- At least mp3, ogg and flac support
- Must work under Linux without restriction
- No proprietary interfaces / Softwares
- Must be small and light
- No useless frippery such as videos, games or subway plans
The choice was there not as great as I thought, and I'm, well inevitably, ended up with SanDisk Sansa Clip + 8GB.
I describe to you in following my impressions and experiences after 3 weeks of intensive use.
Firmware: 01.01.05a
Headphones: Klipsch Image S4 (in-ear, 18 Ohm, 110dB)
That is longer, go get something to drink :-)
Features:
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The Clip + has almost all the features that I expected and even a few more.
Available include shuffle, repeat (in all variations), navigation by title, album, artist, genre, folder and even a graphical analyzer.
You can also create playlists, rate songs (which are then kept in a separate favorites playlist) and the Player detects ReplayGain tags (!!) for all playable formats. This means you can all the songs can be played equally loud, without changing anything to the sound data itself.
On Linux, that goes with mp3gain, vorbisgain and metaflac, for Windows there is MediaMonkey. You can also use this feature to be able to play files louder without encode the file.
In practice, it looks to me so that the player Vorbis comments easily recognizes and displays observed. ID3 tags on the other hand he does not recognize (mp3gain) or false (mediamonkey). As my collection consists almost exclusively of Ogg Vorbis files, I have not yet researched further, why.
Sound:
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The sound is very balanced and with the Klipsch Image S4 handset is a really good combination when one restricts the highs slightly (which is but the Klipsch).
For sound enhancement provides the player only to a 5-band equalizer. For this there are the usual sections such as rock, pop, dance, etc., as well as a self-definable profile. But you should not expect too much of it to 5 frequencies are just very little.
No matter what I am pretending equalizer, it sounds almost always worse than before. The profiles are terrible, only the lowest frequency you can amplify something to get an improvement in R'n'B and techno. Otherwise one uses it more to compensate shortcomings of headphones used something.
The Friends of the very low tones (100Hz small) come with this player rather not get their money, a "super-duper-Bass" setting is missing, and the equalizer can not amplify the low frequencies. Thus, one is limited to that which the player will bear default. It makes sense in this case, perhaps, to use a headset that is bass-emphasized from the outset something.
This does not mean that the bass is weak or bad, quite the contrary. He is powerful, but not "wummernd" or "booming". For me right.
The volume of the Clip + depends very much on the headphones used. With a Koss PortaPro (open, 60 ohms, 101dB) I had to turn up almost all the way. The Klipsch S4 (in-ear, 18 Ohm, 110dB) against 60-70% range (with setting "high"), in order to blow away the ears.
Operation / handling:
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To this end, there is not much to say. The functions are easily accessible through the menus, some more, some less. To get from the "title currently being played" back to a playlist, 3 button presses are necessary, which is ugly. Perhaps the player would have done a more key space is for.
Not so great is also the operation of the volume control, as is directly opposite the headphone jack.
Praiseworthy is the super bright and -scharfe display that can be really read under all conditions.
Linux support:
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For most probably not as important for me as a 100% Linux user but a core feature, which is why I would like to mention it separately.
The Clip + is supported under Linux without restrictions. You can either fill it directly from the File Manager, as well as synchronize with several players. If you preferred the latter, you must first have a text file named .is_audio_player in the root directory of the player create (point at the beginning do not forget). Content as follows:
audio_folders = MUSIC /, RECORD /
folder_depth = 2
output_formats = audio / ogg, audio / x-ms-wma, audio / wav, audio / flac, audio / mp3
If you have a memory card in it, the file must be there as well to the root directory. After that, the player Amarok, Banshee and Rhythmbox is detected and can be synchronized with the database.
Playlists can be most easily create EasyTag or Kid3. You also need the root directory.
Problems:
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Unfortunately, the player also has unpleasant side. Some small things I have already mentioned, but there are also a few more serious weaknesses.
So he cuts, for example, some tags from unmotivated, some he did not read. The result is that I have some 3 times the same artist in the database, only with different parts of his name. Some songs of the title are also "unknown" because the interpreter is not read, does.
Not so bad, but very ugly.
Worse, however, is the processing. After unpacking you realize that this player was not made for eternity. My Player creaks set torque in the lower right corner. This does not seem to occur at all players, the SanDisk Community Forum was advised for exchange. But as no visible play between the upper and lower half is in place and the player works well otherwise, I consider this more as blemishes.
Even worse is the battery life. 15 hours are promised to me in practice it was always within 5 to 7 hours. It can be observed that the consumption is apparently getting higher, the lower the battery level. At 20% battery level he then turns off within 10 minutes.
Whether this is a bug or a feature to protect the battery from deep discharge - I do not know. All I know is that 7 hours really are enough for me.
The supplied headphones are mentioned in passing, of course, they also fall into the category of "problems". I use them at the moment to tie a sack of potatoes in the cellar. But they can use for all possible, just please do not listen to music. You also do not fit purely in my ears. One can not evaluate the player on the basis of.
Conclusion:
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Unfortunately Modern MP3 player degenerated becoming smartphones without the phone function. Or crippled PDAs, if you will. The range of features is enough then of reasonably useful features like Bluetooth to entirely irrelevant things like games or even metro plans. Even video playback I find, at least without TV out, pretty useless, but who wants to watch movies on a 2 "display - as I'm the problem, however, is that you have to pay all these things, whether you need them or not..
Against this background, I was really happy about the concept of the clip / Clip +, which is limited to playing music, but here actually (almost) offers everything you can imagine. Of particular note are mainly the support for many (free) audio formats, the card slot and the good portability. All at an affordable price.
Therefore I find it also difficult to deduct a star, but battery life and processing tarnish the otherwise good impression already severe. The ideal player for me would be the Clip +, into something more robust version, with spare batteries and maybe some sound options more.
In this sense: 4 stars