I'm a bit surprised at the lack of responses (esp. by ME!
), but your thread went unnoticed it seems. Apologies as we're usually more than eager to share opinions....
I have a Sansa e280 and love it. Very good sound Q (nearly as good as my sadly-retired H320 and my new (cr)Apple iPod Classic) and by all account the Clip's sound Q is even better.
Seriously.... $40 (USD) is cheap enough to take a chance anyway, as long as it has the features you want/need. (Unless yer bustin' into that kid's college fund to finance your DAP habit....
)
BBD