Pitch bug on Clip+?

schnarky42 wrote: 

 

3) Many, including myself, have stated that the Clip+ is on the edge of a just noticable pitch difference. You say few people can detect this, but I challenge people on this forum to listen to these clips on Wikipedia and find out if they can tell the difference. Particularily the ‘Six Cents’ and ‘Ten Cents’ clips, as that’s roughtly the pitch accuracy of the Clip+ right now.

 

Testing tones is one thing but the only test that matters is listening to the same things you listen to every day… your music your podcasts, whatever… If you hear a difference then you continue to look for answers but If you listen and honestly cant tell a difference when you listen to your favorite songs then you can move on to listening enjoyment. If the player is off but you cant hear that difference whats the point in splitting hairs?

 

I’m glad ConversionBox is back again, now we have a more balanced voice again.

@conversionbox wrote:


schnarky42 wrote: 

 

3) Many, including myself, have stated that the Clip+ is on the edge of a just noticable pitch difference. You say few people can detect this, but I challenge people on this forum to listen to these clips on Wikipedia and find out if they can tell the difference. Particularily the ‘Six Cents’ and ‘Ten Cents’ clips, as that’s roughtly the pitch accuracy of the Clip+ right now.

 


Testing tones is one thing but the only test that matters is listening to the same things you listen to every day… your music your podcasts, whatever… If you hear a difference then you continue to look for answers but If you listen and honestly cant tell a difference when you listen to your favorite songs then you can move on to listening enjoyment. If the player is off but you cant hear that difference whats the point in splitting hairs?

 

 

The reason for test tones is that they’re readily available. And as I said, I left it as an open challenge for people to hear for themselves. If people do notice the difference on the Wikipedia link, I could take it one step farther. I could find some creative commons music samples and alter their pitch for ABX testing. That would more closely simulate the every day listening experience.

Although you do bring a good point about listening enjoyment. It’s such a relative experience. For some, a scratchy $3 cassette tape is all they need. For others, it requires something a bit better. Sandisk has so far catered to that ‘little bit better’ crowd; look at ReplayGain, ID3v2.4, and FLAC support as examples. That’s why it’s so odd that Sandisk suddenly decides to pass on fixing the pitch bug.

@schnarky42 wrote:


@conversionbox wrote:


schnarky42 wrote: 

 

3) Many, including myself, have stated that the Clip+ is on the edge of a just noticable pitch difference. You say few people can detect this, but I challenge people on this forum to listen to these clips on Wikipedia and find out if they can tell the difference. Particularily the ‘Six Cents’ and ‘Ten Cents’ clips, as that’s roughtly the pitch accuracy of the Clip+ right now.

 


Testing tones is one thing but the only test that matters is listening to the same things you listen to every day… your music your podcasts, whatever… If you hear a difference then you continue to look for answers but If you listen and honestly cant tell a difference when you listen to your favorite songs then you can move on to listening enjoyment. If the player is off but you cant hear that difference whats the point in splitting hairs?

 

 


The reason for test tones is that they’re readily available. And as I said, I left it as an open challenge for people to hear for themselves. If people do notice the difference on the Wikipedia link, I could take it one step farther. I could find some creative commons music samples and alter their pitch for ABX testing. That would more closely simulate the every day listening experience.

 

Although you do bring a good point about listening enjoyment. It’s such a relative experience. For some, a scratchy $3 cassette tape is all they need. For others, it requires something a bit better. Sandisk has so far catered to that ‘little bit better’ crowd; look at ReplayGain, ID3v2.4, and FLAC support as examples. That’s why it’s so odd that Sandisk suddenly decides to pass on fixing the pitch bug.

 

 

Thats precisely what I mean… If you need it to be prefect test the tones and some other stuff. If you just wanna listen to your music and you dont hear a difference to begin with then why bother. My thinking is this, If you test a tone first and hear a difference, your brain could cause you to hear a difference in your regular music, when in all actuality you probably never would have noticed without the tests. 

I just registered to say that I was lurking this forum waiting to buy the new Clip+ when it became available in my country, but reading this “official” statement about the pitch issue I’m buying the Cowon D2 Plus. I’m not a musician but I wouldn’t enjoy my music knowing it’s playing at the wrong pitch/tempo.

@p3ndr4g0n wrote:
I just registered to say that I was lurking this forum waiting to buy the new Clip+ when it became available in my country, but reading this “official” statement about the pitch issue I’m buying the Cowon D2 Plus. I’m not a musician but I wouldn’t enjoy my music knowing it’s playing at the wrong pitch/tempo.

Isn’t the Cowon D2 Plus about four times the cost of a Clip+?

What if you were blindfolded, and couldn’t tell the difference?

@p3ndr4g0n wrote:
I just registered to say that I was lurking this forum waiting to buy the new Clip+ when it became available in my country, but reading this “official” statement about the pitch issue I’m buying the Cowon D2 Plus. I’m not a musician but I wouldn’t enjoy my music knowing it’s playing at the wrong pitch/tempo.

I predict that many others will feel the same way as you. Hopefully enough of them will post here to make them change their minds.

I predict that many people who’ve already posted about this are going to re-register under a different username and post again about it, to show a fictional “grassroots movement” against the Clip+.:wink:

@promisedplanet wrote:


@p3ndr4g0n wrote:
I just registered to say that I was lurking this forum waiting to buy the new Clip+ when it became available in my country, but reading this “official” statement about the pitch issue I’m buying the Cowon D2 Plus. I’m not a musician but I wouldn’t enjoy my music knowing it’s playing at the wrong pitch/tempo.


 

Isn’t the Cowon D2 Plus about four times the cost of a Clip+?

 

What if you were blindfolded, and couldn’t tell the difference?

Some would say it is four times the player. :dizzy_face: I don’t have one, but I hear great things about them from people I trust.

@promisedplanet wrote:
I predict that many people who’ve already posted about this are going to re-register under a different username and post again about it, to show a fictional “grassroots movement” against the Clip+.:wink:

I’m not re-registering, but I have stated that I will no longer be buying a Clip+

From the measurement posted here, the Clip+ has about 1/3 the error of the original clip.  Possible it already has the firmware improvement the clip owners are clamoring for?   The fix Sansafix posted about way back when was to be much improved, not perfect.  The error now, about 1/4 percent, amounts to about 1 Hz on an A440.

I too would have to say that i am put down by this statement from Sandisk. I have had the original clip and i noticed the bug, Then, when i heard about the clip+ i was going to go out to get it because i was almost certain they had fixed the pitch bug. But i always research mp3 players before i buy them, and i am glad i checked here before i bought it. I am a sandisk supporter to the fullest extent. I like their products, but to hear that they cannot fix the pitch bug because they decided to go with another plan? that is just not going to cut it. It is one thing not know about a probelm and go on with your life. But to actually know about the problem and still not fix it? Well i guess i wont be buying the clip+ unless they fix this pitch bug.

@promisedplanet wrote:


@p3ndr4g0n wrote:
I just registered to say that I was lurking this forum waiting to buy the new Clip+ when it became available in my country, but reading this “official” statement about the pitch issue I’m buying the Cowon D2 Plus. I’m not a musician but I wouldn’t enjoy my music knowing it’s playing at the wrong pitch/tempo.


 

Isn’t the Cowon D2 Plus about four times the cost of a Clip+?

 

What if you were blindfolded, and couldn’t tell the difference?

The 8GB version is $121.17 on Amazon, and it has a full size SDHC slot, so a 32GB card is an option. The 16GB model goes for $150. 

The 8GB Clip+ is currently $67 on Amazon. So no, it’s not 4 times the cost, but it’s at least twice the player. High power output, 2.5" 16-million-color screen, rated battery life of 52 hours for audio, tons of available sound tweaks if one is so inclined.

Are they after the same consumer ? Probably not…but p3ndr4g0n’s decision should be noted by the “suits” at SanDisk. I know of someone else who just bought a D2+ after leaving SanDisk too

I was a big sansa booster until they dropped the ball with the pitch problem.

As a result of their decision, I will no longer recommend or purchase Sandisk products.

I have no interest in starting or joining some “fictional grassroots movement” against the Clip+, believe it or not PromisedPlanet, I’m just an ordinary consumer looking for a nice MP3 player for the gym, and doing some research before buying. After reading some reviews I thought the Clip+ suited my needs perfectly, then I came here to see what the owners had to say about it and read about this absurd pitch bug. I also read that they fixed the same bug in the Fuze so I thought, “well, I guess they will also fix it for the Clip and of course for the Clip+”. So I was waiting to buy it as soon as it came to Europe and occasionally lurking here to check on the development of the issue. And today I read corporate decided not to address the problem due to engineering trade-offs.  As an engineer myself I think that’s bull**bleep**, but it’s their decision. My decision is to order the Cowon although is more expensive (but so much worth it) and a lot bulkier (I will have to wear it on an armband). I just wanted to give corporate some honest and sincere feedback exposing my case.

Wow, I don’t check in for a while on the problem, and I see Sandisk goes and does something incredibly stupid.

@slotmonsta wrote:

Over the last few days there have been several meetings with Engineering, Marketing, and Product Management regarding the pitch issue some users have seen. Please see below a statement regarding the decision that was reached as a result of these meetings.

 

At SanDisk, our goal with our Sansa MP3 product line is to provide products which deliver a quality consumer experience at price points which are accessible to the majority of the population.  Our “value” positioning has served us well historically, although we acknowledge that occasionally our products do not live up to some users’ expectations.  The issues raised on this Forum regarding sound fidelity are important to us however due to trade-off decisions that were made in engineering these products to deliver superior consumer value at what we believe are extremely attractive price points, our sound fidelity isn’t perfect.  We have re-evaluated the possibility of reducing the pitch variation and due to the engineering trade-offs the decision was made to stay with the current design. Very few listeners, however, have noticed or complained about it as an issue in actual practice.  For those who can detect sound differences with their naked ears during actual use and not via frequency analysis, our products may not be the best choice for them.

 

Forum Admin

slotmonsta 

This is easily the most hilarious thing I’ve read in the past couple weeks.  Not only are they saying that they refuse to fix the problem, BUT THEY ARE ACTUALLY TELLING YOU TO GO BUY FROM A COMPETITOR.  In addition, this is such a ■■■■-poor argument that it’s beyond sad.  While it’s true that more expensive players may have more “fidelity” (pro tip Sandisk: playing back music accurately has NOTHING to do with fidelity), I can go out right now and purchase a piece of ■■■■ $10 mp3 player from some no-name company, AND IT WON’T HAVE ANY PITCH PROBLEM.  If you can’t make a mp3 player that accurately plays music, something that a basic, no frills $10 player can, then you should just give up as this is clearly the wrong business for you.

I mean, holy ■■■■ Sandisk. I knew you were a bad company when you hadn’t fixed the pitch problem in the 7+ months time you’ve had, but this takes the cake.  Let’s review.

  1. Sandisk lied about a fix for the problem being in the works that was originally confirmed here. http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=clip&thread.id=15109&view=by\_date\_ascending&page=12

  2. Sandisk has now officially stated that the pitch problem will never be fixed on either the Clip or the BRAND-NEW Clip+.

  3. Sandisk is saying if you don’t like it, too bad.  Go buy from someone else.

Too bad for you Sandisk.  You had an opportunity to capitalize on creating the best player of 2008, and instead, you decided to ■■■■ all over your customers and the good will you created by producing such a (at that time) fine product.

@p3ndr4g0n wrote:

My decision is to order the Cowon although is more expensive (but so much worth it) and a lot bulkier (I will have to wear it on an armband). I just wanted to give corporate some honest and sincere feedback exposing my case.

Very good choice p3ndr4gon.  The Cowon is a far, FAR superior product and you will enjoy it immensely.  Be sure to post here after you get it to let people know of your impressions.

Message Edited by Warrior1986 on 09-29-2009 08:04 AM

The Sandisk programmers are probably much too busy to work on this now. My guess is that they may be working on a replacement for the View, which should have come out long ago. Imo Sandisk will probably have one more firmware update for the Clip giving it folder navigation. My guess is that this might be out some time next year. This seems to be  a matter of triage, with the most important matters being handled first, and the less important things being addressed when there is time. I would like to have folder browsing on my Clip.

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48208

Finally, some proof that my ears are not bad, and that almost no one can hear the difference.

@yelped wrote:
Finally, some proof that my ears are not bad, and that almost no one can hear the difference.

I never could hear it, but my ears are admittedly not the greatest…all those childhood ear infections surely took a toll, although I couldn’t hazard a guess as to how much of a toll.  But as I’m not rich, I won’t be going to an ear doctor to have my hearing tested. :wink: