About myself: http://www.head-fi.org/t/674373/story-of-a-new-reviewer-kimvictor
If anyone followed my thread or Pic of Portable Rig thread, I bought a Sansa Fuze v2 8GB recently. I bought it at a thrift shop for $28 new. Heck of a deal.
Info: Sansa Fuze v2 is a updated version of Sansa Fuze, and has better battery. Other components remained the same. They are currently replaced by Fuze+, which imo, is not good. Fuze and Fuze v2 both have physical volume wheel while Fuze+ has really annoying touch pads. I also had a Sansa Clip Zip, but I prefer Fuze v2 over it. If you want one, you should search on ebay. Amazon sells them for $150, but that's not a fair price. Ebay has couple used ones for $40-60. I was just really lucky to find one at a store.
Build/Design:
Simple. It looks nice, and the wheels have blue lighting. You are able to turn the light off if you don't like it. Overall very small and light, but the screen does scratch easily. The wheels are really quick and sensitive, which is good for me. Build quality is solid.
Features:
A mic: It's a rather good one. Good sensitivity and fair clarity. Mono mic though.
Micro SD slot: Good god! I love it. I don't know why ipods don't have this. This is heavenly if you have lots of music.
LOD: You heard it right. Fuze and Fuze v2 are only Sansa DAPs with a line out. This is great for amp users. I haven't tried them yet though.
Volume wheel: Physical wheels that shines(actually)! Blue light is really cool to look at in the dark. You may choose to turn them off. They are very fast, so you can quickly find your music.
Rockbox: Custom skins, EQ, Crossfeed, and more.
UI:
Original UI is horrible. You need rockbox. I don't think I need to review rockbox here. It's simply great. Custom skins and stuff. They are also much faster and responsive with rockbox. It's a little bit work to install rockbox though.
SQ:
Overall, they have low impedance output(this is my guess) and clean sound. Almost all music files are supported, so Flac users can be happy!
Bass: Sub-bass lacks bit of depth. Mid bass is neutral. Has decent impact and speed.
Mids: Neutral but smooth and sweet. They actually remove a bit of sibilance. This results in very sweet mids without harshness.
Treble: Flat and good. It's very airy(maybe my UERM is). Overall inoffensive, but it doesn't roll off or lack presence.
Soundstage: Ultra wide and airy. Fuze v2 rivals AK100 in this regard. This is very surprising, as it is better than any DAP I've heard under $200.
Imaging: Decent. They place things in the right place, but it's not so clear.
Clarity: Fuze v2 is uncolored, and has good clarity.
Driving power: They should be able to drive any iems fine. But full sized and some portable hps might want bit more juice.
Pics coming soon!
It's probably because there aren't many sansa fuze left. Ebay ones are kind of expensive to. They cost more than the Fuze v2(for me at least).