New Sony Walkman Music Players Feature Stunning Good Looks, Android 12 (arstechnica.com) 48
Sony has a pair of new Android Walkmans out, the NW-A300 and NW-ZX700. Ars Technica reports: We'll start with the most consumer-friendly of the two, the NW-A300. This basic design debuted in 2019 with the NW-A105, but that shipped with Android 9. This is an upgraded version of that device with a less-ancient version of Android, a new SoC, and a scalloped back design. In Sony's home of Japan, the 32GB version is 46,000 yen (about $360), while in Europe, it's 399 euro (about $430). The NW-A300 is a tiny little device that measures 56.6x98.5x12 mm, so pretty close to a deck of playing cards. [...] The front is dominated by a 3.6-inch, 60 Hz, 1280x720 touchscreen LCD. There's 32GB of storage, and the device supports Wi-Fi 802.11AC and Bluetooth 5. That's about all Sony wants to talk about for official specs. It touts "longer battery life" but won't say how big the battery is, promising only "36 hours* of 44.1 KHz FLAC playback, up to 32 hours* of 96 KHz FLAC High-Resolution Audio playback." Presumably, that's all with the screen off. [...] This is a music player, so of course, there's a headphone jack on the bottom of the unit. You'll also find a spot for a lanyard, a speedy USB-C 3.2 Gen1 port for quick music transfers, and a MicroSD slot for storing all your music. Buttons along the side of the device also give you every music control you could want, like a hold switch, previous, play/pause, next, volume controls, and power.
There's another new Sony Walkman, the NW-ZX700. It's 104,500 yen ($818) in Japan, and while that sounds like a lot for a portable music player, it's actually a relative bargain compared to the "Signature Series" NW-WM1ZM2, which goes for an eye-popping $3,700 thanks to audiophile hocus-pocus like a "gold plated, oxygen-free, copper body." Anyway, back to this $800 model. Unlike regular phone equipment, this has a proper audio amplifier with big, beefy capacitors to power the analog audio output. That makes it much bigger than the A300, at 72.6x132 mm and a whopping 17 mm thick. It also has two audio outs: a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack and a 4.4 mm "balanced" audio jack, which is used by some high-end audio equipment. I'm sure Sony has a wonderful headphone collection to match. [...] Both this and the A300 use the S-Master HX digital amplifier chip, which supports Sony's high-resolution "NativeDSD" audio format, which is also used on Super Audio CDs. If you're some kind of heathen that is just streaming 128kb Spotify, Sony's "DSEE Ultimate" feature dubiously claims to be able to "upscale" your music with AI. There's also a "Vinyl Processor" that will add record player noises to your audio for an "authentic listening experience."
There's another new Sony Walkman, the NW-ZX700. It's 104,500 yen ($818) in Japan, and while that sounds like a lot for a portable music player, it's actually a relative bargain compared to the "Signature Series" NW-WM1ZM2, which goes for an eye-popping $3,700 thanks to audiophile hocus-pocus like a "gold plated, oxygen-free, copper body." Anyway, back to this $800 model. Unlike regular phone equipment, this has a proper audio amplifier with big, beefy capacitors to power the analog audio output. That makes it much bigger than the A300, at 72.6x132 mm and a whopping 17 mm thick. It also has two audio outs: a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack and a 4.4 mm "balanced" audio jack, which is used by some high-end audio equipment. I'm sure Sony has a wonderful headphone collection to match. [...] Both this and the A300 use the S-Master HX digital amplifier chip, which supports Sony's high-resolution "NativeDSD" audio format, which is also used on Super Audio CDs. If you're some kind of heathen that is just streaming 128kb Spotify, Sony's "DSEE Ultimate" feature dubiously claims to be able to "upscale" your music with AI. There's also a "Vinyl Processor" that will add record player noises to your audio for an "authentic listening experience."
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Re:Creimer (Score:4)
Just those names tell you everything you want to know about these devices. No product line clarity. Software updates? Continuous releases? Unlikely. These are bespoke devices that will fail BECAUSE they are bespoke devices without a reliable commitment from Sony to maintain and innovate in this space. If these were Walkman Portable 2023 and Walkman Pro 2023, we would have something interesting.
Sony has been a player in the portable digital space for a long time. Thier ZX series is well regarded by many. One could say DAPs from FiiO, Shanling, Hiby, A&K, etc. are all "bespoke" as well using your logic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
True, most DAPs use older Android versions and don't get much by way of updates. Of course they are music players, not cell phones. If you use them only for playing music this should not be an issue. What actually matters is how they sound. I'll wait for some reviews by known reviewers before I come to any conclusions about the quality of the DACs and analog output stages in these particular versions.
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Re: Creimer (Score:1)
i dont know about that one.. showing off good sound is a easy way to impress people.
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Nobody will be impressed that you own a device like this, and why buy this unless it's because you want to flex?
Because it won't constantly interrupt your music with "notifications"?
Checks the date (Score:5, Funny)
Is it 1st April already?
Re:Checks the date (Score:4, Funny)
Is it 1st April already?
...of 1979?
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Unfortunately at this price these walkm
Re: Checks the date (Score:2)
Same here. Oakcastle MP200 seems to be the spiritual successor to the clips, looking for one now, seems out of stock everywhere, but seems good for 25 bucks
Sansa Zip Clip + Rockbox (Score:2)
Yep. Me too. Super lightweight. Also use bone conducting earphones when low quality sound is good enough. Zip Clips work great with Winamp 2.95 and mlipod still. Clementine player on linux is good too.
32GB? (Score:4)
Re: 32GB? (Score:5, Insightful)
It has a micro SD slot too so I'm guessing 32gb is just the rom partition and any extra apps you want to install.
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It has a micro SD slot too so I'm guessing 32gb is just the rom partition and any extra apps you want to install.
That's still not enough. I have over 32gb of OS, apps and cache right now, and I don't consider myself to be a heavy user.
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...and Sony sells SD cards
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My phone's got 128GB & most of that's music. Cost about 200€, it's got a bigger screen, & sounds great.
Sounds great with your Bluetooth earbuds? Buy yourself a decent pair of IEMs and it will quickly become apparent how bad phones are as music sources.
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You haven't seen what an original 80s cassette Walkman sells for these days. This is a nostalgia grab.
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I had the yellow waterproof one. I took that into the steam room and sauna all the time. Never had an issue with the unit and never had a tape go bad. I think it cost me $99 at the time and was worth every penny.
Re: 32GB? (Score:1)
same reason why people buy 400â headphones over 200â headphones. or anything really in the same category. phones are great at doing 1000 different thing but a dedicated device does things better than a phone can. for one thing they have a better dac and those are not cheap.
Isn't it a little late (Score:2)
to be putting out an iPod competitor?
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IPod was the Walkman competitor. Sony has had all along a consistent range of music players with excellent reviews (e.g. previous Sony Android music player NWZ-ZX1 from 2014) if you are looking for something that sounds better than a phone (yes even iphones) and do not care that it does not look you are following the latest fashion.
Re: Isn't it a little late (Score:3)
Re: Isn't it a little late (Score:3)
why do you need updates? music formats change very slowly. mp3 and flac are a mature format. youre not supposed to be putting internet enabled apps from a app store on it. there shouldn't be a vector of attack on it. nor should the device contain your personal files or your sole copies of your music.
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I haven't found a good ipod since the early nanos. The new ones are stupid expensive and with dumb peoples (shuffle only, postage stamp sized video, etc). I have not found a good music player since I my old nano was stolen, the mp3 stuff isn't great and syncing up podcasts on them is clumsy (please no more links to the one you think works, because I've tried them). Right now the podcasts are on my phone, but even then it is clumsy using it in my car because it periodically demands that I turn on cellular
Stunning good looks (Score:2)
I've got to have this! Word has it that you can do better in job interviews, and you get paid better, if you "look" good.
Huge Capacity (Score:1)
Can hold 10 songs.
And there's this ... (Score:3)
There's also a "Vinyl Processor" that will add record player noises to your audio for an "authentic listening experience".
You can enable fake analog recording noises -- great. /sarcasm
Wouldn't an "authentic listening experience" depend on the music? Like bourbon and a smoke-filled room for Jazz or heroin and a head wound for Punk, a trampoline for Lindsey Stirling? [ Feel free to add to this. :-) ] Just sayin' it's probably more than adding some record static and/or tape hiss -- and not sure why those would actually be desirable anyway.
Re: And there's this ... (Score:2)
Obviously (Score:2)
These would be great in a world where smartphones don't exist -- with many that actually cost less.
These are just the entry level walkmans (Score:3)
I hear the next version will be able to make phone calls!!!
Re: These are just the entry level walkmans (Score:2)
thanks, but no (Score:2)
Re: thanks, but no (Score:1)
what? why? it doesnt have any google specific componments in it. its like android asop modded for the device. theres no play store, gmail, gearth, gdrive etc google uses for tracking.
never again (Score:2)
The only reason I bought a Sony was for its colors. The camera. But fuck me, their proprietary formats and closed ecosystem.
I remember my friend's Sony minidisc. "Top of the line", back in the day, or so its price would suggest. You could record to it, but to get the recordings in any format off of that that one could actually edit, we'd eventually record the analog output. .wave and .mp3. And the USB would copypasta both ways. No way Sony would let anyone
Another had a no-brand minidisc player that would do
it don't have cassette player (Score:2)
I just installed fb2k on my wife's phone.. (Score:2)
Sorry--what were we talking about?
Let me get this straight (Score:3)
No Sim card
Very low res screen
Less memory than a 5 year old phone
Heavier and 3x thicker than a 10 year old phone
you could voluntarily opt for magical oxygen free metal for nearly $4,000
"Journalists" are gushing over it.
(Really need quotes for that one)
Did I miss anything?
Oh... and it's not available yet
So they took a phone removed all the useful parts, downgraded all the specs, and made it heavier and thicker.
Are you sure this isn't an Apple product?
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Apple has nothing on Sony when it comes to wankery.
Sony has been refining their technique since the 1970s.
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Did I miss anything?
You missed the "stunning good looks"
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Are you sure this isn't an Apple product?
Knowing Sony's history with vendor lock-in, no, I'm not sure.
HDD's in Cars (Score:1)
I also have a 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee. And while the tech is pretty impressive, It's still a cluster fuck using your phone for audio in your car. You're listening to a decent son
Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda (Score:2)
Has wireless! More space than Nomad! Cool!
These exist? (Score:2)
I had no idea music players still exist. This is like finding a T-rex walking around or something.
Suck Sony's Cock Harder (Score:2)
Stunning good looks? They look busy. They look, in short, like someone from the 80s would think something would look now. And the 80s was the last time Sony was relevant to people who want anything worth a fuck.
Assumptions: (Score:2)
Assuming that I were an insane audiophile who would spend lots of money on a special purpose music player just for the purpose of playing things like DSD or MQA scam files (or maybe it's not a scam, maybe I'm buying this for my pet dog who can actually hear these frequencies)...
No support for Opus
No support for AptX-Lossless.
This product is DoA.
Obligatory... (Score:2)
Do they still come with a rootkit [wikipedia.org] ?
Thanks, BeauHD (Score:2)