The
Sony Walkman is finally making a comeback!
This
time, it’s come back as a US$700 Sony Walkman NWXZ-ZX1
as reported in the article “Sony's Resurrected
Walkman making Waves”, published JULY 21, 2014 07:33PM EST BY DAMON POETER,
PC Magazine.
The
US$700 Sony
Walkman NWXZ-ZX1 is my prayers answered as I’d predicted that the Sony
Walkman would be making a comeback as pointed out in my Geezam blog article entitled “Sony
Ericsson Live with Walkman™ smartphone”. Back then on Monday August 22nd
2011, Sony had launched the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman™, which at the time
I’d thought was going to be the Sony Walkman replacement.
But
alas, it wasn’t meant to be. But will a new, more expensive replacement for the
Sony Walkman be a better fit?
US$700 Sony Walkman
NWXZ-ZX1 – Trend towards Downloading of Hi-Def Sound
The
US$700 Sony
Walkman NWXZ-ZX1 is riding on the trend of HD Music, mostly involving
formats such as FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) and AIFF that can be
downloaded from the Internet as described in my blog
article entitled “How
to download High Quality Music via torrenting - The Mortal Instruments City of
Bones used to get Free Music”.
The main problem is the hardware, which had only just recently begun to
catch up with the trend. The first developer of hardware that’s fully capable
of playing HD Music is Neil
Young’s Kickstarter project for the Pono Music, which is slated to launch in October 2014 as I’d chronicled in
my blog
article entitled “Neil
Young’s Righteous PonoMusic and US$200 PonoPlayer Kickstarter - The Hills are
alive with the Sound of FLAC Music despite HD Music being a new phenomenon with
new packaging”.
Since then, a few have stepped up to the plate to make Portable Music
players that can play HD Music and also have enough spaces to store as many
songs as would have been possible if the Music was in MP3 format. The US$700
Sony Walkman
NWXZ-ZX1 is one such which has actually been out and about in Japan and
other Asian and European countries since December 2013.
Curiously,
despite Sony having launched the Sony Walkman NWXZ-ZX1,
they are not formulated any plans to launch in the US of A. But even at US$700,
it must be very successful in Japan, as it's caught the eye of the Wall Street
Journal as reported in “Sony's
Walkman Makes Comeback”, published July 20, 2014 8:09 p.m. ET By KANA
INAGAKI, The Wall Street Journal.
The
Sony Walkman
NWXZ-ZX1, which is made of solid Aluminum, weighs in at 139 grams and 13.5
mm thick around the middle makes it 37% heavier than the Apple iPod Touch and
US$500 more expensive. In fact, the Apple iPod Touch is now currently on sale
with the 16GB versions even getting a rear-facing Camera upgrade as explained in
my blog article entitled “Apple
iPod Touch gets Price Drop as Apple Acquires Beats Electronics to jumpstart
Streaming”.
Unlike
the Apple iPod touch, which to its credit can play FLAC, the Sony Walkman NWXZ-ZX1
has way more storage. It's packing a 128GB SSD (Solid State Drive) for storage
of hundreds of HD Audio files stored in the 24-bit, 192kHz Free Lossless Audio
Codec (FLAC) format. It also supports the following formats:
1.
AAC
2.
Apple Lossless audio
3.
ATRAC
4.
FLAC
5.
WAV
6.
MP3
7.
MP4 for videos
Assuming
that you've got the right headphones that translate to deeper bass, cleaner
music that so crisp and clear that you can even hear every time the singer
inhales and takes a breath.
The
Sony Walkman
NWXZ-ZX1 sports a 4” capacitive touch screen with a 854-by-480 resolution
TFT color display that, clearly, supports HD picture and Video playback. The Sony Walkman NWXZ-ZX1
also has a 5-band equalizer, dynamic Normalizer with Clear Bass and Clear
Stereo Technology, making the already super clear FLAC Audio files playback
with super realistic clarity.
Not
sure what headphones will be shipped with the Sony Walkman NWXZ-ZX1,
but they're guaranteed to be of the greatest quality and thus allow the
listener to enjoy 32 Hours of HD Audio, 16 hours if you use the highest
settings.
Sony Walkman NWXZ-ZX1
in the US of A Quality, not Price, will make this product sell
So
will this be enough to attract Americans when it comes to the US of A?
NPD
Group says sales of HD Headphones has doubled in the last three (3) years, most
notably those made by Beats Electronics, now the property of Apple as noted in my blog article entitled “Apple
officially confirms Beats Audio Purchase - US$3.2 Billion as Apple gears up for
Subscription Streaming and improved Headphones”. By 2020, HD audio is
projected to account for some 20% of the sales of the Global Audio market, a
boost of 15% above the 5% of the Market.
Something
Tessanne Chin's Management Team needs to take note. Granted, as is now the
case, the Trend is towards Streaming as opposed to Downloading. Coupled with
Digital Music Piracy, it accounts for the lacklustre performance of her Apple
iTunes Album Count On
My Love as I'd argued in my blog
article entitled “Why
Tessanne Chin’s Count on My Love isn't selling – Streaming is now King as she
needs to Experiment with Writing her OWN Songs”.
At
US$700, that a lot of dough to spend on a Music Player that's not connected to
the Internet; you still have to connect the Sony Walkman NWXZ-ZX1
and synch in order to get the Music transferred. So possibly by Christmas 2014,
the Sony Walkman
NWXZ-ZX1 will be launched to challenge the US$399 Neil
Young’s Kickstarter project for the Pono Music.
Hopefully,
the quality and finish of the Sony Walkman NWXZ-ZX1
that resonates with the Japanese will also persuade the Americans that HD Music
is a trend worth investing in.
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