Audio issues (possibly not flat EQ?)

I took my new Sport Clip Plus out for a run this morning with one of my go-to albums that I’m very familiar with. It was the weirdest thing because it sounds like I was missing some of the lead guitar parts, or they were way back in the mix.

It is almost as if there is a massive cut in the normal EQ that was chopping out some of the upper register of the guitar. Has anyone else had issues with their EQ setting out of the box?

I was using my wired JVC Marshmallows, which have been my beater workout headphones for years. I’m coming from an iPod Nano, and I’m very very familiar with the source material, so I was a little shocked in how weird it sounded.

I’ll have to do some more testing with some studio headphones, and comparing the source material to my nano, my computer, my iphone, etc, but would be really happy to hear if anyone else has had some experiences.

Messing with EQ out of the box would be a major thumbs down for this product. I’m already under-enthused in the cluckiness of file transfer and how laggy skipping tracks is coming from a Nano.

you can change the EQ in the settings. there are several presets and a custom setting where you can change the eq settings. I would try some different settings and find one you prefer. 

After getting home tonight, I’ve done some A/B testing with my PC (iTunes and Foobar2000) and the SanDisk. Does the SanDisk really have stereo sound over headphones?

This particular track (3 Inches of Blood - Fear on the Bridge) has a lot of guitar dropping in and out in and out, with the rest of the band in tacet. In all other sources I’ve ever heard, there is a section where the rhythm guitar is playing solo strongly in the right channel ~1:55.

On the SanDisk, it is dead center. My theory, since it is blending left and right into one channel, since right channel is feeding the audio in that part, there is a noticable audio drop (not to mention complete innaccuracy in playback).

I just tried it with a pair of decent headphones (Audio Technica ART A700) and there definitely is major issues with the stereo picture, this does not appear to be an EQ issue.

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I am returning the unit. The lack of stereo sound is completely distracting to me and not acceptable.

I’m having the same problem.  Is there a file format issue?  For .MP3 files I have imported, the sound quality is as expected.  However, when I copy .m4a files into the device, they sound like they are played back in mono, and some instruments are strangely “missing” – just as described above. 

The files were ripped from CDs via iTunes or were purchases from the iTunes store.  They are at a compatible configuration (I think) – 128k bit rate and 44k sampling rate. 

any ideas? 

can you convert the M4A to an MP3 using iTunes and see if the issue stay the same? If so I would send sandisk support a few sample files so they can test. 

thanks.  tried that – the issue goes away when recoding at mp3. 

any other ideas? 

i would send a sample m4a file to sandisk support so they can test with it and see if it is possibly a FW issue.