I have read several postings about the Clip being too loud, but I am finding the opposite problem - - I do not think it is nearly loud enough. I use it exclusively at the gym, so I am in a naturally loud environment. However, I have to keep the Clip at its maximum volume (it is also set to “High” in settings) in order to adequately hear a song, and even then it is not loud enough. I do not suffer from any hearing loss and the volume is nowhere near loud enough to be causing me hearing problems. It is simply not loud enough to enjoy the music.
You may need better headphones, the Clip has very good output power but the OEM earbuds that ship with it are not very efficient.
Get something name-brand; I have an neat old set of folding Sony 'phones that came with their Minidisc player, and they are a world apart.
Try getting some “canal phones”, these push into your ear-holes and block out lots of ambient noise, and the better ones are quite efficient as well. Bass response is far better than open-air phones also.
I’ve also found that volume can vary a lot between different mp3s. I have some that are barely audible, and some that send me diving for the volume control. I think it has more to do with a) the source that the mp3 was ripped from, and b) the software settings when ripping, and less to do with the actual device.
No, you’re not the only one. Mine seemed to be getting quieter and quieter and now there is no sound at all. The volume indicator doesn’t move when I press the rocker. In the process of trying to solve this and an assortment of other problems, I’ve reformatted, tried 5 different headphones, done the MSC thing, updated firmware. . . . .I have spent hours a day reading this forum since getting my Sansa Clip about 5 weeks ago.
I’d like to thank everyone in this forum for all the help they put out there. Because of you I’ve worked through sansa clip freezes, clip not being recognized by the computer, “music” files not showing up on disk (I say “music” because I only bought this to listen to books from the library - so I’m really talking audiobooks here), trouble with Overdrive Console, and being able to listen to only one or two parts of a book at a time because my “subscription must be synchronized to continue”. I was never able to find anything about the “Unable to transfer the selected title because [Insert3] returned 0xC00D2772” error though. I’ve reformatted my s clip over 50 times in my efforts to get it to play for an hour or two, but then another glitch occurs and I’m back to message boards for another slice of my day. One step forward, two steps back.
I gave my son my iPod shuffle when he lost his - so it gave me an opportunity to pick up something that would allow me to download library books from the net. Big mistake. I never had a single problem in the two years I had the shuffle. I just copied, ejected and listened. So amkoas, I just may request your mailing address and shipping charges so I can send it to you as a gift of sorts. Amazon.com won’t take it back because I no longer have the original packaging.
Hi Marcus (& forum moderators),
No, you’re not the only one either. There seems to be a few of us who would like the ability to play the music a little louder.
First of all, let me just say that I am a very satisfied SanDisk customer. I love my Sansa clip and have consigned my iPod to the metaphorical bin. It actually just sits in my desk gathering dust now. The Clip is so much easier to take around when I’m walking about or on public transport.
Anyway, before I get into a love-fest over the Sansa Clip, the one thing that disappoints me is the upper volume. It’s not loud enough. I rip tracks straight from the original CDs (really noticeable with Led Zeppelin) with Windows Media Player 6 using the highest quality setting so I am confident of the recording levels, etc. At the loudest settings, the Clip seems to play back fairly undistorted, which is great considering it’s MP3 we’re talking about. My earphones are those Sony ones that cost about 40 GPB ($80) so they’re fairly decent quality too. Additionally, my nurse will tell you that my ears are in tip-top condition and do not necessitate artificial stimulus to yield aural efficiency.
Led Zeppelin fans (and rock music genre fans in general) will tell you that the music is more enjoyable at louder volumes until one’s ears start to bleed with John Bonham’s thumping drums and Robert Plant’s screaming shrills. We are prepared to sacrifice our eardrums for listening pleasure. I should imagine that the Sansa can ouput a little more without much loss in quality or battery life. Are there legal limits involved in limiting the volume?
I would be grateful if a firmware patch is released that will bump up the volume a bit to keep me happy.
Odd–I rip my music as well at a high quality and I thought my ears were fine, and my music gets way loud. Perhaps, in the end, all a personal issue.
Do I recall correctly that the EU mandates volume limitation in audio devices such as DAPs? If that’s the case and if you’re using the Europe version of the firmware, I wonder if the U.S. version of the firmware (what I have) gets louder. Might be an experiment to check out, and post the results …
The other thing to do could be to adjust the volume level of your music up through a program such as MP3Gain (easy to use and free on the Internet); I use it on all my music right away, to equalize volume levels. http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/
yes due to the EU limitations on volume the americas version is louder.
Thanks for the MP3Gain tip. I will try that.
Although I am in Europe my Sansa player is from the States so I don’t think it will have the EU volume limitation.
Perhaps I’m going deaf after all! :smileyvery-happy:
If I understand correctly, the EU voume limitation is firmware-based. One way to avoid it would be to install the U.S. version of the firmware (this assumes that the volume limitation remains in the most recent EU firmware revision).
If I understand correctly, the EU volume limitation is firmware-based. One way to avoid it would be to install the U.S. version of the firmware (this assumes that the volume limitation remains in the most recent EU firmware revision).
QUOTE = drlucky “yes due to the EU limitations on volume the americas version is louder.”
Sorry, this is completely, and utterly, NOT true. May I ask; from where does this “information” come??
I just measured it using both “A” and “F” versions and the output power is identical on them both; ~60mVRMS into 16 ohms on “Normal” and ~235mVRMS into 16 ohms on “High”, with a white noise source MP3 file and a digital sampling oscilloscope worth more than my car. Suffice to say the results are to be believed.
To the techies and audiophiles reading this: those are millivolt readings, not milliwatt readings, and a white noise source, not a tone test or music, so please let’s not make casual calculations resulting in even more misinformation using those figures.
There is a difference between regions however, this being: in the EU and Mediterranean versions, the Volume setting defaults to the “Normal” (low) range. Users can still choose to deafen themselves but must consciously change the menu option to “High”.
Americas and Pacific get “High” volume as the default.
Click wrote:
QUOTE = drlucky “yes due to the EU limitations on volume the americas version is louder.”
Sorry, this is completely, and utterly, NOT true. May I ask; from where does this “information” come??
I just measured it using both “A” and “F” versions and the output power is identical on them both; ~60mVRMS into 16 ohms on “Normal” and ~235mVRMS into 16 ohms on “High”, with a white noise source MP3 file and a digital sampling oscilloscope worth more than my car. Suffice to say the results are to be believed.
To the techies and audiophiles reading this: those are millivolt readings, not milliwatt readings, and a white noise source, not a tone test or music, so please let’s not make casual calculations resulting in even more misinformation using those figures.
There is a difference between regions however, this being: in the EU and Mediterranean versions, the Volume setting defaults to the “Normal” (low) range. Users can still choose to deafen themselves but must consciously change the menu option to “High”.
Americas and Pacific get “High” volume as the default.
you are right i forgot that the EU version had the high volume setting.
Message Edited by drlucky on 01-30-2008 10:57 AM
Click wrote:
There is a difference between regions however, this being: in the EU and Mediterranean versions, the Volume setting defaults to the “Normal” (low) range. Users can still choose to deafen themselves but must consciously change the menu option to “High”.
Americas and Pacific get “High” volume as the default.
Good to know, thanks; I guess that it is the default in the EU to the lower setting that puts the Clip into compliance with EU regulation. I guess that people in the EU wouldn’t know to switch to “high” volume …
