Thursday, February 14, 2008

MP3 Players

MP3 Players

MP3 players offer increased play time better ergonomics and more advanced features than competing portable audio devices From the smallest MP3 compact flash players which hold around 10 albums to harddrive models which can store your entire music collection the number of devices available keeps growing This buyers guide aims to help you choose the best MP3 player that meets your needs and budget Several types of MP3 player exist each having distinct advantages and drawbacks MP3 players fall largely into 3 types mp3 flash players hard drive players and multimedia players Depending on your requirements an integrated memory mp3 player may be better suited than a hard drive mp3 player or viceversa As such these are ideal players for every day listening for use in the gym or as an inexpensive introduction to portable MP3 players Styles vary ranging from tiny discrete devices that can be worn around the neck to more futuristic or elegant designs for the fashion conscious These players are truly a portable mp3 jukebox being capable of storing many songs and albums in a single compact player So Many users link mp3 players up to compatible car radios or purchase an addon travel speaker which transforms them into portable hifi systems Multimedia players use large hard drives and are physically bigger and heavier than other mp3 players This extra size and capacity is to accommodate a large colour screen for the displaying of photographs and their video playback capabilities This feature makes viewing your favorites movies the latest music videos or even your holiday film possible Music videos photos are all accessible from a single portable device
There are huge differences between mp3 players in terms of size and weight Players range in weight from around 40 grams for small integrated memory players to over 300 grams for a large multimedia player As a general rule the greater the capacity of the player the larger the size and the heavier the weight However improvements in storage technology are constantly reducing the size and weight of successive mp3 player generations Although the MP3 music format is the most widespread the majority of online music stores use other formats such as WMA or AAC The latter are more recent formats than MP3 and can offer better audio quality at the same size These formats also provide a royalties protection system which makes them very successful within musical spheres If you are thinking of using one of these services or if your music library contains formats other than the MP3 one you need to check the compatibility of the player Other audio formats include Ogg Vorbis and the proprietary Sony format ATRAC The battery for most flash memory mp3 players is generally integrated and noninterchangeable making it important to check their battery life Battery life can vary between several hours for a power hungry multimedia player to over 40 hours for some memory integrated MP3 players Some smaller players can be draw power from their connection to your computer USB and do not require a separate charger or batteries Charging times also vary depending on the player and the type of battery used A remote control offers usability advantages especially for hard drive and multimedia players which are usually impractical to take in and out of your pocket The remote controls for MP3 players can either be compact and limited to just the essential functions or feature rich and equipped with a small LCD screen displaying track information

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