Sansa Fuze Firmware Update 01.02.31 & 02.03.33

I just realised that selecting “Rest of World” instead of “Europe” after doing Reset Factory Settings or having just updated the firmware will keep the “High” volume option available (without affecting the FM radio). (V02.03.31)

It’s definitely not about corrupted file(s), they are FLAC files encoded by me and re-tested just to be sure, and otherwise Fuze plays them without any trouble at all. It may not be changing the backlight duration setting to 5 seconds per se, but changing it to 5 seconds while a song is being played. Or maybe changing it at all while a song is being played. I’ll do some more testing.

What is “ReplayGain”? What is “the popular three-letter abbreviation”?  What is “Gapless”? Thanks.

Even at the maximum level for the High Volume option, the volume level of my Fuze is terribly inadequate. I listen primarily to news and talk shows which I download from the internet and I can barely hear them in my car with headphones or at home through my stereo unless the room is completely quiet. I would appreciate an option to set the volume way higher. Thanks.

@infti wrote:

Even at the maximum level for the High Volume option, the volume level of my Fuze is terribly inadequate. I listen primarily to news and talk shows which I download from the internet and I can barely hear them in my car with headphones or at home through my stereo unless the room is completely quiet. I would appreciate an option to set the volume way higher. Thanks.

What do the files sound like through your computer speakers? If it’s quiet there too, look for some software that’ll normalize the volume before you transfer to the Fuze. If not, try messing with the equalizer on the fuze–voices are in the midrange, and not every set of headphones or speakers reproduces that range very well, and if it helps, upgrade your headphones. If neither works, you may have a bad unit.

infti wrote:

What is “ReplayGain”? What is “the popular three-letter abbreviation”?  What is “Gapless”? Thanks.

All good questions . . . for a new thread. Sort of straying off the topic of this one though. :wink:

I know that the volume on the file is low. The worst on is Democracy Now — you can try one yourself to verify the volume. (Computer speakers are not a good test, because the sound on my netbook is very bad.) I downloaded the Windoze version of a program called “Normalize” created Linux people and I cannot get it to work. But why should I need to pump up my files this way to play them on this player anyway? It really should allow reasonable volume levels.

How could it possibly be any more on topic or to the point? These obscure terms were introduced without explanation in the post to which mine is a response. Why on earth would you bother to post a message making no effort to address my questions but instead claiming that they are off topic?

infti wrote:

I know that the volume on the file is low. The worst on is Democracy Now — you can try one yourself to verify the volume. (Computer speakers are not a good test, because the sound on my netbook is very bad.) I downloaded the Windoze version of a program called “Normalize” created Linux people and I cannot get it to work. But why should I need to pump up my files this way to play them on this player anyway? It really should allow reasonable volume levels.

Where do you live? There are EU volume restrictions placed on these devices now. The latest firmware reduced the volume to what some say is intolerably low, but if you’re affected (living in Europe) there is a way around it. Reset your device to Factory Settings and don’t choose Europe as your ‘region’. Select ‘US’ or ‘Rest Of World’ instead.

infti wrote:
How could it possibly be any more on topic or to the point? These obscure terms were introduced without explanation in the post to which mine is a response. Why on earth would you bother to post a message making no effort to address my questions but instead claiming that they are off topic?

Because:

  1. Your questions had nothing to do with the latest firmware release, of which this thread is for discussion of problems associated with.
  2. These terms are not that obscure. In fact, if you just look around, you’ll find threads dedicated to those specific topics, in which they are described and your questions will be answered. For example: Replay Gain: A how to informational, Gaplesss, 3-letter abbreviation (that some here find offensive).
  3. My response was to suggest and inspire you to start a new thread with your questions, not unnecessarily lengthen this one straying off-topic and adding more clutter to an already over-bloated thread that new people have to wade through in order to try and find the answers they seek regarding the firmware update.

But, in having to explain all this to you I am now adding to the problem. Please, in the future think about asking your questions in the appropriate thread, or start a new one. It makes for a much cleaner forum for everyone. :wink:

Thanks. I live in the US and purchased my player at BestBuy in the US. I just did what you suggested and it did not seem to improve the situation. I suspect it was already set to  ‘US’ or ‘Rest Of World’. It did seem to be the cause of the nearly immediate subsequent crash. Once I got the player going again, I found something that helped a bit and what is probably the best thing available now short of running the files through a normalizer. Under “Music Options”, I selected Equalizer settings and then chose “Custom”. I cranked all the sliders to the maximum setting. This helped enough that I think I’ll be able to live with it until Sandisk does something about the volume problem, or until I find a normalizer that works (whichever happens first).

Thanks, that answered all my questions. So wth!

infti wrote:
Thanks. I live in the US and purchased my player at BestBuy in the US. I just did what you suggested and it did not seem to improve the situation. I suspect it was already set to  ‘US’ or ‘Rest Of World’. It did seem to be the cause of the nearly immediate subsequent crash. Once I got the player going again, I found something that helped a bit and what is probably the best thing available now short of running the files through a normalizer. Under “Music Options”, I selected Equalizer settings and then chose “Custom”. I cranked all the sliders to the maximum setting. This helped enough that I think I’ll be able to live with it until Sandisk does something about the volume problem, or until I find a normalizer that works (whichever happens first).

If you’re in the US and are experiencing lower than normal volume, you may have a defective unit. Honestly, the only complaints of that nature we see here are from those suffering with their government’s (EU) interference into their private lives and habits. The Fuze normally puts out some whopping decibels unless you have extrememly high impedance headphones.

While turning up the dial on the EQ will achieve the desired effect, be aware that it will also cost you in terms of battery life/play time. Other strange phenomenon have also been reported by over-driving the EQ like that, such as skipping, or clippiing so that may not be your best choice.

If your files are in .mp3 format, you might want to consider downloading MP3Gain, a free program that adjusts volume to whatever db level you wish. Used most commonly for ‘normalizing’ the volume between tracks so you aren’t constantly adjusting the volume up & down to compensate for different recording levels, it’s a great little program.

Try it; if it still is too quiet I’d take it back to Best Buy and get another. You may have just gotten a dud. Don’t bother waiting for SanDisk to crank it up . . . that just ain’t gonna happen. :smiley:

Thanks, I will try MP3Gain. It looks good. I have the same volume problem with my Creative Zen Microphoto. Talk seems to have low volume in general and Democracy Now is the worst I have come across. I bet most Sansa users don’t use it for this purpose. If you are willing to download one of their shows from democracynow.org  and check it out, I’ll be grateful, but I really don’t think I have a bad unit. Regarding the equalizer setting, I believe that the energy expenditure is a purely a function of the amplitude of the output signal, not the settings. This is just my intuition, so I may be wrong — please correct me if you have exact knowledge to the contrary.

I treated a Democracy Now file with MP3Gain. The original file volume was 86 and MP3Gain changed it to 89.3. There was clipping for both versions. I have not tried listening yet, but clearly I can make it even louder if I decide I need to. My question now is whether 86 for talk volume is low enough to experience the effect I have described.

If you are experiencing clipping on the Fuze, try dropping the volume sliders (EQ) back down a bit, and see if this resolves the issue.  Hopefully, the ReplayGain change to your podcast will do the trick.

Podcasts can be a real pain, as you’ve seen.   They aren’t always consistent.  If they are mp3 encoded files, you can also try MP3Gain on them, an alternative to the ReplayGain method.  MP3Gain “massages” the entire file by rewriting it, rather than RG, which uses a gain adjustment flag.

Bob   :stuck_out_tongue:

The clipping I mentioned is detected by MP3Gain but is not annoying or really even noticeable in playing the files. I think MP3Gain will take care of the problem for me. I just need to figure out how much to increase the volume. I will of course eventually figure out how to eliminate any need for pumping up the equalizer and so expect to set it back to normal at that time. I have determined that the volume with headphones or earbuds is similar to that through my stereo system when the volume is maxed out. That volume, with the equalizer maximized, seems sufficient for my needs. In the near future, I’ll be trying Simone Dinnerstein and Joan Osborne, but I don’t expect to find any defect in my player. Thanks to you all for your support ---- especially for turning me on to MP3Gain which seems to be the key to resolving my issue. By the way, it’s a really nice player — far more manageable than my Creative Zen, which does not have an MSC mode and has very finicky controls.

Hello, after updating to this firmware I noticed that when playing a music file like an mp3 in low volume and then switching to Radio, the volume level stayed the same, but when I try to increase/decrease the volume it sounds a couple of levels (or more) higher even dough I just spin the wheel one tiny position, also I have Replain Gain turned off,  it’s like when you switch to radio the sounds gets amplified a little more. Any thoughts?

UPDATE!

Listening to radio and adjusting the volume in the range 0~30% sounds the same, near/after the 30% the sounds begin to increase as you spin the wheel…

Message Edited by raoolio on 04-09-2010 01:52 PM

MP3Gain does indeed solve the problem of low volume. With Democracy Now, I increase the Taget “Normal” Volume to 100.0 dB. This seemingly drastic increase brings the volume into a completely normal range. I have another free program that solves another problem. On the Fuze and other players, the title scrolls across the screen and, unless it is very short, you can’t read the whole thing easily. On the other hand, the “Artist” and “Album” fields don’t scroll but also don’t contain useful information. The free program “Stamp ID3 Tag Editor” enables you to change all three of these fields. With Democracy Now, I use the feature that changes the “Title” to the file name, for example dn2010-0423-1.mp3. I then copy and paste this into the other two fields. Now, I can easily read the identifying information for the file on the screen of my player. You can get this program for free at nch.com.au/stampeditor. With these two fixes, I am very happy with the Fuze. I would like to suggest a Firmware update to allow bookmarks. It seems to me that this would be very easy to implement. The player already automatically saves the position of the file being played. It seems to me that the firmware could be easily changed to accommodate bookmarks on 20 or more files. Is this a good place for this recommendation, or should I start a new thread?

Message Edited by infti on 04-23-2010 12:10 PM

Message Edited by infti on 04-23-2010 12:15 PM

Does anybody know why the volume change option vanished in the european region? i panicked too, unitl i got the solution of this forum, which is great, BTW, and really helps the Sanza owner