External amp volume problem

[Bribaba]

I have the firmware upgrade set to Rest of World, and the volume through 'phones of fine. But when I run it through an external amp, even with the volume set to the max, the sound is extremely low. I note that the manual makes no mention of audio out. Does anyone know of a fix for this?

[CrowdAds]

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by Bribaba

I have the firmware upgrade set to Rest of World, and the volume through 'phones of fine. But when I run it through an external amp, even with the volume set to the max, the sound is extremely low. I note that the manual makes no mention of audio out. Does anyone know of a fix for this?

Theres no line out. It wouldn't help anyway, the line out on the Sansas is within a couple dB of the headphone out.

[Bribaba]

Thanks. That's a really big minus for me.

[FreeZ5]

What kind of external amp? I have run my mp3 players thru car stereos, home stereos, external powered speakers, and even an alarm clock. I set the players volume to max, and have lots of volume thru the external device. Make sure that the cords are plugged in completely.

Steve

[Bribaba]

I'm using a 50w hi-fi amp. To check, I ran a Sony MP3 player through the same cable and it sounded exactly how it should.

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by Bribaba

I'm using a 50w hi-fi amp. To check, I ran a Sony MP3 player through the same cable and it sounded exactly how it should.

Are you sure you disabled the volume cap? Most MP3 players are within a couple dB of each other, so if you're seeing more then that you're probably still capped.

[Bribaba]

I'm running v 001.2 which is the firmware upgrade. I selected Rest of World when prompted, not sure how to confirm. Anyway, the output through the amp is the same as it was before the firmware install, and through 'phones it sounds fine. The Sony MP3 has a dedicated line out and offers a 2w power boost so it was always going to sound louder, but the sound from the Clip via an amp is a joke.

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by Bribaba

I'm running v 001.2 which is the firmware upgrade. I selected Rest of World when prompted, not sure how to confirm.

Go into settings and see if the volume is set to "high".

Originally Posted by Bribaba

The Sony MP3 has a dedicated line out and offers a 2w power boost so it was always going to sound louder, but the sound from the Clip via an amp is a joke.

2 watts output into a line out is more then 50 volts. You don't have 50v coming out of an mp3 player thats much smaller then a microwave oven.

Pretty much all MP3 players have the same volume since they all run off integrated DACs that use the same ~1.5v rail voltage as the CPU.

[Bribaba]

The volume is set to High. The Sony line-out produces much louder sound than the iPod, Creative Zen and the Clip (I've had them all). The latter is the worst I've ever heard and no one seems to know why.

[Mikerman]

Boy, I don't have that issue either.

Perhaps try reapplying the latest firmware and try again (setting the volume option to High, of course). Maybe the firmware became corrupted in the upgrade.

[Bribaba]

Thanks, but the problem was there before the upgrade.

[Mikerman]

The old firmware could have had an issue as well. In the end, reapplying the firmware "couldn't hurt ..."