What Is an MP3 Player?
With the widespread use of digital music devices, it’s hard to believe that some people still wonder what is an MP3 player. Because the devices are relatively new within the scope of music technology, the MP3 player has yet to be adopted by some older individuals, who may still prefer listening to cassette tapes or CDs on portable devices. As MP3 players continue to be popular to the point that nearly every young person owns one, the question “what is an MP3 player” is sure to become less common. Though many people throughout the world use the technology, very few people understand exactly how an MP3 player works. Here’s a quick overview of the MP3 player—what it is, what it does, and how it does it.
What is an MP3 Player? An MP3 player is a digital device that is used for playing compressed audio files. These files, known as MP3s, are compressed by removing portions of sound that are outside of the range of human hearing, and, due to data saved in the process, only takes up less than a tenth of the space that a recording on a CD does.
This makes MP3s small enough to be stored on small hard drives or flash drives in relatively large amounts. An MP3 player uses one of these drives to store MP3s, and allows the user to access them whenever he or she would like to listen to music. Digital audio players such as the MP3 player have been around since the late 1970s, when the first portable audio player was invented. Although this machine could only play about three and a half minutes of sound, the innovation was important. The man who invented this early music player was later hired by Apple, the company that created the first widely adopted MP3 player, the iPod.
What Does an MP3 Player Do?
On the most basic level, MP3 players generally play back sound. The sound can be recorded by the user (as in an MP3 recorder), but more often, people use MP3 players as portable jukeboxes that allow them to listen to music on the go. Similar to earlier portable music innovations such as the Walkman, the MP3 player is considered a useful tool while jogging, doing work, studying, or sitting in a public transportation vehicle.
Most people who purchase an MP3 player will do so with the intention of playing music. However, MP3 players can do much more. While early MP3 players could do nothing other than play back sound, today’s models can store photos, take pictures, and even store full videos to watch on the go. Apple’s iPhone demonstrated to the public that an MP3 player can be a useful technological multi-tool that can be used to make phone calls and search the internet. MP3 players are still used to listen to music, but they are usually also used for a wide variety of applications above and beyond simple sound playback.
How Does an MP3 Player Work?
It’s possible that when someone asks what is an MP3 player, they’re actually wondering how one of these portable devices functions. Once the music is compressed and digitized, it can be loaded onto an MP3 player (usually with a USB device) and then the sound can be played back by the listener. A converter takes the digital version of the sound, which is saved in binary code (a series of ones and zeros, the standard for computer coding), and translates the code into audible sound.
Yes, it’s true—the sound that you hear through your MP3 player is simply a bit of computer code made to sound like the actual recording! Whether or not the music sounds good is due to the quality of the device that you use. A digital to analog converter, mentioned above, is a complex piece of work. Sound can be played back perfectly within a certain bandwidth, meaning your ears won’t hear anything different from what’s on a CD. Other components, such as the headphones you wear and the quality of the MP3, can also change the way a song sounds when it finally reaches you.