My Sansa Clip plays music a bit slower

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Clip | Sansa® Clip+
1

Hi

I don’t know if it is a common, but I’ve noticed, that my sansa clip plays music a bit slower than normal - on my computer is little bit faster. I managed to start them at the exact same time and the difference is like 1-2 secconds. Does anyone know, what’s the cause?

Message Edited by rogigor on 12-25-2008 02:56 PM

2

Is one too fast or too slow? How do the real play times compare with the play times the files have listed? what format is your music? How long are the files? Did you try this when both were at the same temperature? If the Clip is much colder than the pc from being in the cold and not warmed up yet, then I imagine the Clip could play slower than a pc that has been hot from being kept running. If you are using a very high bitrate file(especially a wma one, and especially a variable bitrate high bitrate wma one) then the players processor might be lagging a slight bit decoding it.

3

Songs on mp3 player are bit, just a bit slower. Their real play times is the same as listed, format is mp3. Files length are various, from 3 minutes to 5 and more. Yes, I’ve tried play both Sansa Clip and computer at the same temperature and still, player is a bit slower. I’m using bitrate 192kbps – some songs have 320.

4

“Their real play times is the same as listed”

Have you timed the play times using an external timer? I imagine if the play times differ by 2 seconds, either one is too fast or the other too slow compared to the stated file time when measured with an external timer. Of course this might not even be the case, and one for example could be playing one second too slow and the other 3 seconds too slow. This is interesting.

5

Hm… I used an external timer and it looks like the timer in player works… slower. I checked it on a song which is 2.36 min long. I started the player and the timer at the same time, and when song ended, time on the stopwatch was 2.38/2.39. and on the player 2.36.

Message Edited by rogigor on 12-25-2008 06:25 PM

Message Edited by rogigor on 12-25-2008 06:26 PM

6

 So you pressed the start buttons at the same time? Did they both start playing at the same time, or did the mp3 player take longer for the music to be heard? If you listen to both playing at the same time(ie. one ear for each) did you notice the mp3 player falling behind as it progressed or was it behind when the music first started playing from the pc?

7

Yes, small time discrepancies are common in such players. See also this: Does my Clip play songs too slow?.

8

Yep, I pressed the start buttons at the same time. They both started playing at the same time and at the beginning, the were going concurrently, but the mp3 started falling behind as the song progressed.

Anyway, it’s not such a big problem and I’ll probably get used to that. 

9

I’ve just bought sansa 8GB (firmware 2.01.16F) and I noticed the same thing :frowning: It’s really annoying. I listen to the music mostly on CD. I ripped a few albums and encoded them to flac and they play a bit slower on the clip. I compared this with a standalone cd-player and my laptop. On the laptop I played the same file as on clip - on a 4 minutes song the clip “produced” another 3 seconds and some…

The track time of course the same everywhere - the thing is, the time is ticking slower on the clip! 

I don’t believe it’s something normal - how ca something like this be normal? I could hear that something is wrong when I launched the album I listened a lot on the CD lately. Then I made the comparison and BAM! What a pity. I also tried ogg constant bit rate - same effect.

I formatted the clip, tried again - same effect.

Is there any way to fix this? Wait for new firmware? Or it’s simple a broken hardware? Sometimes I hate my ears…

10

@eliasf wrote:
Yes, small time discrepancies are common in such players. See also this: Does my Clip play songs too slow?.

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@drlucky wrote:

@eliasf wrote:
Yes, small time discrepancies are common in such players. See also this: Does my Clip play songs too slow?.

 

I did read everything regarding “slow” on this forum, including the thread you posted. Still, I don’t think 1sec a minute is a “small time disrepancy”. It would be, if I didn’t notice it. Now, it will hunt me forever. Maybe I could live with it, if all the players were off, but I guess it’s not the way it is.

Message Edited by bungl on 01-30-2009 03:33 PM