VBR mp3 skipping/stuttering on 8GB model

You have NO idea. :)  The Fuze blows away the Zen for sound quality in terms of detail.  It was an emergency purchase for me while my two Cowons were in the shop, one for a dead battery and the other for self-inflicted stupidity (I cracked the touch bezel on the I7).  Pound for pound, the Fuze seriously kicks ass over the CL junk.

Message Edited by roj on 06-06-2009 09:39 PM

Message Edited by roj on 06-06-2009 09:39 PM

IIRC the V1 and V2 harware difference was due to updated flash-memory chips that have better ECC. Sansafix made some mention of this a while back, but I don’t think he gave a reason for it. I assume it was because the older chips were discontinued. The V2 firmware was probably necessary due to different memory mapping.

I C!

THX!

@roj wrote:

I C!

 

THX!

ROTFL!!! Great Response!

roj,

I did try and read most of the posts but please excuse me if I missed some… Just for the heck of it…  Try your EQ settings while plugged into a in wall USB power supply… I’m not sure it that would help or not but with most receivers that are lacking in there power supply you will get clipping where a EQ is set to Boost with out many or equal cuts…  This may let you see what or where your issues  may be… I use no EQ boost on my Fuzes…  We have 3 two 8gig and one 4gig with a  8 mb microSDcard…  But it does sound like your having a issue with clipping…  Also instead of boosting some FQ’s try just cutting the ones that you are trying to compesate for and you may get the effect you want without the Fuze clipping… Hope this helps or at least leaves more room for thought…  George

There are a lot of REALLY helpful folks on this board - thanks much.  I’ll give it a whirl.

You guys have a great community here.

@george_w wrote:

roj,

  Also instead of boosting some FQ’s try just cutting the ones that you are trying to compesate for and you may get the effect you want without the Fuze clipping… Hope this helps or at least leaves more room for thought…  George

That is a great idea George…why didn’t I think of that? Man, some days I am just clueless…lol

Hello!

I just got my Fuze 8gb a few days ago as a gift. It’s really wonderful! I have encountered a few problems though. One is the choppy audio playback. I figured out that it’s because I had the volume up all the way by reading the thread here. I thought it was the firmware upgrade that I made to it because I didn’t get the problem before the upgrade but I thought about it and realized that I also hadn’t ever turned the volume all the way up before the upgrade (the only reason I turned it up all the way today is because I’m puting it through some unpowered computer speakers right now)

Does anyone know if this problem exists with ogg? I’ve been considering converting my library over to ogg  since I’m in Linux and conversion codecs are quite readily available. My library is in mp3 right now because I upgraded from a Sony Hi-md and Sonicstage (gag!) doesn’t recognize mp3.

Once again, thanks go out to Sandisk for producing such a great player and supporting my OS!

A couple things:

1)  When you convert form one lossy format to another, the results are pretty ugly.  You lose even more audio information.

2)  I don’t get poor audio playback from either mp3 or ogg (I roll my own, so to speak) and I shouldn’t in terms of clipping.  The encoder just converts the source signal according to its algorithm and doesn’t add or remove volume.  If the original file is prone to clipping, the resulting lossy file will also be prone to clipping.

Noticed something this morning on my way to the bus stop.  in two blocks of walking, the player had 15 sound dropouts.  It’s not skipping, it’s having dropouts - they are very brief.  That was with Normal EQ and the source music was anything but “hot” (it’s nu-jazz).  Now, all the people having these issues (me, wife, daughter) have the same headphones, specifically Sennheiser CX-300s.  A while back when I was using Sennheiser MX-400s on another player (a CL beastie), I noticed that it was possible that the plug was just a wee bit too long and would, depending on how it was inserted, short out and cause a dropout.  That didn’t happen on the Cowons and it didn’t happen with either my Koss Portapros or Koss SportaPros.  And the CX-300s are Sennheissers.  Maybe this is the root cause because after sll, it only happens when

  1. I’m moving briskly and…

  2. I’m sitting in such a position that the player is pressed close to me because the bus is so crowded

For the entire bus ride I sat by syself and all was sweetness and light.

More testing will be done…

Message Edited by roj on 06-08-2009 09:10 AM

I was just about to reply to you to say that it’s not really clipping but more like stuttering. The sound COMPLETELY cuts out like you seem to be describing now. It does this when the volume is up pretty high but it stops when I turn the volume down about 5-6 clicks.

Something else that is interesting is that it does NOT do it NEARLY as much when I’m listening to a podcast. I’m assuming that it’s because podcasts are generally in a lower bitrate and so the device doesn’t have as much to process.

See my post back on page 8 - sounds like headphone jacks. This is a known problem.

Sounds like bad headphone jacks in all the players. Try backing the headphone plug out a very small amount (about 1mm). The jacks seam to semi-short and load down the amp at higher volume levels. Some people added thin washers on the headphone plug to hold it out slightly, others returned their players as defective.

Pretty stupid design.  How does one send players back as defective?

Not really stupid design. It’s defective jacks that seemed to get in a batch of players. My blue 4gb had the problem and a thin washer on the headphone plug solved the stuttering problems. It was not returnable because it was bought used. I have since swapped out the main board with a 8gb board which has a good jack.

The jacks are cheap, with crimped contacts to shorting bars. The bad ones probably have the contact placement slightly off. Poor QC or QC standards is too blame.

To return a player you need to contact Sandisk Support and get an RMA number from them. Info is in the shaded area at the top of this page.

Thanks for the info. :slight_smile:

Sooo, now I’ve got a some questions:

1)  Is there a list of affected player serial numbers

2)  Is this the kind of thing that gets worse over time to the point where the player becomes unusable

3)  If I have to send it back, who pays the shipping (to my way of thinking, it shouldn’t be me)

Message Edited by roj on 06-09-2009 09:16 AM

@roj wrote:

Thanks for the info. :slight_smile:

 

Sooo, now I’ve got a some questions:

 

1)  Is there a list of affected player serial numbers

2)  Is this the kind of thing that gets worse over time to the point where the player becomes unusable

3)  If I have to send it back, who pays the shipping (to my way of thinking, it shouldn’t be me)

Message Edited by roj on 06-09-2009 09:16 AM

If you send it to Sandisk they Do. What happens is you set up an account with Tech support and they send you the shipping tag that you tape on a box and ship in. (you may have to buy a small box, I did for my connect), I have not heard about a batch or serial number of effected players, and I havent heard of anybody who kept a defective one long enough to know if it gets worse.

 

Nice Catch 14124all. I had forgotten about that problem.

What I don’t understand though is how would a bad jack explain stuttering only when the volume is turned all the way up on higher bitrate files?

Want one even weirder?  It hasn’t done a single dropout this week so far.

@bassmannate wrote:
What I don’t understand though is how would a bad jack explain stuttering only when the volume is turned all the way up on higher bitrate files?

Note that skipping may be caused by bad files, as others tried to rule out here. Also clipping of files is a concern. The jack problem is easy to check. When the stuttering is happening, back out the plug a small amount and see if it stops. If it does it is most likely the jack is faulty. It is causing a semi-short (lower resistance) than it normally should. Note also that there is some variance is headphone plug length and contact centers which throws more tolerance error into this situation. Some headphones may work fine others may not, but the jack should accept all unless they are outright defective.

The problem will mostly show at high volume, high bass because of higher current draw on the headphone amplifier. The amplifier is built into the system chip on the AMS SOC. Most other players have a seperate dedicated amp chip. The system chip is most likely getting loaded down from current draw on the amp section and causing processing delays. Or the amp section may be shutting itself on and off due to too much current draw on it if it has a current limiter. I can’t say for sure, but I assume this is what is happening.

I have (finally) updated the firmware on my 8GB Fuze (to version 02.02.26P) and mp3 that would previously cause stuttering no longer do.

Many thanks for the fix Sansa.

Cheers,

Andrew