Just picked up 8GB Clip Plus - Impressions

[defaultluser]

What an excellent player in a tiny package. I'm upgrading from an e280, so the size difference is impressive.

First thing that struck me: the player boots within a few seconds (unlike my e280). And new additions to the library are scanned really quickly.

Second thing that struck me was: the OLED screen flickers just like a CRT screen at 60 Hz! It's not as annoying as the flicker on a full-sized CRT (thanks to the small screen footprint with black background, and the fact that the screen goes to sleep), and I'm starting to get used to it. But for those of you who are sensitive to CRTs at 60 Hz, be warned, this screen is refreshed at a very low rate in order to save power.

Playback quality is perfect, and really puts my e280 to shame (e280 has highs that aren't true, and really lacks good bass kick). EDIT: OGG Vorbis gapless playback is perfect, sounds like the original CD. Gapless playback with LAME mp3s is close, but no cigar: there is still a click between songs. But I suppose that's better than anyone else is offering in the price range

I did not get a chance yet to test-out my new massive 16GB MicroSDHC card - I received it a few days before the Clip+, and unfortunately it reported errors when I tried to write to it using my USB reader, so it had to be returned.

[CrowdAds]

[Mikerman]

Thanks for your impressions. Although many report absolute gapless, I also get the smallest of clicks between tunes.

[dgb52]

what is the price of the 8GB?

[defaultluser]

Got it for 69 bucks shipped. If Amazon is out of stock, I fully recommend ANTOnline (that's who I bought mine from before Amazon stocked theirs).

www.amazon.com/Clip-Plus-8GB-Player-Black/dp/B002MAPS6W

Tip: don't search Amazon for Clip+, it can't handle the + in product names for some reason.

[Mikerman]

I've had great service from antonline.

Amazon's price seems to be fluctuating a bit (I so dislike that aspect of Amazon)--I've seen it over the past few days at around $66 to $68.50 (right now, $68.61). But you have to love that free shipping and no tax!

[ultrauber]

Originally Posted by Mikerman

I've had great service from antonline.

Amazon's price seems to be fluctuating a bit (I so dislike that aspect of Amazon)--I've seen it over the past few days at around $66 to $68.50 (right now, $68.61). But you have to love that free shipping and no tax!

Antonline FAILED at printing the right address on the package - so I didn't get mine till now, a month late. May be just me, but I've found Amazon to be more reliable. +Free shipping.

[defaultluser]

Originally Posted by ultrauber

Antonline FAILED at printing the right address on the package - so I didn't get mine till now, a month late. May be just me, but I've found Amazon to be more reliable. +Free shipping.

Oh, that's too bad.

But really, I always buy direct from Amazon too if I can. In this case, Amazon wasn't offering the Clip+ direct until a couple weeks after release, so if I wanted it right then, I had to go with Ant.

[defaultluser]

UPDATE ON GAPLESS PLAYBACK:

I just re-ripped ELO's Time and Eldorado to OGG Vorbis to test the gapless feature, and it works FLAWLESSLY. It sounds like I'm listening to the CD. Since mp3 playback is NOT gapless, and the player doesn't mind having both Vorbis and mp3 in the same library, I think I'm going to re-rip all my gapless albums to Vorbis (as soon as I can find them all, just moved recently).

Vorbis never did entice me for the file size savings (it's not much smaller than mp3), nor the battery life (Vorbis is worse), but gapless support that works finally makes me a believer.

[epithetless]

Originally Posted by defaultluser

Since the Vorbis and mp3 playback are seamless...

defaultluser, are you saying you're also getting flawless gapless playback with your MP3s? If so, what procedure (source, program, encoder, settings, etc.) are you using to accomplish this?

[defaultluser]

Originally Posted by epithetless

defaultluser, are you saying you're also getting flawless gapless playback with your MP3s? If so, what procedure (source, program, encoder, settings, etc.) are you using to accomplish this?

No, what I mean is the player doesn't mind mixed media in your library, that's the kind of -seamless- I was referring to. When I'm talking about gapless playback, I specifically use the word "gapless." I'll edit my post to make this clear.

The mp3s (LAME-encoded) are most definitely not gapless, read my first post. The Vorbis playback is perfectly gapless.

[epithetless]

Originally Posted by defaultluser

No, what I mean is the player doesn't mind mixed media in your library, that's the kind of -seamless- I was referring to. When I'm talking about gapless playback, I specifically use the word "gapless." I'll edit my post to make this clear.

The mp3s (LAME-encoded) are most definitely not gapless, read my first post. The Vorbis playback is perfectly gapless.

Thanks for the clarification. I was hoping you'd found a way to get MP3s to play gaplessly after all. No such luck, then...

[Dreamnine]

Thanks for posting your impressions - I'm looking to get one of these.

[Mikerman]

Although not absolutely gapless, it is very close.

[dfkt]

There is either gapless, or no gapless... there's nothing in between.

[Mikerman]

Actually, I don't see it like pregnancy ...



There is a quick and slight click, but not really a "gap." For me.

[dfkt]

Yeah, so it is not gapless.

[defaultluser]

Originally Posted by dfkt

Yeah, so it is not gapless.

So? If you own the CDs, just re-rip your albums that need gapless to Vorbis (I use CDex, so it only requires a setting change). The size is about the same, and the quality (Q5) is as good as LAME.

I have hundreds of CDs, but only about two dozen albums where gapless makes a difference.

[dfkt]

I have thousands of albums that are/need gapless (soundtrack/classical listener here), out of the ten thousands I own, and I'm not going to work for my MP3 player. I expect my MP3 player to work for me. My codec of choice is LAME, and since other players manage to play it without gaps (including all Rockboxed Sansas), I'm not going to switch to anything else. I sure hope we'll see improvement there from Sandisk's side.

[defaultluser]

Originally Posted by dfkt

I have thousands of albums that are/need gapless (soundtrack/classical listener here), out of the ten thousands I own, and I'm not going to work for my MP3 player. I expect my MP3 player to work for me. My codec of choice is LAME, and since other players manage to play it without gaps (including all Rockboxed Sansas), I'm not going to switch to anything else. I sure hope we'll see improvement there from Sandisk's side.

Fair enough. If this player takes-off like the e200 series did, Rockbox will be along in no time.

[Mikerman]

The quasi-gap (sorry, I still don't see it as a gap--more like an LP skip but without skipping) I get with the Clip+ is similar to what I get with Rockbox on my iRiver hard drive player. Would love to try Rockbox on the Clip, which people are saying really is gapless--would love to see Rockbox finished for the Clip.