Remember back in the day when almost all gadgets were on a race to see who could make their device the smallest?
Although most smartphone manufacturers nowadays have already gone the opposite direction and are one-upping each other by making their devices (and displays) bigger, the race to make nifty gadgets smaller and handier have remained… particularly in the realm of portable mp3 players.
That being said, perhaps one the smallest mp3 players (if not THE SMALLEST) has arrived.
It’s called newKube!
Bluetree Electronics, a maker of next generation audio technology, claims that the newKube is the world’s smallest MP3 player. It delivers rich audio playback and made its international debut at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
I love music. Especially music you can bring along. That’s why my iPhone 5 is loaded with all sorts of tracks.
I make sure to convert my music tracks to compressed formats with sampling rates and resolutions that, as much as possible, preserves its original lossless (raw) quality.
It’s the audiophile in me, I guess. Being a sound engineer, it’s difficult to ignore artifacts that are unavoidably brought about by converting raw music formats into lossy ones.
But, keep in mind… No matter how crystal clear your music sounds, it is ONLY JUST AS GOOD as what your output device can deliver.
Take headphones/earphones, for example. It makes no sense stuffing your portable music player with huge, barely uncompressed files, if your earpiece cannot faithfully reproduce the music. It’s like watching a Blu-Ray movie on a regular CRT monitor – it doesn’t make any sense.
I cannot stress it enough… invest in good quality headphones and earphones. Why? Because it matters.
Good earphones don’t have to be pricey. In fact, there are some really amazing sounding earpieces in the market that will barely even make a dent on your budget.
And forget about those imitation “Beats” headphones being sold in bangketa markets for merely a fifth of the original’s real value. Because they’re imitations, you can be sure that quality, workmanship and materials have been compromised.
If you’re in the market for a pair of great-sounding yet affordable earphones, Accutone products are a good place to start.
I currently have 2 Accutone earphones which I usually bring along during events and activities. Which model I bring depends on the mood I’m in during that day and the activity I am doing.