Comments on: Retro Computing Corner: The World’s First MP3 Player (c. 1998)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:47:48 +0000

first ever mp3 song was Toms diner, Suzanne Vega

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:22:03 +0000

My first MP3 player was an Archos Jukebox, later Rockboxed. Recently picked up a Lyra RD2201A at a second hand store for ten bucks because it looked cool and retro. For fun I played the same high bitrate file (converted to wma on the Lyra) and also played it on my current player, a Sansa Fuze, which supposedly has the best sound quality of the current crop. Also tried it on a Dell Pocket PC I bought used for 20 bucks.

Suprisingly, the song sounded much better to my ears, using good in-ear headphones, on all of the older players over the Fuze. By better I mean it sounded fuller, even if it had a little hiss.

I can only conclude that the more recent integrated SOCs just don’t sound as good as the more complicated computer-based (eg Texas Instruments) chips and amps used in early players. The early players had crummy screens and bad battery life but it appears the power went into pumping out music. It is the laws of physics–a brick with a big battery can pump out more voltage than a sleek player with a wafer-thin battery that gets 20 hours of battery life.

For us old-timers, remember that the same thing happened with portable CD players. The early 90s players with four batteries sounded much better than later players with shock protection and long battery life.

Moral: Unlike some retro electronics, older MP3 players are worth keeping around.

By: Rees

Rees — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:54:29 +0000

The MPMan F10 was the first commercially-available MP3 player, as it says in the story. I’m sure it wasn’t the first hardware player produced in a lab or by a private company for research purposes, though. I have no idea about docking stations unfortunately.

I’m sure it wouldn’t take long to find the info you need on Google – much as I love this stuff, I don’t really have time to trawl the internet doing research for other people’s homework! Good luck anyway.

By: holmsey112

holmsey112 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:34:08 +0000

Ok, here goes,
I have two questions that I need answered for a project for my end of school exams.
1. When was the first Mp3 invented, and what was it? I need pictures and info on it.
2. When was the first mp3 docking station released, and i also need the details on it.
This will be much appriciated thanks.

By: fufliga

fufliga — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:41:01 +0000

Very Nice sait

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By: madcon

madcon — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:06:32 +0000

Ups Seems I lost my memory about my Mp3 player that I ever had.Thank you to remind me again…