5 Tips for Buying an MP3 Player for Listening To Old Time Radio
If you are looking to buy an MP3 player for listening to old time radio shows, or spoken word in general, there are several important factors that should concern you. These factors might not be at the top of the list if you’re buying one to listen just to music, but if you’re an old time radio fan they’re well worth remembering.
1. Look for a player that has a good graphic equalizer feature.
A graphic equalizer lets you fine tune the sound that you hear, much more than just a bass button or a treble selector. Instead of just being able to adjust the bass (deep sounds) or the treble (high frequency sounds) you have much more control. Usually, there will be five or more sliders. The slider to the right will adjust the very high frequencies and the slider to the left will adjust the very low-level bass sounds. The three or more sliders in the middle will adjust various aspects of the midrange.
Imagine you were listening to an old time radio show that had a bit too much hiss. To get rid of this with a graphic equalizer all you would do as lower the slider on the right (that’s the high frequency one) and you’ll notice the hiss either vanishes completely or is greatly reduced.
The great thing with graphic equalizers is that they really can improve the listening experience, which is particularly useful with old radio shows. Rather than just settle for poor sound quality you can actually do something about it if you have a good graphic equalizer.
2. Get a player that can act as a virtual hard drive
Many players (not the iPod I’m afraid) will act as an additional hard drive when you plug them into your USB port. This is very convenient if you have many shows to copy over. All you need to do is copy the folders from your normal hard drive and then paste them straight onto your player. No need to mess around with third-party software such as iTunes or Windows Media Player. It makes it so quick and easy that you can copy hundreds of files in just a matter of minutes.
Unfortunately, if you have an iPod you pretty much have to put up with using iTunes all the time. For some people this is fine, but for most people it is much quicker and easier just to quickly select files from one folder and paste them into another folder. If you choose your player right you’ll be able to do exactly that.
3. Make sure your player remembers where you are
Some players have a frustrating habit of returning you to the start of the file if you happen to switch the device off when you’re halfway through listening to a show.
This can be frustrating as it means the next time you switch your player on you need to fast-forward to try to find the point that you were listening to.
It’s also worth checking to see if the player you are thinking about getting has a bookmarking feature. Many players will allow you to set a bookmark at any point in the recording so you can return to that point whenever you like. This is very useful if, for example, you want to break off listening to an old time radio show or audiobook and listen to some music for a while. If you’ve set a bookmark you can quickly return to the exact point you were at. This could be later the same day, a few days later or even many months later. It’s a neat feature that’s well worth having.
4. An auto-off feature
If you enjoy listening to old time radio shows in bed it’s well worth checking to make sure the player you are thinking about has an auto-off feature. Without such a feature it means the player will continue to play until the batteries run flat, which isn’t ideal.
Some players have a sleep facility that lets you set a specific time, after which the player will turn itself off automatically. Others, such as the creative, offer a permanent auto-off feature that will turn the player off if no buttons are pressed for a set period of time. This can be very useful as it means that even if you forget to set the sleep-timer the player will turn itself off after an hour, or whatever length of time you’ve set for the auto-off timer.
5. Sufficient space for all your audio files
When buying a player it’s important to consider how much space you will need for files.
It’s easy to think that the more space the better, but this isn’t always the best way to approach the matter.
For example, there’s no point getting a player with 60 gig of space if you’re only ever going to use one or two gig. Equally, it’s not wise to buy a player with only 1 gig of memory if you’re planning on copying your whole old-time radio show collection onto it.
Personally, I prefer a smaller sized player, such as the Creative Zen Plus, with 8 gig of memory than a larger sized player, in physical terms, with 50+ gig on it. From experience I know that I’m never going to fill more than 5 or 6 gig at any one time and so anything more would be a waste.
The easiest way to calculate how much space you need is to remember that a typical old time radio show is roughly seven megabytes and a typical music track is usually about five megabytes. So, on a 4 meg player you’d be able to store roughly 570 old time radio shows (that’s about 285 hours of listening) or 800 music tracks, which is about 80 full CDs. On an 8 meg player you’d get twice this amount, which for most people is more than enough.
Another benefit of the smaller players is the storage tends to be solid-state, rather than a mini hard drive, which means they’re a lot more resilient and are not as easily damaged if you happen to drop them.
I hope that these five tips will help you in your quest to get the right player for your needs. Whatever you do, don’t get overwhelmed by the wide variety of players now available.
Just use these five tips and you’ll be able to eliminate over seventy percent of them straight away, which will give you a much more manageable list to select from.
Ned Norris is the webmaster of http://www.rusc.com , one of the oldest and most highly regarded old time radio web sites on the Internet. It’s a place where you can relive the golden days of radio at your leisure, download or listen online to 1000s of classic shows, and enjoy regularly updated editorial and reviews on old time radio and related topics.
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5 Tips for Buying an MP3 Player for Listening To Old Time Radio
BOOKSTEVE'S LIBRARY: OTR on TV
Here are just some of the Old Time Radio based TV series we offer for order at BOOKSTEVE RARITIES. The problem with translating OTR to TV (or film for that matter) was that people knew what McGee’s closet looked like or Amos’s taxi or Duffy’s … Ten classic TV episodes on two DVDs. Willard Watterman reprises his radio role for these classic episodes. Practice What You Preach, Gildy Goes Diving, The New Cook, The Expectant Father, Bard of Summerville, Gildy Goes Broke, … …
Read this article:
BOOKSTEVE'S LIBRARY: OTR on TV
Do you think knowledge is dead?
Last night, I heard few wise people talking on the wireless radio, one of them said: ‘there are only two things in the western world today to generate power and influence: one is business, and the other, politics. He did not mention any third, so I tried to think of one myself. I asked, what else is known to be the source of power and influence in the world, as for all times. And I thought of knowledge. This is in the common knowledge and understanding that knowledge is power. This is what we are supposed to believe conventionally, as form the days of our school.
I therefore ask you for today:
Is knowledge dead?
Is knowledge powerless in the world?
I personally may not believe knowledge is dead, or is powerless, but I think I agreed with the argument of the radio speaker in general, in the sense that in this age of information and technology knowledge has become like something we are more likely find in the backwaters of modern cultural scene, somewhat a little obsolete, and if not obsolete altogether then merely a scholarly pursuit as in the minds of the ones in search of the truths.
I think all usefulness has been squeezed out of the current body of knowledge long since. I think the body of knowledge as it stands today has yielded all its potential to change things to make thing better and finer in life, its practical ideas, and ideologies, either to underpin or to run the government systems and business enterprises of today for instance – this happened during the period of last one hundred years or so.
This is true that much useful work is still going on, but that is all within the same old framework of research and inquiry. This is happening within the safe havens of grand cultures of civilisations, and not in the small pockets, not in the lives of the people who find themselves to be at the margins of cultural, religious, or ethnic divides, where the need for the ability to translate ideas into practice remains paramount.
I find there is seldom any entirely new in the world. What we find in books, and in the minds of the devoted and the enthusiasts, might be good just for the interest and understanding of the people needing to know as to how things work in the world, for instance.
Thanks!
Please note: This is to notify that all that I have said above – apart from the initial thought, i.e. business and politics are the two main sources of power in the west – is based entirely upon my personal opinion that I am responsible of in person. Thanks!
And thanks for you valuable response so far!
Please note: This is to notify that all that I have said above – apart from the initial thought, i.e. business and politics are the two main sources of power in the west – is based entirely upon my personal opinion that I am responsible of in person. Thanks!
And thanks for you valuable response so far!
Please note: This is to notify that all that I have said above – apart from the initial thought, i.e. business and politics are the two main sources of power in the west – is based entirely upon my personal opinion that I am responsible of in person. Thanks!
And thanks for you valuable response so far!
My apologies for the repetition above, a slow click button response on the computer interface!
Asked by:Simply United