💰 Sony has unveiled a $5,900 Walkman that’s made of gold-plated copper
💛 Even the screws are gold-plated, all in the name of stronger audio quality
🔋 It also features a bigger and more detailed screen, and up to 35 hours of battery life
🤷♂️ There are also two other models, which share a lot of the same features and are a fair bit more affordable
Sony has unveiled a trio of new Walkman DAPs, including a $5,900 gold-plated model if you’ve got that kind of money to throw around.
It marks the first new Walkman hardware in years, and in some instances, constitutes a pretty big update for the brand’s music players.
The NW-WM1ZM3 is the flagship of this new trio of premium digital music players, and stands out because of its gold-plated copper chassis, which Sony says helps elevate the sound quality.
Even the screws get the gold treatment, which Sony claims helps provide a “stable ground connection that delivers powerful bass, an expansive soundstage and smooth, extended high frequencies”.
Otherwise, it gets a 5.5-inch 1080p screen that’s a little bigger and sharper than the one on the previous 2022 model. It runs Android 16, and is rated for up to 31 hours of runtime for streaming or up to 35 hours with local files.
Weirdly, Sony is using 128kbps MP3 files for its local battery test, which is a very unlikely workload for the audiophiles this player is aimed at. It makes sense to expect less with the more customary Hi-Res files it’s designed for.
If $5,900 is too steep, there are two slightly cheaper options for you. The NW-WM1AM3 costs $3,000 and shares the flagship’s screen, but swaps the copper chassis for an aluminum-alloy enclosure with a gold-plated rear.
The entry-level NW-ZX900 costs $1,900 and has a 5-inch display, upgraded from 720p to 1080p. It also jumps from Android 12 to Android 16 and weirdly has the longest battery life of the three, at up to 35 hours of streaming or 40 hours of local playback.
All three of these players feature Sony’s improved DSD Remastering Engine, which it says can upscale a standard PCM file to a higher-res 11.2MHz DSD stream, which it claims delivers a warmer and more analog-like sound.
All three are available for preorder now. Sony hasn’t announced when they will start shipping, though.
Up next ⬇️
Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.