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3DS Audio Player: Sound features and 3D effects

Little has been revealed about this gem pre-installed on the 3DS console. The audio player can play 320 kbps high quality MP3, MP4 and standard AAC (Compact Disc generic audio formats). Options allow you to set the 3DS to Mono, Stereo or Surround sound. 3D surround will add noticeable spatial effects to gameplay; this is the best setting. In game the music volume can be heard louder than saved music. Audio formats have many differences including frequency and sample rates. This is why the sound can be sometimes louder or sometimes much quieter.

The top screen has a variety of 3D visuals, and a colourful spectrum analyser. The lower screen has all the usual playback buttons through the touch screen and some more. Scrolling though the L & R shoulder buttons a menu has various sound effects which lets you play along to your music with, DJ scratches, drums, rhythm pads, and horns etc. Another function is the pitch control: faster, slower on a cross-hair grid to make dramatic changes to your sounds. StreetPass can share your playlist info if you want. Due to copy write laws on purchased Music, 3DS won’t play protected files and you can’t peer to peer music share in case you were wondering.

The audio playback would benefit from earphone amplifiers. It’s about 50% of an iPods db, when at max volume. By increasing a volume to play music louder, power consumption increases. No problem for devices which are always on the AC mains, but when you need to keep the 3DS battery life for a whole day, the LCD and Audio at max drain the battery fast, the console was probably designed with this in mind and limited.

3DS sound lets you create playlists. It’s easy to put new sound on the console using the SD Card fitted inside the 3DS.

How to Put Music On 3DS

Power off your 3DS, then remove the SD card from your console.
Insert your SD card into a computer.
Copy music to the SD card and re-insert back to you console.
Power on your 3DS > Home > Nintendo 3DS Sound.

This review is only scratching the surface, there’s more unchartered territory with something called Hit Parade and “budgie love” Compatibility to explore using wifi and StreetPass.