US Patent 7471988 Method and apparatus for automatic equalization mode activation

A digital audio player and a method for processing encoded digital audio data, wherein the digital audio data is encoded using one of a plurality of encoding formats. The exemplary audio data player includes a hard disk or other data storage medium for storing data files, a microcontroller, buffer memory for anti-skip protection, and an audio decoder. The encoded audio data files and associated decoder files are downloaded from a personal computer or similar device to the audio data player hard drive. The player provides a menu-driven user interface for selection, sorting, and playback of stored audio data files. The audio decoder, generally a digital signal processor, provides various preset equalization modes. The preset modes are specific to audio genres such as jazz, pop, and rock. The user may select a specific equalization mode by using the user interface, or the preset equalization mode will be automatically set based on the genre, or other attribute information, included in a tag portion of the audio data file.