The word MP3 is a special word for me. The IT industry has continued to develop blindingly and rise for the last almost 10 years, but it is hard to find another example like the MP3, that has revolutionized our lives digitally, like the MP3.

Around 10 years ago, programs started to be uploaded in communication networks like Hitel or Cholian, where you could extract sound sources from CDs, and this was the turning point that got rid of the protective layer of CDs. However, all you could do with this was to save something as a WAVE file and record with an expensive SCSI CD-RW drive to make a CD with the songs you selected, or be satisfied with copying a CD you borrowed from a friend. However, a little later, a tool appeared that could compress this into a digital file, called MP3, and share it and listen to it, and a player called WinAMP to play this appeared at round the same time, to start a great change in the world.

The expression The IT world is like a world of light and trash may be appropriate because of the models that change so fast like the speed of light, and the characteristic of consuming and throwing away products like light, but just when saving MP3s in the expensive hard drive disk of a PC (PCs were expensive at the time. Especially those structured with a SCSI were almost the price of a car) was becoming burdensome, the world s first portable MP3 player called MP Man was released by Saehan Informaiton Systems, and received the spotlight of the world. I could say may fate of becoming the MP Man beta tester as a representative of the Hitel club, was a fate with the world s first ever portable MP3 player.

Since then, MP3 players that use CD-Rs and CD-RWs, and other various products have ben introduced, but the MP3 players that most people like these days are the memory type MP3 players. PMP types are getting a lot of interest these days, but whether it be a PMP player or MP3 player, the vocation of the developer should be to develop a product that plays a sound close to the sound source and has a better effect. There are many products that have included overseas sound field processors, but Samsung has insisted on developing its own processor called the DNSe, and adapted it to AV products of the Samsung brand. Let s take a look at how much sound field processors have developed through the most recent version, the DNSe 2.0.

The DNSe 2.0 introduced a technology called 3D. Since portable MP3 players are portable, they use earphones, and therefore listening to a sound like the original sound source is impossible. Like the table above, this is the understanding of original sound sources. Designers define sound source to be the sound source that can be heard in the place of production when the music producer first makes the sound, thus, listening to a sound source from a 30 degree angle from left and right. Since it is not possible to output and relay a sound from left and right at a 30 degree angle with earphones, it uses 3D technology to give a similar effect inside the brain and make the user think he is listening to the sound source. Now, let s take a look at through what kind of flow this effect is made, and how the output is made through earphones.

All the technology and free sets in the table above are those that include the DNSe 2.0 processor to be included in Samsung AV products in the second half of this year, and most of these are portable MP3 players that will be released by Samsung Electronics.

The MP3 file that is copied through the USB port of a PC is interpreted and released through a decoder. After this process, the processor made by each company receives it to make various technology and effect, and the Samsung Digital Natural Sound Engine, called DNSe for short, plays the role of the independent processor. This processor improves on the technology of the 1.0 version, which was the base for various effects, and added technologies are the backbone, and the bundle earphone and tuned free set aids the user when listening to music. After this process, it goes through an amplifier to amplify small sound sources and relay them to the listener.

This series of movements are all adapted to most PMPs or portable MP3 players, so interested consumers should keep this in mind. In addition, let s briefly examine the street, bass, and extension functions, out of the many functions of the DNSe 2.0.

In most sophisticated listening environments, sound output from speakers that are placed in optimized positions are bounced off walls and listened to. However, portable MP3 players are mostly listened to in the subway or the street while in motion, and so the noise of cars and outside noise are heard together with the output of the earphones, causing a problem in listening to the sound source properly. That is why the DNSe 2.0 made the street mode. This outputs the high tone parts of the sound source as they are, but the parts with a small output are not heard a lot of times because it gets mixed with outside noise, but if you use the street mode, the device calculates the difference between high and low tones of the sound source, allowing the user to listen to music on the street.

Bass extension is also called bass enhancement. There is a difference between this and the street mode, explained earlier. Instead of calculating the difference with the overall sound source,it uses the psychological Missing Fundamental Theory to make the brain think it is listening to the lowest deep bass tones, which can normally only be heard through large speakers. When listening to music with a strong low tone, this function can be used to listen to an improved sound quality.

Portable devices have changed the quality of life. Portable MP3 players have become steady sellers, as have PMPs, and there is no way of knowing what other product will change our lives. Therefore, as long as there is a sound effect processor that does not use overseas manufactured products, like the Samsung DNSe 2.0, and as long as a lot of efforts are made to overcome the limits of portable digital devices, I think I will not be the only one that hopes for a more enjoyable digital life in this digital world.