MP3 Player Overview
Ever since Sony gave us their Walkman back in the 80′s, personal music players have become the number one way of listening to music on the move. This square plastic box that you popped a cassette in and listened to your favourite tunes through headphones revolutionised the way we listened to music, and saw the demise of youths with boogie boxes on their shoulders and transistor radios attached to their ears.
We all know that technology seemingly moves at the speed of sound, and as cassettes and vinyl records were replaced by CD’s, so the walkman gave way to MP3 players. It wasn’t the industry that brought about the MP3 player however; it was the music lovers on the burgeoning internet who were starting to share music digitally and needed something to listen to these tunes on apart from their computers.
This is where industry stepped in and the lightweight, highly portable MP3 was born. By simply connecting it to the computer, hundreds of songs were downloaded onto the player in seconds, giving the user not just a few tunes to listen to on the move but literally an entire collection that ran into the thousands depending on the memory capacity of the MP3 player they were using.
If you are in the market for a new MP3 player, there are a few things to take into consideration that will ultimately allow you to purchase the best one that suits your own personal needs and requirements.
Sound quality is always the biggie, you want your tunes to sound perfect, and whilst there are some lower end MP3 players with decent sound, the general rule of thumb is the more you pay the better quality you get. There are some top brand names that you know, without question, will provide excellent sound quality, and as these can vary in price depending on where you choose to buy them from so shop around.
Storage is another thing to look for when looking into buying MP3 players. Although storage capacity can easily be expanded through memory cards, many have a large capacity built in which saves you forking out more money for a memory card.
The memory capacities equate as follows; 1GB=500 songs, 4 hours of video or 330 photos, 2GB= 1000 songs, 8 hours of video or 660 photos, 4GB=2000 songs, 16 hours of video or 1330 photos, 8GB=4000 songs, 32 hours of video and 2660 photos, 16GB=8000 songs, 64 hours of video or 5320 photos, 80GB=40,000 songs, 320 hours of video or 26600 photos and 160GB=80,000 songs, 640 hours of video or 53000 photos.
These figures will obviously differ if you choose to have a combination of the three but are a good guide to what capacity you need to suit your needs. The features on the MP3 players and
