Fuze v2 and rockbox... results?

only real problem I encountered is the reduced battery life... and the UI is a little less intuitive.

As far as the install, it went smoothly.  I can't comment on how it compares or differences to other rockbox installs since this was my first one.  The one problem I have but can't isolate or replicate reliably is that FLAC playback sometimes just plays approximately the first 20-30 seconds of a song and then skips to the next one.  The same songs in the Sansa firmware playback fine, so I'm not sure what's causing that or whether anyone else that has a v2 fuze can confirm.

Otherwise, rockbox is a joy to navigate with.  It is much much better than the terrible (to me at least) Sansa firmware.  Battery life seems better on 100% FLAC playback too, but I don't have any hard numbers to provide.

100% in accord. The Fuze V2 is horrid without RB. The navigation makes me sick, the lack of gapless is horrid, the lighted buttons are toothy insanity, and the wheel, which hearkens back to iPod gen 1 and 2, is a sad idea in 2008-2009. Saying that, I am glad RB exists otherwise this somewhat hissy, somewhat grainy player would have been gone a long time ago. Navigation is so much easier with shortcuts (dry double tapping and holding certain buttons down for shortcuts to frequently used fucntions).

the Fuze even with RB is so much less usable than the Clip. Why did they take away the volume buttons on a bigger player? Why a smaller select dot? Sansa, who hate Apple, sure did a good job of copying Apple's first players.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo 
*snip*

 

the Fuze even with RB is so much less usable than the Clip. Why did they take away the volume buttons on a bigger player? Why a smaller select dot? Sansa, who hate Apple, sure did a good job of copying Apple's first players.

Great questions! I completely agree.....I have a Clip+ but have no desire to get another Fuze.

well, I bricked my first v2 fuze when I used a guide in the sandisk forums. After going to the rockbox ams site (linked when you try to install rb through the installer), I was able to get the proper 3.2.2 firmware from http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/amsfw.html#fuze. Loaded this into the rb installer which installed bootloader. I then installed rockbox, rebooted and all was well.

Granted I used the previous build of rockbox, and my last player may have come back after 4-5 days of letting the battery drain, but i wasn't about wait that long.

The only "bug" i've noticed so far is a faint beep when pressing play or pause during a track. The database works flawlessly on the new build, and everything is very fast.

Stock SQ while using any kind of EQ is horrible on the Fuze. It's like a different player with rockbox, and has quite a bit more power too.

The only problem I've had is the volume on the Rockboxed Fuze. Without Rockbox, the volume is much louder, and when using the compressor on Rockbox, I can get levels that are loud enough, but still quieter than the stock FW. Another problem is the lack of LOD support through Rockbox, which only matters if you are planning to use a portable amp.

Still, the EQ with Rockbox makes the player just so much better than with the stock firmware. In addition the UI, is much more user-friendly, with some kinks, but hopefully any problems will be worked out in the future. The most important thing for me right now is LOD support with Rockbox, though I know the HP/LOD aren't extremely different with the Fuze.

And I should mention I definitely bricked my first Fuze when using Rockbox...

I don't think any Rockbox supports LOD yet, but I can't be 100% certain. If I were you, I'd pick up an LOD (with a 3.5mm jack, not an installed cable), and a 3.5-3.5 cable. That way you have both versions, and you can just see which you like better. The total cost would be $30 if you got the LOD fro ebay (sellers are probably in China) and a Fiio 3.5mm cable...

If I had to guess which would be better, I'd say Rockbox from 3.5 HPO...The lineout on a Fuze likely isn't on the same level as the s:flo2 (Could be wrong, haven't heard the s:flo2), so the difference between LO/HPO, while possibly noticeable, won't be extremely different. The Rockbox EQ is so good that I would bet it would trump the "clean" signal from an LOD.

Line out with rockbox on Fuze V1 is active, download most recent build.

Don

Quote:

Originally Posted by fcpchop88 

Hmm no LOD support is quite a bummer, as well as problems with flac because I was definitely planning on listening to flac files on it. Does sound like it will make it better though, I guess I'll see what I think about the stock sq then go from there.

FLAC files play fine on my Fuze. The LO (if you get the right one) is pretty decent, but not great. It isn't as good (as mentioned) as the S:Flo2 and it isn't as good as an iPod line out either. Having a line out and utilising it properly are two different things. Only one company I have seen consistently uses the line out properly: Apple. Everyone else is hit and miss. Some (remember Cowon X5?) was so much worse than the HPO - you really have to do research into line outs - having one is only a very small part of the equation.