All I can go by is my 2 Fuzes; that were purchased months apart from different vendors. Both of mine are off less than 1%. I routinely have to check all my equipment for speed deviations, and since I deal with a lot of old mechanical devices, I try my best to restore or reproduce a given a piece of music as accurately as I can.
I’m kind of like CB’s boss. I have a good ear and it pains me if things are way off. To my ears the less than 1% speed issue with my fuzes isn’t noticeable. But, that’s me.
If it bothers a person that much, you could run your files through a speed/pitch correction utility to compensate for the speed difference. In my business, it is a must because I am often called to restore a recording that was produced at an incorrect voltage or maladjusted machine.
I know this in’t a cure for the original issue, but I see it highly unlikely that anything drastic will be done to the Fuze or Clip in regards to speed playback.
