Macally Icetune Speakers & Charger Sansa MP3

I purchased two Sansa e260 players, one for myself and one for my wife. However, in doing so, I knew that my wife couldn't exactly walk around the house with headphones on unless of course, she was trying to tune out our children. We needed a set of speakers that the player could attach to and still have good sound to be heard over three kids playing.

I shopped around but just wasn't finding much that was compatible with the Sansa player. I was almost to the point of simply buying a pair of cheap computer speakers and plugging them into the headphone jack. Then I came across the Macally Icetune Speakers, and knew immediately this was exactly what I was looking for. I purchased them from Amazon for about $40.00 and after receiving them in the mail, had the speakers set up in no time.

One small note that many people don't realize is that the Sansa e200 series player must have the latest firmware update to be able to play with these speakers. There is a note stating such in the packaging, but is small and easily overlooked. If this isn't done, your player might charge, but won't play anything. The update can be downloaded from the Sansa website.

The two speakers and base stack nicely on top of one another to save space or can be placed beside each other. We chose to have them stacked to save room on an already cluttered kitchen countertop. When stacked, the speakers plus player are no more than 12 inches high and about 5 inches wide, making it great for small places. The two speakers seem fairly stable stacked, but the base feels like it could fall off at the slightest nudge. This is something to keep in mind if the speakers will be placed in a high traffic area. The Sansa player itself sits firmly in the base, doesn't wobble much at all, and feels secure. When powered on, the base has a cool blue light on the underneath that matches the blue of the Sansa player, adding a sort of ambience lighting to the speakers.

The sound from the speakers isn't high quality stuff you'd expect from more expensive speakers, but at the same time it isn't bone-jarringly bad either. There is a slight tinny side that can be counterbalanced somewhat by the Sansa player's EQ options. Volume is great at a medium setting, but the tinnyness gets worse as the volume gets louder.

Perhaps one of the best things about the speakers is that they also charge the player. This is a huge plus for my wife who likes to have music on all day, but doesn't exactly have the time to plug the player into the computer every so often only to then reattach it to the speakers. Since we purchased the speakers, apart from when I download the music, the player hasn't been separated from the speakers.

There are two things that bug me about these speakers. First is that you have to power on both the player and the speakers. This might seem like a minor point, but it would have been nice for the power button on the speakers to somehow also power on the player. Otherwise, it's a small pain to have to remember to turn the both the speakers and the player on and off. The other thing is that the player's bottom control buttons (the power button and the menu button) are almost covered up by the base shell, making it difficult to press the buttons when the player is plugged in.