NW-WM1AM2 Hi-Res 128GB Walkman Digital MP3 Music Player

I love music and this is my 5th sony walkman --earlier models include a zx300 and two zx2's (don't ask). I really wanted to buy the nw-1zm2 but for that price ($3900 including tax) I would have expected a user changeable battery and software upgrade visibility (means full functionality guarantee for at least 8-10 years-having learnt my lesson from my zx2s losing some key functionalities just 3-4 years into the purchase- Sony stopped firmware update support and the walkman was stuck with android 4.2 version which resulted in many apps not continuing to be compatible with the old android version -for example spotify) and hence I know from bitter experience that sony models ( and all other brands for that matter) get obsolete due to (well calculated?) lack of support ( firmware/battery) in 4 years or so. For some reason, they put in stingy amount RAM which makes no sense considering cost of RAM is very low but i doubt this walkman has more than 4 gb ram judging by the lag it shows sometimes. I know I could probably send in my older walkman for a battery change to their center in NY and might have too but reduced functionality due to obsolete firmware makes it an unworthy pursuit. Coming to this walkman. My theory is that when you put it on and - the sound is so good that it makes you smile- the smile works on facial muscles to open ears wider and the sound improves further and thus you hear even better and better (kidding!) - seriously speaking- I noted complete separation of instruments- which then blend back together nicely, great Soundstage and overall brilliant clarity. I put on kate bush hounds of love and then some progressive house( hernan cattaneo) both flac files ripped from my own cd collection and before I knew it, I had finished hearing the complete albums - thoroughly enjoying them and with no fatigue and it was bliss. The music had my complete attention and I was fully engaged processing all the details coming in through my ears. A lot of subtle sounds that I never heard before and I have a great audio system hooked up with MIT cables so the quality of sound was obviously something. EDIT: have had it for 2-3 weeks now, feel no regret buying it. Heard it a few times (right?- where is the time to enjoy all these things) and tried 2 or 3 different ear phones as well as sony z7 over ear headphone. Felt it was underpowered for the over ear as i had it on on full volume, got loud and clear but it was at full volume- good news is that it did not distort or lose quality even while playing full volume. Tried it with sony z5 earphones with stock cable- sounded GOOD- sublime, thoroughly enjoyed the combination. Tried it JVC steel HD01 (do not remember the exact model) - Excellent, really really nice earphones for the price ($200 something) and those sounded very well paired with the walkman as well. Important note: I have several in ear phones and always struggled with some discomfort...either my ears ached, or the phones would slip out or the sound did not feel right and many times i needed to keep pushing them back in and i just passed the years thinking it is what it is. I am a 6 ft 3 guy and used medium or large size silicons/foams and then one day i tested small (never considered small might be my size). My life changed after that. Even the heavy stainless steel body JVC which earlier felt heavy in my ears -feel as if i am not even wearing them since i started using the correct size tips. Trust me, its made me love my old phones all over again and really changed my music listening experience since I finally found the correct size tips that fits my ears. I highly recommend experimenting with diff sizes of tips if you are encountering any of the discomforts i mentioned earlier. I finally got myself the JVC spiral dots in small size for all my phones except the sony z5 which came with an elaborate array of its own tips. Good news is that most of your earphones come with multiple sizes so do sort that issue out before worrying about getting a new dap. Back to the walkman-I love it. Have ordered the original case from japan for an additional 100 usd or so. EDIT: the case arrived, its real leather and the manual inside it says its special leather from Japan itself although the case is manufactured in china. Case felt good quality, the buttons have hard bits in them so even though you press the leather, the buttons on the walkman respond to pushes. I like the original sony case - worth seeking out. I put in a 1 tb sandisk card. Loaded it my music collection- all of them flac files. No particular lag even though there's a Tb of music loaded. Screen quality is good and touch screen is responsive. Spotify tested and works just fine. Edit: Its not completely without lag. When scrolling, album art is slow to show. When you turn on the walkman, even though spotify can be played relatively quickly, it takes a minute for loaded music to be accessible ( i do have 900 gb of music but as mentioned, SONY could easily have put in 8 gb of Ram for the price they are charging) Only issue I found is that it's menu locate by artist and not 'album artist' which makes it difficult to jump to a particular album considering over a tb of music even though I have about a 1000 album artists but probably few thousand total artists. Edit: found that it has a feature to sort by 'album artist' vs 'artist'- good job Sony! Battery life not really tested as I got it just yesterday. Bought from Amazon and I got one of first 100 serial numbers ! EDIT: My zx2 used to discharge over time if just left in the drawer, this walkman 1am2 does not seem to suffer from that problem. I left it unused for 10 days ( was studying for an exam ) and found the charge where i left it a few days ago...so i guess that problem is not on this walkman which is great. Is the walkman itself in terms of the physical item something that is worth $1500+ maybe not- but if you include in the sum of its parts it's ability to achieve the sound quality that it can and play your music at the level that you will enjoy it at another level, I think one can bear it. Another thing, the amazon description says its made in malaysia. The piece I received is made in China (says so on the box as well as on the device) Does not mean anything but just mentioning. Will update if something comes to mind. Pros -Best in class and beyond -No Brainer under $3000 category -Excellent build quality Cons -No user changeable battery ( at high dollar prices it should be) -No firmware staying up to date visibility beyond year 4. -Should have had the case included - A little laggy -tested with 900 gb music on sandisk card -all FLAC ( no excuse for SONY not to have put in more RAM or whatever it is that would avoid that problem) encountered when scrolling through albums, the album art shows with a lag. At this price point, sony could have done a better job aka put in more RAM. - Music access not available right away when you turn on - although if that means battery is conserved- its totally excusable PS- I have a 1 TB sandisk card in my walkman containing almost 2000 albums including artwork etc. I have had no problems with operation - not even one time. If you add or delete stuff, it's normal functioning for this device to rebuild database ( longer process) . If you power on from a previous power off state, it does take a minute to read the database. This is normal functioning.

Just Incredible!!! my only complaint is battery life is not what sony claims it is, much much less, NOT 40 Hours may be with luck 12 , it really sucks , but great and above the Rest, Astell & Kern is the only great contender known by the extraordinary DACs and processors plus they have a much easier software, that is supreme. I certainly believe the Sony is a different flavor may be things will improve when they bring a new firmware, music wise great, but not as pure as the A&K... The sony is missing something but it has very good stage, and sounds recognition, Thank you

It’s a Sony. It has the great Japanese house sound. It has a single ended or balanced output. It looks the part. But switch it on and the pain starts. It takes ages to boot. It takes longer to fire up a streaming app. The whole thing is slow and everything takes forever to load. Sony being Sony, they have already announced that this 1400$ DAP is stuck in the Android 11 hell forever. If you want Android 12 or 13, you will have to buy the next gen (and no, don't assume ZX707 is as good, sound quality-wise; while faster, slimmer and running Android 12, 707 drops the high gain output unless you buy it in Japan and fails to convince in the sonic department by high end DAP standards). I have experienced similar pain in the past with Vaio laptops, OLED TVs, Alpha cameras etc. Beautiful but underpowered hardware let down by a subpar software experience which Sony seldom attempts to improve in the lifetime of a product, once a stable firmware has been released. Every time I got burned with another half baked Sony product, I promised myself not to fall for their blurb again. Being an Android player with full support for the Google App Store, it means you can load any Android compatible streaming apps and you can also download music for offline listening. I have a big offline Qobuz playlist and it works as expected. Often Google updates mess up my offline library so some maintenance is required but, apart from that, offline downloads are perfectly usable. The battery life is underwhelming. Probably 6-8 hours at best with anything above 44/16. Less if you use offline Qobuz / Tidal files, more if you use the incorporated player with locally stored files. The display is usable but with significant light bleed at the edges of the screen and low resolution. If my mobile phone would have this screen, I would be seriously aggrieved. But, of course, the pain settles once you plug in some good headphones. It works beautifully with my custom IEMs and my AKG K872. It’s a smooth, effortless performer with no hard edges, the power delivery is adequate (I use high gain for both with no hiss, although JH can be used on low gain as well). The bass is not as defined or controlled as a desktop amp but I can live with it on the road. The treble is slightly rolled-off for an overall warmer and slightly darker sound signature. Soundstage, air, ultimate transparency are traded for a smooth, analog delivery prioritising realistic timbres. Coming from a bluetooth headphone or a portable DAC / mobile phone what strikes you first is how a piano sounds like a piano and a guitar like a guitar with the body, textures, overtones. There are no perfect products on the market today so you will have to pick your poison depending on your own priorities. Sony is a poor Android player with a beautiful sound quality. If you can get past the Android shortcomings, the underpowered hardware and ignore the long boot time, slow app loading and various quirks - SD card compatibility is variable, offline playback of content from Qobuz takes several attempts while the DAP insists on reminding you you are not connected to wifi etc - you will not regret spending the money as long as sound quality is your only priority. On balance 4 stars from me for the sound quality, although the DAP is seriously let down by the Android experience.

If I could do half-stars increments, I would rate it 4.5 stars. I'd deduct half a star because of the low RAM and outdated Android version. For this price, it should have much better UI and OS. But most DAPs have outdated OS these days, even the new DAPs. The hardware is definitely premium. Sony didn't skimp on the build quality. The screen resolution isn't that great, but the primary purpose of this device is audio first, everything else second. Audio is extremely good. It's on par with my desktop setup. It has a high gain mode in case your headphones need more kick. I don't like to listen to music too loudly, so regular mode is enough for me. You can use this device as a DAC, in case you want to connect your laptop to it and use the DAP as a DAC/amp. I'm using this with the HD660S2 headphones. I'm very happy with it. I wish Sony improved the software experience though.

Sin duda, un gran DAP. Lo he utilizado con Bluetooth en los codecs de alta definición y es impresionante como transmite en HD, obviamente con los auriculares que soporten esos codecs (en mi caso Sennheiser MTW4 y Denon Perl Pro). En las salidas físicas simplemente inigualable, la música presenta un stage y una imagen sumamente impresionante. Altamente recomendable si quieres dar un paso adelante en sonido y portabilidad de aquella que puede ofrecer cualquier Smartphone, pues tu música sonará impresionante y podrás percibir rasgos y detalles que se pierden regularmente por la comprensión de los archivos. Debe destacarse que sí es necesario reproducir los codecs específicos ya que incluso Lossless de Apple Music representa una diferencia sumamente importante cuando se reproduce en este DAP en relación a cualquier Smartphone; sumando que se requiere auriculares que soporten la transmisión wireless en HD, ni qué decir de las salidas físicas, donde obviamente necesitarás auriculares HD. La batería es similar al uso de cualquier Smartphone, aunque si se desactiva WiFi y el Bluetooth el rango de duración se incrementa, pero al final del día dependerá de su uso, pero sin duda es muy bueno su rendimiento.

Good！

Muy bueno, falta potencia pero excelente calidad

Primero que nada debo aclarar que este reproductor lleva conmigo ya más de 6 meses. Lo he comprado en una oferta de Amazon en donde lo he conseguido al equivalente de 750 dólares (en un descuento de casi 250 dólares) y toda mi revisión se hará tomando en cuenta ese precio. Quisiera empezar confirmando lo que ya mencionan todos aquí; Estamos ante un reproductor de alta gama con un sonido espectacular. Actualmente tengo en mi colección; - Xenns Top - Planar Aria - Dunu SA6 Mark II - Audio Technica M40X Con absolutamente todos suena increíble y la firma un poquito más cálida, que ya es característica en Sony sienta excelente a varios de estos auriculares. El reproductor cuenta con características varias que no encuentro en cosas como mi Hibi R5 Gen2, como que la aplicación principal de música cuenta el número de horas en las que tienes un auricular sonando por la salida balanceada y la no balanceada. Sus ajustes de audio son de locos, porque al día de hoy, Sony es el único fabricante que te permite tener Ecualizador, Filtros de audio, firmas de sonido custom y una forma de pasar audio puro, A NIVEL SISTEMA. Afectando a absolutamente todas las fuentes de audio. Ya sea streaming o incluso audios en aplicaciones de mensajería en android que no requieren de confirmación celular. Por si fuera poco, su aplicación de música merece una mención especial. No sólo es minimalista, funcional y excesivamente completa, sino que mantiene exactamente el mismo funcionamiento que lo visto en los Sony NW-A55, por lo que, como dueño de uno de ellos, me siento en terreno familiar de forma muy rápida. Fijar la aplicación en Android (adjunto foto) permite evitar que poner contraseña cada vez que se quiere acceder a la app y como reproductor exclusivo de archivos descargados, el aparato es exquisito, ya que cuenta con un procesador a la altura que no te hace extrañar el de tu teléfono en esta función. Ahora... No todo es color de rosa. Tristemente, el peor enemigo de Walkman siempre ha sido Walkman, y aún que tienen un producto absolutamente brillante aquí, siempre tienen carencias en ciertas áreas que vuelven a sus productos molestos o muy poco recomendables para ciertos consumidores. A continuación informaré los que considero más graves; 1.- La batería drena ridículamente rápido si haces uso de cualquier conexión inalámbrica. Esto es una falla muy, pero que muy grande. Para mí es ridículo que tenga que sacar mi memoria SD del Walkman de alta gama para pasarlo a mi NW-A55 cuando quiero enviar audio vía Bluetooth, porque el pequeñín, de a penas 200 gramos de peso, le saca 5 horas de reproducción extras al enorme ladrillo que estamos reseñando aquí. Activar el WiFi para hacer uso de plataformas de streaming es aún más preocupante. La velocidad estándar de descarga es de al rededor de 1-2% de batería POR CADA MINUTO de reproducción, esto usando la salida balanceada a volumen medio y usando la ganancia en bajo. Simplemente ridículo. Te fuerza a hacer uso de tus servicios de Streaming con musica descargada en los mismos o directamente en casa, con el cable de carga conectado al aparato permanentemente. 2.- Carece de la función de Bluetooth DAC. Puede ser conectado y usado como USB DAC sin problemas. Detecta archivos DSD y los reproduce sin pasarlos a PCM bajo esta modalidad y detecta sin problemas el estándar privado MQA... Pero, ¿Y dónde está el Bluetooth DAC? Absurdo que este producto carezca de un receptor Bluetooth o un Bluetooth de doble sentido, porque su precio es muy elevado y hay reproductores de 150 dólares que hacen está función hasta con códecs como LDAC. 3.- A pesar de tener Android modificado por Sony. Carece de algunas funciones. Si bien arriba célebre los cambios de software para permitir personalizar todo el audio del sistema. Tengo que reconocer que se queda muy, pero que muy por detrás de algunas opciones que son casi estándar para cualquier reproductor con andoird del mercado. Las más importantes son las siguientes; - No reporta en ningún lugar la calidad del archivo reproducido. Cosa extraña porque en USB DAC si soporta esa información. - Nunca reporta el nivel de audio actual. Siempre es requerido subir o bajar el volumen a mano para poder obtener esa información. - Las apps de Roon, Tidal, Quboz, etc. Son las mismas que las de cualquier teléfono Android... Esto es grave porque pierdes funcionalidades de nivel entusiasta, como la opción de ser receptor en servicios como Tidal Conect. - ¿De verdad eliminan la función NATIVA de Android para navegar usando gestos y no botones?... Hasta el Hiby R5 Gen 2 que tiene Android 8 tiene eso... Y el Walkman de Sony está en la versión 12 con la actualización en Beta. 4.- Claramente carece de potencia. Tengo un audífono Planar Magnético con el que se mueve bien, pero ya tengo que estar en un volumen de 100 sobre 120. No dudo para nada, que más de una persona muy entusiasta encuentre que la mitad de su colección de audífonos simplemente no funcionan con este reproductor porque carece de la potencia que productos de la mitad del precio sí que ofrecen. Este punto es especialmente grave, cuando tienes Dungle DACs en el mercado como el Questyle M15, que pueden amplificar lo que se te pegue la gana usando solo la energía de un conector USB-C Veredicto; - Es un producto claramente centrado para entusiastas que se queda corto en áreas que son fundamentales para el mercado en el que apunta. Tristemente para Sony. En este mercado, en el que tú pides más de 800 dólares por un reproductor, no puedes permitirte carecer de nada, porque el sonar bien no es suficiente, ya que todos los reproductores de cierto nivel ya suenan bien. Entiendo, es costoso el I+D para poner circuitería de alta gama en algo tan pequeño, y bajo esa visión las faltas en la batería podrían justificarse. Pero carecer de todo lo demás es imperdonable para el sector para el que apunta. Si eres una persona que estaría comprando por primera vez un reproductor de estas características, sin duda alguna estarás complacido por su sonido, robustez, y su software sólido. En cambio, para cualquiera que ya lleve un tiempo en este sector y en estos rangos de precio, se llevará una decepción muy fuerte con el producto y para ellos es recomendable pasar a buscar las opciones de la competencia.

Buena calidad de sonido, los estoy usando con unos Fiio FH19. De los audífonos básicamente elegí ese modelo porque de varios modelos que estuve revisando, esos tienen la misma impedancia que el walkman. Se escucha fuerte, claro y nítido el sonido, con la ganancia activada después de pasar de 45 en el volumen me empiezan a doler los oídos jajaja. Algo que si note es que al utilizar alguna plataforma en streaming la batería se consume mucho mas rápido pero si eres un anciano como yo que casi no utiliza plataformas streaming y toda tu musica la descargas directamente en el reproductor no vas a tener ese inconveniente. Les comparto unas fotos, compre la funda protectora y el protector de pantalla aqui mismo en Amazon.