So, I’m thinking of buying this to use as a backup to my fiio x1 or while exercising. I own the fuze plus, clip plus and two zips as well. Those work but the batteries aren’t good due to age and use. I won’t buy another zip or plus since the batteries in those available are already years old and the price is almost as much as the x1 at this point.
What’s the file limit on these? I’m assuming 2000 for internal and 2000 external? I guess a 32 gig card could work with it but I wouldn’t be able to fill it all the way. Also I only want to browse by file folder, does everything work fine there? I really want everything to be in order because I like listening to my classical music in the correct order like 01 track, 02 track. I’ll really be only using mp3 files as the x1 is my lossless player and I assume the jam doesn’t sound well enough for me to tell anyway. The clip plus and zip sound as good as the fiio x1 by the way.
So, I just have basic needs and something that does the job. I don’t know if there is really anything out there otherwise that is less than a hundred or even fifty other than of course generic Chinese brands which I’m scared to throw money at.
The 2,000 song limits for each database is for database access. If you browse by folder then the songs will be in order based on the time the files got to the player, and not based on the track tags. As for what card to use, I suggest using a Sandisk class 4 card as cards faster than class 4 might give problems. Some 32GB cards not made by Sandisk might be problematic, even if they are class 4 or slower.
If you are focusing on battery life, then why not get the Clip Sport instead of the Clip Jam? The Clip Sport is listed as getting 25 hours of battery life vs 18 hours on the Jam. I don’t quite understand why this is, as they both have a 220 mah battery, and are both built on the same platform. The screen is larger on the Clip Sport.
Yikes, it sounds like more of a mess than I thought. I don’t suppose there is something like file folder browsing in the database menu. My id3 tags have different artists and albums for even the same album. Yeah, it sounds like a mess but it’s how my collection has been tagged for many years. They worked well for many years but my collection got jumbled up more and more with newer MP3 players. The clips were some of the few more recent ones that actually did file folder browsing mostly right. I guess recent is about seven years ago for the plus. I understand the hardware limitations for the sport and jam but file folder browsing shouldn’t be messed up because of that.
Even though the chips they were using were discontinued and the supply dried up I don’t think they necessarily made a bad choice with the new. The new are cheap and don’t use much juice from what I understand? It’s the software developers that dropped the ball IMO. I wouldn’t bet that there was a software development team actually. The firmware was likely something written by one man in a third world country, so to speak, in a couple of weeks or quicker. I could live with a laggy device if the basics were actually done right. I’m sure if they tried they could do great things with the limited chip. The player having trouble with certain cards sure sounds like a firmware problem but I’m not sure. Having trouble with cards faster than a class four sounds like a joke. I haven’t seen class four and under even sold anywhere anymore.
As for the battery life it is probably about the same for the jam and sport unless they tweaked the firmware a certain way. All things considered I doubt they put much effort into it to do much from the Sport. They likely just reused most of the code so it should really be about the same. Companies pretty much just make up whatever they want when they’re advertising battery life. With a healthy battery the zip and plus would get about five hours. I could see maybe an hour or so more battery life for the jam if the batteries they were using were similar to the clip and zip. I’m not saying they use the same batteries, just that the new chips should use less battery. I had a Cowon D2 that was supposed to get around fifty hours of battery life but anyone being honest would actually know it was ten tops. A lot of the information out there for battery life for different devices is just baloney.
I still might buy this, it’s fairly cheap but I don’t know if it would be much better than a cheap import. I suppose I could just use the fiio and cough up the dough for another one if something happens to it out there. That is about the only other semi affordable option I see out there.
What are people using these days anyway? A smart phone to play music? I could do that but I don’t want phone service and it’s unclear if I would have to purchase it to use it. Then there is the sound, the sound on my tablets for example is very poor.
There is much tougher decisions out there for me but it would be nice to play music on a DAP that actually works for under a hundred. Anyway, thanks for listening and cheers to all!
"With a healthy battery the zip and plus would get about five hours. ’
Huh??? Perhaps after many years of usage. If the screen brightness is set to low, the screen time set short, and albums and playlists are played through so there is mininal pressing of buttons, these players can get close to the 15 hour stated battery life. The battery capacity loss due to just age is rather slight per year, unless the player has been stored at high temperatures.
Yeah, I guess milage varies but I’ve never had much luck with anything getting the stated battery life. I guess my Fiio x1 has been close(actually longer) but the little clips or even others like cowan never made the estimated battery life. The life of the batteries in my clips are about 400 complete recharges then the battery is so used up it won’t last more than three hours.
I’ve been thinkig about it and I think this would be my best option. The fiios that are coming out that are supposed to compete with sandisk don’t sound too appealing. I don’t think I’d be too trilled with another player with questionable quality that has no support in north america.
I think I could make this work. I could just get a 32 gig card fill it up and browse by folders. The more I think about how it sorts from older to newer it should actually be sorted better for me. The file explorer in windows and other file managers copies everything in order anyway so it shouldn’t be a problem. Plus it would solve some of those weird sorting issues I’ve had with previous players. It seems that’s how all those generic Chinese players sort things anyway.
I don’t understand the issue with higher than class four cards. Do they just not get reconized by the player? Would the SanDisk class 10s be ok? Why would anything have trouble with faster cards anyway? Any Idea?
