eldad9 wrote:How does this compare with the Sansa Clip?

Oh, and how well does it handle audiobooks? Specifically, does it remember how far into the current track you are when you shut it down?

I use my 8g Fuze exclusively for audiobooks and after the firmware update, it resumes perfectly in multiple books. I use if for Overdrive downloads and books from Audible.com mostly.

Sharol

MindlessAutomata wrote:Also, I don't think the clip has microSDHC expandability but I might be wrong.

The Clip is not expandable.
I skimmed through all these posts and I don't think that one's been cleared up.

I own a 30gb Zune which I use occasionally that I received as a gift almost 2 Christmases ago, and it still works. It's bulky to me though, and almost too much for what I need.

My Squeeze owns a 30gb Creative Zen that he got about three years ago that he LOVED, but after a year of regular use, it died on him. His theory is that it has hard disk memory, and that using it at work while driving a HiLo it probably got too much jolting/vibrations and quit.

So then he wanted a flash memory drive based MP3 player, so I got him the 2gb Sansa Clip for Christmas, and he LOVES that one for work, more than his Zen. It's held up to daily 8+ hour use in a warehouse setting, and he's had no problems whatsoever with it. It's not expandable, but he loves that fact that it doesn't require the syncing that his Zen did, he can just drag & drop files, so loading & changing music is very easy and quick.

Now I want a little one like the Clip or Fuze, because of the easy portability, ease of use and flash memory. This may be my first WOOT, but I'm leery b/c it's a refurb.

Decisions, decisions.

I am in no way a tech geek. I don't own an iPod and never will, and I only use my cell for phone calls! I don't even Tweet or have a blog :o)

MindlessAutomata wrote:Same sound quality (apparently, better than the ipod's from reviews) as they use the same sound chip. The main upside to this is the screen. It's not the best for watching movies but as I stated earlier cartoons are quite watchable on it (although the screen might be too small for some people). Also, I don't think the clip has microSDHC expandability but I might be wrong.

One other thing for exercisers: the Clip has a well integrated--you guessed it--clip.

weister42 wrote:No, it only works with Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS.

I use mine with a mac, shows up as a drive and i drag full play list to it

Does this one read the LATEST version of ID3 tag correctly? all my other Sansa players do not read the latest ID3 tag version, very annoying. Luckily RockBox saves the day.

I had an older Sansa and LOVED IT!!!

Unfortunately - it stayed on vacation without me. It was 8GB so I will have to trim down my playlist for this. *Sigh*

I've been looking for a replacement - here's my chance.

CAREFUL. My last 4Gb Sansa Fuze lasted 2 months. My 2 Gb Fuze lasted about 6 months. Anyone need a couple of MP3s that don't work?

Walruski wrote:What I never got is why anyone gets a ipod touch? Isn't the Iphone 3GS everything that the touch is plus the phone for the same price?

I think MS should suck in buyers for the Zune HD by offering equipment discounts for current users who agree to upgrade and sign a two year contract for Zune Pass. Much like cell phone companies do.

I got the ipod touch in college because wifi was free everywhere there instead of paying 70 a month!

I have an iPod Touch, 30 GB Zune, 80 GB Zune (all thanks to Woot...), a 30 GB Creative Zen and a 4 GB Fuze, expanded to 12 with a microSD card. I LOVE this tiny Fuze...great sound, keeps my place in my audiobooks, and I can toss it in my purse without worry. Paid about $65 for it a year or so ago. Controls are easy to work, decent battery life, bright screen. Enjoy if you buy!

Looks like a pretty good little MP3 Player. I'm in for one.

yeawuteva wrote:Can you create playlists?

You can create playlists via windows media player and sync it to your Fuze.

I've had mine for about 2+ months now. Despite the occasional hiccup (that is, a song will sync on there 2x, leading to multiple instances of the same song on the same playlist), I love it.

hmmmm.... refurbished....

I have one and love it.

I picked one of these up on http://www.eCost.com for $29.99 a few days ago...
I should see it in the mail today, seeing as they use "real" shipping that doesn't take 4 weeks ;)

equazcion wrote:A major difference (for some people) between the Clip and the Fuze is that the charging/data cable is proprietary on the Fuze, whereas it's a standard mini-USB cable for the Clip.

The Fuze cable has a USB plug on one end and a strange long flat "thingy" on the other end. This means that any cables, chargers, car adapters, etc. you buy for use with this will need to be made specifically for it.

Does the Fuze play while it is plugged into the wall charger ?

How can I impulse buy this when the ZuneHD is so close?!

Dhraakellian wrote:Fortunately, however, the cable for the Fuze is exactly the same as the cable for the older e200, c200, and View models, so if you have any of those lying around, you can use them as spares.

Plus, if people go over to Sellout they can spend 99 cents and get 1) genuine Sansa 30-pin cable, value $15-$35, 1) Belkin wall-socket USB regulated switching power supply (input 100-240V, 50/60 Hz), value probably approx. $15, and, 1) Belkin car (lighter socket type) USB regulated switching power supply, value probably approx. $15.

Buy three of those kits and your $5 shipping will be amortized nicely.

I buy three of them each time they list them. Last time was a month or two ago when they had the preferred customer by-invitation sale. They are a steal -- you'll generally pay more than that for a NON-regulated "USB" wall-wart, which puts out a "nominal" 5V (meaning it'll be "your guess" as to actual voltage, which will vary depending on the amount of current your device draws, current utility line conditions, etc.) That sort of "bargain" device actually CAN damage equipment that's designed for *real* USB ports (which, like the adapters on Sellout, are regulated).

One advantage to buying scads of Sansas is that you tend to accumulate a wealth of 10 pin cables. The ones included with the kits on Sellout are a bonus I'll probably never need, but will nice to have. (NEVER have I needed to charge or synch ALL my players at the same time!)

I use those USB supplies for all sorts of stuff -- MP3 players (Sansa/Zune), Radio (Grundig), my GPS units, etc.

At 99 cents it's hard to say no. And the $5 shipping, divided by three, still leaves the actual price in the "it's a token price!" range.

Free advice -- I would NOT suggest buying the no-name 30 pin cables that are sold by various vendors. I've read too many horror stories about shoddy construction, open/short circuits, etc. The actual Sansa cables (like the ones Belkin bundles with the chargers) are very well made (as they should be, considering that Sansa is charging something like $35 for them, IIRC!)

Rather than pay $5 (plus shipping) for a no-name cable of questionable quality, I'll stock up on THESE gems for 99 cents and get two free regulated switching supplies tossed in! ;)

Refurbished? I'll pass. Last time I bought a refurbished Sansa (Clip) from Woot, it was broken out of the box. Turned out to have a disconnected battery lead, which was a known manufacturing problem with some Sansa Clips. In other words, it either wasn't fixed, or wasn't fixed properly when refurbished. And Woot didn't have any replacements, so I was out the cost of S&H back to Woot.

bofallon wrote:Does anyone know if you can use a Fuze with the Lantec IM413 Dock (from the woot off a while back). The docking station does work with the "e" and "c" series Sansas, so I think it would with the Fuze as well. Anyone know for sure?

Anything that is built for the Sansa players that use their 30 pin connector ought to work with any other Sansa player with a 30 pin connector (i.e., I have the Timex docking clock radio I got here, it works with any of my Sansa models that have the 30 pin connector).

One HUGE caveat -- if your device has the same PHYSICAL connector, but is NOT designed for the Sansas -- for example, if it's an Ipod dock/speaker/etc -- you WILL fail the smoke test.

The Sansa and Ipod both use the same connector (with MINOR difference in the dimensions at the edge) -- but, they are NOT the same ELECTRICALLY -- pins that do NOT expect POWER in one device WILL receive it from the OTHER. You SPIDERS! GET THEM OFF! to smoke your player (and/or accessories).

People DO wreck their gear that way ("Gee, it fit, so it ought to work!")

Don't be one of 'em!

kurtw47 wrote:CAREFUL. My last 4Gb Sansa Fuze lasted 2 months. My 2 Gb Fuze lasted about 6 months. Anyone need a couple of MP3s that don't work?

If you're serious, and there's no gross physical damage (i.e., water/fire/tire-tread/etc) then let me know what the postage would cost.

BTW, I habitually buy SquareTrade coverage on all nontrivial electronics (and photograpic gear). The cost for a couple of years of warranty coverage is trivial, compared to the loss of the equipment, or, the cost of one out of pocket repair fee.

You can generally find 20/30/40% discounts, too -- I am on their email list and every week or so they send me a code, generally good for one day (for the better codes -- a 20%-off will usually last for a while, but the 30 and 40 percenters are same-day-only) -- and I'd think a web search would probably find you a current promotion. If not, keep checking -- if they don't have one today, they may tomorrow or the next day.

Standard disclaimer -- I have NO connection with Squaretrade, other than as a customer who uses them for peace of mind at a reasonable price.

If I order red the headphones are red to match it, right?

Does the Fuze support gapless playback?

I love my Clip, but that's a real dealbreaker with it.

Buyer beware I just went through 2 of these and had to return them both the jack does not secure properly and loosens up as you move.

eldad9 wrote:How does this compare with the Sansa Clip?

The larger screen makes navigating a large music collection easier. And with the microSD slot you can add storage to this. The clip doesn't have an expansion slot. I like the standard mini-usb cable on the clip compared to the proprietary one needed for the fuze.

Sound quality really is equal, both are great.

sharol wrote:I use my 8g Fuze exclusively for audiobooks and after the firmware update, it resumes perfectly in multiple books. I use if for Overdrive downloads and books from Audible.com mostly.

Sharol

I use my Clips for "generic" (non-DRM) audiobooks from Librivox, archive.org, and, hmmm.... I think it's called "Podiocast" -- these are free, legal, no-DRM files -- the Clip, and I believe the Fuze, are the only models that will handle them PROPERLY.

ANY player can let you listen to "audiobooks" in MP3 format -- but THESE players do it PROPERLY -- they manage chapter sequence, they handle multiple bookmarks automatically (one per chapter), and in short, make the audiobook experience USABLE rather than a major headache.

You'll quickly get spoiled by NOT having to manually fast-foward to try to find where you were each time you want to resume. Other models that do "one-shot" quasi-bookmarking (i.e., an auto-resume for the last file you played) are nearly worthless in actual use. If you listen to ANYTHING else (music, radio, a different audiobook or podcast, whatever), you lose your "bookmark" position in the book. And, since these devices keep audiobooks and podcasts separate from MUSIC files, you won't have random book/podcast content popping up in the middle of a music shuffle.

omdata wrote:Does the Fuze support gapless playback?

I love my Clip, but that's a real dealbreaker with it.

I *think* they added gapless playback with the last firmware update, along with directory browsing (not having a Fuze I wasn't paying much attention -- the one I ordered last night is our first), but what I do with my Clips and other models for albums that need it (i.e., DSOTM) is to do two RIPs of the CD -- one by track, and one by "side" (the whole CD into one file without breaks).

That way, I can listen to the album without breaks, and, go directly to an individual track if so inclined.

I also modify the artist name (i.e., "Pink Floyd" for the gapless albums and "Pink Floyd - gaps" for the non-gapless tracks).

The price of memory is low enough to make this practical -- and it's a good excuse for owning a variety of players ;) (When you can get a 2GB Clip for something like $14 it's hard to NOT have a variety of them to keep different content -- and they're tiny enough to carry more than one without grief.)

With the Fuze, it's even easier -- just use MicroSD/SDHC cards. (My wife found holders that will each carry four of the tiny cards without losing them, I think she paid about a buck a piece.)

I have this unit and I am impressed with the quality of sound and the ease of use. This is a no-brainer, BUY IT!!

Newegg had a 8GB refurb Fuze for 40$ w/ free shipping very recently. I already had a View but the Fuze was more portable. I like it. It now has refurb stamped on the back, can't pop off the "R" sticker anymore. This is still a decent price though. It is only a little thicker than my Nano and about 1/2" wider than it, and about 1/2" shorter. (Woot blessed me with the Nano in my one and only Boggy Old Creature)

I owned a Sansa 250M. It froze after one year. It was a common problem, and Sansa did nothing to correct it or help out owners other then advising us to do a reboot that didn't work.

I don't care how long ago it was, I will NEVER own another Sansa product, just because of their "We made a defective product and we don't care" attitude.

good deal. but quentin leaps into the vacuum. all he does is steal people movies and call it his own.. "quentin tarantino presents"... you present nothing you ass, you just stole it!

I had one of these until not so long ago. Somehow it got crushed at work. Nobody knows how, of course. It is my favorite of my many, many mp3 players. The only downside for me being that it has a proprietary cable, and that leaps into the vacuum. Also, I don't use it for video so much.

It was a great player and I miss it.

Soon I will have red replacement. Sweet.

This is my 4th or 5th WOOT! mp3 player so far too. (Including my awesome brown Zune!)

I would get one but in the picture, the charger is so transparent I am afraid I would loose it.

Thanks for the reply It's just kinda frustrating, because I assumed that was a feature every player supported these days, and I love my Clip in every department except that one; and that's an important department for me with my love of electronic/album music.

If the Clip had gapless (and maybe sdhc support), it would be the perfect player, imo. Don't want/need video/picture support. Just want small size, battery life, good sound and storage; MP3/FLAC/OGG; decent navigation.

But I suppose "It's nice to want things..."

kogaku wrote:I *think* they added gapless playback with the last firmware update, along with directory browsing (not having a Fuze I wasn't paying much attention -- the one I ordered last night is our first), but what I do with my Clips and other models for albums that need it (i.e., DSOTM) is to do two RIPs of the CD -- one by track, and one by "side" (the whole CD into one file without breaks).

That way, I can listen to the album without breaks, and, go directly to an individual track if so inclined.

I also modify the artist name (i.e., "Pink Floyd" for the gapless albums and "Pink Floyd - gaps" for the non-gapless tracks).

The price of memory is low enough to make this practical -- and it's a good excuse for owning a variety of players ;) (When you can get a 2GB Clip for something like $14 it's hard to NOT have a variety of them to keep different content -- and they're tiny enough to carry more than one without grief.)

With the Fuze, it's even easier -- just use MicroSD/SDHC cards. (My wife found holders that will each carry four of the tiny cards without losing them, I think she paid about a buck a piece.)

I have it. It's awesome and I haven't had any problems at all with it. I've had it about a year and use it a lot for running.

I am a big fan of Sandisk Players.

I have a Sansa 240M/250M/260M that I use for playing my podcasts and I love them because they take AAA batteries.

I have a CLIP that sounds great that I use for music. I love the OLED display. This also uses a standard mini-USB connector. Frankly, I think this is the most perfect MP3 player ever made, except it does not use a standard battery (AA or AAA).

I gave my daughter a FUZE which she loves, and my son has a VIEW (iPod envy on his part, but I try not to allow too heavily proprietary hardware in the house), which lives with him. They share sync and charge cables.

Most are refurbs and they sound great and have lasted.

Excellent little players. I got one for my mom and one for my dad recently and they love it!

I'd really like to see a 4g or 8g clip, these are nice alternatives to iPods.

Has anyone used this product in conjunction with Rhapsody to go? What was your impression? It seems to me like a pretty good system, were there any drawbacks?

Has anyone used this with Rhapsody to go? What was your impression and were there any drawbacks to the system?

Ubuntu Linux geek here, and though I love my Sansas -- bought many e2xx/clip/etc for myself/family/gifts -- I lament the sad state of video conversion. Sansa Media Converter is buggy as hell, barely works consistently under XP, doesn't work under Wine at all, and workarounds have been rather lacking.

Imagine my surprise when a little searching for Fuze-specific Linux video solutions turned up this gem:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=892971

ffmpeg -i INPUT -r 29.97 -vcodec xvid -b 700k -acodec aac -ab 128k -bufsize 4M -qmax 51 -mbd 2 -flags +4mv+trell -aic 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -ar 44100 -g 300 -s 320x240 -aspect 4:3 -ac 2 -f mp4 -y OUTPUT

Can haz video!

In for two!