5 Tips For Buying an MP3 Player For Listening to Old Time Radio, Pt. 5

Originally published in the January, 2009, Old Radio Times.(http://www.otrr.org/pg07_times.htm)

5 Tips For Buying an MP3 Player For Listening to Old Time Radio
Ned Norris

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.

In addition to the five key features mentioned above there are several other things that are worth considering when buying a player. You can download a free in-depth report by visiting www.rusc.com/free-mp3-player-report.html

Ned Norris is the webmaster of RUSC Old Time Radio