I bought this very same model locally for a little over $40 plus 10% sales tax, less than Amazon's price. It worked well until it fell out of my hands and broke. So I bought this one as a replacement, but when I put batteries in it nothing happened and it was dead on arrival. Yes, the AA batteries were brand new and measured 1.6 volts each. The packaging really sucked. For a delicate device it came in a flimsy cardboard folded type enclosure, something you might expect to be used for a book and had no structural integrity like a sturdy box.
I was disgusted and threw it away. They ripped me off for $49, but it won't happen again.