Sony Walkman NW-A55 - Is it worth owning a Walkman in 2020?
/So listen here real quick. The Sony Walkman NW-A55 is available in five colours this one here is grey. When it comes to the build quality here it doesn't feel cheap. It's all built upon an aluminium milled frame. With the components inside fitted using a special solder containing real good. Sony says this reduces signal loss. As well as that Sony is using gold plated circuit boards & Sony says this allows for low impedance.
"the effective resistance of an electric circuit or component to alternating current, arising from the combined effects of ohmic resistance and reactance" oxford dictionary
The back of the device is made from some form of plastic. Most probably due to letting the Bluetooth frequencies pass through and of course, you've got the near field connection point in the back. When it comes to using the Sony NW-A55 it feels very premium and it just fits so nicely in the palm of your hand. It's not too heavy, not to light. It just feels right.
The buttons have been upgraded from the Sony NW- A40 series & are now circular. The separation of the buttons and the raised dots make them easy to find even when it's still in your pocket. Here's a cool thing the A55 can do. It can process noise cancellation. However, it will only work with a very specific pair of Sony headphones. The IER-NW500N/NE... in some countries, these are bundled in...unfortunately not here in the UK though. Also, some variants of this walkman do support radio.
When it comes to loading music to the device. The Sony NW-A55 supports pretty much any format you can think of. AAC, DSD, Flac and even MQA.
Of you will need to own the actual files and there are two ways to get them onto the device. You can load them directly onto the Walkman 16GB storage using Sony's proprietary cable, or transfer them onto a micro SD card and simply insert it into the device.
Now on to the operating system. This particular model uses Sony's very own software. Which is designed for just one thing...Music.
It's quite a clean and easy to use interface. Everything is very self-explanatory. You can customize the categories, create playlists. Tracks, when played, will show album art as well as touch screen controls.
A couple of the highlights of the software is the EQ options & the clear audio plus Sony's very own custom sound Signature. Now when it comes to listening to music with the Sony Walkman. The guaranteed way to get the best experience is via a wire. That's not to say you'll be getting an inferior experience with wireless headphones.
This is a Sony and naturally, it does support LDAC and Aptx HD over Bluetooth 4.2. It's a shame it's not 5.0 but hey this thing has been available in Japan for a long time now...so fingers crossed we'll see BT5.0 in the future. With that said BT4.2 is still pretty awesome. The NW-A55 with LDAC is capable of delivering HiRes Audio 24bit 96Khz at 990kbps.
To put that into perspective Deezer or Spotify premium streaming services at best only deliver 16bit audio at a maximum of 320kbps...to put it simply...when streaming music you're probably missing a lot of detail in the music...unless you use tidal or something like that.
Just like Sony's Xperia’s the Sony Walkman A55 does have the DSEE HX engine for upscaling music combine that with the S-Master HX digital amp & you've got a pretty powerful combination.
Design
• Five colours
• aluminium milled frame
• Solder containing gold - reduce signal loss
• gold plated circuit boards - low impedance
• 16GB storage
Usability
• very pocketable
• upgraded buttons. Circular
• easy to use without taking it out of your pocket
• Noise-canceling with IER-NW500N/NE
• BT 4.2
• micro SD
• proprietary cable
• some versions have support radio
• UI is quite clean - 1 job
• EQ settings
Quality
• 24bit 96+ kHz (available MQA with Tidal)
• LDAC 990kbps
- (Deezer premium 16bit/44.1kHz 320kbps)
• Higher than CD quality 3.2x more data
• DSEE HX upscaler
• s-master HX Hi-res audio amplifier
• AptX HD
Awesome
• use as a USB DAC (digital analog converter)
• connect via Bluetooth to enhance with S-Master HX and DSEE upscaling. Great for Vinyl
• 45Hrs battery
• MQA file playback
Advantages over Smartphone
• No distractions
• Battery life
• in some cases the headphone jack
• compact and lightweight
• physical buttons
• No personal data stored if stolen
• Not transmitting any data via the internet
• Going off the grid - disconnect
