Sony's Walkman gets resurrected as a high-res audio player

[Shawn Knight]

Dedicated MP3 players were displaced by smartphones years ago (just ask Apple). But now, the nearly-extinct devices are starting to make a comeback - at least among those who put audio quality above all else.

Stateside, everyone is watching and waiting to see what becomes of the PonoPlayer, a portable music player that will offer studio master-quality digital music at the highest audio fidelity possible. The device finished its run on Kickstarter back in April as the third best campaign of all time and is expected to ship later this year.

On the other side of the planet, there's another high-end music player already on the market with a familiar name that's taking Asian and European markets by storm. Sony's Walkman ZX1 (yes, the brand is still alive) launched last December and has reportedly been selling very well despite its $700 price tag.

The portable music player features a 4-inch display with 854 x 480 resolution that's capable of displaying full album artwork with 128GB of onboard storage. It can play standard MP3s and compressed lossless formats like FLAC and ALAC at up to 192/kHz/24 bit.

For those not in the know, the first number is the sampling rate, or how many times the audio file is sampled for data per second. The second figure related to the amount of data in each sample. The chart below does a good job at helping to visualize how this works in the real world when listing to a song.

High-end audio players certainly aren't for everyone as many likely won't be able to hear a difference between lossy and lossless recordings. If you can, however, and are comfortable with a limited catalog of music and a high entry fee, you'll be among the few that get to experience music the way it was meant to be heard.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/57491-sonys-walkman-gets-resurrected-as-a-high-res-audio-player.html

 

[Psychnificent]

"Compressed lossless" ??

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Well I'm no audiophile (is there really such a thing?) so trying to foist such a product in my face is a waste of time.

 

[Guest]

Sure phones can do it all. But most things are better when seperate and not integrated into something else. People do like the lack of wires, connecting pieces or the bulk of multiple items. But frankly, if I want to tear about on my bike or go jogging, I would rather something smaller in my pocket than my phone. I would rather it was a lot cheaper than my phone too, in case of an accident, or theft from in car use, and someone lucks their way into finding said device in my glove box.

There will always be a place for seperates but it depends who your market is and what price your going to punt for.

Ideally, we need wifi headsets that connect to pc music libraries. Usb connect, set up wifi network, go out, jog out of range to be saved by Google Airlooms (whatever those wifi balloons are called).

 

[Guest]

No smartphone sounds as good as my Sony Walkman Series X (w/integrated noise canceling)
Plus
-it has DEDICATED BUTTONS, I can play/pause, ff, rwd, and control volume without taking it off my pocket, amazing for everyday trips on the subway and public transportation
-I dont wear down my phone battery
-sometimes I like to go jogging without the distraction of my phone but with music

 

[DKRON]

Long live walkman! also 128GB onboard memory, try beat that any other smart phone

 

[Guest]

Music is compressed to the teeth these days so whatever gain one might get from the higher resolution of 24 bit is nullified by the music makers trying to get as loud a signal as possible. There is no dynamic range in music these days. That means there is very little difference between the loudest and softest sounds. The difference between loud and soft is where having a 24 bit signal would make a difference. Instead music production engineers compress the living daylights out of the signal producing very little dynamic range. Nearly a hundred percent of individual tracks in a mix are going to have compression. Then there's likely to be compression in effects chains. And there's definitely compression on the master output. What this all means is that even if you have a higher resolution signal, you're only really going to hear sh*ttier music slightly better.

Fools will pay 700 dollars for a music player then listen to it through ear buds or beats headphones.

 

[risc32]

Besides the first two posts, you other guys are right on.

 

[oldikes]

"Compressed lossless" ??

yep. two of the greatest words that can be put together when it comes to digital media.

 

[Guest]

You're correct about much that you've observed, but there are sources for digitally downloaded music that's been taken from masters that haven't been murdered by record label audio engineers; HD Tracks, among others. Neil Young's Pono Player is just part of the equation, as he's also committing to back an on-line store where expertly engineered high resolution audio from unadulterated master recordings can be purchased.

Most of large label product that's released in mp3 or other formats have been dynamically compressed to retain an almost consistent volume level throughout any given track. These files have also been compressed in ways that actually remove much of both the highest & the lowest tonal range, in order to achieve the smallest possible sized file.

Stores like Pono, HD Tracks & the others available can hope to address the source file engineering issues, but that then leaves the matter of the other components; a player technically capable of rendering high resolution, technically capable DACs & AMPs if they're not integrated with the player, & of course the headphones, IEMs or speakers the music is presented on.

Across all components there's the opportunity to claim excellence & then collect exorbitant profit from sub standard product; Beats headphones have been notorious as little more than obscenely high priced fashion/lifestyle statements, though more recent reviews report some improvement in both sound quality & in whats been their ridiculously cheesy brittle plastic construction.

As always, YMMV & Buyer Beware. But, if you're interested, take your time, do lot's of research & LISTEN to stuff to determine if it's worth the expense.

 

[Guest]

yep. two of the greatest words that can be put together when it comes to digital media.

Actually yes. FLAC, ALAC, & other high resolution formats are frequently compressed to reduce individual track file size. Expert engineering properly executed will always avoid any dynamic compression from within the audible frequency range, plus a measure of frequency range to ensure a margin of error "cushion".