Why build an MP3 player? I can buy them cheap!

The purpose of this project is to educate. When you build such projects on your own, you get to learn a lot. If all you want is an mp3 player then you better buy one from the market.

There are other MP3 player projects, then why add to the confusion?

DSPdap is different!! Almost all other projects use a hardware chip to do the mp3 decoding and a microcontroller to manage the operations. DSPdap uses a single DSP chip to do both. The mp3 decoding is done in software!! The DSPdap hardware thus becomes more flexible and can be made to play Ogg, WMA or even Dolby Digital-AC3 files. We can also add an equalizer and other sound effects through software.

How good is the playback quality?

Hearing is believing. Below is a music clip that has been decoded on the DSPdap player. Download it and judge the playback quality for yourself.

The mp3 file used for decoding was a 320kbps, 44100 Khz stereo file. The clip is "Your Body is a Wonderland" by John Mayer.

But now it plays only MP3, where is the WMA, Ogg and Equalizer stuff?

The existing hardware and software is open sourced. We need developers to contribute to DSPdap and improve its features. It should become more feature rich soon.

How much will it cost?

The materials cost of the project (i.e. PCB, components, CompactFlash card, etc) is less then $100. Plus you need to have the appropriate tools and sufficient time by your side.

I know about hardware and soldering but don't know much about DSP programming. Can I be able to build DSPdap?

Definitely!! A DSP is just like any other microcontroller. You need not know much about DSP since the firmware binaries are available. The programming procedure is given in detail on this site.

I'm a DSP engineer. Can I use DSPdap hardware for testing my algorithms in real-time in the real world?

Yes you can. DSPdap has a Line-in and Line-out interface. You could feed in audio signals, process them using your algorithm and get the results on the Line-out (i.e. headphones) port. However real-time debugging would not be possible. If you need real-time debugging then you should use DSP starter kits from Texas Instruments, Analog Devices or Freescale.

Hey I've built my own DSPdap and it's working!!

Great!! Share your experiences and photographs with us. We'll post it on the site.

I've benefited from the DSPdap project. How can I contribute to it?

You can contribute by spending your time and adding some good feature to the DSPdap software/hardware. You can also help the developers by donating. To do so, click on the "Support this Project" button at the bottom of this page.