[j57park]

Hi, I purchased a new D2+ 16gb about a week ago, and decided to do some test because I found the battery to be running out rather quickly.
 
These were the test enviornment.
1) Fully charged via Macbook USB
2) 750 songs; about 300 FLAC files and the rest in 320kbps MP3 files. NO sdhc card inserted
3) Brightness at 5; LCD off at 10 seconds
4) Volume at 6
5) EQ tuned; bbe+, bass, surround sound all between 1 to 10
6) Straight from D2+ to Sennheiser IE8
 
 
So I left the player on playing in random and I only got about 32 hours before it was forced to shut down. I had not used the player in any way during the test. I read that FLAC files may decrease battery life because they take more time to decode or something but 32 hours out of 52 seems unrealistic.
 
I also noticed that the first bar of the battery drops down after about 3 hours of listening, although I was browsing through songs and such.
 
Is this normal?

 

[rawrster]

Well I don't know how Cowon tests their estimated battery but it's always fallen short of actual usage. It's probably lowest quality music files with lowest battery consumption. You used a bit less than half on FLAC and rest 320kbps which takes up more battery than say a 128kbps. 32 does sound a bit low but not unrealistic. I was getting somewhere there when I had a Cowon D2+ but I think most of it was v0 mp3 although my flash skin probably lowered battery a bit.

 

[Achmedisdead]

 
Quote:

Hi, I purchased a new D2+ 16gb about a week ago, and decided to do some test because I found the battery to be running out rather quickly.
 
These were the test enviornment.
1) Fully charged via Macbook USB
2) 750 songs; about 300 FLAC files and the rest in 320kbps MP3 files. NO sdhc card inserted
3) Brightness at 5; LCD off at 10 seconds
4) Volume at 6
5) EQ tuned; bbe+, bass, surround sound all between 1 to 10
6) Straight from D2+ to Sennheiser IE8
 
 
So I left the player on playing in random and I only got about 32 hours before it was forced to shut down. I had not used the player in any way during the test. I read that FLAC files may decrease battery life because they take more time to decode or something but 32 hours out of 52 seems unrealistic.
 
I also noticed that the first bar of the battery drops down after about 3 hours of listening, although I was browsing through songs and such.
 
Is this normal?

Everything I highlighted will have an effect on battery life. High-bitrate files, sound enhancers, and brightness of the screen all play a role.

 

[Hero Kid]

^ So will driving the IE8s. Different impedance's equate to different power levels.

 

[Danneq]

Isn't the battery life as stated by the manufacturer usually based on MP3 files at CBR 128kbps? At least it used to be that.
 
Just going from 128kbps to 320kbps will shave off some percent of the battery life. Formats such as FLAC even more (bigger size and needs more power to be decoded). And then the other stuff that Achmedisdead and Hero Kid mention will add even more to reduce battery life.
 
I always take the stated battery life with a pinch of salt since I use higher bitrates, EQ, headphones that need to be driven and so on.
 
So 32 hours might not be so bad after all...
 
EDIT: One might wonder about the numbers in this link (battery life halved when going from 128 to 256kbps?!?!), but it is interesting that battery life for different MP3 bitrates is stated instead of just 128kbps.

 

[Dalamar]

Flac uses less processing power than mp3 afaik. Worst case scenario, it's the same. But the extra reads from the storage might cancel that out.
 
Stuff like OGG, MPC, APE is what will really kill your battery life.

 

[Nachash]

Keep down the brightness to 1-2.

 

[zero7525]

The battery life is estimated by cowon by using 128kbs mp3, turning off the lcd backlight, and all effects off. So it's a given that your battery life is lower than estimated. Good thing you don't have an SD inserted though, that is the worse out of all, and it cuts the life by almost half. Add that to the other power hungry settings and you got yourself a power hungry D2.

 

[j57park]

Sweet!
Thanks for all the helpful input

 

[Danneq]

Quote:

Flac uses less processing power than mp3 afaik. Worst case scenario, it's the same. But the extra reads from the storage might cancel that out.
 
Stuff like OGG, MPC, APE is what will really kill your battery life.

 
Well, you learn something new every day!

 

[zero7525]

Quote:

 
Well, you learn something new every day!

Wow is this true? Well, if it is, I am shocked!

 

[Danneq]

Quote:

Wow is this true? Well, if it is, I am shocked!

 
I also thought that FLAC draws a lot of battery power because of its size and encoding. Well, perhaps I should check up on other sources than just what Dalmar says. 

 
I remember finding a thread on the official Sansa Fuze or Clip forum where a guy tested battery life with different formats. I'll try to locate it and post a link here...

 

[Hero Kid]

^ http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52316 & http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=clip&thread.id=14326

 

[Danneq]

Quote:

^ http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52316 & http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=clip&thread.id=14326

Dang! Beat me to it! 

 

[Hero Kid]

Zoom zoom...