Excellent modeling design is not only to show the uniqueness of MP3, but also one of the most important signs to determine the quality with it. Although we can't judge a person by his appearance in life, the accuracy of judging a person by his appearance is close to MP3.
The shape must be unique, not a male model design that can be seen all over the street. Because it is not easy to develop MP3 molds, and there are certain patents in shape design, manufacturers will definitely position these products as high-end models, and they will pay more attention to them. Tone matching is very important. Usually, senior designers will pay great attention to this aspect. It is not necessarily bright colors, but it is definitely a reasonable matching, which makes MP3 look more noble and elegant. It has a strong visual impact on users, especially those products tailored for fashion and beauty. Color is more attractive than any function. In addition, after advanced baking paint treatment, the shell will not fade easily, which can be seen from the color reflectivity of the shell.
In terms of material selection, metal is the best, followed by rubber, and engineering plastics are the worst. Of course, this does not mean that metal MP3 is a good product, but that metal is relatively more durable, looks more beautiful, and has more texture and grade. As the saying goes, "You will know if there are experts." You can roughly judge the material of MP3 by touching its shell to see if it is comfortable. Workmanship mainly depends on the subtleties of the product and the connection position between parts. If the shell is spliced urgently (especially the position of the battery cover), the buttons are soft and comfortable, and there is no burr and uneven body, which basically passes the test.
Lightweight can't be ignored. MP3 is a walkman. Even if the design is outstanding, it is inconvenient to carry or too big, it will lose the essence of "carrying". Mirror is a very popular design recently. However, a real nano-mirror can clearly reflect light and be used as a mirror. The biggest defect of the mirror is that once it is scratched, the scar will become very obvious, just like a beautiful woman with a torn face. Dante's DX-8 fuselage is streamlined, similar to an ellipse, with different curves at the upper and lower ends. It really looks like the plan of an egg, so it is named "Egg".
Second, the display screen
Science is developing and progressing, so is fashion. The mobile phone we use has already entered the color screen era from a simple monochrome screen. Similarly, MP3 player, a typical representative of consumer digital products, has begun to enter the era of color screen, which I believe will inevitably become the mainstream of future development.
In terms of color effect, naturally, the higher the color number, the better. The screen material is LTPS (low temperature polysilicon) which is superior to TFT, and TFT (thin film transistor) which is superior to STN (super twisted nematic). As for the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) color screen, it has advantages in the dark, but it can't display complex pictures such as TFT and STN.
Due to the small size of MP3, the screen size will be greatly limited, and the bigger the screen, the better. Under the same size, the more displayed content proves that the screen resolution is higher, and the picture will be more delicate, which is also conducive to increasing the humanized graphic menu and making the operation method close to the daily Windows window habit.
Third, the chip
The most important chips are storage and decoding chips, and manufacturers usually don't disclose the information of storage chips. Of course, the chips of Samsung, Intel, Toshiba and other big manufacturers are of better quality, but unfortunately they can only be seen by disassembling the machine. Don't mention it.
As for the decoding chip, it is mentioned in many MP3 evaluations, which not only determines the speed of audio processing, but also determines the special sound effects of MP3, including multiple eq and 3D sound effects. Of course, the decoding chip is also one of the most important parts that affect the sound quality, and the algorithm of APU (Audio Processing Unit) will play a decisive role in waveform restoration. Although MP3 format is lossy compression, the sound quality of MP3 will be greatly improved after using high sampling rate. However, MP3 audio files with high sampling rate need decoding chips to support high data flow, and the decoding chips used by cheap products are obviously insufficient at this time.
At the same time, the bad result of MP3 decoding chip is not only the sound quality degradation, but also the inability to support MP3 audio files with high sampling rate. For example, besides MP3, popular music compression formats include Microsoft WMA, ogg and MP3 pro, which can provide better sound quality at the same bit rate or provide smaller files at the same sound quality, but not all chips can support them. In addition, there is a good balance between sound quality and file size in MP3 VBR coding mode. Because of the variable bit rate, many chips can't support it well, and they can only decode according to the minimum bit rate or average bit rate of VBR coded files, which shows that the screen of the player can't walk accurately when timing, and the time of jumping back and forth is uneven. In addition, users who have the highest requirements for sound quality often choose the code rate of CBR 320kbs to compress MP3, but many chips only support MP3 with the maximum code rate of 256kbs, which cannot be decoded correctly.
Note that more advanced decoding chips are not used for newer products, and only those high-end products will use high-end chips. The decoders used in low-end MP3 are all products in stock several years ago, which leads to homogenization. They will sell with better headphones as a gimmick, but the inherent disadvantages will never change! At present, the most common chips in MP3 players on the market are Sigmatel, Actions, Sunplus (Sunplus), MosArt (Medium Silicon), Atmel, Telechip, st, PHILIPS, CRYSTAL and so on. These chips are mainly produced in Taiwan Province Province, China and South Korea, among which Actions is the product of mainland companies, and Sunplus and MosArt are the most common single-chip solutions among cheap MP3 players on the market.
At present, the more advanced decoding chips are Philips PNX0 10 1ET and SIGMATEL 3520. Compared with the previous SAA770EL, PNX 010/ET has a smaller external volume, but its performance is greatly improved. The running power consumption is much less than that of SAA7750EL, but the efficiency is much higher. Compared with SAA7750EL, the highest audio output power of SAA750EL is increased by 18mW from 12mW by 50%, and the playing time is also greatly shortened.
Sigmatel 3520 is an upgraded version of the well-known classic model Sigmatel 34 10. The latter is widely used in China. It is said that 80% MP3 players on the market use Sigmatel 34 10 chips, which are mature and stable, and have excellent sound quality. On the basis of 34 10, 3520 chip adds many new features: the sound quality is improved, and the signal-to-noise ratio reaches 95DB；; Support USB2.0 interface: USB2.0 interface on PC is becoming more and more popular now. If your MP3 player can support this transmission standard, you can enjoy the pleasure of high-speed transmission. Faster processing speed: Compared with the previous generation, the processing speed of Sigmatel 3520 series DSP is increased to 75 MHz (65MHz for 34xx series). With the improvement of processing speed, MP3 designers can add more functions, such as fancy menus, multiple sound modes and compatibility with non-mainstream audio formats. Audio formats, such as ogg, MP3 pro, etc., all require MP3 to have powerful operation speed, so as to complete complex tasks such as decoding and adding sound effects. Less power consumption: the playing time can exceed 17 hours (single AAA battery).
Other chips include firmware memory, FM radio and digital camera processing chip. But we don't need to care too much about the model or performance of these chips, because the manufacturers have obtained the optimal solution after many collocations, so we don't need to worry about this.
Fourth, headphones.
Headphones include two parts. One is the output power of MP3 itself. High output power (two headphones add up to more than 20mW) can drive some high-impedance high-end headphones and make the sound quality more perfect. Second, the quality of the earphone itself, judging people by their appearance is an inevitable way, and the appearance of excellent headphones will certainly not be bad there. The most important thing to note is that those headphones are claimed to be the OEM of a famous leather factory for publicity. In fact, most headphones are not real OEM products, but the appearance is similar, and the interior is not the same thing. People are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being strong. Once a headset model has established a famous brand effect, many headset manufacturers will follow suit to produce similar products, and even MP3 manufacturers have begun to set foot in it. So don't blindly listen to the description of the business or some press releases. The best way is to listen to it yourself. To tell the truth, most MP3 headphones on the market are not so good. Even the high-end products still let us down. Only those really high-end products will have headphones that are more acceptable. If you really pay attention to the quality of MP3 headphones, you can only choose from the top models of various brands.
By the way, even the real OEM headphones, their product performance and quality are inevitably not as good as the retail version of headphones. The retail version of the product should take into account both brand image and profit, and the requirements for the product will be much higher. Relatively speaking, OEM is only incidental, and some standards do not meet the requirements of the retail version, so there is no need to care too much. In short, don't be too superstitious about OEM headphones attached to MP3. It's better to buy some brand-name headphones around 50- 150 yuan, which is definitely better than the so-called OEM products.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) function
MP3 has more and more functions. Like PDA and mobile phone, it is developing to multi-function, absorbing the functions of other products as much as possible to increase the selling point of products. When buying, you should start on demand and don't blindly pursue versatility. The more functions, the more expensive they are. When you buy them back, you will find that many of them are useless.
Removable hard disk: The computer directly recognizes MP3 as removable storage, which can store all kinds of files except music.
Firmware upgrade: solve the known software and hardware faults after product release and add new functions.
Folder browsing: store different songs by folder and play them as a unit. There is no need to put all MP3s in the same directory, which improves the convenience of management.
Multilingual: It mainly supports simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese and English, and some models even have 26 languages.
A-B repetition method: Reading a passage repeatedly is convenient for learning a foreign language.
Text reading: Usually only large-screen MP3 players have this function, which can be read as an e-book. Some products also support the text format of PDA. If the firmware capacity is sufficient, you can also download various Chinese and foreign fonts. Auto-scrolling is also useful. When turning pages automatically or automatically, the background light is always on, which not only saves the trouble of turning pages by yourself, but also completely makes up for the shortcomings of small display screen. You can even listen to MP3 while reading, just like a PDA with simplified functions.
TTS(text-to-speech) directly converts text into text through MP3, with no change in tone and rhythm. It sounds strange, but it is very suitable for lazy people who don't want to read books.
Dictionary: An English-Chinese dictionary for translation. Note that MP3 control keys are limited, and it is not easy to input English words.
Automatic recording function: Through SAD (Sound Activity Detector), you can set the mute duration and record only when there is sound, which saves both memory space and playback time.
Remote recording: AGC (Automatic Gain Control) can be used to adjust the sensitivity and recording quality (low, heavy and high), which is suitable for long-distance external recording, such as meetings.
FM: Listening to the radio, many products can preset several channels without having to tune them every time.
FM recording: Transfer radio content to MP3, and some products also have FM recording! You can enter which day of the week, when and how many hertz of channels to start recording. You won't miss it because you are busy with your favorite radio programs or foreign language learning programs. You can record it and listen slowly.
Direct recording: encode and compress external audio sources (CD/MD walkman, home stereo, computer) into music files and store them directly on MP3. Due to the poor performance of the built-in coding chip of MP3 player, the sound quality is not as good as that of the music files compressed by computer.
Clock: the time setting can input the month, day and hour, and can be used as a watch again.
Alarm clock: You can set a timed alarm clock, which can not only beep when installing earplugs, but also beep when you bring your own speaker. The alarm clock will work without earplugs.
Shut down regularly: it can be set to 0 ~ 180 minutes. Of course, it can also be set to automatically shut down for 0 ~ 60 minutes without operation, which is most convenient for listening to songs before going to bed at night.
The photo browser can not only browse the photos taken, but also enjoy the pictures downloaded by the computer. Because the screen of MP3 is small and the resolution is relatively high, you will feel beautiful when you look at the picture, but most screens are limited in proportion. If the scale is wrong, it will be deformed and cannot be displayed normally.
Digital camera: Like the early cameras of mobile phones, it adopts1-300,000 pixels1/5.5 "CMOS lens. The main disadvantage of CMOS is its slow brightness sensing, so the shooting effect is better in a well-lit environment. The biggest advantage of CMOS is its small size, which is most suitable for MP3 walkman. The camera itself also has many functions, such as digital zoom and multi-effect shooting.
Sixth, the battery
MP3 players mostly use No.5 (AA) or No.7 (AAA) batteries, which can be bought at will and are relatively cheap (0.5-5 yuan). If it is a rechargeable lithium battery (10- 15 yuan), the service time is quite long, and the playing time can reach more than 10 hour. Carrying extra batteries can meet the demand for 2-3 days. You can't always plug your ears with headphones.
The important thing to say here is that lithium batteries can be divided into two types: detachable and non-detachable. The detachable lithium battery is very convenient to use and can be replaced at any time. In addition to charging after connecting the computer with USB cable, you can also charge with the attached power adapter. Its large capacity and special discharge mode can guarantee the playing time of more than 30 hours, which is enough for three AA batteries. However, there are few MP3 players using detachable lithium batteries, and they will not exceed the model of 10 on the market. The nameplate on the battery will indicate the battery working voltage, safety matters, warranty period and other information, as well as the maximum output current and charging time, so as to facilitate re-purchase. However, the price of purchasing a detachable lithium battery is quite expensive (about 150-200 yuan). Because of its small size, it will be very painful if you accidentally lose it.
In contrast, non-removable lithium batteries have no loss. MP3 players using this kind of battery are usually quite small, and they don't even have the LCD screen of power saver, but they can still play for 6-8 hours. Its biggest problem is that it often needs to be recharged. If you use it for a long time, you have to carry a charger with you, which is really troublesome. If you have all kinds of digital products, the weight of the charger alone is enough for you. In addition, pay attention to its life. Many people don't care much when using lithium batteries. They often charge the battery before it runs out, or charge it many times a day, which will seriously affect the normal life of lithium batteries. The omen is that the use time is getting shorter and shorter until it can't be recharged at last. Once the non-removable lithium battery is damaged, it can only be repaired and replaced by the manufacturer. Only manufacturers have this special battery with unique shape, and the replacement price is about 100 yuan/block. After the product has passed the warranty period, the maintenance fee will be paid, and the long-term investment will be doubled.
Seven. capacity
Of course, the larger the capacity, the better. The storage capacity of 10-40GB is different from that of 256MB- 1GB. However, capacity involves many problems. When it comes to large-capacity MP3 players, many readers who are familiar with this market will definitely think of innovative jukeboxes. As a product to create a large-capacity MP3 player market, this product once became synonymous with large-capacity MP3. Compared with the first generation jukebox, the latest product is slightly smaller, but it still belongs to the level of "behemoth". Because of its large size, this product has also been criticized by many consumers, which directly led to its failure in the confrontation with Apple iPod. The success of iPod depends on its beautiful appearance, compact size and super capacity. Everyone understands this point. While pursuing capacity, we can't ignore volume, and the cost is too high. Only by achieving a good balance among the three can we maintain the survival value of products.
It is worth noting that at present, most MP3s use flash memory chips as storage media, and the high price of flash memory chips has become the biggest obstacle to the popularization of large capacity. Therefore, technological breakthrough will be the development direction of large-capacity players. If you really need to pursue high capacity, you have to give up the flash memory chip and choose the hard disk MP3. Look at the sky-high price of those 5 12MB- 1GB products, which is enough to buy a hard disk MP3 with dozens of times capacity. Whether it is necessary to make such a big sacrifice for size, it is really necessary to consider clearly. Unless you are a person who never carries a backpack, a satchel, a hanging bag, or even a wallet or a mobile phone, and want to be "light", or a friend with money to burn, it is still the best cost-effective hard disk MP3.
Xclef 500 produced by DMC is the largest MP3 player so far, with a storage capacity of 137GB. Using USB 2.0 interface, line input or optical input, the recording quality can reach 320Kbps. Support MP3 VBR compression ratio. Built-in 2.5-inch hard disk, with FM radio, FM recording, language recording, 7-line large-screen display, support for ID3, multi-language version, built-in lithium battery, capacity of 2000 mA, its body with 12MB buffer, signal-to-noise ratio greater than 90dB, distortion rate only 0.0 1%, headphone output power double 65438+. The price is about $450, hehe, it's enough to buy a high-performance PDA.
Eight, transmission speed
Nowadays, most MP3 players have the function of flash disk, so the speed is very important when transferring files or music. USB 2.0, also known as high-speed USB, has a transmission speed of 480Mbps=60MB//s/s. In other words, theoretically, the first 5MB MP3 of 12 can be transmitted in one second. As for IEEE 1394 (Firewire), the speed is 400M bps = 50MB//s, and the first 5MB MP3 of 10 can be transmitted in one second. For 256,512mb products, copying songs is just a breeze, even if it is a GB hard disk MP3, it will not be too slow. But if you use USB 1.0, its speed is only 12 Mbps = 1.5MB/s, and it takes 3.3 seconds to copy a 5MB song. It's really a pity to wait for flowers, especially on the hard disk MP3. Not many people have such good patience.
Be sure to check whether MP3 supports USB 2.0 before buying. At present, there are about 30-40 products supporting USB 2.0 on the market, which are generally relatively new models. But not many products will clearly mark this function on the shell. We can only find it through the manual or the packing box, or ask the dealer directly. If you are really not sure, the best way is to try it on the computer. Since most motherboards already contain USB 2.0 interfaces, Win XP will prompt you to find related devices.
Nine. additional
The quality of accessories is the most direct depends on whether the manufacturer is willing to pay attention to it. Usually MP3 has product manual, earplug, USB online cable, warranty card and drive disk. Higher-end products will also include armbands, cloth bags, purses, audio cables, music direct recording cables, lanyards hanging around the neck, earplug protective films, batteries, chargers and so on. In short, the more accessories, the more exquisite workmanship, which proves that the quality of the walkman itself will not be bad. Haven't you heard the phrase "there are no weak soldiers under a fierce general"