Which "Sandisk nonsense" have you used? Clip? Clip+? Fuze? Fuze+? Please be specific when criticising. It is quite likely that one company may release a product that is not good and then release another which is world class.
I'd recommend the Sandisk Sansa Clip+. I haven't used it, but it has rave reviews all over the internet. Excellent audio quality for the price. Can play mp3, FLAC and many other audio formats by default. Drag and drop file transfer. Rockbox UI. One can even play the original Doom game in this player (the screen flickers though)!
Can be bought at TE forums or Pristine Note, The Voice of Sound!
And you can add a micro SD card upto 32 GB to a Sansa Clip+ IIRC.