First; Introduction to the Walkman
A Walkman is a device that is small in size, light in weight, and easy to carry with you to collect, record, and play back sounds. In the early days, it was like Sony's Walkman and Aihua. JX505 and other JX series, Panasonic, etc.; later CD, MD, MP3, MP4, cmmb digital mobile TV, etc. are characterized by being easy to carry, pocket-sized, and using headphones to play sound, and are a category of electronic products. The term originally came from a brand of Japan's Sony Corporation (Sony), and the Chinese name was changed from "Walkman". The Walkman initially only had the functions of radio, tape playback or recording. Due to its small size, it could be carried around the waist and was mostly used by young people. With the development and progress of electronic technology, the size has become smaller and smaller, and many varieties have evolved, including CD, MD, MP3, MP4 and other types. The Walkman market has been dominated by the founder Sony-Walkman for 25 years, and the market has gradually It was eroded by MP3 and was replaced by Apple's iPod as the number one market share.
[Edit this paragraph] Development of Walkman
The world’s first Walkman was the Walkman portable tape player developed by Sony in 1979, marking the beginning of portable music The concept was born, and the word Walkman has since become synonymous with portable music players. The Walkman has been developed for more than 20 years, during which time new Sony music standards and varieties have continued to emerge. Currently, there are mainly four types of Walkman, Discman, MD, and MP3 players that are still popular. Walkman in this article generally refers to a tape player that uses analog recording.
First, let’s briefly talk about the Walkman tape player in which tape is the playback medium. Since Philips released the first audio tape in 1966, as a music storage medium, its popularity in the market has reached the point where everyone knows it, and the price of the tape is also in the current mainstream of the four types of walk-ins. Listen to the lowest storage medium. The convenient recording function and good shock-proof performance of magnetic tape have been widely recognized earlier. The biggest flaw of the Walkman is that it uses an analog recording method that relies on the distribution of magnetic particles on the tape to record sound. Therefore, its sound quality is almost incomparable with current digital sound quality, and it requires such a long tape. It's also quite difficult to find one of the songs quickly. Although there are currently some technologies such as Dolby noise reduction to make up for the shortcomings in sound quality, and some mid-range models have adopted a method to quickly find the beginning and end of a song, realizing the function of directly selecting songs, but the Walkman After all, it is already at the end of its game in the face of many digital Walkmans. At present, its most practical use lies in learning foreign languages. Some students and other people with tight pockets will also prefer the cheaper Walkman (except for those in professional fields and high-end applications). ).
Next on the scene is the boss of the three digital walkman-Discman (CD player). Discman was launched by SONY in 1984. In the following years, this product became popular all over the world. However, due to the high price of Discman, and CD discs are usually several times more expensive than ordinary tapes, Discman entered the domestic mainstream. The market is probably only about four or five years old. At present, the price of Discman has fallen back to a more reasonable price. Generally, you can buy a low-end Nissan product for 500 to 600 yuan, and domestically produced products are even cheaper. As for the advantages of Discman, even with the rapid development of digital music today, CD is still synonymous with the highest sound quality. Its audio range has exceeded the range of human hearing, which is beyond the reach of tape! Some of the "advanced" functions on the Walkman, such as automatic song selection, single replay, and optional replay, are just basic functions on the Discman.
The biggest disadvantage of the Discman is that it is too bulky and inconvenient to carry. Generally, few people will hang it on their waist or put it in their pocket. It is best to carry a bag when taking it out! Another point is that when the Walkman is used on the move, the laser head will pause when reading data. Although there are many anti-shock technologies, it will still have an impact on the sound quality or battery life. There are many aiwajx505 manufacturers currently producing Discman, including Sony, Panasonic, Kenwood, aiwa, Philips, etc. Most of the domestic market has been dominated by SONY and Panasonic. Occupy, even Aihua, which is so popular in the Walkman market, can only survive in the cracks between SONY and Panasonic. Among them, SONY is the setter of CD standards and has certain advantages in the manufacturing of DISCMAN. There are different options in terms of price, high, middle and low-end, so they are quite competitive. In terms of sound quality, Sony is characterized by accurate and delicate sound, warmer sound base, and more durable. Compared with SONY, Panasonic is undoubtedly a model of catching up from behind. According to Japanese statistics, the sales figures of Panasonic Discman have far exceeded SONY. There are many reasons for Panasonic's success, but the most important thing is low price. Whether it is Walkman or Discman, Panasonic's price is lower than that of almost every product of the same grade, or it can provide more accessories.
Currently, the most popular among the three types of digital players are MD and MP3 players.
MD is the abbreviation of MiniDisc. It was first published by SONY in 1992 (why is it SONY again?). It is a magneto-optical disc storage medium specially designed for the record publishing industry. Its sound quality can be close to that of CD. It is currently quite popular in Asia, mainly Japan. In 1993, SONY released the MD Data Drive for computer storage (similar to the MO used in computers). The so-called mini disc is a physical medium that stores music. It is a small 160MB (140MB in data mode) disc placed in a small plastic case. It can store approximately 74 minutes of music and can rewrite music countless times. data.
The MD format mainly defines two new types of music discs: one is a recordable magneto-optical disc for home recording; the other is a non-recordable disc for music distribution (actually it is also There is an uncommon blending mode). Both formats are 64mm in size and use an audio compression technology called ATRAC and a specific storage format. It is precisely because of the existence of this audio compression technology that Convenient MD can store about 60 to 80 minutes of compressed 44.1Khz, stereo music. There are many reasons why MD is so popular, the most important of which is that it is much smaller than Discman. The MD rewritable magneto-optical disk itself is only 64 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick. It is built into a 72×68×5 mm hard plastic protective sleeve. It looks like a three-inch computer disk, but The actual size is smaller than the three-inch plate. With a carrier that is much smaller than a CD, you can enjoy sound quality similar to that of a CD. This is its greatest success. Moreover, the high durability of MD discs is also obvious. Compared with the poor recording quality of tapes and the easy wear and tear of CDs, MD has almost no physical defects. Basically, external factors are not likely to affect MD discs. Discs are affected. In addition, MD's storage method is similar to computer hard disk sectors, so you can easily move the location of songs around and freely split or combine track segments. MD also has many shortcomings. For example, it is expensive (machine, disc, preferably a computer or Discman and a lot of CDs), and it takes a long time to record music (even if you record songs from a computer, it is not as convenient as copying files, and it takes a lot of recording). It takes a long time to play music for a long time), it is more troublesome to use as a data carrier, and it is still too large as a walkman.
It is precisely because of SONY's huge investment in vigorous promotion, good business operations, luxurious packaging, huge brand appeal, etc., that contributed to the success of MD. At present, there are not many MD brands. The more common ones on the market are SONY, SHARP (Sharp), Panasonic, Aiwa, Pioneer, etc. Among them, SONY and SHARP are the "peerless twins" in the MD market, both in terms of technology and products. They all have their own advantages. Other manufacturers use the movements of these two companies, or directly OEM their products.
Finally, it’s the turn of the little brother of the digital Walkman - the MP3 player (Walkman). In 1998, South Korea's SEAHAN company launched the world's first MP3 Walkman. In just a few years, as the MP3 music format became popular on the global Internet, MP3 Walkman became popular on all major players. Respected by world-class manufacturers, they are becoming more and more mature, with their fast file transfer and recording, and their appearance is getting cooler and more functions, whether at home or abroad (except Japan, they Sticking to their own MD camp), they are increasingly loved by the trendy people who pursue fashion. MP3 is a mathematical algorithm developed to compress music and is mainly used to spread audio quickly and effectively. With the rapid development of the Internet, and the emergence of Internet companies such as Scour.net, Napster and MP3 that provide music downloads for portable pocket radios, MP3 has quickly become the preferred audio format for Internet-connected desktop computers. MP3 is so popular that people dream of using it in portable consumer electronics. To do this, you need to find a storage medium to store music files. Regarding the shortcomings of Discman and MD, they are actually the advantages of MP3 players. Since music is stored in solid-state Flash memory, MP3 players do not have mechanical transmission parts, so they are not afraid of vibrations caused by physical collisions, and there is no restriction on the size of the disc in terms of appearance design. You can design it as you like, which is small and cool. shape. In addition, compared with MD, another great advantage of MP3 player is its "recording" process - you only need to simply copy the music files from the computer. In other words, the recording time is much shorter than the actual playback time. It only takes a few minutes to get music equivalent to the length of a CD. In addition, MP3 music "sources" are everywhere on the Internet, which is beyond the reach of MD. of. However, MP3 players also have a fatal flaw - the sound quality is too poor. As we all know, the MP3 music format has undergone efficient lossy compression, and the sound quality is simply incomparable with CD. Even compared with the same compressed MD, it is much worse. This is why MP3 music is so popular among real music lovers. The main reason for shame (especially when paired with good headphones, the difference in sound quality between the two is quite obvious).
[Edit this paragraph] Walkman
In March 1979, at the request of Jing Shenda, the audio department modified the "Pressman", a small recorder used by reporters, into a volume The smaller recorder received praise from many people for its good sound quality. Under the leadership of Akio Morita, Sony launched the Walkman (Walkman) in July 1979. Akio Morita positioned the Walkman in the youth market and emphasized Young, energetic and fashionable, he created the headphone culture. In February 1980, he began to sell it all over the world. In November 1980, he began to use "Walkman", a non-standard Japanese English brand, globally until 1998. , "Walkman" has sold more than 250 million units worldwide. After Akio Morita was awarded the British knighthood in October 1992, the title of the British media was "Get up, Sony Walkman Sir".
Starting in 1991, WalkMan began to launch the MD system and continued to be the first in the world. In 2000, WalkMan adopted a new trademark to symbolize the interconnection of the Internet generation and launched online music downloads. The service "PlanetMG" has too little music and must use the "Atrac-3" format. Market acceptance has always been low. Starting in 2000, MP3 gradually became popular, and low-price competitors continued to launch flash drives that used cache memory to support MP3. , MP3 gradually moved from personal computers to the Walkman market. Therefore, in 2000, Sony launched the first
The "NW-A Series" will be launched in November 2005
[Edit this paragraph] CD
CD stands for small laser disk, which is a A general term for all CD media formats. The CD formats currently on the market include audio CD, CD-ROM, CD-ROM cdsonyXA, photo CD, CD-I and video CD, etc. Among these various CD formats, perhaps the most familiar one is Audio CD, which is a standard CD format for storing sound signal tracks such as music and songs. CD Digital Audio (CDDA) was introduced by Sony and Philip during the 1980s as a form of music distribution. Because of the huge success of audio CDs, today the use of this medium has expanded to include data storage for the purposes of data archiving and transfer. Compared with various traditional data storage media such as floppy disks and audio tapes, CDs are most suitable for storing large amounts of data, which may be any form or combination of computer files, audio signal data, photo image files, software applications and videos. data. Advantages of CDs include durability, convenience, and cost effectiveness.
[Edit this paragraph]MD
It is a music storage medium officially mass-produced by Sony Corporation of Japan in 1992. Nowadays, portable MD machines are generally called MD. The audio compression algorithms used by MD machines include ATRAC/ATRAC 3 (compression ratios with CD-DA are 1:5 and 1:10 respectively). The MD machines themselves can be divided into recordable/downloadable types. MD machine (has writing head and reading laser head) and single-player MD machine (only has laser head for reading data).
Due to the use of specially developed magnetic heads, laser heads, mechanical components, etc., it can be said that the MD machine is a product with high technical content that integrates optical, magnetic, mechanical, and electrical technologies, and is different from ordinary portable CD players and tape drives. In comparison, MD machines not only have CD-like sound quality (only similar, the actual sound quality is not as good as CD), a relatively reliable data retention period, but also have the re-writable function of tape drives. For ordinary consumers, you can simply think of an MD player as the middle ground between a CD player and a tape player. The MD machine allows users to record music by themselves, and can record all sounds from all audio source devices through appropriate connection methods (analog audio cables, optical fiber cables, microphones). At the same time, users can perform editing operations such as naming, splitting, moving, and deleting the music recorded on the MD disc. Because MD uses digital methods to record music information like CD, it can also perform rapid track changes, program sequence playback, random playback and repeat playback like CD. Moreover, the advantage of digitally recording music is that it can avoid background noise during tape player playback, providing users with a purer music enjoyment.
[Edit this paragraph]MP3
"MP3 player" is software and equipment that can be used to play MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer3) audio format. Currently, it is commonly known as "MP3 player" "Player" refers to mzmp3, a walkman that can be placed in your pocket. It is usually an entertainment tool used to play MP3 music. Due to the development of technology and the price reduction of decoding chips and flash chips, it has become increasingly popular in recent years. MP4 has also begun to flourish!
MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer3) is an efficient compression technology based on high fidelity. It uses a special data compression algorithm to process the original audio signal, so that the size of the digital audio file is only one-tenth of the original size, while the quality of the music has not changed, almost close to the quality of a CD record. A one-minute WAVE format file weighs more than a dozen megabytes, while a one-minute MP3 format audio file is only about one megabyte. MP3 technology makes it possible to store large amounts of audio data in a small storage space. Take the standard CD-ROM we commonly use as an example: a CD can store about the same music as a cassette. If it is stored in MP3 format, it can store hundreds of songs.
[Edit this paragraph]MP4
An MP4 player is a device that can play MPEG-4 files. It is slightly larger than MP3. It can be called PVP (Personal Video Player, personal video player) or PMP (Portable Media Player, portable media player). There is currently no specific definition of the function of an MP4 player. Although many manufacturers define it as a multimedia audio and video player, in addition to the basic functions of listening to and watching movies, it also supports music playback, browsing pictures, and even some products can access the Internet. But in order to emphasize the characteristics of portability, the MP4 players we discuss here will be based on portability and video playback. They can transfer files through USB or 1394 ports, and easily download video files to the device for playback. It should have its own LCD screen to meet the needs of playing videos at any time.
The emergence of MPEG-4 technology allows high-quality videos to be compressed smaller. This has been confirmed by many users in the videos obtained through different channels, and due to the long launch time and numerous supporting companies, You can easily obtain video resources in this area. But the encoders that really bring benefits to MP4 players are MPEG-4 derivative technologies—Divx and Xvid.
However, while enjoying high-quality video encoding technology, MP4 players also encounter some difficulties: due to the complexity and large number of MPEG-4 encoding technologies, taking Divx and Xvid as examples, AVI encoded with Divx technology Video files can be called MPEG-4, and AVI video files encoded with Xvid can also be called MPEG-4.
The MPEG-4 files generated by the two completely incompatible encoding formats all use the same extension, so how the player can quickly and perfectly be compatible with files with different encodings is a matter of concern.
MP4 players require a fairly powerful decoding processing chip to complete the decoding process of video files. If you are a user who has used computers for a long time, you should remember that when the Divx encoder came out, encoding The developer of the encoder recommends using a computer with a main frequency of 400MHz or above to complete decoding (Xvid encoder appeared later, lm970, but the decoded data volume is basically the same as Divx). Although the dedicated DSP chip and the CPU chip focus on different applications, it can be seen that the MP4 player's requirements for the chip's computing power are not simple. Not only that, because MP4 players are portable devices, they also need chips to integrate many functions (such as supporting LCD display, CF, SD memory card, or hard disk interface controller, etc.) and have low energy consumption. It is precisely because of these demanding requirements That's why MP4 players came long overdue.
W stands for Walkman music player mobile phone. The W series takes the first letter of Walkman and is a series of music phones. It has a very professional player and very good sound quality.
MP5 Player
Advantages and Prospect Analysis
What is MP5? I believe that even many digital manufacturers cannot give a specific definition now, but we can generally understand it as MP4 that can watch TV. With the continuous development of media player products, it is no longer possible to download audio-visual products such as MP3 and MP4. To meet the needs of personalization and online consumption, multi-functional players such as online live broadcast and download storage have emerged. The core function of MP5, a new generation of portable personal multimedia terminal, is to use terrestrial and satellite digital TV channels to realize online digital video live viewing and download viewing functions. At the same time, MP5 has a built-in 40-100G hard drive, and users can transfer MP3, online movies, etc. Even DVD blockbusters, TV series, and your favorite photos are all included.
The MP5 player uses software and hardware collaborative multimedia processing technology, which can make the product highly collaborative and scalable with relatively low power consumption, technical difficulty, and cost. It is also the first Applying the ARM11 platform to handheld multimedia terminals, its main frequency can reach up to 1GHz and can play more video formats, such as avi, asf, dat, etc., as well as rm and rmvb, which have the richest network resources. Some MP5s also require listening to radio broadcasts. Listen to the music well. This has brought real benefits to consumers and the development of the industry, and also solved the bottleneck of industry development.
MP5
Features of MP5 player
MP5 player uses software and hardware collaborative multimedia processing technology, which can use relatively low power consumption and technical difficulty. , cost, making the product highly collaborative and scalable. It is also the first to apply the ARM11 platform to handheld multimedia terminals. Its main frequency can reach up to 1GHz and can play more video formats, such as avi, asf, dat etc., as well as rm and rmvb which are the richest network resources. This has brought real benefits to consumers and the development of the industry, and also solved the bottleneck of industry development.
Music
Voice compression technology occupies a very important position in current consumer products. Its applications can be realized in everything from Internet phones to toys, and it can be used according to different Different technologies have been developed for the range of applications.
In terms of video
The emergence of MP5 players has solved the problems encountered by MP4 to a large extent. In order to solve the contradiction between film source restrictions and hardware product support formats, MP5 The player product officially surfaced. MP5 is a brand new concept in the field of portable digital entertainment. It can support more videos, especially online video resources.
In terms of DRM digital copyright protection, the ability to carry out synchronous transmission is a great boon to the legitimate business of copyright protection, catering to the trend of domestic and international legitimate business.
Currently, online video resources are very abundant, among which RM and RMVB launched by real company account for more than 80% of the video resources. The RMVB format uses dynamic bit rate encoding, and the bit rate is adjusted according to the dynamic situation of the picture. The greater the dynamics of the picture, the higher the encoding bit rate. Compared with other formats, it can express dynamic images more clearly and smoothly with the same file size. Therefore, it is the most commonly used video compression format in online video downloads. Therefore, it has good support for the RMVB format. , is the most direct and effective way for portable multimedia players to solve the problem of film sources.
Attachment: MP5 player is largely a concept created by merchants after MP3 (MPEG-3) and MP4 (MPEG4). In fact, the MPEG-5 format is not Does not exist, and merchants have not reached an agreement on what standards MP5 players should comply with. Since its inception, the MP5 market has always been in a state of dispute over concepts and standards
Second, personal recommendation
I would consider choosing an MP4 in my recommendation, such as
SONY MP4 M70
True color display: 2.0-inch 200X176 high-definition screen
Supported file formats: MP3; WMA; WAV; JPG; TXT
Movie playback: Real MPEG-4, AMV video playback, the picture quality is clear and smooth and takes up very little storage space. Support AMV format MPEG-4 video playback. Supports 200X176 format AMV. Random software can be used for quick conversion.
Supports converting video formats: AMV RM RMVB MPG MP4 ASF WMV MKV DAT VOB, etc.
Electronic photo album: supports JPEG image browsing, can browse photos from various digital cameras, and supports catalog browsing. It can be displayed without converting it into a small picture (pictures exceeding 5 million pixels are not supported for display, and pictures exceeding 5 million pixels need to be converted)
Recording function: built-in high-quality MIC to achieve high-definition digital recording
Built-in lithium battery: Ultra-large-capacity lithium-ion battery, supports long-term playback
Leisure and entertainment: Snake, Tetris and other small games are provided for your entertainment.
Text reading: Extraordinary text recording function (with bookmark function), you can copy the text to the machine and read it at any time. 8 lines of text display (the text title occupies one line), and one screen can effectively display 84 Chinese characters (excluding titles). Convenient page turning function. The text display is as detailed as a computer web page. There is absolutely no glare or blurred writing.
Resource Manager: Built-in convenient resource manager directory display. Convenient search tasks.
Supported languages: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English
Basic parameters
Dimensions: 75 mm×48 mm×14mm
Display: 2.0-inch Guili screen
Built-in capacity: 2G
Interface type: USB2.0
Built-in power supply: 3.7V lithium battery 1000mAh/external : 100V ~ 240V power adapter
Supported memory cards: Secure Digital Card (SD), Multimedia Card (MMC), MINI SD/ Memory Stick (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS ProDuo) and other memory cards
Temperature conditions Storage temperature: -40℃～60℃/Operating temperature: 0℃～60℃
Relative humidity: 90
Supported system: WIN98 or above No driver required (WIN98 requires a driver) Mac OS10 Linux2.4.2
Samsung EP-370 technical parameters
Model category: moving coil type
Drive unit: Φ16mm , neodymium magnet
Output sound pressure: 110dB/mW
Maximum power withstanding: 50mW
Frequency response: 10-24,000Hz
Weight (excluding wire): 7g
Impedance: 32Ω
Wire: 1.2m
Plug: Φ2.5mm