The MP3 Players

Most of the Korean prefer made in Korea in any kind of stuffs, even a small component insides MP3 players. Because of this strong sense of nationalism, they come out with a reputable brand, Telechips, in the digital audio player industry.

Generally, its position is between Sigmatel and Philips‘ decoders. It has better sound quality than Sigmatel and yet it can still maintain lower price than Philips. Due to the stragegic position, Telechips has the supports from many Korean manufacturers, such as DATUM, DEC, WEWA, and so on. Thus, it makes Telechips a reputable brand in the industry.

The most common model of Telechips’ solution is TCC73x series.

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Last few days, we had discussed about the Sigmatel. Now it’s the turn of another techonology leader of audio decoder - Philips. How good is Philips decoder? Just have a look on how well do the iRiver and MPIO perform.

The popularPhilips decoder on the market are SAA775x and PNX010x series. These audio decoders are embedded with a 24 bits DSP core and 32bits ARM processor. The ARM is to process the calculation of audio decompression algorithms of various formats such as MP3, AAC and WMA. On the other hand, the DSP core is to process the audio enrichment algorithms that supports Philips’ LifeVibes.

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Today we gonna to learn more on the core of MP3 player, digital audio decoder. MP3 is a lossy compression audio format. Thus, the audio decoder of the MP3 players take an important role. A decent audio decoder should minimize signal distortion compare to its source during the reproduction. And we will look at few big brands in popular in the market. The first will be SigmaTel, the one that just taken over Rio.

SigmaTel have gained the first place in the flash-based MP3 player market segment with its STMP34XX and STMP35XX series. SigmaTel is the first to provide single chip solution. With all-in-one features and “not that bad” sound quality, SigmaTel’s chips have gained lots of favors of many manufacturers. It minimizes the cost of production and also allows smaller size to be done!

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Get bored with your current branded MP3 player? How about make one by yourself? I’d found some interesting projects when I’m googling about MP3 players. With a little money, you can get some parts online and make your own unique MP3 player. Come on, let’s have fun!

I found Minty MP3 when I was googling. The project was carried by MIT grad Limor Fried. It’s a DIY MP3 player insides an altoids box! Awesome huh? It’s without LCD display just like an iPod Shuffle!

It may just cost you a little as US$50 for you to make your own MP3 player! Most of the parts can be found at PJRC Store.

Have no idea on electronics? Don’t worry, PJRC has detailed techinical documents that covers all you’ll need to know. Take some times on the guides, and you can make your own MP3 player!

This is the assembled MP3 player that made with PJRC’s kits.

{ Minty MP3 Project; PJRC Project }

If you are the iPod fans, you should know that Apple purposely keeps your music files hidden. It is only visible to the Apple iTunes. Unfair for for those who don’t want to use iTunes, right? Don’t worry, with a little hack, your favourite songs is accessible by other PC or Mac programs.

Apple intentionally make this to prevent illegal files transfer to another machines. Even you have activated the iPod’s Disk Mode, the Macintosh Finder or the Windows File Manager are also not able to view the music files. However, some iPod/iTunes enthusiasts had done a little hack to enable your PC or Mac to access your favourite songs without iTunes. So now, you can transfer the music files to your machine from your iPod. And you can enjoy them without iPod on your hands!

The hack is publish by eCoustics.com. But remember, only do make the legal music files transfer! The MP3 Players do not hold any responsibility on illegal trials by the users.

{ via NFHQ }