clip+ 4GB FM tuner compared to my older 2008 2GB clip.

MP3 players Sansa Clip | Clip+
1

Hi,

I just got a new Clip+ and I find that the FM tuner has changed for the worse in

two respects compared to my older 2008 Clip: 1) the sound level changes

when I walk (it changes enough to attract attention) and 2) I now hear sound

distortion when listening to weaker stations (most stations are not that strong).

I can compare since I have both Clip’s.  I don’t notice sound level changes

when I walk with the older Clip, nor am I annoyed by distortion on weaker

stations. In fact I am very happy with the sound of my first Clip, including FM.

I would be curious to get other people opinions on this.   Could it just be a firmware

related issue or did the Clip+ get a new FM tuner?

Typically, with FM the sound level should not vary much with signal level, as long as

the signal to noise ratio is above some threshold.  Regarding distortion I find that

when I listen to weaker stations with the older Clip I just hear a bit more white noise,

nothing distracting,  but with the newer Clip+ the noise is different and it includes the

effect of sound level dependent distortions (some kind of a cracking noise modulated

by the level of voice or music).

I don’t get distortion from mp3’s or voice recordings so this is definitely a tuner issue.

2

I noticed the same thing regarding the FM tuner when I recently bought the Clip+. I also previously had a Sansa Clip and the newer version seems to be poorer in many ways. The distortion on the FM is now disturbing to the ears, where the old one was fine to listen to. The whole unit must be different. I noticed the new one is lighter than the old sansa clip.

3

So the Clip+ is likely a redesign rather than an upgrade of the original Clip. The battery is a positive point of the Clip+, it keeps its charge when the unit is not used.  The battery of my copy of the original Clip is completely discharged after two days even when I don’t use it.  And there is the Flac format that is another good point of the Clip+.

I guess we were lucky with the original Clip as far as sound quality is concerned.  Given the low price I paid for my Clip+ there is a good chance that the design of FM tuner of the Clip+did not get the same attention as the original Clip did.

5

Hi, I’m having a different experience with the battery in the new one. The old clip battery held well, gave many hours and worked properly. But the new one ran out within 3 hours the first time I used it. After that I charged it up again and tested it a few times by turning it on and sitting it on the desk until it ran out (with no light on) and with radio or music it was 6-8 hours. The battery indicator on the unit is not really usable because it ran out when it indicated it was half full. Also, when I connect it to the computer to recharge, the dialogue box on the computer always says that it is 0% full even though it’s been charging for 3 hours. Obviously there’s something screwy going on with the battery.

I tore the old sansa clip apart and found that the battery in that one was not a small, round, typical lithium one, but a rectangular, flat  type of thing that was made of something similar to heavy tinfoil, which took up half the area of the unit. (hence it was a little heavier than the new one). I’m guessing the new one has a small lithium battery.

Another thing I found different was that I could connect the old one up to my stereo system and run it through there using the earphone output. I can’t do that with the new clip+.

I’m thinking about taking mine back as it’s only been a week. I’m not sure if Future Shop would take it back or not.

6

@user234 wrote:

Hi, I’m having a different experience with the battery in the new one. The old clip battery held well, gave many hours and worked properly. But the new one ran out within 3 hours the first time I used it. After that I charged it up again and tested it a few times by turning it on and sitting it on the desk until it ran out (with no light on) and with radio or music it was 6-8 hours. The battery indicator on the unit is not really usable because it ran out when it indicated it was half full. Also, when I connect it to the computer to recharge, the dialogue box on the computer always says that it is 0% full even though it’s been charging for 3 hours. Obviously there’s something screwy going on with the battery.

 

No, It’s a known Windows issue.

 

I tore the old sansa clip apart and found that the battery in that one was not a small, round, typical lithium one, but a rectangular, flat  type of thing that was made of something similar to heavy tinfoil, which took up half the area of the unit. (hence it was a little heavier than the new one). I’m guessing the new one has a small lithium battery.

 

You would be guessing incorrectly then. See this Clip+ disassembly article with photos.

 

Another thing I found different was that I could connect the old one up to my stereo system and run it through there using the earphone output. I can’t do that with the new clip+.

 

Yes you can.

 

I’m thinking about taking mine back as it’s only been a week. I’m not sure if Future Shop would take it back or not.

 

Most retail stores have a 30-day return policy.

7

@user234 wrote:

Hi, I’m having a different experience with the battery in the new one. The old clip battery held well, gave many hours and worked properly. But the new one ran out within 3 hours the first time I used it. After that I charged it up again and tested it a few times by turning it on and sitting it on the desk until it ran out (with no light on) and with radio or music it was 6-8 hours. The battery indicator on the unit is not really usable because it ran out when it indicated it was half full. Also, when I connect it to the computer to recharge, the dialogue box on the computer always says that it is 0% full even though it’s been charging for 3 hours. Obviously there’s something screwy going on with the battery.

 

No, It’s a known Windows issue.

 

I tore the old sansa clip apart and found that the battery in that one was not a small, round, typical lithium one, but a rectangular, flat  type of thing that was made of something similar to heavy tinfoil, which took up half the area of the unit. (hence it was a little heavier than the new one). I’m guessing the new one has a small lithium battery.

 

You would be guessing incorrectly then. See this Clip+ disassembly article with photos.

 

Another thing I found different was that I could connect the old one up to my stereo system and run it through there using the earphone output. I can’t do that with the new clip+.

 

Yes you can.

 

I’m thinking about taking mine back as it’s only been a week. I’m not sure if Future Shop would take it back or not.

 

Most retail stores have a 30-day return policy.

8

Thanks for all the info tapeworm. I tried hooking the clip to the stereo again, and it must have been a bad connection because it now works.

9

About a month ago, I got a Sansa Clip+ because I needed the FM tuner option because I am hard of hearing. Around the same time, my wife’s grandmother also got a Sansa Clip+ for the same reason. While her FM tuner works well and there is little to no static, mine is the complete opposite. The reception from the FM tuner has been progressively getting worse to the point that I cannot hear the speaker talk under all that static.

It cannot be a weak signal issue since my wife’s grandmother has the same make and model and yet it is crystal clear.

Is there a fix or should I return it as I have no need for an FM tuner that does not work?

10

@edwardnigma wrote:

About a month ago, I got a Sansa Clip+ because I needed the FM tuner option because I am hard of hearing. Around the same time, my wife’s grandmother also got a Sansa Clip+ for the same reason. While her FM tuner works well and there is little to no static, mine is the complete opposite. The reception from the FM tuner has been progressively getting worse to the point that I cannot hear the speaker talk under all that static.

 

It cannot be a weak signal issue since my wife’s grandmother has the same make and model and yet it is crystal clear.

 

Is there a fix or should I return it as I have no need for an FM tuner that does not work?

Return it and get another. Yours is obviously defective.

(Or, switch it with Granny’s when she isn’t looking) :stuck_out_tongue:

11

Thanks. I made the switch and so far so good the replacement Clip+ seems to be working well.

12

@edwardnigma wrote:

Thanks. I made the switch and so far so good the replacement Clip+ seems to be working well.

Make sure you’re not around when Granny finds out! :dizzy_face:

13

@tapeworm wrote:

@edwardnigma wrote:

Thanks. I made the switch and so far so good the replacement Clip+ seems to be working well.

Make sure you’re not around when Granny finds out! :dizzy_face:

She _ knows _ and she’s coming for a visit with some friends.

And they wouldn’t look so sweet when they show up!

14

I agree that the new Clip+'s FM tuner is worse.  I’d pretty much worn out some of the old buttons on my 2009 Clip+ and so bought a couple on sale this last week – one out here in Georgia, and the other from Amazon.  To my distress, BOTH had bad FM tuners.  As with others here, I could directly compare the old and new Clip radio reception, as the radio part from my old Clip works fine.  I use the FM radio on my MP3 player enough that I really can’t stand to have all the static and station drift that the new Clip+s had, so I returned both of the newly bought ones.

@rlxqc wrote:

Hi,

 

I just got a new Clip+ and I find that the FM tuner has changed for the worse in

two respects compared to my older 2008 Clip: 1) the sound level changes

when I walk (it changes enough to attract attention) and 2) I now hear sound

distortion when listening to weaker stations (most stations are not that strong).

I can compare since I have both Clip’s.  I don’t notice sound level changes

when I walk with the older Clip, nor am I annoyed by distortion on weaker

stations. In fact I am very happy with the sound of my first Clip, including FM.

 

I would be curious to get other people opinions on this.   Could it just be a firmware

related issue or did the Clip+ get a new FM tuner?

 

Typically, with FM the sound level should not vary much with signal level, as long as

the signal to noise ratio is above some threshold.  Regarding distortion I find that

when I listen to weaker stations with the older Clip I just hear a bit more white noise,

nothing distracting,  but with the newer Clip+ the noise is different and it includes the

effect of sound level dependent distortions (some kind of a cracking noise modulated

by the level of voice or music).

 

I don’t get distortion from mp3’s or voice recordings so this is definitely a tuner issue.

 

 

15

I’ve used it today and it did the same thing again. The FM tuner still sucked and is slightly worse than my first one. At least with the first one I can change stations and then go back and for a brief moment get a clear reception. Can’t with this one.

I tried my wife’s grandmother radio again and her’s is still get’s clear reception.

I checked her radio and the only difference between mine and her is that her firmware version is 1.01.xxx while mine had the latest version.

Is there a way that I can rollback to an earlier firmware version? I want to see if that’ll do the trick.

17

Hi,

I returned the unit for an exchange and I got one with 2010 on the packaging; the  unit I returned had 2009 on the package.  I can’t tell if this is important.  FM sounds much better on the new unit.  It seems to me that the sound of my older Clip is still cleaner that my newer Clip+ on some stations but generally they behave the same.

Now I wonder if the FM region was set correctly on the the unit I returned.  I tried many options to get rid of the sound volume limitation (I can’t hear the music in the bus or the underground with the sound limiter on) and maybe the FM region was changed in the process and I did not notice.  Now I can’t check since I returned the unit.  That would be sad…

18

Hey, I’m having the exact same issue with my new Clip+, the FM quality is sometimes terrible especially when I’m moving anywhere. The volume goes from quiet to very loud in the space of seconds.

The problem is worst when the signal is strong too, and I live in an area with pretty strong reception of a lot of channels, stereo reception more often than not when I’m outside.

I started a thread about it a few days ago, and I’ve also emailed Sandisk about it but I’ve heard nothing about what’s causing it yet.

Here’s the thread: http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Clip-Clip/Clip-FM-Radio-volume-problem/td-p/218782

19

If you live in NorthAmerica the Radio Region parameter should be set accordingly.

20

I live in Europe so the setting is on “Rest of world”. I think the only thing it does is that tuning goes up in steps of 0.05 MHz instead of 0.1 MHz.

21

Although the FM of the second unit I got is better that the first one, the sound is still not really clear (to my ear) and for some stations the level still varies markedly as I walk around.  I have a strong feeling that the Clip+ is a different hardware design than the original Clip.   (I compare with an older Clip I still use).

22

That’s a bummer, does every Clip+ have this varying volume problem with their FM radio?! I use the radio all the time when I’m walking, so I really can’t put up with this forever. I could tolerate it if the change wasn’t so dramatic - people talking somewhat quietly only for it to rise to something like shouting a couple of seconds later!