Not satisfied with the sound quality.

Hi guys,

I recently purchased a Sandisk Sansa Clip+ along with a Sennheiser CX-400 II Precision, as an effort to finally get a music player among the “quality” category.

I got the chance to try it out today, both with the songs that came with it and the ones I downloaded, and the result was very disappointing. The sound quality is mediocre in mid to high volumes, however it becomes distorted when the volume is set to very high levels(which I prefer).

To be more clear, the music I listen in my lap-top with the sennheiser earphones is very, very clear and enjoyable, while in Sansa Clip+ it just doesn’t feel right, like a lot of tones are fighting each other instead of letting you enjoy them separately.

Now I’m a total newbie when it comes to equalizer settings, so I let it stay on normal, though I have tried every single custom setting I found on these forums with no luck. I also haven’t tried the rockbox thingy.

I mostly listen to progressive rock and metal, is there anything you can recommend to improve the sound quality and purity? An EQ setting? A rockbox guide? A firmware? Any suggestion at all?

Thank you.

Its weird that you hear distortion. I didn’t think the sandisk firmware even let you set the volume high enough to do that. Were you using EQ when this happened?

Just a regular music listener here, but I’ve always found the quality to be fine.  Could your player have an ssue?  You also could try manually reapplying the latest firmware to the player (see the firmware upgrade sticky thread at the top of the forum) in case it’s due to a software glitch. 

Well, after doing a day long burn-in for my cx 400 II, the sound just got incredibly better. It is much more clear and very enjoyable, I’m also getting separate and beautiful bass.

Guess it was a Sennheiser issue after all, but thank you for the replies guys!

For me, it’s actually okay. I mean, it’s for our money’s worth. I was not exactly expecting top notch but it works for me.

Sound quality also depends on your headphones. If you think the sound quality of the unit is limited to what you get with the dinky cheap earbuds that come with it…it’s not.  Get some decent Shure or Grado or Sennheiser or Beyerdynamic headphones and it’ll sound a lot better. 

Sound quality also depends on how the music files are ripped. If your files are 128kb they are always going to sound mediocre. 

Rip your CDs to–or get music already ripped to–at least 192kbps, a VBR (variable bit rate) above that or 320 kbps. It makes a diifference. 

@black_rectangle wrote:

Sound quality also depends on your headphones. If you think the sound quality of the unit is limited to what you get with the dinky cheap earbuds that come with it…it’s not.  Get some decent Shure or Grado or Sennheiser or Beyerdynamic headphones and it’ll sound a lot better. 

 

Sound quality also depends on how the music files are ripped. If your files are 128kb they are always going to sound mediocre. 

 

Rip your CDs to–or get music already ripped to–at least 192kbps, a VBR (variable bit rate) above that or 320 kbps. It makes a diifference. 


…and if you’re willing to explorer further OGG Vorbis and FLAC formats too. (even though listening to a high bit rate [near 320kb MP3] sounds pretty darn close to a FLAC audio file. )

The device I’m currently using to listen to audio converts FLAC to mp4 files when I import it.  (at least it doesn’t say that FLAC is incompatible…it just converts it to mp4 and lets me go on my merry way.)

The Clip plays FLAC. 

mp4 is usually a container for video and audio, but…whatever floats your boat. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4_Part_14