After more than twenty years, digital audio has completely replaced analog audio. In the world of walkman, CD, MD, MP3 form a three-point world situation. This market reflects the gradual shrinkage of the non-digital music player market.
Only digital devices can survive in the digital age.
Especially since the Diamond Company launched the first MP3 player (in fact, the first MP3 player was launched by Korean Han Shi Company, but its far-reaching influence started from the Diamond Company), this elf, which is smaller than a cigarette case, has changed the whole music market and portable digital music products in just two or three years, and changed our lives.
MP3Player, which combines the latest computer trends, convenient network and exquisite music, has spread to every corner of the world at an alarming speed, becoming one of the hottest topics in IT and music circles.
It is an inevitable historical development that MP3Player can quickly become popular all over the world and become the mainstream of portable audio equipment in just two years:
On the one hand, MP3Player is the product of computer, network and music. Computer is the pride of science and technology, network is the symbol of the times, and music is the soul of human beings. MP3Player, together with computer, network and music, has great vitality and revolutionary significance.
On the other hand, as portable audio equipment, people require products to be lighter, smaller and more convenient.
The appearance of MP3Player caters to this demand, so it was generally accepted by the market as soon as it went on the market. It is the unchangeable market law that what meets the market demand is the most important.
MP3VSMD
But there are still many friends who have doubts when they first come into contact with digital music products: which is better, MP3 or MD? Before answering this question, let's learn some common sense about them.
MD is developed from Sony's magneto-optical equipment experience in 1992. Magneto-optical devices combine the advantages of floppy disks and optical disks, and can store a large amount of data and delete files like disks. In order to make up for the defect of MD in capacity, Sony adopted a new storage compression technology ATRAC. ATRAC is a lossy compression technology, which is to reduce the file size and delete some unnecessary redundant information in the original file. The standard ATRAC bit rate is 285.3Kbps.
Mp3 format was born in 1987 and was founded by an audio research institute in Germany. The full name of mp3 is MPEG-3, which is an audio compression format developed by MPEG (a compression method for studying moving images and sounds with large compression ratio), a moving image scheme expert group at that time. VCD adopts MPEG- 1 coding technology, and DVD adopts MPEG-2 coding technology, both of which are products developed by this group.
The goal of development is to develop a digital compression format with high sound quality (CD sound quality) and low traffic (within 320K) by using the perceptual deficiency of some aspects of human hearing (note that this is the key point).
About three years later, that is, 1990, they obtained the patent of this technology in Germany. Three years later, another international standards organization (ISO) also accepted this technology, and MP3 became a part of the MPEG standard.
If MP3 is compressed at a high flow rate of 320kbps, it can basically guarantee the same sound quality as the original CD, but the consequence of this is that the file size is too large, and a six-minute song needs to occupy 15MB, which is not suitable for storing in a small-capacity MP3 player at all.
The sampling frequency of music CD is 44 100Hz, the data is quantized with 16 bits and played with two channels, so its traffic is 44100x16x2 =141. The commonly used mp3 traffic is 128Kbps, and the compression capacity is11/,but it sounds good. Why does MP3 still have good sound quality at such a high compression ratio?
This is because mp3 compression uses five important technologies:
1. Minimum auditory threshold decision technology
2. Shadow effect technology
3. Bit storage slot technology
4. Stereo coding technology
5. Distortionless coding technology
MP3Player was launched by Diamond Company on 1997. It mainly adopts mpegudiolayer-3 compression algorithm, is compatible with WMA and VQF formats, and uses FLASHRAM, hard disk and Internet as storage media. Injustice is as deep as the sea.
At that time, most MD players said that MP3 was junk sound quality, and MP3 players were still "banned" after listing. As everyone knows, I have carefully compared it, which is really sad.
Until one day I met a friend of a sound engineer, who was still very famous in Xi 'an's music circle. Inadvertently, he told me that he had his own recording equipment based on mp3, which was based on PC. Of course, the sound card and playback system are excellent and professional.
When I left him, the biggest worry in my heart-the sound quality problem-was gone: at that time, there was a misunderstanding about mp3, and people who played audio said that mp3 was not good, because the hardware for listening to mp3 was too "ordinary": sound cards around 40 yuan, small active speakers with a price of 100 yuan, and Mp3 was downloaded from the Internet at that time, so the sampling rate was generally low. In this way, the quality of the sound source itself was poor, and the sound quality at that time was naturally inferior to that of CD and MD at the same price (at that time, mp3 was only available in PC, and "Monty" mp3 really made us want to wear it, but the price was too high, which made us feel very distressed: the memory of 16M was about 2,000 yuan! A big color TV. )。 Think about what sound quality this is! No wonder some people say he is rubbish.
Mp3 was only on the market for a year or two, and Japanese manufacturers sneered at it at that time, which means there was no leader at that time.
Rehabilitate wrongs
If you say that the sound quality of MP3Player is not as good as that of MD, I always think this statement is too general. For example, a CD player of a common brand and a Sony CD player use the same CD. Will it sound the same? From the sound source, they are all the same lossless files. Think about why. Before the tape walkman appeared, everyone was producing. Can the domestic walkman with a miscellaneous brand 100 yuan compare with Sony, Panasonic and AIWA in sound quality?
MD went on the market 10 year, and its technology and production are quite mature. At present, it is monopolized by several Japanese manufacturers, who have strong experience in consumer electronic products, so it is not surprising that the quality and sound quality are good. In fact, through real analysis, we can see that MD is basically a Japanese audio housekeeping product, made by giant manufacturers such as Sony and Panasonic. Everyone knows that Japanese electronic products are world-class and excellent. If MD issues standards, anyone can produce them, and there will be three, six, nine and so on.
Supporters of MD say MP3 players have a poor appearance. Indeed, some manufacturers produce things that are not so good in appearance, but this is related to the strength of the manufacturers themselves. Generally speaking, with more powerful manufacturers entering the MP3 player market, the high-end products with high bit rate MP3 files can already compete with MD, but the low-end products are still inferior.
Now Sony, the founder of MD, has joined the mp3 camp, and has launched several NetworkWalkman, which are MP3 players, but also support ATRAC music files. The addition of Sony's "Big Boss" further shows that MP3Player is the general direction of future development.
The argument between Mp3 player and MD lasted for a long time. I think the following points are unfair to mp3 players, that is, we are not on the same starting line. Our own products have invested a lot of manpower and material resources to improve the reputation of mp3:
1. Appearance.
2. Add the circuit design included in the music.
3. Headphones.
4. Sound source. 1. appears
The technology of appearance represents the industrial level of a country. We already know that MD is basically a Japanese audio housekeeping product, and it has become a boutique. Japan is in the forefront of the world in appearance modeling and manufacturing technology. We are so different from him. The cost of developing the same product in Japan is too different from ours: for example, a company developed an mp3 product with an aluminum metal shell mold in the early stage, and the Japanese cooperative manufacturer quoted 200,000 yuan, the cooperative manufacturer in Taiwan Province Province and Hong Kong quoted 6.5438+0.6 million yuan, and our own manufacturer in mainland China quoted 6.5438+0.2 million yuan. Mainland manufacturers can make molds, but the surface treatment process can't be done, which can't meet the design requirements.
The most important thing about digital products is their appearance, texture and feel. MP3 player is not a necessity yet, so most consumers sincerely hope that the products they buy can produce some ostentatious functions.
Most mp3 product casings are generally ABS engineering plastic casings, while high-end machines are aluminum metal casings. Of course, the price of aluminum metal shell will be much higher; Of course, scanning digital products should be high-end: notebook computers, digital cameras, digital video cameras, MD, CD, all of which are aluminum metal shells. The aluminum shell itself exudes aristocratic temperament.
2. Add the circuit design included in the music.
The sound quality is determined by DAC chip, so DAC chip often affects the final sound effect of walkman to a great extent and occupies a very important position.
80% of mp3 players in the market choose DAC, which is very poor, and they are basically some low-end products of Taiwan Province: the purchase price is 2-4 yuan. How good do you think the sound quality can be?
From here we can see that a designer is not only a master of hardware and software, but also knows music and has a good ear.
From the component point of view, the resistors are all patch resistors with an accuracy of 5%. Among the capacitors below 0. 1uf, 5% Japanese TDK brand is relatively good, while those above 0. 1uf such as 1uf, 10uf, 100uf and 220uf are all imported tantalum capacitors. Even in Sony's MD, only patch electrolytic capacitors are used. Using the timbre of tantalum capacitor to round and improve the timbre of mp3 original treble reflects the good intention of high-grade mp3 design!
With the increasingly fierce competition of digital products, manufacturers continue to reduce costs, so 90% of portable digital products are powered by traditional dry batteries. In this way, DC-DC switching booster will be used to boost the voltage from 1.5V to about 3v.. Let's be clear: that is switching power supply! ! ! Everyone knows that mp3 uses switching power supply, which leads to poor timbre! ! ! One thing to tell you: all mp3 players with replaceable batteries in the market need DC-DC switching booster! Can you imagine how good the timbre can be?
Rechargeable batteries do bring convenience to consumers in a certain period of time: there is no need to buy batteries. Standard charging conditions can prolong the battery life and save money for consumers. If it is used for 3 hours every day, 1 7# alkaline battery can be used for 10 hours, which means it can be used for 3 days. According to the 2.5 yuan calculation of 1 7# alkaline battery, 100 batteries can be used 1 year, and the built-in rechargeable battery can be used continuously after being fully charged 10 hour or more.
Talking about headphones
In a set of Hi-Fi equipment, the speaker is the equipment that finally restores music in the whole process. Unlike CD and power amplifier, it only deals with electrical signals, involving electromagnetic conversion, magnetic field and sound field conversion, so it is the weakest link in technology. We say that the speaker is the soul of the whole sound system, which is very important in the final expression of music. Therefore, its position is well known, accounting for about 2/5- 1/2 of the whole set of equipment according to the investment ratio. If the investment of a set of audio equipment is 10000 yuan, the speaker should be around 4000 yuan.
As the saying goes, a good horse deserves a golden saddle. You have a favorite audio player. If you want to enjoy it most easily, you need a good pair of hi-fi headphones. It is our long-cherished dream to have a pair of high-fidelity headphones.
Due to the application of high-tech materials, the mass of earphone diaphragm is small, so the transient characteristics are good, the resolution is strong, the dynamic range is large, the control ability is strong, and the sound is natural and pure. Therefore, everyone who plays stereo knows that a pair of Hi-Fi headphones can have the best listening effect.
Our dream: Sennheiser HD600 (the price is more than 2000 yuan); Iron triangle W 100 (the price is more than 3000 yuan); Wait a minute. They are too expensive, and the impedance is very high, most of them are 300-600 Ω, and they need special earphone amplifiers, which ordinary equipment can't push. Don't even think about electrostatic headphones: 10 thousand!
What is a praise earphone? As we all know, new cars and machines have to go through a stage called "running-in" before they are put into normal use, so that they can fully coordinate and cooperate and enter the best state normally. Similarly, the pressing unit of the earphone (the speaker in the earphone) is a semi-mechanical and semi-electronic combination, which is mainly composed of voice coil, diaphragm and magnetic system. The diaphragm and the voice coil fixed on the diaphragm belong to a flexible system. The diaphragm and voice coil of earphone unit determine the compliance, which is the key to determine the sound quality. One of the most important values of the loudspeaker is the resonance frequency fo, which basically determines the lowest frequency that the loudspeaker can reach. Therefore, the better the compliance of the speaker, the lower the fo of the speaker, and the better the low-frequency dive. The materials used in the diaphragm and voice coil are highly flexible materials, and the internal molecular structure is unstable at the initial stage, so the flexibility is also unstable, that is, it is still relatively stiff. After a period of movement, the structure between molecules tends to be stable and evenly distributed, and enters the best working state. Therefore, the new headphones all sound like low-frequency diving is not deep, the volume sense is also small and stiff, the mid-frequency performance is not soft enough, and the high-frequency has burrs and is too sharp. After a period of praise, the fluency (or elasticity) of the speaker unit will increase, and it is easy to move back and forth, which truly restores and reproduces the true colors of Hi-Fi.
Based on everyone's experience, the conclusion is that middle-priced headphones are also the choice to get the best sound quality at the lowest cost.
4. Sound source
Generally, MP3 songs downloaded online are small in size and easy to download quickly, so the sampling rate is generally very low, even using 96Kbps traffic.
The influence of data rate on sound quality is very important, and so is the coding quality of encoder. A top MP3 compression (coding) software is recommended here? d？ DLAME .
The coding quality of LAME 3.90 and 3.92 is the best, which is a great effort of private programmers. Compared with various MP3 encoders, LAME is much better and free. Using LAME, the sound quality of 128kbps is even better than other encoders. Don't underestimate the encoders. It can also help you improve the sound quality and save a little storage space.
It was not until the lame compression software was used that it was discovered that the sound quality of MP3 could reach a high level.
Through understanding: Lame established its own sound field model parameters through advanced sound field (field conditions) analysis, and finally got Hi-Fi MP3 music through scientific coding and operation.
Compared with CD and MD walkman, Mp3' s biggest market advantage lies in its unique product functions. It is a digital product made of integrated chips, which has great flexibility and randomness in product design. Products can be large or small, and can be designed into any shape. Various fashionable and personalized MP3 player products are creating consumption trends, which is its biggest selling point. Looking at the market, as a consumer product, only MP3 can be compared with VCD in the past. Only "U disk" is the consumption growth point of IT products.
5. Conclusion
According to IDC statistics, in the MP3 player market, it is estimated that the global sales will increase to15.7 million units in 2005, with a growth rate of 34.8%. China market predicts that the sales volume will reach 6 million units in 2005, with an average annual growth rate of 70%. It can be seen that the market development space of MP3 players in China is huge.
From the feedback of the market, all kinds of digital products in Korea have driven the trend of digital technology to some extent. It is reported that in South Korea, there is a perfect Internet environment: broadband network is very popular, and almost all children above 10 can operate computers and surf the Internet, which undoubtedly creates a good product environment for stimulating the local MP3 market, so in small South Korea, the sales of MP3 players can reach hundreds of thousands. Its MP3 player has been launched for a long time and has accumulated a lot of mature experience in products, channels and markets. In addition, a new generation of young consumers in Korea are very enthusiastic about the pursuit of product design. Now Sony, the founder of MD, can't sit still, and has launched several network walkman, namely MP3 player, but it also supports ATRAC music files. This further shows that MP3 player is the general direction of future development. It is worth noting that CCID released the market research report of MP3 players for the first time this year, which also implies that this small industry that was neglected in the past will further approach the center of the stage.
As a consumer electronic product, MP3 player has naturally become the focus of competition among manufacturers. The fierce competition makes MP3, a solid-state audio player, develop rapidly, the technology is becoming more and more mature, and the market is constantly shuffling.
With the continuous improvement of products and the intensification of market competition, MP3 players are rapidly becoming popular. History will once again witness that MP3 players will spread to every corner of the world like the development of household appliances, and I believe that this time is no longer long, and the future digital life is getting closer and closer.