.com) always keeps my MP3 player full of interesting things to read -- based on my custom-defined criteria.
5. There's lots of add-on stuff you can buy for the Sansa's too. After I bought the Fuse I like it so much that I spent another $60 bucks or so on add-ons, etc.
6. It has a pretty good warranty (and from a trusted company). I do recommend getting the extended 3-year from Amazon (I think I paid an extra $25 dollars for it). This ext. warr. kicks in after the mfg 1-year warranty expires so you've got 4 years -- I'm pretty hard on electronics and I could almost say for certain that I'll likely destroy my unit sometime over that 4-year period (if I don't lose it first), so I thought the extra money for this was worth it -- generally I hate these extended warranties.

Lastly, if you don't already have a program to manage your music library, I'd highly recommend you take a look at a program called Mediamonkey (they have a trial download too if you're so inclined). A whole $20 bucks and the best darn software I've ever used -- and trust me, I've been a software guinea pig for years and this software is everything they claim and more -- I've never been so pleased with a program as this. If you've got a lot of songs and you need to manage your music library easily (in virtually any format no matter where it resides), then you should use this program. There is another program that competes with it and I've had both of them and MediaMonkey gets my vote hands down. I know ... it's hard to take them seriously with a program named MediaMonkey, isn't it?

Since my search for the perfect player and library management software was a very long one I try to make a point to help anyone who asks for this kind of advice -- and especially since I've been so pleased with the player and the software.

I hope that helps anyone reading.
xccc

Ike