I recieved my SanDisk Sansa Clip + as a gift yesterday. As most of you, I am truly thrilled with this device and I am enjoing it around the clock. The only thing that bothers me it is the flat sound of FM Radio. I searched the forum for the answer to this issue and the only one is that “the FM tuner is analog”, which is absolutely not true - the tuner is digital one (according to the official specifications).
Any suggestions? Is this an isolated issue or we all have the same experience?
Thanks for the reply. Well I am not an expert but I still think that the sound should be easily processed. Sorry for having problem to accept this explanation. I 'll keep it simple: eg. we all have mobile phones, car audio systems, home recievers etc. and I never faced this “analog radio signal input” limitation until now? Obviously Sansa have some hardware/software limitations regarding FM radio reciever (just a guess).
. . . we all have mobile phones, car audio systems, home recievers etc.
Yes, and they all receive an over-the-air analog radio signal on the AM & FM frequency bands. To get a digital signal, you must have HD or satellite (like Sirius) radio.
Again, I think that the type of the input signal is not an issue here. The fact is that the FM radio tuner is digital which means that the signal is converted from analog to digital and it should not be a problem to process sound by the EQ after that point. I am just saying that it is hard for me to accept the explanation that the analog input signal is preventing Sansa from processing FM radio sound by its EQ like any other audio device these days. E.g. Sansa is capable to record the FM radio broadcasting but at the same time it is not capable to process its sound because “the input signal is analog”? Again, I am not an expert but the answer is just not logical for me. Anyway, I am willing to accept it at this point if there are no other explanations. It started to look like I am bitching about the device that I like so much. I will conclude my posting here…
The tuner (frequency selector) is digital, the audio signal is not. There is no analog to digital conversion with audio signal in these type of tuners. The FM chip audio is switched in or out of the analog audio output from the SOC just before the headphone output, it’s all analog down those paths. There may be an FM chip with some analog EQ built in, but it would probably cost more and may or may not be able to interface with the SOC. I doubt you will ever see any EQ on the FM in these players. I don’t recall seeing it any portable CD/FM players either. Sony and others might have had some bass boost or limited EQ for FM, but they had a dedicated amp chip (analog) driving the headphones. The Sansa headphone amp is built in to the SOC.
