neutron_bob wrote:
The Clip+ operating system is a hybrid of the Clip and Fuze. Though similar, they have different hardware, like the OLED display versus the TFT display of the Fuze, video, a docking port, and different control mapping.
The gain settings of the Clip were problematic when the Clip was released originally. If you don’t play the device at low settings, the problem doesn’t surface. It’s logical that in the office environment at SanDisk, there aren’t many staff planning to take a nap, even though it sounds like a good idea. Listening takes place at nominal levels.
I’m not upset that the issue wasn’t noted, as the wee Clip+ plays along just fine from mid-scale upward. I didn’t think of trying the limit myself.
The beauty of field-upgradeable Sansas is that a firmware update takes only a few minutes to load to the device.
Not to rub against the grain, but this is (in my opinion) a pretty weak argument and reflects badly on SanDisk and their attention to detail. The fact that the original Clip had FM gain issues out of the gate should mean that this issue would be the absolute 1st thing that would be checked on the new version of the same player long before it gets released.
Secondly, your suggestion that the QA testing takes place in an office envirionmnet, if correct further disparages the SanDisk folk’s attitude toward selling a quality product. I would seriously hope that testing of new products are taken more seriously and run through their paces for several weeks by a variety of different testers with different listening habits, under varying conditions and in different environments, in and away from the office. That’s called ‘field testing’, and it’s just got to be done, and done thoroughly, or something is bound to come back and bite someone (in this case, SanDisk) in a most painful location.
Yes, the beauty of field-upgradeable players is that an update can be performed in only a few minutes, but when thousands of unhappy owners of these products have to wait months to get that most basic fix that shoudn’t have been required in the first place, it does leave a bad taste in their mouths and certainly will affect their buying habits and influence the likelyhood of a favorable referral when the opportunity arises.
Personally, I rarely listen to the FM radio, so it doesn’t affect my use of the device. But the fact is many do, and I can see where this would be most irritating. This ‘fix’ (again, just my opinion) should have been Priority 1, ahead of any other ‘tweaking’ with the development team, given the fact that they let it slip by them in the initial QA stage and untold thousands, or millions of units are now in user’s hands. How embarrassing.
They (SanDisk) was able to lower the ‘maximum’ volume and tee off countless users in their effort to be EU-compliant; they should have also been able to lower the ‘minimum’ volume level for everyone else at the same time.