Newbie. What would you do?

I found  new clip+ on ebay it should arrive tomorrow. I am not very technologically saavy. Should I rockbox it? Since it is new in the box I dont know what firmware version it will have on it. Would you reccomend upgrading to the newest firmware version. Should I even hassle with a clip+ and just return it. I a not an audiophobe just looking for something to load music on for workouts. Is there a distinct advantage over a $50 ipod shuffle? I paid $60 for it .Thanks in advance.

The Clip+ is so much better than the Shuffle, as the Clip+ has a card slot, a display, and FM radio. As for whether to put Rockbox on it or not, I suggest using the Sandisk firmware for a while, and seeing if it does what you want it to do or not, before moving to Rockbox. I used the Clip+ with Sandisk firmware for a few years before putting Rockbox on it. Those who listen to many podcasts and audiobooks that are not protected might want Rockbox for its variable speed playback for pitch correction. I like listening to podcasts at around 1.4 times normal speed, however I want the speaker’s voice to sound natural, so the pitch correction is essential. Others want Rockbox to get past the 8,000 song limit that the Sandisk firmware has, and to be able to use cards faster than class 4(The Sandisk firmware often has issues with cards faster than class 4). With Rockbox, people use 64GB or 128GB micro SDXC cards formatted as FAT32 in their Clip+. Rockbox has other great features such as easily making large playlists on the player itself, and a real shuffle(which will shuffle the songs like a deck of cards, and not repeat any songs(unless you have repeat on, and the playlist is repeated). Rockbox also has a crossfeed setting, which takes part of the opposite channel and mixes it in with a very slight delay, so each ear hears both channels, like when listening to speakers. This effect can be customized, or disabled.

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Thank you. Thoughts on what firmware will be on it as it is new in the box and is it wise to upgrade to the latest and likely last update.

As far as I’m aware, no reason not to update to the latest firmware.  Very easy to do manually (don’t bother with the SanDisk Updater, which just will consume computer resources if you leave the Updater on and running on your computer)–see the firmware thread in this forum for the update file and instructions.

And I agree as to the original firmware and Rockbox–why not just use the original firmware for awhile and get acclimated to the player, and then see if you want to try Rockbox?  Recommended to skim through the Rockbox user manual, to get a feel for what Rockbox offers.  It looks complicated, but that’s just because of Rockbox’s many options–it’s really pretty easy to use.

online Rockbox Clip+ manual:  http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansaclipplus/rockbox-build.html

PDF Rockbox Clip+ manual:  http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansaclipplus.pdf

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Thank you.

Enjoy it, and the music!   :slight_smile: