Skip to content

Random Connections

A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Photos
  • Resources
  • Other Voices
  • Post Archives
  • Home
  • Gear
  • In Pursuit of Portable Audio

In Pursuit of Portable Audio

Posted on April 16, 2005 By Tom No Comments on In Pursuit of Portable Audio
Gear

The IPod is now all the rage, with many imitators now coming on the market.  In our constant quest to see who can come up with the best gadgets, my colleagues and I have been discussing these various options for portable audio, and which makes the most sense for our particular preferences and situations.  I thought I might also take the opportunity to review how we got here, so this might actually be a two-part post.

Background

Walkman Museum

First some basics.  I have TONS of music.  In my youth when I should have started saving for retirement or to purchase a house or something else important, I was spending money on records – good old vinyl.  Thanks to places like Horizon Records, I could get cheap, high-quality used albums and extend my music-buying capabilities.  CDs came along, and I scaled back a bit because of cost, but to this day my music collection continues to grow.  A former girlfriend once remarked that I had so much music that I couldn’t possibly listen to all of it in my lifetime.  I think that might be one of the reasons she achieved “former” status.

Secondly, I believe that artists should be compensated for their work.  I am philosophically opposed to illegal downloads or pirated works.  That being said, I believe that once purchased, consumers should be free to put the music into whatever format is convenient for them, whether it be MP3, duplicate of a CD,  or even good old cassettes.  Being a former radio DJ myself, I loved making mix tapes, and now thematic CDs or file playlists.

And finally, I’m not a big personal audio person (note the difference between personal and portable).  I feel self-conscious wearing headphones, and would prefer to inflict my musical tastes upon the surrounding public with loud speakers.  I also feel that headphones shut out too much of the ambient sound, so for me, these portable devices have a different ultimate goal.  I guess if I lived in an Urban setting and had to commute via subway or other public transportation, I might change my mind.

Paradigm Shifts

Until the advent of compressed audio formats such as MP3, audio was tied to a particular medium, be it vinyl, 8-track, CD, or cassette.  Even though the life-spans and survivabilityof media improved with technology, all of these formats are ultimately corruptible.  Furthermore, if you have a CD in your car deck, it’s possible to lose it, or leave it in your car when you want to listen to it in your house.  CD’s take up very little space, but there is still bulk, so there is a limit to how much music you can have available at any given time.

Enter the computer.  First came the ability to make copies of CDs.  Now duplication no longer too realtime, and back-ups could be made in a fraction of the time.  Soon software was developed that allowed for rearrangement of tracks, and the ability to combine tracks from different CDs onto one disc.  File compression and developments in hard disk technology which resulted in higher capacities with lower prices meant that entire music collections could be placed on a single device – first computer hard drives, then devices such as the IPod.

Media-less Music

Well, not truly medialess, since a hard drive or flash memory is a type of media.  In the current state of the technology, the consumer content isn’t tied to a particular type of media as it had been in the past (CDs, cassettes, etc.)  The options are unlimited for remixes, file sharing, and quick duplication.  Copyright issues, illegal activitiesand arguments about music quality due to compression aside, the options for portable audio are now greater than ever.  Next article, I’ll talk about the effects of medialess music on portable, home, and car audio.

Post navigation

❮ Previous Post: Sahara
Next Post: Sunday, Quiet Sunday ❯

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Categories

  • EdTech (199)
  • Entertainment (201)
  • Family (118)
  • Gear (115)
  • General Technology (98)
  • Geocaching and Maps (208)
  • History and Genealogy (254)
  • Internet (144)
  • Local (447)
  • Miscellaneous (539)
  • Music (188)
  • Paddling (239)
  • Photography (778)
  • Podcast (6)
  • Rambling (223)
  • Rants (160)
  • Recipes (34)
  • Religion (48)
  • Restaurants (165)
  • Science (48)
  • Things Overheard (29)
  • Travel (410)
  • Uncategorized (129)
  • Washington Sabbatical (113)
  • Weirdness (59)

Recent Posts

  • Reanimating the Dead
  • Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Germophobic Paranoia Blues and Other Dream Tunes
  • Orphaned Graveyards – Bakers Chapel AME
  • Orphaned Graveyards – Fellowship Church

Recent Comments

  • Richard Bonnette on Chasing the Swamp Rabbit – Part 3, Sievern and Edisto Academy
  • linda marie raines on A Hidden Cemetery on Pleasantburg Drive
  • Bonnie Whitaker Klyce on Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Ed calvert on The Sad Fate of Chappells
  • Ed calvert on The Sad Fate of Chappells

Tags

blogging cemetery Christmas Columbia Edisto River edtech Entertainment family Flickr Florida Furman Furman University gear geotagging Ghost Town Ghost Towns Google Earth Google Maps GPS Greenville Greenville Chorale hiking history Instructional Technology kayaking Lake Jocassee LCU Lowcountry Unfiltered maps Music North Carolina Paddling Photography rambling restaurant Restaurants review singing social networking South Carolina time-lapse Travel video Washington Washington State
March 2021
S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Feb    

Copyright © 2021 Random Connections.

Theme: Oceanly by ScriptsTown