From A Portable Guitar To The MP3 Player - By: Victor Epand

For as long as it has been possible to carry music around with us, we have sought to do so. Originally this might mean carrying an instrument with us and a book of songs in our head, but today we have greater portability, and more than just a few books. Whilst carrying a stereo around that was powered by batteries might be considered the first portable music system, it wasn't very considerate as far as those around were concerned.

Portable music systems that allow the listener great choice and good sound quality whilst not inflicting their taste in music on everyone around them were first developed as audio cassette systems, often referred to as 'Walkmans'.

These audio cassette systems were eventually replaced by those which could use CDs or compact disks instead. These were much smaller, offering much better sound quality and the disks took up much less room than the audio cassettes did, whilst often carrying more tracks.

But there was always a problem with portable music systems that relied upon physical mechanics to play the music. Whether audio cassettes or compact disks, in order to play the music the small mechanisms inside required very little movement or motion, and certainly no jarring or jolting. Any sudden movement or knock would result in a very unpleasant wobble or skip in the music, and possibly damage to the tape, disk or player itself.

Because most people on the move don't want to have to stand still at the same time, this always p[resented a challenge, and today we are able to benefit from the achievements made in this field. Today, portable music players use technology which does not require any moving pats at all. There are no disks or tapes, simply a static block of memory which stores the music in an electronic form which means that there is no movement, no mechanism and no way in which the music can skip, jump, wobble or even be damaged regardless of how much shaking, jumping or even dropping takes place.

Those people who enjoy hiking or running have often enjoyed listening to music to accompany their activities, especially if all alone for hours at a time. Unfortunately cassettes and disks jumped and were not pleasant to listen to whilst running, but today MP3 players as they are referred to have solved this problem, and represent the perfect solution.

Portable music players which use flash memory technology are often referred to as MP3 players because the most portable form of music file is the MP3. This form of music track has been considerably compressed compared to an original recording or even a CD track, which means it takes up very little space. This results in even more songs being able to be stored on the player - in some cases many tens of thousands.

Although MP3 files are very heavily compressed, and naturally a good deal of the original recording is lost, the way in which these music tracks has been compressed is very clever, and only those notes and frequencies which the ear cannot detect very well have been removed, meaning that most, untrained ears, cannot tell the difference.

About the Author

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for computer parts and suits & ties. Shop here to find portable music players, MP3 players, formal suits & ties, and computer parts in Canada.

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