One of the most original products in the musical world is the Sony Walkman. Walkman made its debut in 1979 in Japan. The Walkman was the brainchild of Nobutoshi Kihara of Sony. Sony still uses the brand name of Walkman for portable audio gadgets. The plural form is not `walkmen` or `walkmans` but Walkman personal stereos. In March 2007 Sony launched the first digital video Walkman – NW-A800. » Read more: The Miracle of Travelling Sound – the Walkman
Posts Tagged ‘Video Walkman’
The Miracle of Travelling Sound – the Walkman
March 9th, 2010Mp3 Player If You Are On The Move
December 13th, 2009
An Mp3 player is also known as a digital audio player, and it has become a regular fixture in our everyday lives. Everybody seems to have one these days. Walking the dog, at the gym, traveling to work, the idea that you can carry your entire music library with you anywhere is extremely appealing to most people.
MP3 players have made music easily accessible to everyone. You can simply download the songs from the free download sites and save them in your player and carry with you everywhere. Nothing could be better when you are stuck in a massive traffic jam and don`t know how to while away your time.
Mp3 stands for Moving Picture Experts Group layer III, and can be seen as a technology which audio data can fit smaller memory space, without any loss to audio quality. Raw audio data is normally very large and difficult to use on portable devices because of the lack of available storage. A standard audio CD can hold up to 80 minutes of audio data. With Mp3, about ten times more audio data can be stored in memory of the same size.
Although you will find many mp3 player brands in the market, there are mainly three Mp3 player types, mostly based on memory capacity. The Mp3 player with hard drive has the highest capacity and is often called a Jukebox Mp3 player. Examples are iPod video, Sony Walkman. The Micro Mp3 player with hard drive has a lower capacity and is lighter than an Mp3 player with hard drive. Examples are iPod Mini, Zen Micro (Creative Labs). The Mp3 player with flash memory is the smallest in size with the lowest capacity, and is very light. An example is iPod Nano.
An Mp3 player with hard drive is good for travel or for those compelled to be away from their computers for long periods of time. It is ideal for listening in the living room, and it can be connected to external speakers. An Mp3 player with flash memory is useful while jogging or at the gym because of its lightness.
Mp3 players were introduced in the early nineties, and ever since then, there has been a running argument over audio quality. A lot of people feel that Mp3 compression has an adverse effect on the quality of the sound; the others argue that the Mp3 audio format just removes the frequency of audio data that cannot be possibly heard by people, so there is no real loss in the sound quality.
More and more new features are being added to the Mp3 player with advancing technology. Some have built in digital photograph albums, as in the later generation iPod, and you can download and access your pictures while you are on the move. Some have analogue radio and digital radio receivers.
It is usually believed that MP4 is just a modern and updated version of MP3. But it is not so at all. It is something very different in its features. MP3 can be considered to be of a particular category belonging to audio formats, whereas MP4 is considered to be in a container format. However in spite of these differences, mp3 files can be run in either of the players.
One thing you will do well to remember is that your Mp3 player sound quality is only as good as the headphones you are listening with. So do spend a little time and money on superior quality headphones.
By: Roberto Sedycias
The Miracle Of Travelling Sound – The Walkman
November 21st, 2009
One of the most original products in the musical world is the Sony Walkman. Walkman made its debut in 1979 in Japan. It also came to be termed as the Soundabout, Freestyle and Stowaway. The Walkman was the brainchild of Nobutoshi Kihara of Sony.
The co-chairman of Sony, Morita was very fond of operas and wanted to hear these while on his frequent international trips. Sony still uses the brand name of Walkman for portable audio gadgets. The plural form is not `walkmen` or `walkmans` but Walkman personal stereos. In March 2007 Sony launched the first digital video Walkman – NW-A800.
The first blue-silver Walkman was up for sale in Japan on 1st July 1979. It allows two persons simultaneously to listen to it. Soon models came in that could also do recording. In 1984 the best quality – Walkman Professional WM-D6C made its appearance with superb audio quality. It became popular with journalists and hi-fi fans. It is remarkable that considering the ever-changing nature of electronic goods, this model has remained the same and continues to reign over others.
Stiff competition came from Toshiba with its Walky, CassetteBoy from Aiwa and Panasonic. But Sony kept up the pace and created the playback only – the only one of its kind in 1989. It became a sacred collector`s item for Walkman admirers.
The company used unique methods to publicize the introduction of the device. People using the Walkman were seen cycling or roller-skating in the open and this had an impact on the attending journalists. Upon arrival they were each handed a Walkman and had to listen to instructions over the stereo. A young couple listening to it while on a tandem cycle completed the show. All involved in the launching programmed sported Walkman T shirts.
The journalists experienced how one can listen to music of choice wherever and whenever desired. For casual spectators it was a puzzling event without any public announcements. To further promote the product among the people the members of the publicity team went around buses and trains during peak hours sporting a Walkman. Sony made a concerted effort to negate the adverse impressions of headphones.
Celebrities were presented with sets and magazines glossed over it. Within a month of the launch only 3,000 units had been sold but thereafter sales picked up and Sony had to struggle to keep pace with demand. Initially it was those in mid 20`s that showed interest but soon the fan base widened to include a cross section of society.
During the 1970`s the home stereo market had become popular and the portable radio transistor had created a boom. Boom-boxes that were one-piece stereo systems powered by battery were making waves with the sound emanating from two or more speakers. Thus one could listen to music without being confined to one place.
Micro and mini-cassette players that could fit into a pocket were becoming hot favourites. This was the background of the scene when the Sony Walkman appeared with a bang. The basic idea was to place a radio inside an audiocassette chassis and manipulate it to send the audio into its cassette home player. Soon a secondary market developed round the Walkman – headphones and other accessories like the need to install speakers on the desk at home. Special travel bags came into vogue with speakers inside it. Trendy vests sported speakers on the shoulders.
The Walkman era drew to a close in 1986 with Sony introducing the Discman ushering in the digital age. Today there are disposable personal stereo cassette players priced at $20 bearing little resemblance to their ancestors.
By: Roberto Sedycias
