Fuze Firmware 01.01.15: Sea Trials

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Fuze™
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Well, the tugboat lines are away, and we’re off with the new firmware.

I was just about to dive, when we discovered an open hatch!  The podcast sort order is still inverted, listing newest-to-oldest.

Podcast navigation is improved, with a selective FF/REW versus skip to next track via a short tap.  It looks like the skip inhibit has been changed.  I like this method better.

Files nabbed into the podcast folder (if the genre is “podcast” ) used to yield a blank listing when navigating to the individual playlist folders.  With the new firmware, we see <Empty> displayed in the playlist folder view.  Previously, the “blank” was a sign that the playlist has been nabbed; a minor detail, but note that the “missing” podcast files are in that folder.

Rhapsody refresh time has been fed a dose of plutonium.  The scan interval is much shorter, thank goodness.

The new Sansa logo is very nice.  I like the “exploding sansa” animation, multicolored, forming the new logo.  The four colors are SA, with the N in black between them.  Pretty ingenious.

Wraparound scroll has been implemented, but the scan rate while rotating the scroll wheel has a set top threshold.  My preference is for a variable rate, especially for those who like to squeeze thousands of tracks on to their Sansas.

The song limit has been posted as at 4120 songs, I see in the firmware thread (one user’s findings).  With the upcoming 16GB MicroSD HC cards, this may be an issue.  Perhaps, raising the bar may be a good idea.  By then, I’d love to have an alphabetical search or a variable scan rate.  I don’t load that many songs on my device, as I find it more convenient to use µSD cards to limit the library size.

So far, I like the new firmware!

Now, time to have some fun testing out OGG and FLAC.  As a footnote, if you try loading a file in FLAC, the true capabilities of the new processor will amaze you!

Bob :smileyvery-happy:

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Bob:
Could you explain what OGG and FLAC files are for those of us who are ignorant?

THX!!!

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Ogg is a one of the best lossy audio format (like mp3 but  a lot much better --better quality and smaller files–) and Flac is a a lossless audio format which permit to obtein half size files from original wave file WITHOUT quality loss.

Despite the quality of such codecs (and royality and patent free), they are not widely implemented in hardware player ( thanks sansa to do this) perhaps because they are DRM free…

More informations there :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free\_Lossless\_Audio\_Codec

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I never used Ogg before, but I’m pretty impressed. I’m ripping them at Quality level 4, which comes out to about 128kbps. To me, they sound as good as the MP3 files that are half again to twice that size. Changing to Ogg means that for every two albums, I free up enough space for another. On a small-space player, that’s a big deal!

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yes, it’s a very good audio format but you should know that it will make your battery discharged faster. I don’t know how quickly but perhaps 5% faster…

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Bob,

I’m taking MY FUZE back from my wife if things don’t work out with my RMA! The couch awaits me! :smileyvery-happy:

Mike

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I hear you!  The good thing is that these wee beasties don’t cost a king’s ransom, yet they perform better than any other player I’ve seen, especially weighted in terms of what they’re for: tickling the ears with quality sound.

I started with the Clip as my personal player, when my wife and I were looking for players for the girls.  I have trusted SanDisk for years, and know the build quality of the e200 well.

The sound of the AustriaMicrosystems chip is superb, and is paired with the best flash memory out there.  The Sansas look very cool indeed.  The competition has campaigns and fluorescent colors…but none of that makes the earbuds work any better.

I now have a whole collection of Sansas.  My daily player is the e280v2, and I have the Fuze in my case too.  Both sound superb.  I really like the old school feel of the v2, and the tactile feel of the Fuze as well.

Bob  :stuck_out_tongue: