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MP3 Players – Memory Storage Options
Digital music players or MP3 players have become a part of our daily lives, much in the same way as cell phones and laptop computers. You see people using them at the gym, your colleagues at work probably have them, and many of your co-passengers on your business flight probably carry one with them. So you finally decided to get your self one, and you wonder which one to get. This article provides a few tips on selecting the type of MP3 player that best suits your needs.
Here is a bit of background on cheap MP3 players. This information will help you better understand the selection information that follows. The MP3 player owes its development to the doctoral work of a student at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. He developed an algorithm to compress digital music files. The basic concept of the work is that the human ear has limitations on what tones and sounds it can and cannot perceive. Most music sound tracks contain “extraneous” sounds that we cannot really discern. The algorithm developed in Germany strips away these extraneous elements. With this process, the digital audio file can be compressed to one tenth or one twelfth of its original size without significant loss of sound quality. Additional compression is possible, but this will likely affect the sound quality. This makes the size of the MP3 file much more manageable, and can be stored in smaller memory modules.
MP3 players two fall into two broad categories based on the type of storage device used in them. One class of players has a miniature hard drive, similar to the hard drive in your computer. These players typically have a large storage capacity and units with a hundred or more gigabytes of capacity are not common. On the other hand, the second class of MP3 players relies on electronic memory or flash memory for storage. These storage units are usually much smaller in capacity. Typical flash memory storage units are on the order of eight or sixteen gigabytes. Depending on the number of music files that you would like to store, you can then decide on the type of player that you want to pick. For an initial of the number of songs, you can assume that each file will be approximately five megabytes in size. Using this assumption, each gigabyte of storage space will allow you to store around two hundred songs.
MP3 players with hard drives have to major drawbacks when compared to players that use digital memory. The hard drive is an electro-mechanical device. So it tends to consume much more power than a flash memory unit. This means that you can go through batteries quite quickly. It helps if the batteries are rechargeable, but you still have to deal with the hassle of plugging in the batteries or the entire unit in order to recharge. Flash memory consumes much less power. The second drawback is that hard drive can skip if the unit is subjected to jolts. So if you plan to use your MP3 player while you jog or workout, you are probably better off with a flash memory unit.
About the Author
Dale is an engineer by profession and is therefore naturally a fan of all things technical! He is also an amateur gemologist and is particularly interested in fashion jewelry.
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