[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

  Not completely. The battery in the Jam must be smaller, and of course the display on the Jam is smaller.

 
Nope, 220mAH in both jam and sport. Literally the only difference between them is the bigger screen on sport, so if anything the sport should have lower battery life than Jam 

. It is possible that the jam has revised smd resistor values and drinks more power for better sound, but dunno.

 

[JK1]

   
Nope, 220mAH in both jam and sport. Literally the only difference between them is the bigger screen on sport, so if anything the sport should have lower battery life than Jam 

. It is possible that the jam has revised smd resistor values and drinks more power for better sound, but dunno.

That doesn't make sense though. How do you account for the Sport being rated at 25 hours, while the Jam is rated at just 18 hours? If anything, the Sport display should use more power than the display on the Jam. Unless some of the circuitry in the Jam is an older design and uses more power? 
Is there room inside the Sport for a higher capacity battery? I'm thinking it would really be great with a 440mah battery and 50 hours of battery life.

 

[JK1]

Do you have photos of the Clip Sport and Clip Jam disassembled?

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

We'll never know why jam drinks more power given the config is the same as sport. I didn't bother to take pics as there was nothing to see. The pcb of the jam was slightly rearranged, it looks like a better circuit layout, but in terms of the actual circuitry it is identical to sport, the older models of clip have different circuitry. The only difference I could see was the 8gb of onboard memory had a different model number, but both were sandisk brand. There is no way a change in the 8gb memory would result in 7 hours less battery life, so I would have to say the jam is probably just configured to drink more juice to sound better.

 

[JK1]

  We'll never know why jam drinks more power given the config is the same as sport. I didn't bother to take pics as there was nothing to see... other than them being the same circuitry wise and battery wise. The only difference I could see was the 8gb of onboard memory had a different model number, but both were sandisk brand. There is no way a change in the 8gb memory would result in 7 hours less battery life, so I would have to say the jam is probably just configured to drink more juice to sound better.

I have the Sport but not the Jam. Does the Jam sound better than the Sport?

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

I'm afraid I don't have the sport, only had pic's of it's pcb which I compared to my jam. I don't think you should buy a jam if you have a sport. You should save up for some nicer dap, maybe a fiio X1 at $100. The Jam can't compete with my bigger daps, it sounds fine, but it's bass lacks tightness compared to my bigger daps, and overall tonality is off.

 

[JK1]

  I'm afraid I don't have the sport, only had pic's of it's pcb which I compared to my jam. I don't think you should buy a jam if you have a sport. You should save up for some nicer dap, maybe a fiio X1 at $100. The Jam can't compete with my bigger daps, it sounds fine, but it's bass lacks tightness compared to my bigger daps, and overall tonality is off.

Imo the battery life on the Fiio X1 sucks,at only around 10 or 11 hours. The Cowon M2 has decent battery life rated at 90 hours for mp3 files. The Sony A15 and A17 have battery life rated as 50 hours for mp3 files, however imo they are too expensive. Perhaps if the A15 drops below $150 though I might become interested in buying one.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

Thing is most daps aim for big power output and also utilize power hungry dacs/opamps/circuitry and sacrifice battery life for 'better' sound. M2 and A15 both have low power output and low power dacs/circuitry, they are ultimately designed for battery life, not ultimate fidelity, although they sound good anyway. I'll probably be getting an A15 to use at the gym and give this clip jam to my sister.

 

[JK1]

  Thing is most daps aim for big power output and also utilize power hungry dacs/opamps/circuitry and sacrifice battery life for 'better' sound. M2 and A15 both have low power output and low power dacs/circuitry, they are ultimately designed for battery life, not ultimate fidelity, although they sound good anyway. I'll probably be getting an A15 to use at the gym and give this clip jam to my sister.

Using an A15 at the gym????? Imo it is way too expensive for that. Whatever you use at the gym will probably get broken or messed up soon enough. That is why many buy a Clip for gym use.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

  Using an A15 at the gym????? Imo it is way too expensive for that. Whatever you use at the gym will probably get broken or messed up soon enough. That is why many buy a Clip for gym use.

 
I'm an audio snob, I can only handle high quality sound, even for the gym, clip isn't good enough for me, period. I used to use the $700 Sony ZX1 in the gym, but sold it to fund other stuff, now I'm after that Sony sound again, so I'm looking at A15.

 

[Ruben123]

What's wrong with the clip? It has a flat FR, almost 0 output impedance and quite some power.

 

[Zax19]

Do you see any improvements over the Clip Sports? Thanks!

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

  Do you see any improvements over the Clip Sports? Thanks!

 
Internals of Jam are the same as Sport, so they should sound the same, of course they could sound different due to different firmware, but from a hardware standpoint they are the same.

 

[ddtdave]

With newer models having lower power requirements are the jam and sport less capable of driving on ears? I don't like in ears but want something ultra portable for the gym. I started looking at the Fiio m3 but then found it needs an amp to drive my RHA 950i so looked at the Xduoo X2 but that has no clip or armband options which puts me off.
Only other option I can see is a sansa clip maybe.... Which has armbands or the built-in clip a decent battery and rep on sq....allegedly not bad power output too?

 

[JK1]

With newer models having lower power requirements are the jam and sport less capable of driving on ears? I don't like in ears but want something ultra portable for the gym. I started looking at the Fiio m3 but then found it needs an amp to drive my RHA 950i so looked at the Xduoo X2 but that has no clip or armband options which puts me off.
Only other option I can see is a sansa clip maybe.... Which has armbands or the built-in clip a decent battery and rep on sq....allegedly not bad power output too?

It depends how efficient the on ear headphones are. If you get something that is 50 ohms or less, and at least 104 db/mw, then driving it with a Sandisk player won't be a problem. The Sandisk players though seem to work best with earphones or headphones between 16 ohms and 32 ohms. in addition to the Sandisk Clip+(Rockboxed), Clip Zip(Rockboxed), and Clip Sport, I also have the Fiio M3 and Fiio X1. The Fiio X1 is heavy at around 3.7 ounces and quite bulky, so I leave it at home. The Fiio m3 is only around 1.4 ounces and much smaller than the X1, however the M3 is relatively new, and its firmware still has some issues. There have already been a few firmware updates for the M3. The M3 gets around 24 hours of battery life. The M3 and X1 lack FM radio though, which the Sandisk players have. The Sandisk players(Clip+,Clip Zip, Clip Sport, Clip Jam) also have a built in clip, which the Fiio players lack.  The Fiio M3 does put out much more power than the Sandisk players, but not as much as the Fiio X1(or X3ii or X5ii).