We ran into a problem with my son’s Clip+ player a few months ago. We’ve tried a factory reset and I believe my husband tried to update the firmware but it still does the same thing. When my son plays music, its like the singer’s voice is really hard to hear. The music plays and sounds fine but its like when someone has you on speaker phone and you think the person sounds like they are in a ‘well’ and its harder to hear them. That’s kind of what its like to listen to his music. Stuff was playing fine before but now it’s not. I even redid all his music but that didn’t help either.
We bought this item less than a year ago and its not had tons of use. If anyone can offer help and instructions, it’d be appreciated.
Could be the head/ear phones. Have you tried twisting and/or pushing the plug into the jack further? Or trying a different pair? If neither of these help, it could also be a weak or loose connection in the jack itself.
That specific symptom–the singer’s voice being distant–really sounds like the plug is not going all the way in.
Instead of getting both channels you are getting the difference betweeen channels. And because the singer’s voice is usually in the center–that is, both channels–it recedes most.
Initially the headphone jack is very tight, and you say it has not had much use.
Don’t be too brutal, but do twist the plug and make sure you can’t see any of the prong outside the jack. If the Clip is in a case or skin, that might be getting in the way too. Get it all the way in and twist it.
We can try that with the plug and see… I was thinking that it was like the channels weren’t acting the same but I was afraid to refer to it as channels since I wasn’t completely sure that was correct. My husband did say that he has tried different headsets with no change. Also my son and he both said that some of the songs (that were both music and voice) would only play the instrumental part.
I clarified with my husband the things he has done to troubleshoot. Its been reset. Its been udpated (he said the ROM installed correctly.). Music was copied off of it and played on a computer just fine (so that shows that the music itself is not damaged). Music was deleted and re-added. None of the things we have tried have worked and my son hasn’t even had this a year. I will see if messing with the plug a bit helps but if it doesn’t, then I need to look into getting it replaced. I dont recall the manufacturer’s warranty on it but if they wont replace it, I will look at buying something other than a Sansa/SanDisk product.
Thanks for the suggestions and ideas thus far. It is appreciated.
Okay! Progress! After I posted that, I got it and tried what was suggested with the plug. I did make sure it was completely inside and that didn’t help the sound. I turned it/twisted and that didn’t help but I did wiggle it a little bit and suddenly, the singers voice came in appropriately loud and clear to match the music! But then it went back to the distant sound. So I played with a bit and did get it to come back sounding right, but it was as if I had to push up on the jack and hold it in that one spot for it to work right. So what does that mean? That something is loose inside? Or the jack is loose? Something isn’t making good connection? I’m not sure how these things work, so I’m just making guesses. What would be next step? I know this is their forums but y’all are just lay people like me, I think - not techs or employees for them.
Ok, the issue is indeed with the jack as suspected. If you are sure the plug is firmly and completely seated into the jack (sometimes you have to push and/or twist harder than you would expect) then you should contact SanDisk for a warranty replacement. You have a 1 year warranty.
