Unsexy but musically excellent: how is Sony's new Walkman (without headphones) doing?

Unsexy but musically excellent: how is Sony's new Walkman (without headphones) doing?


The new Sony Walkman NW-A306 seems to come from a dystopian dimension such as that described by Philip K. Dick in The man in the high castlewhere German rationalism meets Japanese efficiency.

It is undoubtedly a product of excellence in the performance of its task, which is to reproduce music at its best, but has the charm of an anonymous media player from the days of Napster. And to say that it is made of fine aluminum alloy. However, the design is that of a cigarette case and even the dimensions do not differ much from it.

The weight is 113 grams, which are practically imperceptible in a jacket pocket or jeans. The embossed rear area makes it easier to grip. After that, what really matters is that the 3.6” color touch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels is also combined with a series of solid physical keys, which include a key lock slide, play-pause, fast forward and fast rewindvolume and power on and off.

On the lower base are distinguished a 3.5mm headphone jack (not included). in the box), the USB-C port for power and data transfer, a slot for a lanyard and the slot for a microSD. The main memory is 32 GB but the real usable space is 18, so with high resolution audio files it is good to consider an expansion. Complete the equipment Wi-Fi support 5while Bluetooth 5 is compatible with the wireless codecs SBC, Ldac, aptX and aptxHD.

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A reader that is aimed at a few enthusiasts

This is the new Walkman generation according to Sony, or at least one of its latest mid-range versions given that the top of the NWM1Z range costs more than 3,000 euros in the price list. The NW-A306 still ranks at 400 and therefore explicitly aimed at the big fans of high-resolution digital music. Difficult to recommend it to other types of consumers, unless you crave the fetish of an object of this type.

If you wanted to minimize the tale of this Walkman it should be said that it is a sort of Android smartphone, unable to make phone calls but with extremely advanced hardware for music reproduction. So excellent that it not only supports audiophile formats like Flac and DSD, but also Wma, MP3, WAV, AAC, He-Aac, Apple Lossless, Aiff, APE and MQA. Furthermore, it can function as a player or as an external DAC for another device: basically a digital-to-analog converter for a computer or an amplifier or whatever.

But that alone is not enough

The Sony Walkman is sold exclusively with a USB-C cable therefore you can't help but buy a pair of headphones or earphones separately with cable. If you wish, you could opt for Bluetooth versions, but it is good to know that in this way you risk audiophile anathema. We assure the agnostics that the same is fine, also thanks to Sony's Ldac technologies and Qualcomm's aptX/aptxHD, provided you buy compatible earphones or headphones such as Sony WH-1000XM4 or the B&W P7 S2 .

Once the ancillary practice has been resolved, all that remains is charge the device for about 3 and a half hours. Operating autonomy is a lottery, because it depends on the type of use: music streaming via wi-fi or playback of Flac, MP3 or other tracks stored in the memory, use or not of bluetooth and so on. Sony claims between 18 and 36 hoursbut we found a figure closer to the low threshold (even less, actually).

The first start is a bit destabilizing, because you are faced with Android 12 and how to pair your Gmail account. As your finger scrolls through the icons of Chrome, Calendar, Maps, Play Store, YouTube and others, the proprietary Sony Walkman pops up. There's actually a library to populate with your own files, then organized by category, artist, audio quality and other parameters. The owner is expected to have a collection of audio files. The alternative is to take advantage of the apps of the main music streaming platforms and therefore have a subscription.

At that point the discriminant is choose a platform that offers high resolution music (perhaps downloadable) to make the most of the Walkman's qualities. And undoubtedly among the qualities there is the dedicated audio hardware, based on film capacitors, an optimized printed circuit with gold solders to reduce signal losses and an amplification technology capable of enhancing the hi-res audio and the Ldac format. The equipment is completed by Sony 360 Reality Audio surround technology, Dsee Ultimate (which thanks to AI seeks to improve the audio quality of MP3s and CDs), ClearAudio Plus, which automatically optimizes the balance of frequencies in the reproduced piece of music, and the Vinyl Processor, which offers an equalization experience close to the analogue world. Do not miss the classic customizable band equalizer.

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How does the Sony NW-A306 sound?

Sony's new Walkman has the ability to deliver a audio quality clearly superior to any smartphone and most portable devices. It certainly does better than a historic Walkman and even an old Minidisc. It represents pocket excellence, but it is like a sports car which then needs to be combined with other elements to whiz between the curbs of digital high fidelity. It needs a proper pair of headphones or earphones, a subscription to a streaming service with hi-res tracks, and sensitive ears: just by missing one of these components, a smartphone becomes more convenient.

It is not a rejection of the product, on the contrary. It's just that the NW-A306 requires an enthusiast, someone who seeks high fidelity on the go. Certainly not an 80s nostalgic, because seeing on the display (there is an ad hoc option) the graphics of a virtual cassette that runs during playback is barbarism. Or a grammar, for those who still have an analog heart.



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