Is Sony’s New Budget Hi-Res Walkman Too Good to be True?
At just £350/$350/€400 the newly announced Sony Walkman NW-A306 is considerably cheaper than the competition, but what’s the catch?
Sony have released details of a new hi-res music player as part of it’s Walkman range, and it’s an absolute bargain.
To the casual eye, the latest iteration in the Walkman line up looks like a no-frills version of the much pricier NW-WM1ZM2 (£3,299) and NW-WM1AM2 (£1,299) players — but the biggest difference you’ll find is in the cost.
That makes it less than half the price of the award-winning Astell & Kern A&norma SR25 MKII hi-res player.
Running Android 12, this new Walkman is jammed pack full of the kind of features you’d find on much more expensive players. For example, Sony’s S-Master HX digital amp and native DSD codec brings considerably better quality audio and lower noise than most high end smartphones currently available, as well as a 3.5mm traditional headphone jack for plugging your cans straight in.
Sony says users can expect over 36 hours of 44.1kHz FLAC playback and up to 32 hours of 96kHz FLAC high-resolution audio playback from one charge, via the conveniently included USB-C port.
So What’s The Catch?
According to the NW-A306’s spec sheet it only offers 32GB of built in storage, and of that only 18GB will actually be available for usage. This could be a deal breaker for people who like to store files internally — as 18GB’s will disappear pretty quickly once you start filling it with FLAC/ALAC files.
However, micro SD cards ARE supported here. So all bets are certainly not off.
The Sony Walkman NW-A306 will be available for pre-order from the Sony store later this month.
Story originally appeared on thebudgethifiguy.com
