Doesn’t it seem like MP3 technology has been around forever? But not that many years ago it wasn’t uncommon to see people walking, jogging, riding their bicycles and just out and about with headphones on, the kind that cover the ears or cover most of the ear, and a large device the size of a small purse clipped onto a belt loop or in their pocket. These portable audio players played cassette tapes and then CDs, and if you were too active the sound would skip. Now they seem bulky and cumbersome, though at the time they were seen as new, slim and portable compared to large boom boxes and stereos.
Now, an MP3 player the size of a quarter and headphones that stick right in your ear are a few of the most popular methods of carrying our tunes with us. They can hide in the tiniest pocket, go on a keychain or lanyard around or necks, or clip onto a belt. MP3 is digital music, so there’s nothing to read like the CD players of old. No amount of bouncing can make it skip. There’s no tape to jam up or wear out.
Where Sony’s Walkman were the standard portable media players of the 80s, the Apple iPod is the standard bearer today, letting people carry a huge library of MP3 digital music with them in tiny devices as small as a quarter, with the largest barely bigger than a single cassette tape of old (only in area size—they’re much thinner). Sony has introduced a digital line of Walkmans to compete with the seemingly unbeatable Apple iPod line.
While the MP3 players themselves get smaller and smaller, headphone technology has shrunk these items, too. The earliest headphones covered the entire ear on each side of the head, and while they were new and cool in their day, they look rather like alien-headgear today compared to the tiny ear phones most use with their MP3 players. Some are so small, they seem to disappear into the ear altogether, the only giveaway that they’re there at all are the thin cords dangling from each side of your head. Headphones may be small, but they can be pricey.
Good headphones can cost as much as some of the least inexpensive digital MP3 players on the market today. While they all come with headphones as part of the purchase price, with the iPod headphones alone delivering amazing sound quality, an investment into a top-notch pair of headphones can make your MP3 and portable audio experience even better.
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