Creative MuVo2 owners - READ THIS!

[shadowritten]

If you've got a MuVo2 1.5GB or 4.0GB player and you're tired of the naff volume limitations imposed on us by a European ruling endorsed by our French cousins, simply do the following:

Upgrade your firmware from the US website, not the European one.

Then sit back and enjoy mind-blowing volumes

Same principle also works for the Zen Touch, as far as I know.

[extremelydodgy]

The situation is the same for a lot of firmware upgradable players. In many cases the amp is crippled by a rather large amount. The iPod requires a programmatic fix (iMod, etc). In the case of Sony's, which have relatively weak amps in any case, there's not as dramatic a difference.

[Ian Carter]

Will upgrading the firmware mean I will have to reload everything on to the Muvo2 again?

Thanks

[IanPM]

Originally Posted by extremelydodgy

In the case of Sony's, which have relatively weak amps in any case, there's not as dramatic a difference.

Why do you persist with this pointless nonsense. The amp in the Sony is fine, once de-restricted it is loud enough to cause serious hearing damage if the user is a bit stupid. Why on earth would it need to be louder than that?

[Ian Carter]

Originally Posted by IanPM

Why do you persist with this pointless nonsense. The amp in the Sony is fine, once de-restricted it is loud enough to cause serious hearing damage if the user is a bit stupid. Why on earth would it need to be louder than that?

Perhaps because I am 'not a bit stupid' and work in a noisy environment.

[IanPM]

Originally Posted by Ian Carter

Perhaps because I am 'not a bit stupid' and work in a noisy environment.

Well I'm not being funny, but if you work in a noisy environment, and turn up your music to drown out the noise, then yes you are agoing to go deaf.

Get some closed headphones, or ones that are better at blocking ambient noise.

If you turn your player up loud, you are going to damage your hearing.

[DaveA]

I replaced my Zen touch firmware, and the volume is much louder to the point of distortion when turned up.

This however, means i can now effectively use it to power my in-car amp, previously the output wasn't high enough.

Nanny state.

[extremelydodgy]

Originally Posted by IanPM

Why do you persist with this pointless nonsense. The amp in the Sony is fine, once de-restricted it is loud enough to cause serious hearing damage if the user is a bit stupid. Why on earth would it need to be louder than that?

Because not all the good headphones are highly efficient. A more powerful amp gives you not only authority with borderline phones but more options of headphones.


Or maybe the tradeoff of hugely increased battery life versus a reduction in amp power is more suitable for many. In which case, since the HD5 lasts only 6 hours longer than a standard iAudio X5 (not the L model. The standard X5 is by no means a standout in present-day players in terms of battery life) in normal use, not the claimed 20+ hours extra, that doesn't quite make sense either.


Common sense should dictate when you're listening too loud. For the record, you should never turn up the sound to defeat high levels of ambient noise as common sense should dictate that then you are listening to music in ear damaging volume levels. Instead, be sensible and buy a pair of isolating phones.

[ak47wong]

Originally Posted by extremelydodgy

Because not all the good headphones are highly efficient. A more powerful amp gives you not only authority with borderline phones but more options of headphones.

Quite true. For example, I have a pair of Sennheiser HD560 Ovation II headphones, which are designed for use with home sound systems or headphone amps. The HD5 has barely enough power to drive them, even at full volume. It doesn't have any problems with headphones designed for use with portable players.

Common sense should dictate when you're listening too loud. For the record, you should never turn up the sound to defeat high levels of ambient noise as common sense should dictate that then you are listening to music in ear damaging volume levels. Instead, be sensible and buy a pair of isolating phones.

Good advice. It's worth taking note of how loud you would listen to music in a quiet room and not going above that level even if you're in a noisy environment, otherwise you're just pumping more and more sound pressure into your ears, probably without realising it.

And read this article, which warns of long-term hearing problems caused by "excessive iPod listening". Worth taking heed of.

Andrew

[extremelydodgy]

The HD650's are a rather extreme example, but it serves to make the point I guess. Especially as the iPod is capable of driving them with a decent degree of authority (and to a much better level in terms of sound quality than the HD5) for quiet room use.

[rickloo]

It seems that creative have worked away round this trick.

My 1.5gb Muvo2 came with firmware 1 16 01e - I assume that the e suffix is for europe as this doesn't appear on the US download.

I downloaded the latest US firmware which is 1 12 01 and installed it.
When the firmware had finished installing the firmware version on the player
showed as 1 12 01e even though the firmware I installed was not european. I guess it detects your previous firmware.

If anyone knows a way around this I would be very grateful. the weedy sound is the only thing which lets this player down.

[rickloo]

Scrub my above post I found the answer on a thread in nomadness.net

to unlock the full potential of your muvo^2, get a copy of the firmware from www.nomadworld.com. this has worked with both the older 1.10.03 and the new versions. take the battery out and put it back in while holding the menu button, to boot into recovery mode. then choose to reinstall firmware. it'll erase the current firmware and then ask you to plug in the usb cable. do so, run the firmware upgrade prog and enjoy your new loud muvo

you have to do it through the recovery menu - if you just use the upgrade normally it doesnt erase the old firmware and remembers its a european version...

[rickloo]

Success. This worked a treat and I now have a very loud Muvo2
which I can use on planes and the tube