MP3 is a compression form (like .zip). The name MP3 stands for Mpeg 1 Audio Layer 3 and its compression algorithm is based on a complicated psycho-acoustic model. This model is based on the fact that the human ear cannot hear all the audio frequencies. The human hearing range is between 20Hz to 20Khz and it is most sensitive between 2 to 4 KHz. This MP3 model among other techniques tries to eliminate the frequencies which the human ear is unable to hear keeping all the hearing frequencies leaving intact the hearing experience. As a result the MP3 compression form is destructive. That means that the compression algorithm causes the file to lose some information so that it cannot be restored to its original content.

When compressing an audio file (encoding) using the MP3 algorithm you can set the desired encoding level and have any compression level you want. The larger the compressed file the better the audio quality of the result. The majority of the files available on the internet are encoded in 128 kbits stereo 44khz which results to a high quality file that is 12 times smaller than the original!! This of course has many interesting consequences.

1. We can now create CDs that contain over 160 songs and can play for over 14 hours on a PC !

2. We can efficiently store songs on a hard disk and play them directly form there.

3. And best of all we can now easily transmit a song over the internet (a compressed 4 minute song is smaller than 4MB, while uncompressed would be over 40MB!) That's why MP3 has become the hottest keyword on the Internet the last few months.

The main disadvantage of the MP3 format is that it needs to be decompressed when played. That means that we need a computer to play them and that we cannot hear them in our ordinary home stereo cd players. This is something that might be changed as many large hardware companies are thinking to support MP3 format in their products. Diamond  Multimedia has released a portable device called Rio that can play MP3 files!

How do I play an MP3 file?

You just need an MP3 player. In our special MP3 Players section (not available yet) you will find the best players available today. Go there and download one of them, install it and then download the songs that you want to hear from our MP3 Songs section.

We also have a list of the top MP3 Search Engines on the net. There you will find the best sites to search and find MP3s as you vote them every week.

What hardware do I need for playing MP3 files?

The minimum requirement for acceptable quality is a Pentium 75.

The technology now gives as solutions to all the above tasks and problems. The major 2 tasks that we surely need is the conversion from CD audio to MP3 and the conversion from MP3 to CD audio. Check out our special sections on that.