Making the right choice with MP3 Players

Category : Audio

MP3 players are very big business now and the choices are endless. Whether your buying for a present or for yourself some things should be considered before you make that purchase. MP3 players and MP3 jukeboxes come in very different shapes, sizes, weights and styles. With some of the pointers in this article we hope to offer you enough advice for you to make the right decision when buying an MP3 player.

While price is a factor on everybody's list, we will leave the price factor alone for a while as this is more a restricting factor than one that will bring you to the MP3 player that you really need. We will start with the situation that the MP3 player is to be used in. For example do you need your MP3 player to go to the gym with or out jogging etc. If so you will want a light MP3 player along the lines of a flash memory player. These MP3 players are also small and compact and very light. Perfect for hanging round your neck. Because flash memory has no moving parts, jogging or other exercises will not be a problem.

You may well find yourself in a situation where you have your MP3 player on at work maybe connected to a set of speakers. If your at work for 8 hours a day then a flash memory will probably not be able to hold enough songs for you as they will be repeated and you will have to change them on your player each day if wanted new songs. Looking at this situation you will be looking at a 20Gb+ MP3 jukebox. These can hold thousands of songs at once, they can programmed with multiple playlists and can play specific albums single songs or simple play a random list of thousands of tracks. The downside of these players is that they are heavier as they use a hard drive like in your computer to store the massive amount of songs. They also do not like to be banged around as the disk could fail after too many bumps. These are best for coach rides, the workplace or connected up at home, anywhere where you don't have to move them around too much.

Battery life is an important factor in any MP3 player. Flash players usually use either 1 or 2 AA or AAA batteries and will require changing, or for you to recharge the batteries if you are using that type. Most of the large hard drive based MP3 players with have a battery pack, Some are fixed and come with a mains charger, some others have removable battery packs allowing you to purchase spares and use one while charging another. If you use your MP3 player everyday then look for one with a long battery life as this will cause you less hassle.

Synchronising is the process in which you take the songs from your computer and put them onto your MP3 players. I have had a lot experience MP3 players and can tell you that some are much easier to use than others. When purchasing an MP3 player I recommend that you look for one that states it can be synchronised directly from Windows Media Player. As most of you (sorry Mac users) will have Windows Media Player on your computer you can easily select which songs and playlists you want to put onto your MP3 player and let WMP do it all for you automatically.

Once you have decided which type of MP3 player you are looking for Flash memory or Hard Drive based, you will be wanting to look at the cosmetics and extra's that you can have on your MP3 players. I will start with the ipods here. Just Because these are the most popular brand of MP3 player on the market does not make them the best, it does however virtually guarantee that fancy new covers, gadgets and upgrades will be easily available to you.

You may be interested in an MP3 player that also stores photos. If so these are usually sold with photo in the name, like the ipod photo. These are only available in the more expensive hard drive based systems but the good ones can used in conjunction with your digital camera, to allow you to take pictures on your camera and then download onto your MP3 player, freeing up space on your camera to take even more photos.

We hope there is enough information here for you to make an informed decision when buying an MP3 player but if not please feel free to post any questions in the PantherProducts Forum where we would be glad to help you out.

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