MPMan


The MPMan music player, manufactured by the South Korean company SaeHan Information Systems, debuted in Asia in March 1998, and was the first mass-produced portable solid state digital audio player.
The internal flash memory could be expanded, but there was no support for external memory. It was delivered with a docking station. To put music into the device, the music first had to be encoded in the mp3 format by an encoder provided by the user, and then transferred via the parallel port to the docking station that connected to the portable player device.
On in Japan the Akihabara "Akibaoo~" stores in Chūō, Tokyo started selling and models, the prices of which were and , respectively.
In North America, the South Korean device was first imported for sale by Michael Robertson's in mid-1998. Around the same time, Eiger Labs, Inc. imported and rebranded the player in two models, the Eiger MPMan F10, and Eiger MPMan F20.
Owners could upgrade the memory from to by sending the player back to with a cheque for. A compact device, it measured tall by wide by thick and weighed a little over.
The US price in 1998 for the F10 model with flash memory was circa.
The was a similar model that used SmartMedia cards for expansion, and ran on a single AA battery, instead of rechargeable Nickel [metal hydride battery|NiMH] batteries.

Technical data MPMan MP F-10

Technical data MPMan MP-F60 T12

  • Player device:
  • * Memory: 16/32/64/128 MB
  • * Dimensions: 16.5 mm thick, 70 mm wide, 90 mm tall
  • * Weight: 65 grams
  • * Signal/Noise ratio: 70 dB
  • * Distortion rate: 0.1%
  • * Maximum output: 5 mW
  • * Output Connector: 4 pin 3.5 mm stereo TRS connector for headphones and wired remote.
  • * Frequency response: 20 – 20,000 Hz
  • * Power Supply: one DC 1.5V AA Battery
  • * Available colors: Gold, Pink, Silver, Skeleton black, Blue
Audio recording function and AM / FM radio.
Memory expansion by Smart Media Cards.

Critical reception

The Recording [Industry Association of America]'s Associate Director of Anti-Copyright infringement initially said the MPMan had "no function other than playing material that was stolen from record companies". Nevertheless, he later said it was "a unique device. It's something that we haven't seen on the market before".