I thought i’d take the time to express my personal music habits, in the form of the personal music systems which I divulged in since my childhood. In the past 15 years or so I have had four portable music systems. I think the small amount of different players is due to a few reasons. I tend to take care of anything I own, looking after it and making sure I use it properly actually ensures that they all still work. I also like to think that I make well-informed decisions about my purchases.
So let’s have a look at those four personal players:
- Tape (BOOTS)
It all started off with a gift at Christmas from my grandparents. I still have the tape player now and it works just as well as the day i opened it. I also still have the case which it came wrapped up in, and which also holds tapes. I remember my limited collection of music which I must have listened to around about 100 times. I can’t ever remember entering a music store or recieving any music as a present. But i definately did use it to the extreme and it was an extreme joy to use.
- Discman (SONY)
This SONY discman was the first of the discman products to go ‘mass market’ and although i went for the option without the remote control i do remember loving every minute of this extra special product. I think this could probably be classed as my first real gadget. I mean, i took it to America with me and it has served me well. At just over £100 when i bought it, it was a lot of money. A little Pearl Jam, Matchbox 20, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Boyzone and probably some more classics managed to root themselves into my brain through the earphones of this little disc whirring contraption!
- Minidisc (SHARP)
My minidisc player is definately the most expensive personal music equipment that I have ever bought. It’s a beautifully engineered little SHARP minidisc recorder. It both plays and records so I didn’t have to purchase the additional device for my seperates home music system. One of the mistakes i made whilst purchasing this little wonder was probably getting the unit during the time when the technology had just got to the small and elegant stage and just before the “mass market” cheapo shit arrived. Probably a good thing because the music quality was great. I paid top whack for it at £300 and opted for the additional Dixons (rip-off) three year warrenty, something which i now realise isn’t nessecary.
Something which this had and my discman didn’t was a remote control, with a nice little screen and a clip to slide onto any item of clothing. i could hide the minidisc player away and then take charge of my music with the control.
About a year after i bought my SHARP, the technology behind portable minidisc players evolved a little, and “Long Play” was introduced. This meant the increase of the capacity of a minidisc to around 4 times the normal play length. Great for minidisc owners, but unfortunately I was stuck with my normal play.
- MP3 (Apple)
The iPod has sold over six million units and still people are buying the products. There is definately something unique about them. I bought mine for my birthday in 2005 and I have been happy with it ever since.
I think there are three type of MP3 player owners in the world, those who get an iPod and believe in their unique ability as the number 1! There are the second type who take to the streets and look for something with extra battery life because of extended time away from electricity and / or civilisation. But then there are the types of people who just don’t want to buy Apple. What a mistakea-to-makea…
The Apple iPod isn’t just a great MP3 Player, but the whole system behind the delivery of audio content is the best in the world. The vast array of podcasts and variety of audio which can be downloaded and automatically updated to the little white shiny unit is immense! Opting away from the generic MP3 player is a bad idea, and with the time they have had to build up the delivery system, other units are simply just incapable of gaining up the much needed ground.
Who knows what will become of my music player devices and what the next progression will be? Have we solved the music device for the future with hard disc driven players or is there much further to go? Of course whenever we reach the forefront of a present device it is hard to see what possibilities lie ahead.
