Buy the newer version, NW-A55 on Amazon: Sony NW-A55/B Walkman NW-A55 Hi-Res 16GB MP3 Player, Grayish Black
Sony is still building great Walkmans!
The Sony Walkman has come a long way, that's for sure. The main reason I purchased this hi-res Sony NW-A45 walkman audio player was to have a dedicated music player separate from my phone. Apple no longer makes dedicated music players (e.g. the iPod classic) so you have to look elsewhere in a niche market now.
The first thing I want to get out of the way for this review is that I'm not going to comment much at all about the sound quality. I know that might be the most important factor, but aside from sound quality being quite subjective, I don't have the type of equipment that would lend itself to a good comparison. That being said, the sound quality for FLAC files, in my opinion, is very good. I believe it is better than the MP3's I have. I also think the player makes my MP3s sound better using the Sony DSEE HX™ software (a player setting) that upscales your MP3s or AACs to near high-resolution sound quality.
Hardware and buttons
This is a very small player. About credit card size, but thicker of course. The screen is very easy to read, very clear, if not a bit small. It feels good in the hand, like you're holding something of pretty good quality. The side buttons (power, volume up/dn, FF, RW, Pause/Play, and hold) feel firm but they are a bit small and I don't really find it easy to find the FF, RW, Pause/Play buttons without a little looking. The bottom ports feature a headphone jack, a Sony proprietary USB port and wrist strap holder (wrist strap not included).
Hi-res songs/files?
I wanted to use the high-res on-screen button on the player to find my hi-res files quick. I thought ripping my CDs using the Sony Music Center software at FLAC settings would be enough to be considered hi-res. Alas, no it isn't. Sony's user guide states: "High-Resolution Audio refers to content in a format with higher sound quality than the CD standard. "
From the on-player screenshots below, it looks like a FLAC (or other audio) needs to be very high quality in order for it to appear on the player when you select the hi-res button. The two "hi-res" songs in the screenshot came with the player and show up when you select the "hi-res" button on the player to find all your hi-res songs.
Wikipedia defines hi-res audio here as this:
- It refers to higher than 44.1 kHz sample rate and/or higher than 16-bit linear bit depth. It usually means 96 kHz (or even much higher), sometimes informally written as "96k", meaning a Nyquist frequency of 48 kHz. However, there also exist 44.1 kHz 24 bit recordings that are labeled HD Audio .
So I guess I would need a ripper that rips at higher than 44.1kHz or higher than 16-bit linear bit depth.
I will try to buy a song from a hi-res music site to check out this feature later.
Playlists
There's probably a lot to say about playlists. I think playlists are always a sore spot for any device and software that are trying to sync and stay in sync.
For the NW-A45, you can't create new playlists on the player. You can only add to an existing playlist on the player. You need some sort of desktop software to create the playlists in the first place. The Sony Music Center for Windows does it but the application definitely isn't as robust as some other ones like MediaMonkey or MusicBee. Thanks to this Amazon reviewer for suggesting MusicBee. It works pretty well for syncing playlists from Windows but can be a little intimidating to set up. His comment on an Amazon review is here: Customer Review Sony NW-A45 with MusicBee comment
I was able to set up MusicBee first using the micro SD card as a storage device outside of the music player connected to my iMac. But this isn't a good way to go I found out because whenever you insert read insert the SD card into the Sony player, the database is rebuilt completely, as opposed to if you make minor changes while the player is connected to your iMac/PC and sync them, the database rebuilds in an incremental way so that the rebuild or building of the database doesn't take long at all.
Bookmark Lists
You can use bookmark lists on the NW-A45 itself as sort of like playlists. While on the player, you can add whatever you want to these lists. There are 10 bookmark lists. But you can't rename those list as far as I can see. Kind of strange, I'm not sure why they support bookmark lists on the actual player but not playlists without using a desktop application.
LDAC
LDAC is a feature that allows you to use high-quality bluetooth headphones (that support LDAC) and have much higher quality listening than with regular bluetooth. Unfortunately, I don't have any LDAC headphones to test out so I can't say much here.
Car holder
Funny thing I just got a phone holder for my car. This Sony player won't fit in in portrait mode because it's too thin and it won't fit in if I change it to landscape because the moving piece won't stretch out far enough. Just barely doesn't fit. Go figure. I wouldn't want to put it in portrait mode anyway because it would his most of the buttons on the sides.
Case
The player doesn't come with a case. I found this one (shown below) sitting around. Not sure where I got it. But including a case would have been a nice touch from Sony.
Using Language Learning (fast/slow playback, A-B sections)
Using the language learning feature allows you to have fine control over music or audio playback. You can speed up or slow down audio and set A-B repeat sections. To use any song or other audio with language study, you can use the Media Center Player software or do it directly on the player. Or you can simply copy an audio file to the "LEARNING" folder on the player using windows explorer (or Mac finder). You then have the option of moving the file back to "songs" when you're done with the language learning feature. NOTE: the Sony instructions say to use the genre dropdown (in Sony Music Center) to accomplish this. That's incorrect. Use the "type" field instead.
USB DAC Mode
The USB DAC feature allows you to listen to music from your computer through the NW-A45 player and use the sound capabilities and features of the player. It was very to use. Just start DAC on the player, plug in the player to your computer using the USB cable, and start playing music in Sony Music Center. I didn't need to do anything special in Sony Music Center. Note that the MusicBee software also immediately starting playing through the player. It appears that once you plug in the NW-A45 to your computer in USB DAC mode, the computer recognizes it as a speaker and ALL sounds from the computer go through it once connected.
I might use this feature more than I originally thought. It actually does enhance music (and all sounds). And it's nice that it charges the player at the same time. Plus, controlling music on a nice big screen (while doing other things on your computer) is always nicer than on a small screen.
One thing to note is that when you remove the USB cable (or on the player you stop USB DAC or if you're just connected as USB storage and you stop USB storage), the player creates the database from scratch. And this can take a couple minutes or more depending on how much music you have on it.
FM Radio
I'm one of those people that actually like having an FM radio on my music player. The FM radio on the NW-A45 isn't fancy but does the job. Having FM radio as an option is just icing on the cake for me. I actually use it sometimes. And this just feeds into my desire to have a device totally dedicated to music/audio.
Miscellaneous
Here are a few other minor things I wanted to make note of about the player.
- No accessibility feature to increase the font. I have older eyes and always want the option to increase text on tiny screens.
- The screen is a major fingerprint magnet. I have to clean it constantly which makes me think I'm going to scratch it up fairly soon. Although I'm not a fan of screen protectors, I may consider one very soon.
- Pulling the auxiliary cable does cause the music to pause.
- I'm glad it doesn't support video. Can't imagine who would want to watch video on this tiny little screen. And to me, it would be a distraction from what this player is meant to do which is really great music playback.
- Proprietary Sony USB connector is a pain for sure. Not sure why Sony can't fix that and use a mini USB port. If you lose this cable, you're SOL unless you purchase another one.
- Battery seems very good. I still haven't seen it drop more than one bar before I charge it again and that's after using it for hours and leaving it on overnight.
Conclusion
Overall, I'm loving this player. The sound is great. The quality feels top notch. It is feature rich. And I simply love having an audio player separate from my phone. If I had to complain about anything it might be the somewhat weak Sony Music Center software for PC. I also definitely don't like it when the database rebuilds on the player and takes minutes to finish.
Buy the newer version, NW-A55 on Amazon: Sony NW-A55/B Walkman NW-A55 Hi-Res 16GB MP3 Player, Grayish Black