For those who lived in the 80s and part of the 90s, they certainly had access to a small marvel of technology that allowed us to take music everywhere. The Walkman was invented by Sony in 1979, after which it was replicated by countless other manufacturers and allowed listening to music on headphones through a cassette tape.
Evolution has been happening and, with the appearance of smartphones, portable gadgets dedicated only to playing music have almost lost relevance. But now Sony has revived the Walkman and brought 80s nostalgia to the market.
Sony's new NW-A306 Walkman and '80s nostalgia
Sony introduced a new music player, the NW-A306, in the Walkman family. The player is designed for users to hear music as the artist intended, with high quality sound and an elegant design.
The Walkman NW-A306 is designed for discerning users looking for style and high-quality sound. This sleek and compact music player allows users to download and stream more of their favorite songs and wants to deliver exceptional music experiences right from the user's pocket.
It's Wi-Fi enabled, weighs just 113 grams, and even features a 3.6" touchscreen with tactile playback controls. It features the polished aluminum body of the NW-A306, offers superior rigidity for low impedance, and a clear, stable sound with deep bass.
The main features
S-Master HX digital amplification technology, developed independently for the Walkman, supports the native DSD format. Reduces distortion and noise across a wide range of frequencies for a rich, full-bodied sound further enhanced by new lead-free, high-quality audio solder.
Like the latest Signature Walkman model, the NW-A306 applies gold reflow soldering, which has a significant effect on improved sound localization and wider sound space. To achieve an evolutionary sound in the music player, a dual word clock, a film condenser and precise audio recording have been precisely positioned inside the Walkman, as described by Sony.
The NW-A306 utilizes DSEE Ultimate (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) with Edge-AI (Artificial Intelligence), which optimizes precisely compressed digital music files for superior quality. This evolving algorithm now offers even more benefits for a CD-quality (16-bit, 44.1/48 kHz) “lossless” audio codec. By restoring acoustic subtleties and dynamic range, it allows for a more complete listening experience.
With new advancements over previous models, users can enjoy DSEE Ultimate to enhance their music whether streaming or transferring over Wi-Fi. In addition, you can also benefit from DSEE Ultimate with wireless headphones.
The NW-A306 offers longer battery life than previous models, up to 36 hours of FLAC playback at 44.1kHz, 32 hours of FLAC Hi-Res Audio playback at 96kHz or 26 hours with the streaming service app , to respond to user requirements.
price and availability
The recommended retail price of the NW-A306 is €400 and it will be available for purchase across Europe from January 2023.
