CD player vs MP3 player

ian tham

The CD was introduced with great fanfare in 1982 and soon supplanted the audio cassette due to high quality digital sound. You could bring your portable cd player anywhere to listen to high quality audio music. The next revolution started with the acceptance of mp3 music. MP3 stands for Moving Pictures Expert Group 1 Audio Layer 3. This mp3 technology allows for the compression of normal CD audio file in WAV format and reduces the size of the file by a factor of 10 to 1. That means you can stored thousands of songs in a small portable player while previously a CD player could only hold a CD at a time.

Having a audio compression file format allows music to be easily distributed . Instead of having to go to the CD shop to buy your CD , you can now download from the internet the songs which you want. An MP3 player also offers skip free music while a CD player doesn't. Also, flash based memory mp3 players have no moving parts which enable longer lasting battery life not to mention less occurrence of break down or failure due to moving parts. Mp3 players also allow the ability to create play list of songs while cd players generally have limited capability in this arena. Finally, now there's no need to buy an entire music album. You can buy just one song instead of the whole album. It makes more sense since you may only like one particular song.

Does it mean that CD technology is a goner? Not necessarily, firstly although mp3 allows for huge numbers of songs to be stored a portable flash memory or hard disk player the sound quality is compromised. Of course we can't tell the difference because of mp3 removes information pertaining to frequencies which we are unable to hear. Remember the audio cassette technology which preceded the cd technology ?Well, it is still around. It still has uses and purposes.

CD player have advantages in that CD players are cheaper than mp3 players. There is no need to buy storage media which is expensive. Songs in mp3 format have different sound volume levels while in a CD you get consistent sound volume. Why bother with the hassle of encoding, transferring and managing files which is troublesome, time consuming and more demanding when you can just simply pop in a new CD and get instant gratification. Also, if you travel to a less developed country , a CD player proves to be more useful as access to broadband is hard to find for downloading of your internet music. In addition, CD can last a life time and are virtually indestructible compared to a mp3 hard drive or flash memory players which have a limited life span and could spoil.

Lastly, you don't have to face headache of incompatibility issue as some players can play only specific file format.

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MP3 News


Yahoo! News Search Results for <?=mp3;?> Q&A: MP3 pioneer looks toward new breakthroughs (Reuters via Yahoo!7 News) BERLIN (Billboard) - Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg, widely acknowledged as one of the fathers of the MP3 format, performed much of the research that led to the development of the now-ubiquitous audio-compression standard. Sony Walkman S-series MP3 player (The Register) One of the finest sounding MP3 players available Review Releasing two MP3 players onto the market at the same time doesn't strike us as a wholly smart thing to do. Releasing two that look pretty much identical and have equally silly names could well be the acme of foolishness.? Cyber Monday Amazon Sale on SanDisk MP3 Players (I4U) Amazon is continuing offering sales today, but does not call it Cyber Monday Sale, like it did last year. Amazon uses though the Cyber Monday Sales term for a special Cyber Monday Sandisk MP3 Player sale going on today. The special deals on SanDisk MP3 ... Fortunoff Features sonoro audio's Luxury CD / MP3 Clock Radios in Exclusive B... sonoro audio, German designer and engineer of distinctive, high-quality audio products, announced today that respected New York retailer, Fortunoff, will now offer the company's line of fashionable audio solutions to its bridal registry customers. sonoro's family of stylish CD / MP3 clock radios are... Take your MP3 player underwater (The Montana Standard) Remember the great aunt who always gave lame holiday gifts? Fruitcake, bright colored earmuffs, that horrendous denim purse. Digitizing your music collection--Ask the Editors (CNET) CNET Editor Jasmine France answers all of your questions about MP3 players, accessories, headphones, and more in this regular Ask the Editors feature. The Best MP3 Players, GPS, eBook and other Portables Gifts 2008 (I4U) We have compiled the best portable device gifts including mp3 players, GPS, eBook reader and more 2008. Time is running until the big present exchange. Use our Gift Guide to find the best gifts for your family and friends Our Top 10 portable Gadget Gift t... New Music: Robyn [ft. Snoop Dogg]: "Bum Like You (Remix)" [MP3] (Pitchfork) "You could be my dog," sings Robyn on " Bum Like You ", originally from her self-titled 2005 album . Better make that D-O-double-G: Snoop Dogg , who shared a "Sexual Eruption" with the Swedish pop dynamo in a Fyre Department remix early this year, comes back for more with his new ver... New Music: Jay-Z [ft. Santogold; prod. by Kanye West]: "Brooklyn Go Hard" [MP... Jay-Z and Santogold put on for their borough with triumphantly brassy production by Kanye West on a track reportedly intended for the soundtrack to upcoming Notorious B.I.G. biopic Notorious . What "Brooklyn Go Hard" boasts in bloggability, though, it mostly lacks in originality. Jay... New Music: Filastine [ft. Jessika Skeletalia Kenney]: "Fitnah" [MP3/Stream] (... DJ/rupture included a track by Filastine , "Hungry Ghost (Instrumental)", on his excellent new Uproot mix, and even total Philistines may have noticed something compelling in its chirpy, nomadic rumble. Speaking of ruptures, get a load of that rip in the space/time continuum: "Fitnah", f...