Sony Goes Back to Basics With New Walkman, Headphones
The classics are back, and packed with the latest tech.
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When other companies abandoned their classic designs in favor of the sleek lines of the future, Sony remembered its roots and kept on updating its established Walkman media player and portable audio lineup.
The Walkman NW-ZX2 is Sony’s latest iteration of its classic media player. The new model will supports MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, AIFF, WAV, and ALAC. It features 128GB of built-in memory, a microSD card slot, Wi-Fi and—according to Sony—a battery life of 60-hours of music. The Walkman is also able to stream sources that aren’t high quality and upscale them on the fly.
The new Sony Walkman NW-ZX2.
The president and COO of Sony Electronics Mike Fasulo was confident in the Walkman's capabilities and assured attendees that "Going wireless with Sony, you don't have to compromise sound."
Sony also debuted the new MDR-1ABT headphones, the successor to the popular MDR-1A, with plenty of new features. The new model will have touch sensor controls that let you control your music from the side of the headphones, and use NFC, so you can connect to a device without using cables.
Also announced today, The PHA-1A Portable DAC/Headphone Amplifier is compact and ready to be used with any compatible digital music device, PC, or smartphone via USB. Sony thinks it will enhance the listening experience, and is billing it as the perfect companion product to the NWZ-A17 walkman.
The new mobile product lineup will also feature a car audio head unit that’s compatible with high-resolution audio formats. It also features a DSEE HX (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) to reproduce high-resolution audio with lower resolution sources.
The walkman, wireless stereo headset, and the portable DAC/headphone amp will be available in Spring 2015, but you’ll have to wait until Summer 2015 for the car audio head unit.