Advice on Sansa Model for Use in my Car?

MP3 players Sansa Clip | Clip+
1

Hi,

I was hoping to get advice on which model of Sansa you would recommend for me.

I want a player to use primarily in my car. I have a cassette adapter to use there and now am considering which MP3 player to get.

My music is almost all in AAC in iTunes (almost all ripped from my own CD’s, not bought from the iTunes store) and I don’t want to convert it all back to MP3 or rip it all again. So it seems I have 3 choices:

  1. Get an iPod
  2. Get one of the Sansas that supports AAC
  3. Get any Sansa, put Rockbox on it

I am leaning toward #2 or 3 because the iPods are just so much more expensive.

Basically my main concerns are that I can use this in the car and have it charging from the car charger while playing (and I want it to still play the same while charging as while not charging, with the same high quality). It would also be nice if it was safe to leave in the car and not have to constantly take it out and in even when the weather is cold or hot (I have read many people do this with iPods and have no problem with it.)

I have about 7GB of music right now. But I will surely get a bit more over time. So I need the ability to go up to maybe 16GB, whether natively or with an SD card.

So which model should I be looking at? Clip, Clip+, Clip Zip, Fuze, Fuze+? I’m unsure how to choose among these for my situation. I’d really appreciate any advice. I’d especially love advice from someone who has a Sansa they use in the car and is doing everything I want to do so they can vouch for a way of doing it that works well.

If you are doing this and can recommend which car charger to get to use with the model you recommend, that would also help a lot.

I’ve read through a lot of threads, but some are out of date and I am still confused as to which is best for my situation so I hope you don’t mind my post. And I wasn’t sure which forum to post in since my question cuts across models, so I put it here since this seems the most active. Thank you very much.

2

Hi,

I haven’t gotten any feedback on this yet. Could someone help me out or possibly let me know if there is a better section of the forum (or elsewhere) that I might get some more help with this question?

Thank you.

3

Forget .aac with Sansa firmware. It’s not supported  in any of the devices you list. You’d have to use Rockbox.

Beyond that, it depends on the car stereo first of all. Some only do iPods. Some do MTP. Some make you treat the Sansa basically as a flash drive and play mp3s from that–so you might as well just get a cheap thumb drive and use that.

So first see what your car stereo wants. You can always go out of the headphone jack of the Sansa and into the car’s AUX input–assuming it has one–but I’m assuming you want to control the Sansa from the car stereo, not look at the Sansa while driving.

As for charging…Sansas charge with a cord from a USB port. There are cigarette-lighter-to-USB adapters everywhere.

Find the model of your car stereo, find its manual online, search it for .mp3 and see what you discover.

5

@black_rectangle wrote:

Forget .aac with Sansa firmware. It’s not supported  in any of the devices you list. You’d have to use Rockbox.

 

Beyond that, it depends on the car stereo first of all. Some only do iPods. Some do MTP. Some make you treat the Sansa basically as a flash drive and play mp3s from that–so you might as well just get a cheap thumb drive and use that.

 

So first see what your car stereo wants. You can always go out of the headphone jack of the Sansa and into the car’s AUX input–assuming it has one–but I’m assuming you want to control the Sansa from the car stereo, not look at the Sansa while driving.

 

As for charging…Sansas charge with a cord from a USB port. There are cigarette-lighter-to-USB adapters everywhere.

 

Find the model of your car stereo, find its manual online, search it for .mp3 and see what you discover.

According to this the Clip Zip and Fuze+ both support AAC on the Sansa software. I have also read something similar on Sansa’s site. So I am not sure if I’m better off getting one that supports AAC out of the box or one I have to use Rockbox on (or even getting one that might do AAC on its own but is nonetheless better with Rockbox anyway).

Like I mentioned in my OP, I have a cassette adapter to use. So I’m just going from the headphone jack of the device to the cassette adapter. I have no ability or need to control it from the car stereo. So that doesn’t help me narrow it down at all.

Basically, I have no particular information to help me decide which of these 5 or so models is ideal for me. That’s why I’m asking here what people recommend.

I’ve also heard that some Sansa’s don’t play well or make noise if you charge them in the car while playing at the same time. But maybe this is totally incorrect and that’s why I’d really like to hear from someone who already has a setup in the car that works and they can vouch plays well.

So any old cigarette lighter to USB adapter will work? There are none better than others for use with the Sansa in the car?

7

@miikerman wrote:

If you’re interested in aac files, that narrows the field for you. And then it comes down to the form factor (and video capacity) between the Clip Zip and Fuze+. Just can’t beat that handy small size of the Zip! (and I’m not a big fan of players with touch controls, as on the Fuze+).

 

Yep, you can use a car cigarette lighter adapter to power the Zip; do it all the time.  There could be line noise, but that’s car-specific and you’ll need to try your own out.

I was under the impression that I can put Rockbox on any of them and play AAC so that in itself doesn’t narrow it down. What would narrow it down is if the ones requiring Rockbox play the AAC files more or less easily or at better or worse quality.

Yes my concern is about line noise if playing in the car while simultaneously charging from the lighter adapter. I have heard complaints of that with Sansas, but haven’t heard complaints of that with iPods. Is there a reason for that or a way to handle it? This is just for use in the car so if it makes noise when playing and charging that would be a major problem.

10

@miikerman wrote:

@musman77 wrote:

@miikerman wrote:

If you’re interested in aac files, that narrows the field for you. And then it comes down to the form factor (and video capacity) between the Clip Zip and Fuze+. Just can’t beat that handy small size of the Zip! (and I’m not a big fan of players with touch controls, as on the Fuze+).

 

Yep, you can use a car cigarette lighter adapter to power the Zip; do it all the time.  There could be line noise, but that’s car-specific and you’ll need to try your own out.

I was under the impression that I can put Rockbox on any of them and play AAC so that in itself doesn’t narrow it down. What would narrow it down is if the ones requiring Rockbox play the AAC files more or less easily or at better or worse quality.

 

Yes my concern is about line noise if playing in the car while simultaneously charging from the lighter adapter. I have heard complaints of that with Sansas, but haven’t heard complaints of that with iPods. Is there a reason for that or a way to handle it? This is just for use in the car so if it makes noise when playing and charging that would be a major problem.

  1.  As to aac, it depends if you want to add Rockbox to the original firmware.  If yes, that opens things up for you; if no, that limits the players.  At this point, just decide which way you want to go and which player you personally like–you really seem to understand the options.

 

Rockbox is a “universal” firnware–if it is fully operative for a player, it will work equally well in playing your music.

 

  1.  Car noise:  I have had this with non-SanDisk players as well.  In my personal experience, it has turned on the cigarette lighter adapter I’ve been using.

I am open to putting Rockbox on. My question is whether it’s better to use one that can play AAC without Rockbox or not. And if it doesn’t really matter, then I’m back to not knowing how to narrow down which model I should get since AAC support would not be a factor.

And with the car noise, that’s why I am hoping to find someone who already has a setup that’s working for them so I can try to model after it, including perhaps recommending a specific type of car charger they have had luck with. I understand I might find it’s different for my car, but may as well start with something that has worked for someone already.

12

This is a subject close to my heart so I hope these comments help.

I think the key thing to consider is how easy it will be to actually work your chosen player while you’re driving.  Sure, you might set out with the intention never to touch it while you’re moving, but trust me, the time will come….:cry:

I have an old car with a decent stereo, but no Aux.  I connect my PMPs to it using a fairly cheap  cassette adapter.  There is some hum and noticeable muffling of the sound, but it is roughly as good as listening to the (FM) radio,  though nowhere near as good as playing CDs using the boot magazine.

I’ve never owned an iPod, but have several Sony Walkman players and clips (+ and zips) and an old fuze, which all play AAC files as well as mp3s. I’ve also got a few android phones which I use for music sometimes.  The sandisk payers are rockboxed and also play FLACs, of course.  My favourites for car use are old A or S series Walkmans, hands down.   The screens are a bit small, but I find the tactile buttons are easier and quicker to operate than a touchscreen interface, the tiny toggle switches on the  clips, or the wheel on my fuze.   Rockbox gives you some options to increase the text size etc,on the sansa players, :stuck_out_tongue: but I still don’t think you can beat the button clicking Sonys for car use.

In the UK, there are laws about not using phones when you drive and I can see the day coming when using an mp3 player in a car  is viewed the same way.  Keep in mind too that whenever you’re fiddling with the player you can’t possibly be paying full attention to the road (I know, same applies when using a car stereo…). So, to reduce fiddling time, a player that lets you program in a long playlist before you set off is good.

So yeah,  I recommend trying a few players in the shops to see which screen and interface will work well for you, and sussing out which players you can just leave running and not have to fiddle with at all while driving.  Also think about where you might “mount” it or stash it while it is playing.  Keep in mind that in the UK at least, if you have a crash and your driver’s seat is a tangle of wires, adapters, and gadgets, you may have a hard job convincing the legal authorities that you were paying proper attention to the road – even if you were.  It sounds harsh but that is the way things look to me, even though the last courtesy car my garage loaned me was so full of tech that it was more like working a computer than driving a car.  So I suggest going with whatever seems the simplest, safest choice.  Unless you’re going on marathon trips, you can probably do without a car charger most of the time , too, which will cut down on some dashboard clutter.  

13

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16

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