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FLAC SQ on Sansa Fuze and Clip?

post #1 of 15
11/30/09 at 2:18am
Thread Starter 
I have heard around the grapevine that playing FLAC or lossless files on most portables is not worth the effort because one cannot readily tell the differences between high bitrate compressed files and lossless.

The Sansa players support FLAC without Rockbox now, after the latest firmware I believe. I have heard conflicting things about sound quality output on the Fuze and Clip.

So, if I play FLAC files on the the Fuze or Clip paired with my Klipsch X5 headphones, do you believe I will get a huge improvement in sq versus a 320 kbps mp3 file? I have a 32 GB SHDC micro sd card, so there will be enough storage for a decent amount of music.
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post #2 of 15
11/30/09 at 2:32am
I had a Fuze and I got it for FLAC files. I wasn't thrilled about the SQ with it and gave it to my teenage daughter. I actually switched to uncompressed files instead of doing what you suggest-going to 320s. I liked the uncompressed better than flac but the wav files couldn't be tagged so came up unknown and I think I went to another format at that point then gave up and went back to ipod.
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post #3 of 15
11/30/09 at 2:41am
I do not detect any sound improvement at all between FLAC and 320kbps MP3 out of my Fuze, definitely not worth the size difference. This is understandable, though, as I go ampless and also most of my portable listening situations (i.e. bus, walking, etc.) would most likely prevent me from hearing the differences even if I used better headphones/amps.
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post #4 of 15
11/30/09 at 2:42am
Would be interested to know where you got a 32GB micro SDHC card...

Thanks!
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post #5 of 15
11/30/09 at 3:00am
I use the Fuze. I've had most flac capable devices, and have to say it's really good. Rockbox blows on anything.... it's slow, battery killing, glitchy, randomly deletes library.... etc etc. The sansa stuff is pretty good. I got rid of my old iAudio7 as my main flac dap and switched to my fuze. It's very apparent that the fuze is superior in sq for the setup combo. If you love to EQ, don't waste your time with the sansa stuff imo.
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post #6 of 15
11/30/09 at 4:13am
Thread Starter 
Oops my bad about the 32GB capacity, I was looking at a box for a 32GB 16X2 adapter.

It will have a 16Gb card.. sorry. Haha, I've been waiting for a 32GB card myself. Sorry for the confusion.

So i guess I will have to look around for the best player for FLAC under $300.
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post #7 of 15
11/30/09 at 6:36am
well, beside the clip for flac there's quite a few, meizu m6sl (8 gb, no slot) if you don't mind changing out files. i just picked up a D2 with 16gb, a case and a 16gb card under a hundred used from ebay. the cowon player is very good if you can stand the interface and the touch screen. not that the screen or interface is bad but you have to remove it to use it. the meizu i can just keep in the pocket. the teclast t51 Teclast T51 PMP promises audiophile quality - SlashGear also looks nice except the firmware at the moment is buggy. a fix is promised but the player will still suffer from short battery life. you can also find the teclast at mp4nation, renamed as the flowV2.
i've only had the D2 since last Friday, i get a different sound from my x5s with it. there's more treble now; it goes beyond the player settings. i'm trying it with all my headphones, even full size. i will figure this out, i've having a blast with it! so... there's many players under 200 that meet the flac/card requirements, even new.
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post #8 of 15
11/30/09 at 7:19am
well i tried this out the other day. i converted 3 songs into 320 cbr mp3s. and the i convertered those flacs into wavs and then used sonicstage to convert the wavs to atrac al. so lossless to lossless but one that my A808 can read. anyway i asked my friend to A/B them for me and only in one song was i able to tell the difference between the lossless file and the mp3 (5/5 times). the other 2 songs it was a hit and miss and seemed more like i was coz of the 50/50 probability anyway. it would be better to do it on a song by song basis rather than using flac exclusively.
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post #9 of 15
11/30/09 at 7:25am
Thread Starter 
Thanks, the Flo2 looks pretty damn good. I am willing to wait out firmware, excited to hear about the Wolfson chipset, along with the FLAC and XVID playback!
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post #10 of 15
11/30/09 at 10:46am
I have tried and used FLAC onb my Sansa Fuze as well and to be very honest I really dont know what the big deal is, because to be very honest here I dont seem to hear much of a difference unless I have some super dooper high frequency ears, perhaps an animal will hear the difference as they can hear in high pitch/frequency sound.
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post #11 of 15
11/30/09 at 2:10pm
FLAC improvement on the Clip/Fuze is definitely a song by song, artist by artist discernment process. It isn't across the board, but there is definite improvement in some tunes. I usually hear it on the extremes, bass and treble. If I had to guess, I'd say one in ten songs are somewhat better sounding. Also, I have some peculiar hearing issues and the treble in FLAC files is less likely to cause me problems. I've chosen to got with FLAC as the primary source because of this.
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post #12 of 15
11/30/09 at 6:16pm
I listen to a mixture of file types and as RASeymour says it depends on the material.
But i did find myself comparing wav to flac the other day [on the clip+]
and got the impression that the wav sounded a bit more intelligible with vocals or more concise.
The flac in the other hand seemed to have a little more body here and there.
Not sure which i liked best.



.
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post #13 of 15
12/5/09 at 7:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by setmenu View Post
I listen to a mixture of file types and as RASeymour says it depends on the material.
But i did find myself comparing wav to flac the other day [on the clip+]
and got the impression that the wav sounded a bit more intelligible with vocals or more concise.
The flac in the other hand seemed to have a little more body here and there.
Not sure which i liked best.
.
There is absolutely no difference in sound quality between flac and wav. Once the flac is decoded by the player it is exactly the same as the wav file.
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post #14 of 15
12/5/09 at 7:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cornman View Post
There is absolutely no difference in sound quality between flac and wav. Once the flac is decoded by the player it is exactly the same as the wav file.
Actually that is open to debate. Also from what I have heard the flac decoder on the Fuze is not the greatest, WAV seemed to sound better on it to me as I recall. Problem with wave is that you couldn't tag them an would always come up unknown artist. I ended up giving my Fuze to my teenage daughter because it didn't live up to my expectations-I got it to play flac files so i wouldn't have to go through all the converting. The SQ to my ears didn't come close to my line out on either ipod...again i say my ears so as not to get into a debate about it.
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post #15 of 15
12/6/09 at 2:58pm
On the Fuze is Flac very good, on the Clip i'm using 320k mp3 , because my clip is a 2gb , not much space for Flac
The Clip and the Fuze connected with a Headsix, nice........
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