So many choices, what player to get for my lifestyle?

[The DarkSide]

DietSalem: the cats out of the bag, and inquiring minds are gonna want to know!!!

[CrowdAds]

[DietSalem]

Just got it in the mail, added a few of my favorite albums to it to check it. 4gb zip+ and 32gb card.. And I've only got like 29gb of free space? Wtf?

It sounds pretty good, though. And it's so much smaller than I thought it was. A good buy, for sure. Thanks ABI group!

[Just Some Guy]

Originally Posted by DietSalem

4gb zip+ and 32gb card.. And I've only got like 29gb of free space? Wtf?

That would be the horrible creature known as math lurking in the corner.

AND UNDER YOUR BED. Don't turn off the lights!

Basically, you have to remember that memory is based upon binary. A kilobyte isn't 1000 bytes, it's 1024. A Gigabyte isn't 1 000 000 000 bytes, it's 1 073 741 824 bytes.

That difference over the increase in capacity ends up "robbing" the actual capacity. It's been a problem for decades, and there is no real reason for manufacturers to sell an actual 29 GB device as 29 GB. The math says it 32 GB, so that's what they go with, regardless of the actual capacity. There have been several lawsuits over this, and I don't think anthing has ever come of it.

Factor in the firmware, and you have even less. That has to be put somewhere, and the flash memory of the player is better than anything else.

Then you have folders, file allocation, etc... You're lucky if you get an actual 29 GBs from 32 GB.

The worst part is that the larger the stated capacity, the worse the difference is. On 64 GBs, you get about 59 actual. On 128 GB, you get 119. On 256 GB, you get 238 GB. On a terabyte drive, you only get 909.5 GB. That's 90 GBs just just aren't actually there in the first place. Good thing you payed for those missing GBs, right?

[JK98]

There are also some sample songs preloaded on the player.

Before you load the player, you need to decide if you want to use MSC or MTP for the USB mode. MSC is normally the best and easiest to work with, but MTP is needed if you will use protected music. The player comes with autodetect as the default(people call it autodefect). Autodetect is bad since sometimes it connects in MSC and sometimes in MTP. Files placed on the player in MSC mode aren't visible on the player on your PC when you are connected in MTP mode, and vice vera.

The best way to quickly get rid of what you put on the player and to get rid of the sample songs is to format the player(settings, system settings, format). Download the latest firmware and install it on your player if your player doesn't already have V01.02.16A on it.

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Clip-Cl...16/td-p/150227

Next set the USB mode on the player(settings, system settings, USB mode).

Download the user manual.

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Clip-Cl...al/td-p/123883

[DietSalem]

Originally Posted by JK98

There are also some sample songs preloaded on the player.

Before you load the player, you need to decide if you want to use MSC or MTP for the USB mode. MSC is normally the best and easiest to work with, but MTP is needed if you will use protected music. The player comes with autodetect as the default(people call it autodefect). Autodetect is bad since sometimes it connects in MSC and sometimes in MTP. Files placed on the player in MSC mode aren't visible on the player on your PC when you are connected in MTP mode, and vice vera.

The best way to quickly get rid of what you put on the player and to get rid of the sample songs is to format the player(settings, system settings, format). Download the latest firmware and install it on your player if your player doesn't already have V01.02.16A on it.

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Clip-Cl...16/td-p/150227

Next set the USB mode on the player(settings, system settings, USB mode).

Download the user manual.

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Clip-Cl...al/td-p/123883

Already have the latest firmware. Though, this raises the question again, I still can't decide, should I bother rockboxing it?

[skip252]

Originally Posted by DietSalem

Already have the latest firmware. Though, this raises the question again, I still can't decide, should I bother rockboxing it?

That's a purely personal decision that you don't need to rush in my opinion. I think I may be one of the few Rockbox users that thinks the Clip+ OF is pretty damn usable. I first installed Rockbox on Sansa E2xx series players pretty much from necessity. The sandisk firmware was buggy as hell and would freeze, crash and need to be reinstalled regularly. That was if you were lucky and it didn't just go belly up and need to be formatted and recovered. Rockbox fixed that and I've been running it ever since. Oh yeah, the original E2xx series players couldn't use cards larger than 2 GB and larger card prices were getting reasonable.

I'm a big fan of Rockbox but I also realize it isn't for everyone. Aside from avoiding the database refresh if you're using the player in MSC is there anything in the link in the "Why Rockbox?" link in my sig you feel you must have? I think the ability to create playlists from both the internal and external memories is nice but if there's not a draw like that for you I'd let it be. You could install and then dual boot to see if you prefer one over the other. That still requires some effort to read and understand some more basics you don't need if you stick with the OF so that might not be what you want either.

Enjoy the tunes and think it over. If you ever decide to give it a shot Rockbox isn't going anywhere.

[DietSalem]

So, I'm loving this set up so much! It does sound pretty good. Unfortunately, the headphones are already breaking on me. The plastic they're made out of is VERY cheap. I was wondering what the next step up would be? I want headphones that actually last longer than a month.

I looked around online and saw people actually saying the Cortex CHP-2500s were DURABLE. I laugh at that statement. Lol.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by DietSalem

Unfortunately, the headphones are already breaking on me. The plastic they're made out of is VERY cheap. I was wondering what the next step up would be? I want headphones that actually last longer than a month.

I looked around online and saw people actually saying the Cortex CHP-2500s were DURABLE. I laugh at that statement. Lol.

Mine broke too. I put them in a backpack and took them with me one day, and sometime that day, enough pressure must have been exerted on them that the plastic cracked in a few places. I thought I had found all the cracks, and wrapped them up with black electrical tape, but there was another crack I had missed, and they broke clean off the last time I tried to put them on.

If only I had left them home that one day, I could still be enjoying them....fortunately, I have several other headphones to use still. I'm not really upset, given how inexpensive they were, but on the other hand, I'm not going to buy another set either.

[DietSalem]

Mine is even more silly. I was wearing mine in bed as I often like to do. Listening to some Porcupine Tree while zoning out in bed to help me get tired (I have very severe insomnia - I listen to music until I feel myself getting tired then I take them off gently and set them in the drawer next to the bed). The pressure of the PILLOW actually cracked the plastic! LOL.

[The DarkSide]

I've said the build quality was kinda "meh",...but no one listened. The DarkSide shall NOT be IGNORED!!! O_o I just hope mine don't fall apart now,...bummer!!!

[DietSalem]

Sound wise it was great. Unfortunately though the plastic they use is very bad. It's cracked in two places in less than a month of use. Does anyone have any suggestions on what headphones to get for under 100 dollars that will, you know, survive better than that? I'm pretty careful with them too. Treat them gently. I love listening to headphones in bed and I always use the softest pillow we have and I wear the band at the top of my forehead so that they won't have any pressure on them. Yet.. Still breaking.

[The DarkSide]

Get the Creative Aurvana Live headphones. They're rebranded Denon's: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content...ic-reincarnate

I own a set, and I believe the SQ is better than the Cortex can's. You will need to mod them tho, as the isolation does leave something to be desired. Some foam, cotton, or wall socket insulation will work fine. I need to add extra to mine,...

[TackyTiger]

I suffer from insomnia and listen to audio books on a rockboxed device with persistent sleep timer set on (Sansa e200v2, very similar internally), through a passive speaker. I find the volume through the unamplified speaker easily audible at half volume, and there's nothing to roll over and crush that way.

[DietSalem]

Originally Posted by TackyTiger

I suffer from insomnia and listen to audio books on a rockboxed device with persistent sleep timer set on (Sansa e200v2, very similar internally), through a passive speaker. I find the volume through the unamplified speaker easily audible at half volume, and there's nothing to roll over and crush that way.

I like to do over the ear headphones for my method, though, as it cancels all other sounds in the room (we have multiple dogs). Once I start to feel myself crashing, I simply take them off and go to sleep. I repeat this in the middle of the day since I can't sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time.