[purk]

   
I never understood why Apple never did more to separate the IPhone from the IPod line. There's no reason to get an IPod Touch when the second hand market is flooded with IPhones that offer the same if not more. The only reason to buy an iPod would be for the capacity of the Classic. In my opinion, Apple created and established a great brand with the IPod, but lost it's way once the IPhone was introduced. Apple should have released the IPod with a better Dac than the Iphone, better amp section etc etc. I'm so pleased that someone, finally, from a large consumer corporation has decided to do something which should have been done years back. A lot of people still buy MP3 players due to battery life; smartphones can barely last a day nowadays. When it comes to audio, less is more; Sony understand this and therefore will strip all the junk which is not required for the Sony NWZ-ZX1 such as radio, wifi, accelerometer etc and give us direct circuitry, shortened signal paths for the best audio performance, along with good battery life. Only Sony can screw this one up now.....
 
.....and I can also go on about Sony; why on earth did they abandon the X series design from a few years back? I've not been impressed with the F and Z series from a design standpoint to be honest. But tactile buttons help I guess....
 
Cannot wait 'till 2014, with this and the Beyer Custom One Tesla coming out....!

 
You can always buy the A series.  I have those and like it better the X.  However, I agree with everyone here why limited the memory to 16 or 32 GB  in the US or Euro market.  Hell we want 128 internal flash already.

 

[Ascariss]

It should come with bluetooth at least, it has the NFC logo on the back so it will be used to pair to other devices, so bluetooth at least will be there, wifi, perhaps so, as in to stream to DLNA speakers or even a tv/sound system.

screen should be 4.7 inch from my calculations.

 

[D3Seeker]

   
I never understood why Apple never did more to separate the IPhone from the IPod line. There's no reason to get an IPod Touch when the second hand market is flooded with IPhones that offer the same if not more. The only reason to buy an iPod would be for the capacity of the Classic. In my opinion, Apple created and established a great brand with the IPod, but lost it's way once the IPhone was introduced. Apple should have released the IPod with a better Dac than the Iphone, better amp section etc etc. I'm so pleased that someone, finally, from a large consumer corporation has decided to do something which should have been done years back. A lot of people still buy MP3 players due to battery life; smartphones can barely last a day nowadays. When it comes to audio, less is more; Sony understand this and therefore will strip all the junk which is not required for the Sony NWZ-ZX1 such as radio, wifi, accelerometer etc and give us direct circuitry, shortened signal paths for the best audio performance, along with good battery life. Only Sony can screw this one up now.....
 
.....and I can also go on about Sony; why on earth did they abandon the X series design from a few years back? I've not been impressed with the F and Z series from a design standpoint to be honest. But tactile buttons help I guess....
 
Cannot wait 'till 2014, with this and the Beyer Custom One Tesla coming out....!

 
You can keep such old timey sentiments. I will keep progressive views that a device can have all that "junk" and still proper audio. It's just being artificially kept from reality. Besides some of us cant actually appreciate all that stuff and would kill for one of our beloved audio-centric providers to actually do it.
 
This is shaping to be a nice player though.

 You can always buy the A series.  I have those and like it better the X.  However, I agree with everyone here why limited the memory to 16 or 32 GB  in the US or Euro market.  Hell we want 128 internal flash already.

You would think more people would be pushing storage capacities  by now. We've been stuck at 8-16-32gigs with a sprinkle of 64gb seemingly for the last decade. Quite the nuisance considering everyone wants to nix SD support all of a sudden.

 

[Bloodflowerz]

   
You can keep such old timey sentiments. I will keep progressive views that a device can have all that "junk" and still proper audio. It's just being artificially kept from reality. Besides some of us cant actually appreciate all that stuff and would kill for one of our beloved audio-centric providers to actually do it.
 
This is shaping to be a nice player though.
You would think more people would be pushing storage capacities  by now. We've been stuck at 8-16-32gigs with a sprinkle of 64gb seemingly for the last decade. Quite the nuisance considering everyone wants to nix SD support all of a sudden.

 
We'll just have to wait and see.....

 

[FenderP]

Hopefully it is not 1k$

 
Considering the 64GB is usually anywhere from $400 - $600, I would expect this to be north of that assuming there is more than 64GB of storage regardless of any other specs such as DSD. I would be shocked if it's not.

 

[FenderP]

   
I never understood why Apple never did more to separate the IPhone from the IPod line. There's no reason to get an IPod Touch when the second hand market is flooded with IPhones that offer the same if not more. The only reason to buy an iPod would be for the capacity of the Classic. In my opinion, Apple created and established a great brand with the IPod, but lost it's way once the IPhone was introduced. Apple should have released the IPod with a better Dac than the Iphone, better amp section etc etc. I'm so pleased that someone, finally, from a large consumer corporation has decided to do something which should have been done years back. A lot of people still buy MP3 players due to battery life; smartphones can barely last a day nowadays. When it comes to audio, less is more; Sony understand this and therefore will strip all the junk which is not required for the Sony NWZ-ZX1 such as radio, wifi, accelerometer etc and give us direct circuitry, shortened signal paths for the best audio performance, along with good battery life. Only Sony can screw this one up now.....
 
.....and I can also go on about Sony; why on earth did they abandon the X series design from a few years back? I've not been impressed with the F and Z series from a design standpoint to be honest. But tactile buttons help I guess....
 
 

 
I liked the X design - much moreso than the A which was thin. I didn't use the buttons on the X, but liked the layout of the A. This is but one reason why the new F doesn't entice me; I'll keep my F807 for now. I'm OK with soft buttons to be perfectly honest.
 
The Z and F - both Android based - both have WiFi and bluetooth and they don't interfere with audio quality. Do you buy $1,000 power cords, too? For a modern device, I would expect bluetooth and WiFi. I can say that they don't include everything you get on an Xperia phone, so they disable or strip out what they feel is unnecessary already.
 
The reality is most people want ONE device. They don't want a camera, phone, and audio player. They want it all in a single convergence piece and it is good enough for most people. We are the execption, not the rule.
 
 

  In my opinion a *complete* audio device must also have radio, bluetooth and wifi because there are many situations in which you might need them, for example connecting your device in a car or simply listening to music from youtube, soundcloud etc.
I agree 100% that accelerometer, android and so on are useless.

 
Disagree about radio. I have never used it on any DAP. And I would never use it for things like SoundCloud or YouTube. Bluetooth for a car is necessary. The accelerometer is necessary since it governs the display based on orientation - far from useless.

 

[Ascariss]

FenderP. I see you are also a Walkman enthusiast

If the ZX1 is to be available in february perhaps it will be shown at CES 2014, unless the february date is for debut with sales starting later.

 

[Berkovajazz]

Any information about Walkman S? Doono why, but i like S from all Sony line for all
Maybe too much coffee and cigarettes with melol

 

[AUDIOBREEDER]

It should come with bluetooth at least, it has the NFC logo on the back so it will be used to pair to other devices, so bluetooth at least will be there, wifi, perhaps so, as in to stream to DLNA speakers or even a tv/sound system.

screen should be 4.7 inch from my calculations.

Adding more stuff, will increase the value signifcantly.
 
Bluetooth should be there because many of Sony portable speakers have bluetooth functionality.
Noise cancelling will great (just like for the X)
 
FM is a must.
 
Wi-Fi should be scraped. I have never used it on the X, F & Z walkmans. Because I didnt use it doesnt many many others dont
 
No video capability.
 
If it has 256 GB or more, no need for sd/micro-sd slots. But it will be a bonus.

 

[Mython]

   
FM is a must.
 

 
I respectfully disagree, for 2 reasons:
 
 
1) FM radio is analogue and transmissions are gradually going all-digital these days, so FM receivers will son be obsolete.
 
2) FM radio is often broadcast with severe dynamic compression, so it has no place on a hi-res DAP. Limit that to the cheaper gear like the A-series, if at all.
 
 
 
 
With regard to What Hi-fi's article, I used to read What Hi-fi, years ago, but that article is absolute nonsense:

 
(What Hi-fi)  http://www.whathifi.com/news/sonys-flagship-high-res-walkman-revealed  /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
"It's likely this player will do without WiFi, Android or an FM tuner – or indeed any other parts that complicate the internal circuitry – and will instead focus solely on audio quality, much like the iPod Classic."

 
The iPod Classic is a joke, SQ-wise. I say that as someone who has owned 2 of them. Love the User Interface but the SQ is appalling (if you wanna use a Classic with a DAC/AMP, then fair enough, but I'm talking about the Classic used solo, just as What Hi-fi are). Just because the Classic does not include a radio or other gimmick features does not mean it is 'focused on audio quality'. Never was, never will be.
 

 
(What Hi-fi)  http://www.whathifi.com/news/sonys-flagship-high-res-walkman-revealed  /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
 
"As such, we'd expect such a device to have a hefty capacity, much larger than the 160GB offered by the Apple's iPod."
 

 
 
1) Sony sure as hell aren't going to make the mistake of using a mechanical HDD again (they had hellish reliability problems, and the iPod Classic has terrible reliability with the mechanical HDD, too), so, whatever capacity it has, it'll be solid state memory
 
and...
 
2) When it comes to capacity, Sony are as greedy as Apple, and charge an arm & a leg for larger solid state capacities. They're also as greedy as Apple in the sense that they refuse to allow expandable memory on their flagship DAPs. For this thing to be higher capacity than 160gb, that would probably imply 256gb, and Sony would not sell a DAP with 256gb unless they charged a price almost as disgusting as iRiver's 'Astel & Kern' DAPs.
 
64gb would not pull in high-end buyers/upgraders, since the existing flagship 1070 already runs at 64gb.
 
Therefore, I reckon this'll end up being 128gb solid state and no more, but 128gb is a reasonable capacity, so I don't have a major problem with that, even though I would much prefer SDHC / Micro SDHC expandable memory.
 
 
Thankyou, Alpha10 and Bloodflowerz for the links

 

[sensui123]

If they move the sound to another level from the Z/F series and add more capacity, I am so in for this.  The looks is certainly a winner.  Thanks for getting me excited Purk. 

 
I don't really mind the extra features, but it's not a necessity either.  If it's android based I have a hard time seeing wifi being cut out.....after all it's meant to be mingled with google.....I can do without stuff like BT though and video capabilities.  Quite frankly, on the Z I never play with anything except the music player app....I find it painfully slow for most things that I do with my other android phones and tablets. 
 
 

 

[purk]

  If they move the sound to another level from the Z/F series and add more capacity, I am so in for this.  The looks is certainly a winner.  Thanks for getting me excited Purk. 

 
I don't really mind the extra features, but it's not a necessity either.  If it's android based I have a hard time seeing wifi being cut out.....after all it's meant to be mingled with google.....I can do without stuff like BT though and video capabilities.  Quite frankly, on the Z I never play with anything except the music player app....I find it painfully slow for most things that I do with my other android phones and tablets. 
 
 
 

 
That's the problem with the Z. My F is much better implemented and always speedier. 

 

[FenderP]

FenderP. I see you are also a Walkman enthusiast

If the ZX1 is to be available in february perhaps it will be shown at CES 2014, unless the february date is for debut with sales starting later.

 
Yup I've rarely skipped one, but I'll probably sit out the F88x series. Only reason I really went away from the X to the A was capacity - the A had 64GB.
 
I think CES is a good time to announce. I doubt (but it's Sony, so who knows) it would come before then if they're targeting a Q1 '14 release.
 

   
That's the problem with the Z. My F is much better implemented and always speedier.

 
Yes, but the F is to the Z like  the A was to  the X - smaller, a bit lighter and thinner, but both the X and Z sound better than the A and F. It's that convenience vs. form factor thing.
 

  No video capability.

Since all Walkmans in the past 5+ years have had video capability - even the non Android ones - I wouldn't bet on them leaving it as a pure audio device.
 

  With regard to What Hi-fi's article, I used to read What Hi-fi, years ago, but that article is absolute nonsense:
 
2) When it comes to capacity, Sony are as greedy as Apple, and charge an arm & a leg for larger solid state capacities. They're also as greedy as Apple in the sense that they refuse to allow expandable memory on their flagship DAPs. For this thing to be higher capacity than 160gb, that would probably imply 256gb, and Sony would not sell a DAP with 256gb unless they charged a price almost as disgusting as iRiver's 'Astel & Kern' DAPs.
 
64gb would not pull in high-end buyers/upgraders, since the existing flagship 1070 already runs at 64gb.
 
Therefore, I reckon this'll end up being 128gb solid state and no more, but 128gb is a reasonable capacity, so I don't have a major problem with that, even though I would much prefer SDHC / Micro SDHC expandable memory.

 
Agree on What Hi-Fi's speculation it won't be Android. It clearly looked like an Android-based device and all of Sony's main Walkmans have been the past few years. Why would they use something else at this point? I mean look at the OSes for the Z and F series - they allude to phone features not there.
 
I would say if they do 128 or 256GB, I still stick to the fact that it will be a $750 - 1000 device. Sony hasn't put SD in any of the main Walkmans, so this incessant "put SD in" won't happen. People need to just get over that one. I'm just happy they kept Atrac in Japan!

 

[purk]

   
 
 
Yes, but the F is to the Z like  the A was to  the X - smaller, a bit lighter and thinner, but both the X and Z sound better than the A and F. It's that convenience vs. form factor thing.
 
 

Not really.  I prefer my Jap A867 over both the X1060 & Z1070 that I have.  My favorite overall is either the A & F.  However, it is a sonic preference thing than anything else b/c I also think the Z is also superior sounding to the X.  Your A must be the Euro version, isn't it?  This is based on pairing these DAPs with my JH13pro only.

 

[madmonkey]

im a big sony fan boy so im sure ill have to get this player.i recall my first sony walkman i was in love then moved to minidisc man