Shopping for an MP3 player can be full of pitfalls if you do not know what you are doing.
By learning the various terms used by distributors of MP3 players, you will be able to make an educated decision on which ones will best suit your needs.
These terms are also useful for those who own an MP3 player, and require more information on the terms presented in user manuals.
- AAC: Advanced Audio Coding: This is a music format that succeeded MP3 due to allowing lower bit rates while providing more stable quality. This is a preferred format type, although MP3 is still more popular, as more people know of it.
- AC Adapter: This is an adapter that plugs into your MP3 device and allows you to play music without wearing out the batteries. Some models use an AC adapter to recharge the internal batteries.
- AM Radio Tuner: AM Radio Tuners allow you to listen to AM channels through your MP3 player. AM Radio tuning is a secondary option that is not standard with most MP3 players.
- Apple Lossless: Apple's format of music encoding that is perfect in sound quality and while most other encoding formats cause a loss in quality.
- Bass Boost: This feature allows you to up the level of bass that your MP3 players and speakers produce. This is popular with some forms of music. Bass boost does not amplify overall volume. It simply amplifies how noticeable the bass is.
- Battery Capacity: The amount of time the MP3 player can run on a fresh set of batteries.
- Battery Type: There are many different types of batteries used in MP3 players, ranging from AAs, Ds, and rechargeable batteries. You should know the battery type prior to purchase, as this can greatly affect the costs it takes to run your player.
- Capacity: Capacity can mean several things. It can refer to Memory capacity or battery Capacity.
- Click Wheel: This feature comes with some Apple iPods. It allows you to surf through menus without having to lift your finger or thumb from the wheel. This is designed for convenience.
- Charge Time: This is how long it takes for your batteries to charge, if you have an MP3 system with rechargeable batteries.
- Codex: A requirement for decoding encoded music. MP3, MVA, etc are all different types of codexes.
- Dock: This is the ability to attach your MP3 player to another system. By docking, you can make your computer, or a sound system, play from your MP3 as if it was a native device.
- Encoding: This is how the format is stored. A codex is required to 'break' the encoding so that the music can be played.
- GB: Gigabyte. This is a measure of how much space is available on your memory unit for your MP3 player. A Gigabyte is 1024 megabytes.
- Firewire: This is a peripheral that allows for fast transfer of files. It is in many apple products, including the iPod. This lets you transfer data from one device to another faster than USB allows.
- Flash Memory Player: These players use flash memory instead of a hard drive to function. The flash memory has no moving parts, so is much more reliable than a hard drive in a transportable unit.
- FM Radio Tuner: This tuner allows you to access FM radio waves from your MP3 player. This is a secondary feature, and is not included with many standard MP3 players.
- Frequency Response: This is the level of frequency the MP3 player can handle. The better the frequency response, the higher quality music that will be played back.
- Hard Drive Player: This type of player uses a hard drive in order to store music. They have a higher capacity than flash memory players, but are more prone to breaking, should they be dropped or heavily mishandled.
- Impact Resistant: This means that the device has been specifically designed to handle abuse. While it is not completely immune to damage due to dropping, these devices are more likely to survive a drop than non-impact resistant devices.
- Intro Only Mode: This mode allows you to listen only to the initial portion of an MP3, if it was built with an introduction.
- iPod: This is Apple's MP3 player solution. With an iPod, you can access the iTunes network to listen and grab music.
- iTunes: This is apples on line music alternative. Through purchase of iTunes, you can listen to music on your iPod. It is one of the most popular music sources at the current time.
- Looped Playback: This allows you to listen to an entire cd on repeat, in normal order.
- MB: Megabyte. This is 1,048,576 bytes. This is one of the most commonly referred to file sizes, as most MP3s range anywhere from 1 to 12 MB.
- Memory Capacity: This is how much data that your MP3 player can hold. MP3 Players hold a range between 256 MB to 10+ GB.
- MP3: An MPEG encoding standard specifically designed for audio files. This file format is mostly used to transmit files over the Internet.
- Playlist: The songs and the order that they will be played on your MP3 player.
- Power Adapter: An adapter that allows you to play your MP3 power from a source of electricity other than batteries.
- Programmable: This means that the MP3 device is able to allow you to program what songs are heard in a specific order. This is useful for those who want to hear specific songs without having to skip around the songs they do not want to hear.
- Radio Tuner: This allows the MP3 player to make use of radio waves to play music. MP3 devices with Radio Tuners are not standard. These devices come primarily in three types. AM, FM and AM/FM.
- Random: This is the feature that allows you to listen music randomly from your playlist. Songs may be repeated, and it will continue to play music until you decide to end random or turn off the device.
- Rechargeable: This is for MP3 players that have internal batteries. By plugging it into an electric source, the batteries will recharge and let you play music.
- Removable Memory: This is memory that can be transfered from one MP3 player to another, or to a computer. This type of memory usually requires a memory card reader for computer use, and comes in the form of a small card, chip or stick.
- SDIM/SDMI Compliant: This is the Secure Digital Music Initiative. Commonly misspelled as SDIM (Secure Digital Initiative for Music). This is for use with PDMP (Portable Digital Music Players) such as MP3 players. This system is designed to protect copyrights on music and prevent piracy.
- Signal to Noise Ratio: This is the ration of music versus background noise. The better the SNR ratio, the higher the quality of music that you will get.
- Shuffle: This function is similar to Random. It plays all of the songs on your playlist once in a randomized fashion. Some shuffle options will repeat the playlist after all songs have been completed.
- Skip Resistance: This is the ability to have the MP3 player not skip when it has hit something. This is usually an issue only for hard drive based MP3 players, and mp3 players that use a cd to function.
- Treble Control: This controls the level of treble in comparison to the level of bass. Most MP3 devices do not possess very complex Treble controls. Treble is most commonly referred to as the 'foreground' aspect of music.
- USB: This is a device that allows you to transmit data from one device to another. USB is common in cameras and MP3 players. While iPods use Firewire, USB is used by many other systems, as firewire is primarily only used by Macintosh systems.
- Voice Recorder: This is a system that allows you to use a microphone in order to capture voice recordings. These are not a common feature in cheap or low quality mp3 players.
- Volume Control: This is the controls that allow you to determine how loud or soft you can play your music. Powerful headphones and speakers will give you a finer control of volume than cheaper ones. The MP3 player will also have a maximum output capacity, usually listed in Decibels.
- WAV: This is a file format type. It is what is normally found on CDs, and in many computer files. It is much larger, but higher quality, than MP3 format.
- WMA: Windows Media Audio. This format is standard with windows computers. It has a variety of features that make it a good format, but it is mostly uncommon, as most people prefer MP3s. Many MP3 players will support the WMA format.