Clip broken again, what's a good reliable alternative?

I got a clipv2 say 1-1,5 year ago, which suddenly stopped working, I wasn’t able to turn it on anymore and the reset procedures did not work. So I got a clip+, which worked fine for half and year after which the headphone jack solder connection (left channel) failed. I was able to fix this, but this lasted only a couple of months, before it failed again. In the mean time for an unknown reason I got the clipv2 to turn again, weird. Although I do like the clips, considering the poor reliability, I’m hesitant to get me another clip. What are similar small, but more reliable players?

Sometimes the reset procedure doesn’t work on the Clip players. In that case if you let the player sit for a couple days it’ll reboot automatically when the battery gets below a certain level (usually takes about 2-3 days). Probably why your clip worked again when you picked it up a year later.

I can’t help but suspect that you might be unreasonably hard on your players. I know several of the gurus here (me included) that have had multiple players for 4-5 years now and they still operate perfectly, even those owned & used by the kids.

We have heard stories and testimonials from people who left their player in their pockets and it went through not only the washing machine but also the dryer before it was discovered. People have dropped their players in the toilet, mud/ice puddles, swimming pools, lakes, been used as a chew toy by the family dog and even dropped in a field, run over with the tractor and found months later and all these survived no worse for wear.

Either you’re very unlucky, or maybe you should consider the care (or lack of same) you are giving to your equipment.