Advice before buying a Fuze

[campioni06]

Hi guys, after reading some posts I'm thinking of getting one of these Fuzes but a few questions please -

1. Is the largest just 8gb?
2. With an sd card does it work seamlessly with the on-board memory?
3. Is it easy to change the firmware to US? (I'm in the UK and we have European volume restrictions)
4. Am I better off buying say a 2gb Fuze and then loading a 16gb sd card?

Thanks everyone, appreciate any replies.

[glove4]

I replied to your other post as well then saw this one. I recommended the Fuze in the other one, so since you are already considering a Fuze, you definitely should get a Fuze over the Zen. Sound quality is superior, hopefully someone can answer the firmware question. I have an 4gb Fuze with a 16gb sd card, so 20gb total. I have it loaded with FLAC files and high quality mp3's, and with the right headphones or IEMs, the Fuze is brilliant, so is the Clip+, have one of them too. If you don't care about UI and having a colorful screen to look at, the Clip+ is even better than the Fuze.

[campioni06]

Originally Posted by glove4

I replied to your other post as well then saw this one. I recommended the Fuze in the other one, so since you are already considering a Fuze, you definitely should get a Fuze over the Zen. Sound quality is superior, hopefully someone can answer the firmware question. I have an 4gb Fuze with a 16gb sd card, so 20gb total. I have it loaded with FLAC files and high quality mp3's, and with the right headphones or IEMs, the Fuze is brilliant, so is the Clip+, have one of them too. If you don't care about UI and having a colorful screen to look at, the Clip+ is even better than the Fuze.

Hey yeah just saw your other reply. Ok well that's good to know, think I'm heading for the Fuze then. I'm not overly bothered about a colourful screen etc but the Clip+ looks like a bit cramped for my likings. Good to know the Fuze takes large cards too. Thanks for your help.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by campioni06

Hi guys, after reading some posts I'm thinking of getting one of these Fuzes but a few questions please ...

1. Is the largest just 8gb? Yes
2. With an sd card does it work seamlessly with the on-board memory? If you mean integrates it, then yes
3. Is it easy to change the firmware to US? (I'm in the UK and we have European volume restrictions) My 11 year old does it, yes very easy
4. Am I better off buying say a 2gb Fuze and then loading a 16gb sd card? No, get the largest size onboard memory that you can afford

[campioni06]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

1. Is the largest just 8gb? Yes
2. With an sd card does it work seamlessly with the on-board memory? If you mean integrates it, then yes
3. Is it easy to change the firmware to US? (I'm in the UK and we have European volume restrictions) My 11 year old does it, yes very easy
4. Am I better off buying say a 2gb Fuze and then loading a 16gb sd card? No, get the largest size onboard memory that you can afford

Thanks for your reply, I'm thinking get the 8gb Fuze £65 plus an 8gb card, they're only about £10.

[lock67ca]

One advantage the Clip+ has is gapless playback, which the Fuze doesn't have, unless you want to wait for the Stable version of Rockbox for the v2 Fuze.

[campioni06]

Originally Posted by lock67ca

One advantage the Clip+ has is gapless playback, which the Fuze doesn't have, unless you want to wait for the Stable version of Rockbox for the v2 Fuze.

Not too bothered about gapless playback, and seen lots of people mention Rockbox but to be honest I'm not that technically minded to mess about with the player. I just need a decent little player that has great sound quality and good non-restricted volume

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by campioni06

2. With an sd card does it work seamlessly with the on-board memory?
4. Am I better off buying say a 2gb Fuze and then loading a 16gb sd card?

2. The two memories are handled separately by your computer when loading and making playlists. But the Fuze and Clip+ integrate the music into a single body for shuffle, artist selection, etc.

4. Basically your choice. How do you think you will use the player? A small core of standard songs on the player, and swap out micro SD cards for the bulk of the listening? Then 2GB player + multiple cards would work well. Personally I can't find that much music that I want to listen to. I have a 4GB player that isn't full, and a 4GB micro SDHC that is empty.

Steve

[lestatar]

Hey Campioni06: Agree with all the good info from people here!

I will add to what Steve mentions regarding playlists:

- Using YAPL [search for it here on the forums] or the Video4Fuze application, you are able to create playlists on the Fuze that can include songs from both main memory and microSDHC...I do this every day. :-)

[Aside: I seem to recall reading that the person behind the Video4Fuze app worked with the creator of YAPL to incorporate some of the YAPL code into video4Fuze....]

- The Fuze is a very nice little player. If cost not an issue, go with the largest capcacity Fuze at 8GB then add a 16GB SDHC card for nearly 24GB of musical goodness. :-)

Good luck and enjoy!
-lestatar

[Tyrian3]

If I may add a thing about the volume restriction, you don't have to change firmware or anything, just the first time you start up the player it will ask you your language and location. When it makes you choose your location between North America, Europe and Rest of the world choose the latter and everything will be ok. I chose Europe the first time and I could not believe how low the volume was, even at max. Then I changed this option and now it works the way I want

[lestatar]

Originally Posted by Tyrian3

If I may add a thing about the volume restriction, you don't have to change firmware or anything, just the first time you start up the player it will ask you your language and location. When it makes you choose your location between North America, Europe and Rest of the world choose the latter and everything will be ok. I chose Europe the first time and I could not believe how low the volume was, even at max. Then I changed this option and now it works the way I want

Agreeing with Tyrian here...this is totally correct, but choosing North America also bypasses the volume restriction AFAIK.

Seems European legislators have a bit too much time on their hands worrying about people's ears...

I believe you can also achieve this same thing at any time by going to Settings>Settings>Reset Device to Default Values - you should then be prompted to select what region as indicated above.

cheers and good luck,
-lestatar

[Tyrian3]

absolutely true, as a matter of fact it's what I did because I'd already set Europe as my region. I'm not against protecting people's ears but heck the volume was incredibly quiet even at max. I can't imaigine how it could've been possible for me to listen to a podcast on a train with those settings. That's right, North America and Rest of the World both do the trick.
Cheers

[campioni06]

Originally Posted by Tyrian3

absolutely true, as a matter of fact it's what I did because I'd already set Europe as my region. I'm not against protecting people's ears but heck the volume was incredibly quiet even at max. I can't imaigine how it could've been possible for me to listen to a podcast on a train with those settings. That's right, North America and Rest of the World both do the trick.
Cheers

Thats just what I wanted to hear, brilliant news, that makes it even easier to get decent volume without having to change firmware settings.

One final question before I go order me a Fuze - I read that one of the other makes, Creative I think, when you add an SD card it takes 5-10 minutes when you switch it on before you can use it because it rebuilds the library on the SD card, or something like that? Will this also be the case with Sansa or is that just a prob with Creative? Thanks again for your invaluable advice

[FreeZ5]

The Fuze rebuilds it's internal database when it thinks it is necessary. Changing the SD card is one of those occasions. How long it takes depends on how many songs are on the card and in the internal memory. So 8GB Fuze + 16GB card will be longer than 4GB Fuze + 4GB card. Sorry I have no idea what the actual time is because I tend to update something, unplug the Fuze, and do something else while it refreshes the database. Everything seems to take longer if you are watching it.

Steve

[lestatar]

Originally Posted by FreeZ5

...SNIPPED...Everything seems to take longer if you are watching it.Steve

As usual, I agree with Steve. And he is SOOO correct - like watching a pot of water boil.

I also just let it do its thing - like I said, not a deal killer, but present for me as my Fuze and card are maxed out. But still 23+GB of music is a lot on a nice, small, fine sounding and reasonably priced device like the Fuze.

[lestatar]

Hey campioni06: Yes, unfortunately, my Fuze 8GB+16GB card does take around 5 long minutes to rebuild the library anytime ANYTHING is changed on either the device memory or the card.

This is really one of the only drawbacks to the Fuze IME/IMO.

[Tyrian3]

I tried putting it a 4gb micro sd the other day and it didn't take very long to load, but I have to say there weren't too many files on either the internal or the external memory.
Anyway it's quite understandable that it takes time to load thousands of files over multiple GB of memory, and it's a common thing with most of the players.
The creative ones, as far as I know, don't even integrate the internal and external memory like the sansa fuze does.

[campioni06]

Guys, thanks again for your reply. I'm prob being really thick asking this but would the rebuild happen every time I switch the player on (leaving me to wait before I can listen to my music) or is just when I add/remove the SD card?
Big thanks to you.

[Enigmatic]

Originally Posted by campioni06

I'm prob being really thick asking this but would the rebuild happen every time I switch the player on (leaving me to wait before I can listen to my music) or is just when I add/remove the SD card?

The database will probably not refresh if

• The Fuze is turned on with no changes in the contents of the internal or external memory.
• The Fuze is turned off, the card is removed, and the Fuze is turned back on.
• The Fuze is charged via an AC adapter.
• The Fuze, in MTP mode, is charged via a computer.

The database will probably refresh if

• The contents of the internal or external memory are changed.
• The Fuze is turned off, the card is removed, a different card or the same card is inserted, and the Fuze is turned back on.
• The Fuze, in MSC mode, is charged via a computer.

Incidentally, it is a microSD or microSDHC card--not SD card. And you will probably not be bothered by database refreshes if you rockbox your Fuze.

[FreeZ5]

For me, the Fuze refreshes very rarely when I turn it on. It usually refreshes after I have it plugged in to the PC. But usually I will have changed something, so that is to be expected. BTW, I use MSC mode. I have nothing on my micro SDHC cards at the moment so no reason to swap in and out.

Testing time... I just turned my Fuze on after not having used it for a while, and it refreshed (but I have no idea what I last did with it). Popping an empty microSD card in and out caused a refresh (to be expected). Turned it off and back on again -- no refresh.

528 songs on 8GB Fuze, 0 songs on 4GB microSD card .... refresh time after inserting card... 33 seconds.

EDIT: Thought I'd mention that I tend to charge the Fuze from a wall plug rather than a PC. So if it's plugged in to a PC, I probably changed some content.

Steve