The new Sony NW-A100 and ZX500 series Walkmans have arrived at Minidisc.
As successors to the wildly popular A50 and ZX300 series, these new models feature Android
operating systems with full support for streaming apps, larger displays and USB-C output.
But the new Walkmans also come with a substantial increase in price and decrease in battery
life.
So what do we think of the upgrade here at Minidisc?
Now in Australia, we carry the NW-A105 and ZX507 models, which come with 16GB and 64GB
of onboard storage respectively.
One thing we will say right off the bat: despite Sony detailing some improvements to the internal
components of the A105 and ZX507, we didn’t hear any big differences in the way either
of these units sound compared to their predecessors.
Power output, output impedance and noise floor seem mostly unchanged.
The A105, like the A55, still hisses a great deal with sensitive earphones, and the ZX507
still sounds great with the Campfire Audio Andromeda by producing a slightly clearer,
but still smooth sound with a low noise floor compared to devices like the Fiio M11 or Chord
Mojo.
Neither of these Walkmans produce a great deal of power.
If you want a portable player that can drive full size headphones, we would still recommend
the Fiio M11 Pro or the Kann Cube from Astell & Kern.
Even the ZX507 with its more powerful 4.4mm balanced connection has trouble driving high
impedance headphones to sufficient volume for tracks with high dynamic range, like classical
music recordings.
Of course, the same balanced connection does fine with less demanding headphones and earphones.
So the most important changes with the new Walkmans are practical: we have improved UI
performance and database creation speeds.
The matte screen is gone from the ZX300, but the new larger displays are easier to navigate.
There’s a limited edition of the A105 Walkman that comes with a unique case that celebrates
the 40th Anniversary of Sony’s original Walkman model, the TPS-L2 cassette Walkman,
though the charming tape display screensaver can still be used on the standard models.
The change to USB-C makes the new Walkmans much better as transports, as USB-C OTG cables
are much easier to find and more convenient compared to Sony’s proprietary WM-Port adapter.
The ZX507 has a unique USB-C port placement, on the left side of the player.
This makes it more awkward to use as a transport with short OTG cables.
The A100 keeps things traditional with a USB-C port on the bottom, and makes for a cute little
transport for DACs like the Chord Mojo.
And of course, the headline feature is support for streaming apps thanks to the Android operating
system, which is pretty much unskinned Android 9.0 with full Google Play Store support.
With Wi-fi, you’ll get support for both online and offline listening, and we’re
happy to say that everything works as you’d expect as far as the OS goes.
Unfortunately, with the new OS comes a dramatic decrease in battery life.
Sony quotes that battery life has basically been cut in half with the new models, and
in our own testing we found that this is actually optimistic.
Active playback time on the NW-A105 can be as short as a few hours depending on what
kind of tracks you play.
Standby time on the new Walkmans is disappointing as well.
If you leave Wi-Fi turned on - after about a day, the ZX500 will go to 25% battery and
the A100 will drain completely flat without you touching it.
We should know because we have to charge these things daily.
Of course, if you leave the players with Wi-Fi turned off, or if you use the auto power off
function added in recent firmware updates, you can extend the battery life.
But the new Walkmans take up to 1 minute to fully boot up from cold, and having Wi-Fi
turned off sort of defeats the purpose of the new streaming app support - downloading
all your tracks and then using offline listening will be your best compromise.
Now the ZX300 and A55 used to be the players we would recommend to people who wanted an
elegant music device that would just play music files you downloaded, and do that really
well.
The new Walkmans add a bunch of new features, but thanks to the decrease in battery life,
the actual core functionality of the players isn’t as good.
So considering the higher prices, we think that most people would actually be better
served by a player like the Fiio M11 or M11 Pro.
But if you do love the Sony’s slick and compact design, the Walkmans are still decent
options - just not outstanding.
This is Lachlan for MinidiscTV, and we’ll see you next time.