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Sony Announces Next-gen Walkman with HD Audio Playback on Android Based NWZ-ZX1 Music Player

By Joy Hou - on 30 Dec 2013, 2:23pm

Sony Announces Next-gen Walkman with HD Audio Playback on Android Based NWZ-ZX1 Music Player

Sony has announced its Walkman NWZ-ZX1.

Image source: Sony.

Employing proprietary audio technologies, the new portable music player supports high-resolution audio* to offer seven times the audio quality a CD can deliver. Powered by a OMAP 4 Cortex-A9 1GHz dual-core processor, it comes with the S-Master HX digital amplifier that helps to reduce distortion and noise at all frequency ranges, and is optimized for high-resolution audio. Combined with DSEE HX (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) technology that upgrades compressed sound files to near high-resolution audio quality and ClearAudio+ to ensure lifelike audio playback.

In an aluminum body combined with brass-plated components, a molded base at its rear acts as an amp block to house all electrical components necessary for high-quality music reproduction. Also, its leather-effect rear rubber grip provides comfort and stability, while its body was carved from a single piece of metal to minimize any unwanted interference and electrical noise to deliver stable high-quality 196KHz/24-bit audio in various formats, including FLAC, Apple Lossless, and AIFF.

The S-Master HX digital amplifier uses a film capacitor with good thermal properties for its audio output stage filter to reproduce the tonal nuances of string instruments and vocals and vibrant overtones of woodwind instruments. Besides incorporating a larger, higher-quality OS-CON polymer capacitor typically not used in mobile devices, the battery connection of the Walkman has also been strengthened with protection circuits and special lower-resistance cables to deliver deep and booming bass notes and explosive mid- to high-range notes.

A common source for sound distortion, Sony has opted to design a larger headphone jack to help reduce wear and tear damage over time by reducing contact resistance while still stabilizing contact point pressure. 

Because its running on the Android 4.1 platform, users can download apps via Google Play to fully explore the entertainment potential of the Walkman. A host of connectivity features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC for One-touch listening, allows users unlimited options when playing music anywhere, with just a simple wireless pairing of compatible devices. The flagship Walkman NWZ-ZX1 comes with 128GB of built-in memory that's capable of storing high-resolution audio content equivalent to approx. 800 songs. Viewing of the large library of high-quality music files is made easy with its brilliant 4-inch (854 x 480 pixel) TRILUMINOS Display for mobile touchscreen.

A dedicated WM-PORT has also been built in to allow for the output of audio. A new dashboard feature for the Music Player application gives users the freedom to choose what content they want to enjoy directly from the screen itself. And when you can’t decide on what to listen to, let the SensMe Channels app suggests songs for you instead.

The Sony Walkman NWZ-ZX1 will be available in APAC from February 2014 onwards.

*PCM- or DSD-format sound sources with information volume (in terms of sampling frequency or bit rate) that exceeds CD (44.1kHz/16-bit) or DAT (48kHz/16-bit)

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