Thursday, January 26th 2023
Sony Electronics Unveils Two New Walkman with Enhanced Sound Quality and Longer Battery Life Including the NW-ZX707 Premium Walkman
Sony Electronics Inc. today announced two new music players, the NW-ZX707 as part of the ZX Series, and the NW-A306 as part of the A Series, to the Walkman family. Both players are designed for listeners to enjoy music the way the artist intended with high-quality sound with a sleek design. Built with updated components of high-end models, the NW-ZX707 offers astonishing sound quality. With enhanced battery life, balanced connection, a larger 5.0" (diag.) display, Wi-Fi compatibility for easy downloading and streaming functions, it is also portable and stylish for the most demanding music lover.
Inheriting the philosophy of the Signature Walkman, the NW-ZX707 has upgraded fine-tuned capacitors and a FTCAP3 (high-polymer capacitor) and a large solid high polymer capacitor which offers large capacitance and low resistance. While an OFC (Oxygen-Free Copper) milled block covering the digital block, allows the NW-ZX707 to bring listeners sound that appears to rise-up from silence. Additionally, a large 8 mm coil for balanced output creates an improved sound resolution across all frequencies. All four kinds of components stated here are also used in the latest Signature Walkman model.
NW-ZX707 integrates a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) Remastering Engine where PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) audio is resampled into an 11.2 MHz DSD, offering even more ways to enjoy music.
The NW-A306 is designed for discerning users looking for high quality sound and style. This stylish and compact music player lets consumers download and stream more of the music they love. With full Wi-Fi compatibility, lightweight design and with the comfort and function of both a 3.6" (diag.) display touch screen and tactile physical music controls, the NW-A306 is dedicated to delivering exceptional music experiences right from the user's pocket.
Made with a rigid aluminium frame and gold solder inside a precisely engineered chassis, the NW-A306 delivers clear, stable sound and solid bass.
Faithful sound reproduction
The S-Master HX digital amp technology, independently developed for Walkman is compatible with the native DSD format. It reduces distortion and noise across a wide range of frequencies, for rich and full-bodied sound, further enhanced by new high-quality sound lead free solder.
Just like the latest Signature Walkman model, both models apply a reflow solder containing gold, whose effect is significant in the overall improved sound localization and wider sound space.
To realize both music players' evolutionary sound, a dual clock, film capacitor and fine sound register have been precisely placed within each Walkman.
Updated DSEE Ultimate for Enhancing Streaming Music Quality
The NW-ZX707 and the NW-A306 both use Edge-AI (Artificial Intelligence), DSEE Ultimate (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) which upscales compressed digital music files in real time. The evolving algorithm now delivers even greater benefits for CD-quality (16 bit 44.1/48 kHz) lossless codec audio. Restoring acoustic subtleties and dynamic range provides a richer, more complete listening experience.
With further progress from its predecessor models, consumers can enjoy DSEE Ultimate for upscaling their music, whether it is Wi-Fi streamed or downloaded. Now listeners can also enjoy DSEE Ultimate with wireless headphones.
The NW-ZX707 and the NW-A306 both feature a longer battery life compared to previous models so listeners can immerse themselves in more of their music. The NW-ZX707 has a battery life of up to 25 hours of 44.1 kHz FLAC playback, up to 23 hours of 96 kHz FLAC High-Resolution Audio playback, or up to 22 hours even when streaming. The NW-A306 has a battery life of up to 36 hours of 44.1 kHz FLAC playback, up to 32 hours of 96 kHz FLAC high resolution audio playback, or even up to 26 hours with the streaming service apps to meet the demand of consumers.
Sustainability in Mind
Our products are not only designed to be stylish but also with the environment in mind. No plastic is used in the packaging material for the NW-ZX707 and the NW-A306, reflecting Sony's commitment to reducing the environmental impact of our products and practices.
Pricing and Availability
NW-ZX707 has a suggested retail price of $899.99 and is available now to purchase at Sony Electronics and other Sony authorized retailers.
NW-A306 has a suggested retail price of $349.99 and is available now to purchase at Sony Electronics and other Sony authorized retailers.
Source:
Sony
Inheriting the philosophy of the Signature Walkman, the NW-ZX707 has upgraded fine-tuned capacitors and a FTCAP3 (high-polymer capacitor) and a large solid high polymer capacitor which offers large capacitance and low resistance. While an OFC (Oxygen-Free Copper) milled block covering the digital block, allows the NW-ZX707 to bring listeners sound that appears to rise-up from silence. Additionally, a large 8 mm coil for balanced output creates an improved sound resolution across all frequencies. All four kinds of components stated here are also used in the latest Signature Walkman model.
The NW-A306 is designed for discerning users looking for high quality sound and style. This stylish and compact music player lets consumers download and stream more of the music they love. With full Wi-Fi compatibility, lightweight design and with the comfort and function of both a 3.6" (diag.) display touch screen and tactile physical music controls, the NW-A306 is dedicated to delivering exceptional music experiences right from the user's pocket.
Made with a rigid aluminium frame and gold solder inside a precisely engineered chassis, the NW-A306 delivers clear, stable sound and solid bass.
Faithful sound reproduction
The S-Master HX digital amp technology, independently developed for Walkman is compatible with the native DSD format. It reduces distortion and noise across a wide range of frequencies, for rich and full-bodied sound, further enhanced by new high-quality sound lead free solder.
Just like the latest Signature Walkman model, both models apply a reflow solder containing gold, whose effect is significant in the overall improved sound localization and wider sound space.
To realize both music players' evolutionary sound, a dual clock, film capacitor and fine sound register have been precisely placed within each Walkman.
Updated DSEE Ultimate for Enhancing Streaming Music Quality
The NW-ZX707 and the NW-A306 both use Edge-AI (Artificial Intelligence), DSEE Ultimate (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) which upscales compressed digital music files in real time. The evolving algorithm now delivers even greater benefits for CD-quality (16 bit 44.1/48 kHz) lossless codec audio. Restoring acoustic subtleties and dynamic range provides a richer, more complete listening experience.
With further progress from its predecessor models, consumers can enjoy DSEE Ultimate for upscaling their music, whether it is Wi-Fi streamed or downloaded. Now listeners can also enjoy DSEE Ultimate with wireless headphones.
The NW-ZX707 and the NW-A306 both feature a longer battery life compared to previous models so listeners can immerse themselves in more of their music. The NW-ZX707 has a battery life of up to 25 hours of 44.1 kHz FLAC playback, up to 23 hours of 96 kHz FLAC High-Resolution Audio playback, or up to 22 hours even when streaming. The NW-A306 has a battery life of up to 36 hours of 44.1 kHz FLAC playback, up to 32 hours of 96 kHz FLAC high resolution audio playback, or even up to 26 hours with the streaming service apps to meet the demand of consumers.
Sustainability in Mind
Our products are not only designed to be stylish but also with the environment in mind. No plastic is used in the packaging material for the NW-ZX707 and the NW-A306, reflecting Sony's commitment to reducing the environmental impact of our products and practices.
Pricing and Availability
NW-ZX707 has a suggested retail price of $899.99 and is available now to purchase at Sony Electronics and other Sony authorized retailers.
NW-A306 has a suggested retail price of $349.99 and is available now to purchase at Sony Electronics and other Sony authorized retailers.
59 Comments on Sony Electronics Unveils Two New Walkman with Enhanced Sound Quality and Longer Battery Life Including the NW-ZX707 Premium Walkman
You do not have to use the AI stuff. That's for upscaling compressed stuff if you want to do that because you have old crappy stuff. It natively supports highres, lossless, and uncompressed which is what people are going to be using. Here from the page of the product is part of it
Audio Playback
MP3 ( .mp3): 32 - 320kbps (supports VBR) / 32, 44.1, 48kHz WMA ( .wma): 32-320kbps(supports variable bit rate(VBR)/44.1kHz(STEREO) 32-48kbps/44.1kHz(MONO) FLAC ( .flac): 16, 24bit / 8-384kHz WAV ( .wav): 16, 24, 32bit (Float/Integer) / 8-384kHz AAC ( .mp4, .m4a, .3gp): 16-320kbps / 8-48kHz HE-AAC ( .mp4, .m4a, .3gp): 32-144kbps / 8-48kHz Apple Lossless ( .mp4, .m4a): 16, 24bit / 8-384kHz AIFF ( .aif, .aiff, .afc, .aifc): 16, 24, 32bit / 8-384kHz DSD ( .dsf, .dff): 1bit / 2.8224, 5.6448, 11.2896 MHz APE ( .ape): 8, 16, 24bit / 8-192kHz (Fast, Normal, High) MQA ( .mqa.flac): SupportedFor lossless streaming or highres streaming this will be much better than your phone. You also don't have to drain your phones batter or nuke your phones battery with a DAC/AMP that attaches to it, which again this will still beat. Nobody using this is going to stream with their phone as a hot spot. They are going to load it up with storage and use that. They will stream at work over wifi and at home they probably have a wireless streaming device that does highres.
It's just not a product for you or most people. It's a niche product for people already in the highres eco system. Of course it's going to be over engineered to hell and back. And the combination of pro grade components, over engineered, and small volume = going to cost.
wont buy it
Then CDs killed tapes and MD happened and so on... Oh well...
I still used it for a good few years and it was possibly the nicest casette walkman ever made.
Never splurged on anything like that, to that extent ever since then, so I guess it was a lesson of a sort as well.
Let's just say I wouldn't consider either of the products in this press relase.
It cant call or text as its not a phone but thats an advantage not a drawback in some cases like when you sleep like i already pointed out
I hate music streaming myself i bought a 128 GB microSD card and copied all my FLAC files over and turned off all wifi and bluetooth to get longer battery life
As for the whole carry around one more device how big and heavy do you think they are?
The A105 is only slightly bigger than my old Creative Zen MP3 player its not big or heavy in any way and fits in all my pockets without a problem
As for the short battery life you can like you can with a phone buy a battery bank if its really that big of a deal
Again drawbacks and advantages for various use cases and users
Edit: as for the storage space on the device its not actually 16 GB at least not on the A105 as the OS and blootware takes up 6 GB leaving you with a grand total of 10 GB of space for music files which is why i bought a 128 GB microSD card
I would like to state that before i bought my A105 last year i was still using my old Creative Zen MP3 player that was at least 10 years old and the battery was down to like an hour when it bit the dust so 5-6 hours with an A105 is still an upgrade
Music from my phone is god awful it sounds worse its worse to use it drains the battery within a few hours and its all around worse than even an old MP3 player but hey the phone was a gift so i cant or wont complain about it it can call and text and hop online and thats all i need
To me i fail to understand everyone that want to pay money for the newest Apple or Samsung model but i dont go out of my way to call them names or try and make fun of them thats just idiotic
That's why I'm still happily using my ancient DAP with six buttons and a small non-touch screen. Can operate it without looking at screen and that's great.
This is complete and utter bullshit. Believe whatever you want, but this shit means nothing. There are proper things that do something, like independent balanced amps for each side, balanced headphone outputs, low output impedance, etc etc etc... and associated points of diminishing returns with the corresponding infinitesimal measurements which we don't need to discuss, this just ain't it.
I get it, it's a press release written by marketing knobheads, doesn't mean it doesn't deserve to be called out.You got me there, it's definitely not for me or most people, and low volume over engineering does cost money. But that over engineering needs to be demonstrated and senseless markting claims ain't the way to do it.
I guess I like many others just get instantly triggered when I see clear snake oil being touted as something special, maybe this performs great but it uses the same grandiose statements every other product in that target market uses because Audiophiles, in their search for the utopic sound quality, are super gullible.
Wonder if there are any of them in working condition left?
I like that stuff like this exists, but it's not for me.
I'm almost looking around seeing if there is somebody selling one.
OFC is also a thing and it's used in industrial and professional applications. It's better for dealing with heat and it's less prone to issues. Is it bonkers overkill that makes a minimal difference? Yes. Are people going to demand it? Yes. Here's what they said though.
Inheriting the philosophy of the Signature Walkman, the NW-ZX707 has upgraded fine-tuned capacitors and a FTCAP3 (high-polymer capacitor) and a large solid high polymer capacitor which offers large capacitance and low resistance. While an OFC (Oxygen-Free Copper) milled block covering the digital block, allows the NW-ZX707 to bring listeners sound that appears to rise-up from silence. Additionally, a large 8 mm coil for balanced output creates an improved sound resolution across all frequencies. All four kinds of components stated here are also used in the latest Signature Walkman model.
This is market speak for a high quality heatsink that's not going to cause you issues due to heat or electrical transfer. The coil information is just pointing out they have a good coil!
You're engaging in far more nonsense and hyperbole to criticize something you'd never buy than the marketing team is doing to sell it to a target market. Which, when you are out bullshitting a marketing team and going more extreme is quite a hobby!
I could go on to the other points but I honestly lost interest, you want to buy into the snake oil marketing speech have at it, I won't. Audiophiles are gullible as hell.
LG phones where generally terrible software wise but had best dacs of any phones, but with the advent of streaming and wireless solutions that was not a good enough selling point for them to survive in the market.
Although I can totally agree on the camera rant, I think music players, outside of a few very niche products like this, are pretty much dead and can stay dead. You can instead use a dac and amp to flesh out the sound if you're into that but the digital part will sound exactly the same.
Congrats on being a forum warrior though ;)
Noise isolation in DACs is a thing. Higher-end standalone DACs (the kind you'd connect to pre or integrated amp) usually go for a completely galvanically isolated design but thats probably not practical in portable device.I'm not sure why they are mentioning it being lead free but solder is not solder, there are different alloys and different grades, but I assume they are referring to gold-tin. Improved "sound localization and wider sound space" is obviously marketing speak but if its a better conductor than standard cheaper grades its all part of the signal path and the sound so sure. What you, I, or anyone else is going to actually here is individual and subjective so take markeing claims like that for what they are.
I'm glad Sony is out there making a high end audio device.
I'm mildly pissed though that while this device will be released and sell tens of thousands of units...if not more......if I wanted to play any of those old cassette tapes that many of us of a certain age...hell, even old 8 tracks or Reel to Reel 4 tracks.....and I mean even to play them, not to play them via High Tech means or on a audiophile device, there is still no 'even reasonable quality' product available in 2023. You can get some really awful cassette players but for the rest of those I am pretty sure you are on your own.....
And some other stuff that I found at discogs.com (some of the choices are various physical media, others obviously not, in many cases I can't tell)...
Cassette tapes are extremely tame, you buy a used cassette player by Sony or any other company that used to make quality stuff, maybe change the rubber bands, and it should be okay if it hasn't been abused.