Sony Electronics Unveils Two New Walkman with Enhanced Sound Quality and Longer Battery Life Including the NW-ZX707 Premium Walkman

[SOAREVERSOR]

Devices like this are necessary in the whole chain that begins with the source recording and playback material, moves on to the player and its amplification, moves on to the output device be it headphones, speakers or what have you...and then ultimately ends with your ears. And usually that last one if more of the problem than the first three.

I'm glad Sony is out there making a high end audio device.

I'm mildly pissed though that while this device will be released and sell tens of thousands of units...if not more......if I wanted to play any of those old cassette tapes that many of us of a certain age...hell, even old 8 tracks or Reel to Reel 4 tracks.....and I mean even to play them, not to play them via High Tech means or on a audiophile device, there is still no 'even reasonable quality' product available in 2023. You can get some really awful cassette players but for the rest of those I am pretty sure you are on your own.....

It's sort of either really bad stuff or audiophile stuff there. Though plenty of reasonable turn tables do exist.

 

[HeadRusch1]

It's sort of either really bad stuff or audiophile stuff there. Though plenty of reasonable turn tables do exist.

People have adapted to leasing their music..and listening to it on the go in as painless a format as possible......I may wind up getting a used cassette deck at some point but I'm never going back to turntables, when you grew up with records and were there for the dawn of the CD Player (My first was an AKAI CD-A70), you never looked back after you heard your first CD

 

[eidairaman1]

$899.99 for a walkman, or even $350, pretty dam sad to see prices like this, glad i don't use them any longer in fact most wouldn't due to phones ?.

Zune or sandisk would of been better. But this here is just a overglorified mp3/vid player with no cassette.

If it comes to exercise rather small and light without fearing dropping the device

 

[AsRock]

Zune or sandisk would of been better. But this here is just a overglorified mp3/vid player with no cassette.

If it comes to exercise rather small and light without fearing dropping the device

but for me to be remotely interested in it all storage should be removable and battery replaceable. But knowing SONY ( and most others now ) neither of them are going to be a option.

Disposable junk.

 

[TechLurker]

I feel like an old man saying this, but I still use my old Zune as a music and video player (although the video is more for listening to old music videos than actually watching anything) while on the go. Its old-fashioned 3.5mm jack plugged into my car's old 3.5mm AUX port and enjoying a massive library of music without worrying about my phone's battery, and on flights, still uses far less battery than my smartphone while being jacked to a Sony WH-1000XM4.

I'd be one of the few who'd consider a high-end music/video specific player such as this as an upgrade, primarily to continue enjoying my massive music catalog (that has slowly outgrown the limits of my old Zune), and for its capability to play FLAC (moreso since I've gradually re-ripped old CDs in FLAC just to have the best possible back-up should the CDs get ruined) and possibly newer video formats (like my CDs, I've ripped old DVDs and some BDs with the best audio and picture quality possible, but at a file-size cost), more to use said videos kind of like a next-level audiobook; sound-only. The fact that newer, high-end audio players can go 24+ hours per full charge is a major benefit too.

Yeah, I could settle buying another cheap-ish portable music player. But on the other hand, I'd like to spoil myself with a high-end one (Sony or not) that I'd be using on the regular, while preserving my phone's battery for when I really need it.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

but for me to be remotely interested in it all storage should be removable and battery replaceable. But knowing SONY ( and most others now ) neither of them are going to be a option.

Disposable junk.

This isn't at all how these things work. The main storage is soldered on, it's too small for that not to be the case. There are ones in the 256gb range but those are going to cost you. You throw in a massive SD card and off you go. The battery is replacable.

High end audiophile or audio professional stuff is not disposable junk. Hence why there is gear from the 60s and 70s still kicking around. One of the upsides of the insane overengineering put into the stuff that causes sticker shock is it doesn't break down. The people that buy this stuff keep it around for decades. It's not going to age out. Those are phones or computers which are all dispoable junk no matter how much they cost and all obsolete piles of crap within a year, maybe three max.

If you hurl 1-3k at a portable music player and 1-3k at a good set of IEMs outside of the odd battery upgrade or cable swap (and get the "good" cables and batteries in the 200 buck range not the cheap shit and not the 1000 buck shit either) both are going to last decades, maybe more. The high end stuff is built to the standard of "this is it, I have it, now I never need another one of X again, ever in my life" which is also part of the reason it costs so much. Sure the 899 ask might look steep. However considering how often you throw that amount or more at a phone, which is a very shitty music player.

What's crazier? Throwing say 10K at a dac and amp combo, cables, power filter, that will last fifty or so years or buying a new computer and phone every few years? If you get a good DAP (which is what this is) you're going to get an amazing portable audio source/player that's going to last twenty to thirty years, and no phone in that time is going to beat it. Then you can buy the cheaper phone (as stated there is nothinig "pro" about the camera, audio, or anything and reap the rewards.

 

[Operandi]

If you get a good DAP (which is what this is) you're going to get an amazing portable audio source/player that's going to last twenty to thirty years, and no phone in that time is going to beat it.

While I agree with the overall sentiment I doubt anyone will be using this in 20 years. Its still more or less built just like a smartphone at its core so that means 5ish years out of the battery? I haven't looked into what its like to take one of these apart, hopefully Sony didn't make it too bad but even its super easy to get at the battery eventually they'll stop making replacements for it so that will ultimately limit its life span to 10-15 years I'd guess.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

While I agree with the overall sentiment I doubt anyone will be using this in 20 years. Its still more or less built just like a smartphone at its core so that means 5ish years out of the battery? I haven't looked into what its like to take one of these apart, hopefully Sony didn't make it too bad but even its super easy to get at the battery eventually they'll stop making replacements for it so that will ultimately limit its life span to 10-15 years I'd guess.

There are old iPods still kicking around I have one from way back in the day when you had to connect the damn thing over firewire and it has a spinning drive. People still use Zunes as it was a better DAP than the ipod.

Audiophile stuff is generally not hard to take apart because the makers expect that maniacs are going to do that and mod it to hell and back. It's worse than PC modding with straight up de soldering stuff and adding other stuff. Very few PC "enthusiasts" are straight up engineering things and doing whole sale component swaps. Audiophile gear is sort of made with the expecation that someone is going to swap the capacitors or op amps. It's just a thing in this space. Sure you're going to void the warranty to hell and back, but as was stated before you can buy caps and also op amps that cost pennies up to hundreds of dollars per unit. There's no way they don't make franken units of this.

A smartphone this is not. Android is just an easy OS to work with so you're going to see a lot of it. Same reason some arcade machines and various kiosks and even ATMs run off a crippled version of Windows. It's not remotely built like one either. People get this twisted due to apple slowly morphing the ipod into a half assed iphone and then killing it and delcaring them the same. But a DAP is not a phone.

 

[Wirko]

There are old iPods still kicking around I have one from way back in the day when you had to connect the damn thing over firewire and it has a spinning drive. People still use Zunes as it was a better DAP than the ipod.

Audiophile stuff is generally not hard to take apart because the makers expect that maniacs are going to do that and mod it to hell and back. It's worse than PC modding with straight up de soldering stuff and adding other stuff. Very few PC "enthusiasts" are straight up engineering things and doing whole sale component swaps. Audiophile gear is sort of made with the expecation that someone is going to swap the capacitors or op amps. It's just a thing in this space. Sure you're going to void the warranty to hell and back, but as was stated before you can buy caps and also op amps that cost pennies up to hundreds of dollars per unit. There's no way they don't make franken units of this.

A smartphone this is not. Android is just an easy OS to work with so you're going to see a lot of it. Same reason some arcade machines and various kiosks and even ATMs run off a crippled version of Windows. It's not remotely built like one either. People get this twisted due to apple slowly morphing the ipod into a half assed iphone and then killing it and delcaring them the same. But a DAP is not a phone.

The ZX707 is two phones thick at 16.9 mm, and made like this:

Sure it's more moddable than a phone but still can't compare to "large" (desktop or 43 cm) boxes, and the choice of caps and other components you can put inside is limited by size.

 

[Operandi]

There are old iPods still kicking around I have one from way back in the day when you had to connect the damn thing over firewire and it has a spinning drive. People still use Zunes as it was a better DAP than the ipod.

Audiophile stuff is generally not hard to take apart because the makers expect that maniacs are going to do that and mod it to hell and back. It's worse than PC modding with straight up de soldering stuff and adding other stuff. Very few PC "enthusiasts" are straight up engineering things and doing whole sale component swaps. Audiophile gear is sort of made with the expecation that someone is going to swap the capacitors or op amps. It's just a thing in this space. Sure you're going to void the warranty to hell and back, but as was stated before you can buy caps and also op amps that cost pennies up to hundreds of dollars per unit. There's no way they don't make franken units of this.

A smartphone this is not. Android is just an easy OS to work with so you're going to see a lot of it. Same reason some arcade machines and various kiosks and even ATMs run off a crippled version of Windows. It's not remotely built like one either. People get this twisted due to apple slowly morphing the ipod into a half assed iphone and then killing it and delcaring them the same. But a DAP is not a phone.

iPods are different in their scale, millions sold (wouldn't be surprised if they hit the billion threshold). Anything that is/was that popular is going to have a community of people that are dedicated to keeping it going, today DAPs are very niche. Still going by the exploded view of above this does look pretty accessible with actual fasteners and no or atleast hopefully minimal glue, battery even looks like it might be a standard type with actual leads coming off of it so yeah, maybe these will be around for the long haul.

But yeah, audio gear is the exception to the rule in how accessible and repairable / modable it is. I can take apart my Schiit DAC and pre down the bare chassis and boards with nothing more than a set of philips screwdrivers. Most speaker companies will sell you replacement drivers no problem, and many are pretty open about crossover mods on their own forums, pretty rare these days.