Don't overthink your Fuze

Did decide to update to the 4GB, really do like this thing!  IMHO it’s what you’re used to and how comfortable your are in navigating brand-specific functions.  Ipods are more complicated, too many clicks to get to where you want to go.  It took my kids 1 minute to figure the Fuze functions, and me less than an hour, and we all said the same, “this is easy.”  Whoever created this interface had the Ipod to use as their benchmark to simplify things, no doubt, but they did a VERY nice job.  My son calls my Fuze the Jitterbug of mp3s, and was quick to diss my video screen, but when he got over himself and his brandwashing, he was REALLY digging Rhapsody options vs ITunes!  & it works great on the car’s line-in.  

Nothing can be more goofy than the Sony Bean I used for two years and still have to think about how to turn on, off, etc.  Clunky and non-intuitive, great battery tho.  Yet some people find it so easy to use, so go figure!  

The Fuze and E200 series are very intuitive machines.  I wish they had more options, but the ones they do have are certainly easy to find and use…

@bdb wrote:


@dalaug234 wrote:

I agree, ipods aren’t that easy. My corworkers bought ipods and they are not having as much fun or ease with them.


I’ve had an iPod for years. Its plenty easy. The biggest problem with it is that you’re completely bound to iTunes, whereas I can hook my Fuze to nearly anything. Of course, if I want a case or accessory for an iPod, I can go just about anywhere and have many choices - with the Fuze, they are few and far between. Which pretty much leads back to this thread - you have to keep it simple. Forget about line-in to your car stereo and all that, and just use it as a portable audio player.

I bought the cassette car adapter.  Works fine.  I turn up the volumne on my Fuze and a little on my car and can listen to my podcasts during my commute.  (there’s another thread about using the Fuze on your home system too, so not completely just a portable, but that’s what I love about it too).  And I have a pillow speaker (bought a year ago for my Cd player) which works for the music best and some podcasts (not all).  I just turn up that volumne all the way and my Fuze volumne up too.  It’s not super loud, but works fine for me (Plus it’s a pink one to match my pink Fuze–luck there).  Yes I do have to check the volumne before putting in the ear pieces, :smiley: but now it’s a habit.

Yes accessories are hard to find.  But I saw some that were generic that could work, like a $10 arm band or a generic case.

 I agree with everyone on this.I just love this little        thing it does everything i ask of it. This is by far the best purchase  of any sort i’ve made in years.I got this 8GB Fuze completly by chance the first week they came out in April.I hadn’t done any research at all! At Best Buy the cashiers were all checking my Fuze out because they hadn’t yet noticed this new item.I  12GB now and i have so much music,podcasts,tv shows and photos it’s ridiculous. 

I forgot to mention that i also bought a generic casette convertor to listen to my Fuze in the car and it works great.I turn the volumn about half way up on the Fuze and then slowly bring up the volumn  on the radio.By the way i really like how you can customize the EQ it makes a big difference in audio fidelity.

Hi-where is this video about how to get album art into the fuze?

Ask and ye shall receive: how to video library.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

 Thanks Bob,the videos were very helpful.Everything is working and my Fuze rocks!

 I  can’t believe people are having so many problems with their little guys.I suppose i may just have gotten lucky this time but,i haven’t reformatted or even updated the firmware.If it ain’t broke i ain’t fixin’ it.I’ve seen far to many things go wrong while updating firmware on some of my other Sansa products.Well good luck… 

@shmince wrote:

 I  can’t believe people are having so many problems with their little guys.I suppose i may just have gotten lucky this time but,i haven’t reformatted or even updated the firmware.If it ain’t broke i ain’t fixin’ it.I’ve seen far to many things go wrong while updating firmware on some of my other Sansa products.Well good luck… 

I haven’t had too much trouble either.  Just little things (such as podcasts ending in the music area when I forget to change them or for some other odd reason) and I only had to the soft reboot (holding the on button for 10 seconds) once.  

I am more then happy with mine.  I love the little micro cards.  I’m so use to not deleting things (don’t ask about my files on my computer…) that I  have a hard time with this, but am getting better at it, but it helps with having memory cards!

 Yes,i agree with you  and for me, one of the best features of the Fuze is the ability to delete songs,video,pictures and podcasts on the fly.I now have a 8gb micro chip which gives me a total of 16gb to play around with.It’s rocks!

So does that meant you can’t delete from the nano but have to use iTunes?  I was trying to help her with anydvdconverter and looking at her itunes and she wanted to delete something and couldn’t from the nano, or she didn’t know how… because if there isn’t that feature, then that’s not good at all.  I like to delete things I don’t want on there, I’ll forget later… for example, I’m listening to a podcast and don’t care for it, then I can delete it immediately.  I really like that feature.

Yes, i believe you are correct.My children have ipod’s and i’ve never seen a delete feature on the players themselves.I think the only way to delete is through the itunes library. 

With the iPod, you are esentially locked into the Apple management application.

It’s nice to be able to use your device in the way that suits your own needs best, a major advantage of the Sansa. You have the option of direct “drag and drop” control in either USB mode, actually, plus synchronization with the client of your own choosing.

The Fuze’s firmware is very stable, right out of the box.

Enjoy the happy sounds of your Sansa!! 

Bob  :smileyvery-happy: 

one of the things I like in my elecronics is simplicity. I may be 40 years old, but I am definately a child of the computer age, so the more complicated things dont bother me.  But in all things, less is often more. I really like being able to drag and drop to my fuze. it’s like having another little hard drive. I can do the same thing with pics and the images show up brilliantly without having to resize them manually. I’ve had my Fuze two weeks today, and I’m happy I got it.

Nice article here that i saw ranking the Fuze as the best altrernative toi the IPOD

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/16/review_sansa_fuze/

Thanks so much for the excellent article.I’d just like to add that as i’ve now switched to the 8gb microSD i haven’t noticed that  my Fuze has had   any difficulties with the extra data at all. 

“Forget about line-in to your car stereo and all that, and just use it as a portable audio player and all that,…”

I’m confused.  Before I came here and read all this stuff, I plugged my fuze into my car stereo through a cassette converter and it worked great.  My old stealth used to have a 1/8th in stereo jack, and I’m sure with a sj-sj cable it would work fine with that as well.

What did bdb mean by this statement?  Why do you need a line out?  Why would I listen to my headphones AND need a line out at the same time?

Thanks,

Tom

I’m not sure what he meant by that.  I use mine in my car with the cassette adaptor during my commute.  Works fine and has for over 2 months.

@flyingscool wrote:

“Forget about line-in to your car stereo and all that, and just use it as a portable audio player and all that,…”

 

I’m confused.  Before I came here and read all this stuff, I plugged my fuze into my car stereo through a cassette converter and it worked great.  My old stealth used to have a 1/8th in stereo jack, and I’m sure with a sj-sj cable it would work fine with that as well.

 

What did bdb mean by this statement?  Why do you need a line out?  Why would I listen to my headphones AND need a line out at the same time?

 

Thanks,

 

Tom

Not sure what he meant by that either.   I guess he’s advocating fewer features for the sake of simplicity.

Anyway, the issue with line-out is not that you would use it at the same time as headphones.  You would use one or the other depending on the situation.  Line-out and headphone out are electrically different (different voltages and impedance).  Whenever line-in is available, you will have much better results with a line level source than a headphone source.

Your cassette addapter proably compensates somewhat for the difference.  But if you try plugging your Fuze’s headphone output into a line-in on your home stereo, you’ll notice that the volume will seem very low compared to other line-level sources (like a CD player). With most players, sound quality is also inferior over headphone output (because you have to max out the volume to get a decent level).  Luckilly the Fuze’s SQ is extremely good even at full volume, so it’s not too much of a problem.