MP3 Players: These new MP3 players are small portable music players that can be uploaded with your mp3 music files. You should know that audio content that contains speech rather than music, is also being compressed in the mp3 audio format in recent times. New MP3 players vary widely in price range. While sellers flaunt only the higher priced MP3 music players, you should know that modestly priced new MP3 music players can provide good audio quality at an attractive price. A new MP3 player in the US$25 to US$40 price range would be a great choice. Considering the fact that new MP3 players are more popular among the younger generation, their active lifestyle makes it easier for them to lose an MP3 player. You could forget your new mp3 player in restaurant, or could have it drop out of your pocket. Losing an expensive MP3 player could really upset you.  It would be less upsetting to lose a cheap MP3 player.  Most of us would not be financially comfortable to buy another new mp3 player to replace the expensive lost MP3 player. This is one of the main reasons for buying an cheap mp3 player.

 
MP3 Music Quality: The main advantage of the mp3 music format is the highly compressed size of MP3 music files. A normal CD audio disk would contain around 10 music files. Once compressed in the MP3 music file format, the same disc could hold around 80 to 100 music tracks. This compression it is believed, comes with very little or no reduction in quality of the sound. This is possible because the portions of the sound that are left out during the mp3 compression process are largely not audible to the human ear. These compressed MP3 music files can then be copied to any storage medium which includes, hard disks, pen drives, dedicated MP3 players and even CD and DVD data disks.  And this is where the advantage of a cheap mp3 player over an expensive MP3 player becomes apparent.  The quality of sound produced by a cheap MP3 player is not that much worse than the quality of sound produced by an expensive MP3 music player.

 
The Truth: The other things that could influence the quality of the MP3 music that you hear, would be the MP3 player used and the type of headset or speakers that are used along with the MP3 player. Most new mp3 players are small in size, the main brain or circuit of these MP3 music players is a mass produced integrated circuit. The remain parts of any new mp3 music player would be the plastic casing and a few metal sockets. The truth is that there is not much difference in the quality of different integrated circuits used in different mp3 music players. When you buy a big brand name mp3 sound player, the price includes the fancy plastic casing, a few more flashing lights and of course a big chunk of the manufacturers marketing expenses. There is a simple rule regarding all electronic gadgets including new MP3 players. The more fancy the device and the more the options, the greater the chance of the device malfunctioning. Cheap mp3 players contain only the features that will be necessary for your listening pleasure. The majority of buyers who purchase new mp3 players are young and on tight budgets. Cheap mp3 players that are of good quality are a good option for almost anyone.  A good pair of headphones can certainly improve the sound quality when using a cheap MP3 player.

 

MP3 Music: We will try to explain a little about mp3 music files without getting too technical. Any audio content including vocal or musical content can be converted into a compressed mp3 file. The process of converting these files to an mp3 format is referred to as 'ripping'. There are many commercial programs (some free) available to rip and create mp3 audio files. There is a setting referred to as a 'bit rate' during the ripping process. The quality of music that you can listen to on your mp3 player will depend on the bit rate of the conversion. A higher bit rate, will capture more audio detail and will therefore create an mp3 file that gives better sound quality on your new mp3 music player. However, the size of the mp3 file that is created will increase as the bit rate used to create the mp3 file increases, thereby reducing the number of files that you can save on your new mp3 player.. The creation of mp3 files is normally done on a computer, the mp3 player is then connected to the computer and file uploaded (copied) to the mp3 player. Read the paragraph on 'Loading The Player' below.

 

Storage Capacity: MP3 players have a rated storage capacity that is measured in mega bytes. To give you an idea, an mp3 music player with a capacity of 1MB (mega byte) could store around 200 to 525 songs or musical tracks. This is huge if you consider that each mp3 music recording would be around 3 to 4 minutes long. A 1MB mp3 player would store around 300 music tracks which is around 4 to 5 hours of music. Amazing, if you consider the fact that the size of this new mp3 player would be a little larger than a small cigar lighter. There is another very interesting thing about storage capacity and physical size of your mp3 music player. A mp3 player could have the same physical size with storage capacities of 1Mb, 2Mb or even 4Mb. The storage on your mp3 player is of course erasable. You can therefore erase the entire storage and copy a fresh set of mp3 files to your player.  With cost of flash memory dropping, today even cheap MP3 players have 4gb memory capacity.

 

Loading The Player: Most mp3 players today are very easy to use. All you need to do is connect the mp3 player to a computer or laptop through the regular USB port. The mp3 player vendor will provide you with the necessary cables (if required) to connect your new mp3 player to your computer. There are a few ways that can be used to connect your mp3 music player to your computer, the most common method is to use a small cable. One end of this cable connects to your mp3 player and the other end connects to the USB port of your computer. Simpler methods have been developed to make this connection. Some mp3 players look much like thum drives and can be directly plugged into the USB port of your computer without using any cable. Most mp3 players do not need any special drivers to be installed. Once connected, the mp3 files are merely copied from the computer hard disk to the mp3 player. You should get a message if the storage space of the mp3 player has been filled to capacity. Your options would then be to delete a few existing files on the mp3 player, or to exclude some of the mp3 files (from your computer) in the copy selection.

 

Charging The Battery: Every mp3 player obviously needs a batter to run on. An mp3 player consumes less power as compared to a portable CD player. This is because there are no moving parts or motors in an mp3 music player. Some players come with a battery that is located inside the instrument. A cable that should be connected to the mp3 player and a wall power socket is provided. You would plug the mp3 playing, using this cable and device to any power outlet in your home of office. Make sure that, the power socket has the same voltage that is rated on the cable and device provided by the seller of the mp3 music player. Such a battery charging operation requires you to have a power socket accessible. This might not be possible when you are traveling or located outdoors. You will also find new mp3 players that can be charged from the USB port of any computer. A cable is provided to connect the portable mp3 music player to the computer. A more interesting option is a mp3 player that uses a standard AA battery. No cables and connections are required to charge the mp3 player. These batteries are available at many places including, grocery stores, supermarkets, and even stalls attached to petrol stations. These batteries are used in many other devices besides mp3 players and are therefore freely available. You need not worry about cables or power sockets, convenience is the prime advantage of these mp3 players.

 

Sound Output: An mp3 player can accept a small pair of external speakers or could be connected to a pair of headphones. Fairly advanced external speaker systems have been developed, such systems include small amplifiers and sound level controls. Headphones too, are available in many brands and qualities. Your mp3 player should include a pair of headphones, you might look at other headphone options if you are interested and your budget permits. The quality of the headphones or external speakers would influence the quality of sound delivered by your mp3 player. When you hear the sound out of an expensive mp3 player, you should know that the speakers or headphones have a major role to play in delivering the high quality sound. Simply put, if you had to shop for a $40 new mp3 player and were willing to pay another 30 U.S$ to 50 U.S$ for a pair of fancy headphones, it is very likely that the sound quality from your $40 cheap mp3 player would match that of a new mp3 player priced at around 150 U.S$ to 200 U.S$.

 

The above write up would help you in choosing a new mp3 player. You will also understand the various options available for loading mp3 music and the issues involved in charging the battery of your new mp3 music player. Music publishers normally protect their music with copyright laws, it is therefore illegal to create mp3 files of copyrighted material. While not much harm would occur if you created mp3 files for your personal hearing, making a commercial operation of creating mp3 music for resale needs to be done under legal regulations.  You should make yourself of these regulations before you download mp3 music files on to your 4gb MP3 player.