amazon Sony Walkman NW-A55 reviews
The Sony Walkman A Series is one of the performance / price range, as well as the top selling charm of the Japanese audio giant. Sony’s products in this line often focus on practicality, in order to bring the best practical experience for users. The latest version of this product, the Walkman NW-A55, has inherited very well what the previous generation left, along with new features & quality improvements to bring an experience. Even more optimally, in the price is even cheaper than the previous generation.
- Open the box:
The box of most audio products from Sony always carries on itself an identical design, although boring but very intuitive & beautiful.
The cheapest version of A55 in the Walkman A50 series, so the accessory comes with only the standard connection cable for the Walkman series. In addition, we also have a lot of manuals with all languages & content.
A55HN, A56, A57 versions with larger internal memory & free IER-NW500N / NE active noise canceling headphones.
- Design
Walkman NW-A55 still inherits strengths from the previous generation: rugged, compact, large screen, many physical buttons convenient & easy to manipulate. However, the “inherited” to … 90% of design compared to the previous generation will make the product can become boring.
Anyway, the design of this product line was inherently good, so there’s nothing to complain about. With 5 different colors, Walkman NW-A55 is completely suitable for all types of users, from active young people to those who love sophistication & elegance.
The Walkman NW-A55 housing is reinforced from solid aluminum with the same structure as the high-end ZX300 DAP model, which is much stronger, as well as is resistant to vibration & isolates the sound circuit.
The printed circuit boards as well as the contact plates are gold plated, which helps to convey a “cleaner” sound and is less affected by outside.
The product can fit in the user’s hand, manipulate 1 hand extremely comfortable. 3.1 inch TFT screen, 800×480 resolution brings good display quality, the interface of the product uses thin fonts and many small icons but still displayed relatively sharp and clear.
The right side contains all physical keys including: power button, volume rocker, song & play / pause key cluster, large safety switch and good elasticity.
The left edge only includes the Micro-SD memory card slot. The product supports the maximum SDXC memory card, it is unclear how much the maximum capacity that the Walkman NW-A55 supports but the SDXC card models will have a capacity of 32GB – 2TB, extremely comfortable for storage music, including high quality audio files.
The lower edge includes the 3.5mm port & separate connection port of the Walkman product line. Keeping the old connection port makes the NW-A55 Walkman completely dependent on the ability to connect to the attached cable, if users accidentally lose the cable, it will be difficult to find another replacement.
where can you get a Sony Walkman NW-A55 online
Sony NW-A55 16GB High-Resolution Digital Music Player Walkman Grayish Black(International Version/Seller Warranty): Buy it now
- Features & sound quality:
In terms of features, the Walkman NW-A55 can be considered a shortened version of the popular ZX300. A55 inherits almost all the features that the brother has, such as Vinyl Processor that helps simulate the sound from the phonograph player, the new DSEE HX incorporates artificial intelligence to improve accuracy when resample low quality music files, able to play radio, …
One of the most valuable features appearing on the Walkman NW-A55 is the USB DAC. This feature can turn the A55 into a discrete DAC, connect via USB to an external source such as a PC or laptop to take advantage of its audio processing capabilities to enhance the audio experience.
The next feature that users are also interested in is the ability to stream music from wireless sources with Bluetooth Receiver. This is a very useful feature in case users want to play music online from online services like Spotify on this DAP to experience better sound quality. With support for Sony’s most advanced & exclusive LDAC codec, besides being able to be a quality wireless source, the Walkman NW-A55 can also be applied to the Bluetooth Receiver feature to receive audio signals high quality wireless bar, of course the source must also support this codec.
Walkman NW-A55 has a small minus point that throughout many generations of Walkman, Sony has not fixed it, it is about the interface. In terms of design, this interface is very nice & simple, sophisticated and modern, but the way to organize the features is not really reasonable. For example, the button that activates the USB DAC & Bluetooth Receiver feature is located outside the home screen while most other features are located in the Settings section, including the settings for the two features above. This is just a small minus point & will be confusing for the first time using the Walkman device, but for those who have used familiar from the previous device, they will “know” more.
The Walkman NW-A55 is also equipped with active noise canceling for the IER-NW500N / NE & IER-NW750N / NE wired headphones models. However, active noise canceling headphones for Xperia such as MDR-NC750 or MDR-NC31 are not supported.
Battery life is also a bright spot of the Walkman NW-A55. According to the manufacturer, the Walkman NW-A55 can reach up to 20-45 hours of use, depending on usage conditions. His practical experience, Walkman NW-A55 can also bring equivalent experience time.
The NW-A55 Walkman is capable of decoding high quality audio up to DSD 11.2MHz or 32bit / 384kHz PCM, however all high quality signals are down sample down to 24-bit 192kHz. The device can bring the frequency range from 20 – 40000Hz, standard Hi-Res Audio.
In terms of sound quality, there are two thing of Walkman NW-A55 that improve the most obvious: detail and sound. The ability to separate the sound bands of DAP is only quite good because the bass band brings a bit of tail drag & encroachment into the mid. Overall sound water is very neutral and easy to listen to, smooth, suitable for all genres of music, but the genre “hardcore” a bit like rock or deep house may not be a strong point of the DAP this. AMP equipment is also not really strong, so the Walkman NW-A55 can not pull well headphones, speakers with high impedance and capacity. Anyway, this is a very small and more portable DAP form.
Summary:
Sony Walkman NW A55 – the latest model in the entry-level Walkman line of Sony, with light but extremely useful changes, the same price is almost unchanged compared to the previous generation which was very good. Makes this product extremely noticeable in its price segment. With outstanding advantages in design, features, reasonable price & being part of the highly diverse and highly appreciated Sony audio ecosystem, this will be a very good choice to replace. “Trend” to abandon the 3.5mm port on mobile smartphones, as well as provide an optimal mobile audio experience.