Sansa Clip+ Review

Clip+ has been with me for quite some time, and made a review in a local audio forum, so i extreacted it and put it here:

here is how i view this clip+

Interface:

Since i rockbox directly cause of Rockbox's reputation, i dont even bother with the AMS (stock sansa firmware), but during the installation, i still had to go through the default interface, and startup time was waay slower than of RB. Navigation on stock took me some time to get used to, and now the RB part, that is what i like. Very straightforward, startup within a second or two, file browsing is so damm easy i can relate it to windows navigation, it's that easy.

RB features are very comprehensive and will only show what u wanna know on the playing interface, not eye candies!! Files are separated into SD directory and the internal storage, and from there, separated again to audiobooks, FM etc etc u get the point..

Configuration section is where it gets a bit technical, u get a series of audio configurations like compression, crossfade time, forward time configurable to span between tracks, and seconds. EQ has much more customization from stock. Heck it even has channel configuration, stereo/mono/custom/mono left or right/karaoke (triple LOL). I am lazy now to list out all the configuration list, but it is damm complex inside.

Best thing on the interface is u can save it into a cfg file, nice one!

Audio quality

Provided now that all the audio configuration left untouched, i am using UM Miracle as reference here, which is my favorite IEM and no other i had is better. Bass is quite packing a punch, and can clearly listen to the tone of each bass and where the tone start and stop clearly. Mid is very forward and vocals are clear and the speech (or singing) of the artist is clearly what u can decipher, no blur spots. But it dies get cramped up when there are background vocals. High tones are not very highly pitched, i say is a bit flat and not much crystality, good for me that it does not create ear fatigue/ear pain due to overly high trebles.

Done with bass mid treble, now soundstage.. not much wide to say, quite feels like the orchestra is around me, and im not seating at the spectator seats.. more like the center mike i think..

Some other features i dont bother to try yet, cause i will less likely be using them, i only focus on why we buy DAP, to listen music, top priority! well not to mention that this thing is puny but can really bring out details in music i listen to. Oh yaa, forgot to mention, this although is a 2 tone display - it can display JPG !! Ugly but still.. can be viewed..

Oh and err, i used to have cube c30 and x19HD, both dies and are in the bins now, but if they were alive, i still take sansa clip+ as preference number 1

Summary:

Advantage:

Good SQ
Dirt Cheap
Lots of customizability - themes, games, comprehensive configurations
Image viewer
Puny small
Clip on
Simple navigation buttons
microSD expansion
long battery life as they claim compared to stock firmware
while playing, displays only what u need to know, no garbage
plays 24bit/48

Disadvantage:

Plug in to PC to transfer files to SD = speed loss slightly
too technical configurations for some
ugly 2 tone images
Sound configuration may cause bad SQ to appear if not set correctly
cant display chinese on default RB
chances of losing it is higher

I will definitely push people to find this rare item now, if they need a player, no matter what they want!

Songs used:

On strangers tide OST - for orchestral
Black Shelton - Red river blue - vocals and mixtures
Limp Bizkit - Gold Cobra- Bass test and mids
Minutes to midnight - High pitch test < - 24 bit FLAC
David guetta- nothing but the beat - bass and highs test, techno style
Chinese orchestra - soundstage test

Okay, that's all for the day, and as always, test everything, leave nothing behind.