[HamsterKing]

Feel like getting this player its looks good, and there is also a FM button you can actually listen to the radio :S
and colours!!! for $299

 

[Sonyvores]

A40 has a diecast aluminum frame
A50 has an aluminum milled one

Both have plastic back

 

[goody]

The bluetooth reciever is intresting ..i am wondering if i can flash the a55 software onto my a45

 

[castleofargh]

the BT receiver function reminded me of the input cable to allow to feed another source and still use the noise cancelling IEMs from the old DAPs(I bought the cable and never used it). this time it also opens the door to music streaming on the go which is probably a must have to stay relevant in the years to come, as music streaming is bound to become how we consume audio.
TBH I imagined that DAPs would disappear given how cellphones can do everything. but with the dick move of getting rid of the jack on a few brands and no sign of going back, the future has yet again been changed and now I'm not so sure anymore ^_^. they certainly made me decide not to give up on DAPs just yet.

 

[Indiemaker]

Help please.

Sony A55 offers blind button access to change FM stations without using the screen during long walks? I own Sony A25 which does. A35 offers FM but not chang access using side buttons. I haven't experienced A45 and A50.

 

[WilcoRoger]

On sale in Japan since 6/Oct 2018

 

[QsTree]

A45 isn't offering blind button access. FM stations can be changed only via the screen.
Ordered the A55 via AccessoryJack, hope to receive it tomorrow by FedEx

 

[Krutsch]

My red NW-A55 just arrived from Accessory Jack.

Unboxed and plugged into power. The instructions recommend 4 hours to fully charge the battery, so I am going to do that before listening.

Only accessory is the WM_PORT cable, quick start guide (pictorial) and a user manual (multi-lingual).

I swapped the 200GB micro SD card from my A17 with about 170GB of FLAC, AAC and MP3, including a bunch of M3U playlists and a large collection of high-res tracks.

When I started the player, it asked for language, time and date, all entered via the touch screen - then showed a quick "help" overlay (nice touch).

The "Create Library" build was fast - maybe 2 minutes with my collection?

I know I am coming from an A17, but ...the build quality - wow. The NW-55 looks great and feels heavy and solid in your hands.

I will attach some unboxing pics and then follow-up later on with posts covering: 1. listening impressions, 2. feature impressions and 3. my macOS --> Walkman music workflow.

 

[zamuz]

The Bluetooth Receiver feature has me very tempted. I would love to see if Sony has improved the performance in terms of navigating through the interface, namely scrolling through albums, songs and artists. Ive seen videos of the previous generations of this device and they always looked rather sluggish.

I recently started playing again with my F886 and it's still such a nice experience, despite the outdated Android version. I'd love to get a new, fast and easy to use Walkman device.

Hope someone does a thorough video review of the A50 soon!

 

[Krutsch]

> Listening Impressions



My informal listening impressions. I am not a reviewer or contributor, so this will be amateur hour. I will keep it terse to minimize wasting your time

I purchased the NW-A55 to replace my NWZ-A17. From a listening standpoint, I am mainly interested in not having to pair my Walkman with an outboard DAC/amp. In my case, it’s either a Sony PHA-1A or a PHA-3. Both outboard DAC/amps sound great, but neither of them have a battery life much over 6 hours. So, charging is a concern, as well as size of the combined DAP + DAC/amp.

I primarily use one of two sets of ‘phones when traveling or at work:

1. Shure SE535LTD - 36 ohm, 119 dB SPL/mW IEMs w/ an upgraded cabled from Moon Audio (Silver Dragon)

2. Sony MDR-Z7 - 70 ohm, 102 dB SPL/mW semi-closed ‘phones w/ an upgraded cable from Kimber Kable (the Sony co-branded model).

Recently I acquired a Google Pixel 2 and I went through the (very real) pain of uploading most of my collection to Google Play Music, after transcoding to MP3/320. I have some Apple AirPods and I even tried the Pixel Buds but, to be honest, am not satisfied with the sound from either via bluetooth from my Pixel 2.

That said, I’ve been listening to a lot of Spotify lately, so I’ve been using my phone for music more than anything else in my signature.

When I read about the bluetooth capabilities of the Pixel 2 (i.e. aptX HD and LDAC), I was thrilled to read that the new Sony Walkman would support a bluetooth receiver function. Maybe I could have my cake and eat it too: streaming music from Spotify, Google Play and SiriusXM on-the-go, but with the superior sound quality of a wired DAC/amp with my favorite travel ‘phones.

I will cover bluetooth receiver functions, as well as how the NW-A55 works with my library (browsing smoothness, metadata handling, searching, et al.) in a follow-on post. Right now, I want to get straight to my FLAC collection on a microSD card and see how well the new Walkman can drive my ‘phones.

SHURE SE535LTD

I started with a playlist that is a mixer of tracks from The Doors (ripped from a DVD-Audio collection). I know this music extremely well and anything unusual will “pop” for me, instantly. Things I listen for:

Riders on the Storm - the opening keyboard and bass track
The Crystal Ship - the lush vocals throughout the track

Then, I moved on to softer, modern recordings:

London Grammar - If You Wait
Julia Holter - In The Same Room
Gillian Welch - Revival

Some classical: Hilary Hanh - Hilary Hahn plays Bach: Sonatas 1 & 2 Partita 1 (2018 release)

OBSERVATIONS:

These are just initial impressions. The sound is clean and pleasing, with detailed highs that are a little thin-sounding. Classical strings can become a little fatiguing. I found myself turning up the volume to “add weight” to the sound (e.g. opening part of Riders on the Storm needed volume set to 80 / 120). Percussion and vocals sound better (clear and a little forward) than I am used to hearing with the SE535. Big improvement over the A17, so mission accomplished. Does it outperform the PHA-3? I don’t know; I have to listen more...

SONY MDR-Z7

Carl A. Finlow - Introspective (this is one of my bass test albums)
Opeth - Sorceress
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven

OBSERVATIONS

This is the music that makes me reach for MDR-Z7s. When played on the NW-A55, I turned up the volume to 120 / 120 (full) for some tracks. So, no, the A55 does not outperform the PHA-3.

But it’s not bad. With the PHA-3 on the Finlow tracks, I was up to 75% (low gain) before it started getting too loud for my taste. Even at 120 / 120 on the A55, I never felt like it was “too loud”. The PHA-3 had a warmer sound, which makes me think the A55 is on the bright side of neutral.

One last test: I flipped over to my desk rig (choosing the Lehmann Rhinelander, Bel Canto DAC, Bryston Streamer chain). I played the same FLAC tracks from Pantera. The NW-A55 sounds a little “congested” in comparison and, obviously, no where near the volume output level. But Throes of Rejection still sounded good.

SENNHEISER HD-650

Just for completeness sake, I tried a few tracks with the Sennheiser HD-650. These are my go-to ‘phones, when using the Woo WA3 - probably my favorite pairing.

Best of the Grateful Dead and ...Live
Everything But The Girl - Amplified Heart.

Well, I had to crank the volume to 120 / 120 (full) for the Dead tracks. Acceptable sound, but simply not enough power for these ‘phones. The Woo, et al., + HD-650 w/ the Dead is an engaging sound. IMO, the NW-A55 is unacceptable with the HD-650, if you’ve heard them with a better playback chain.

OK, next post will be on Feature and Usability Impressions.

 

[Krutsch]

The Bluetooth Receiver feature has me very tempted. I would love to see if Sony has improved the performance in terms of navigating through the interface, namely scrolling through albums, songs and artists. Ive seen videos of the previous generations of this device and they always looked rather sluggish.

Browsing is fast and completely smooth - similar to using a music app on my iPad Pro.

There is a very brief delay to render album art in the background, but it does not interfere with scrolling (swiping up/down). Swiping is as fast as you can flip your finger.

Well done, Sony.

 

[zamuz]

Browsing is fast and completely smooth - similar to using a music app on my iPad Pro.

There is a very brief delay to render album art in the background, but it does not interfere with scrolling (swiping up/down). Swiping is as fast as you can flip your finger.

Well done, Sony.

Awesome, thanks!

 

[Krutsch]

> Feature Impressions

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS

I do commercial product design for a living. I even have Digital Audio Player experience, designing the player UX and the desktop software for the world’s first Wi-Fi enabled MP3 player. We launched with over-the-air sync of Audible.com content and your own library. The player was a CES 2004 Best of Show Finalist. The industrial design on that DAP unit was laughable, but we were a small start-up and it takes real money to build a slim, elegant hardware package.

Here’s the CNET review:

CNET Editor’s Review (https://www.cnet.com/reviews/soniqcast-element-aireo-1-5gb-review/)

So, I will make a few subjective comments on the NW-A55.

No one does consumer electronics industrial design (ID) better than Sony. You can try to change my mind, but good luck. I’ve met with Engineering Directors from Sony in the TV division and ID is hard-wired into their culture.

However, Sony struggles with software UX, for both the player and their accompanying desktop software. And, I admit my bias here: I have a long history of dealing with Sony’s crappy software, going back to the MiniDisc days in the mid-‘90s.

The “Content Transfer for Mac” application is just… well, I can’t believe anyone uses it. Note to Sony: look at Doug’s Scripts and an app called M3Unify to see how transferring music from iTunes is done well. I will cover that in my follow-on post: macOS to Walkman workflow. But it sort-of doesn’t matter, because you can just connect your player to your Mac/PC and drag-and-drop, assuming you have a WM-PORT cable handy.

I feel like Sony has turned a corner with the UX on the A55. They finally equipped the DAP with a processor powerful enough to support smooth scrolling with a large collection of audio tracks. The touch screen is responsive, album art looks very sharp, the fonts are crisp and readable, and control layout is just right.

Small touches are there, too, like the settings pop-up menu being shifted right and down for an easy reach with your thumb, assuming you are right-handed.

Bluetooth receiver setup was two taps and easy to understand. The main menu icons (on the bottom, during playback) are great - one tap access to top-level menu, current playing track, settings and always a back button. Seriously, I have zero complaints on the player UI; my clients was be quite surprised to read that statement


BROWSING & PLAYBACK

One of my biggest complaints with the NWZ-A17 is that browsing by Artist is just that, and not by the far more useful Album Artist.

With the NW-55, there is a setting to toggle between Artists and Album Artists (hallelujah … I was almost ready to buy a 40 series for that feature, alone). Otherwise, Play Mode and Playback Range seem to match how the A17 functioned.

Browsing is fast and completely smooth - similar to using a music app on my iPad Pro. There is a very brief delay to render album art in the background, but it does not interfere with scrolling (swiping up/down). Swiping is as fast as you can flip your finger.

You can also grab the “scroll thumb” and see an alphabetic overlay (i.e. (A) on the ‘A’ parts of the list). This makes scrolling though large collections very fast.

Scrubbing the playback progress bar during playback works as I expected and it’s very smooth. I like to re-listen to things like guitar riffs, over and over again, and the scrubber UI was nicely designed for people like me.

Well done, Sony.

Looking through my collection of music (albums, playlists), which is about 170GB on a microSD card, I am seeing 100% coverage on album art. However, note that I went thought the process of ensuring that all album art is “Baseline JPG” - something I did with the A17. So, no surprise for me, but YMMV.

I’ve read a number of complaints on Head-Fi from Walkman users reporting album display problems, not being aware of the progressive JPG display issue. I am too lazy to load some tracks with progressive JPG album art, so if this *has* been fixed with the A55, I apologize for the above comment. Otherwise, Sony needs to do better.

A second complaint browsing with the A17 - navigating into Genre displays the Artist collection (that’s fine). Navigating into the Artist shows you that Album Artist’s albums - sorted by title (that’s cool, too).

But, going into "Genre - All" is a complete list of songs - not the albums in alphabetical order. Bummer that this hasn’t changed with the A55. I listen to a lot of classical music and I can’t always recall the Album Artists for an album, but I sure can remember the album art and/or title. So, I like to browse into “Classical Violin” and then see all of the albums at once. I guess I will have to keep dreaming on that one…


SOUND SETTINGS



Happy to see that ClearAudio+ is still on the device - I thought I had read that this feature was absent, but it’s there (and it’s fun to use with some music).

The EQ works as you would expect. There are presets and you can create custom settings. Again, the UI here was simple and intuitive. Though, to be honest, I was listening to London Grammar tracks while playing around with the EQ presets and I didn’t find one that I liked better than OFF. I understand that you have to give your brain time to adjust to a new sound; I didn’t do that, so YMMV.

There are a number of options: DSEE HX, DC Phase Linearizer, VPT (Surround), Dynamic Normalizer, Vinyl Processor. I left all of these off - I listen to analog tapes and records in real life; I don’t know what to do with a *vinyl processor* for digital audio tracks.

Just kidding… I had to try the Vinyl Processor. I was half-expecting to hear fake vinyl surface noise, but the effect is subtle. I’m not sure what that DSP is doing, but with many of the tracks from my previous post, I couldn’t hear anything immediate. That is, until I played Hilary Hahn Plays Bach (2018) (Redbook from CD). When I listened to that album yesterday with the Shure SE535s, I was experiencing listening fatigue about 1/2-way through the album.

So, I tried this again, but with the Vinyl Processor toggled on. I am *guessing* that the Vinyl Processor rolls off the highs and maybe adds a little distortion?

According to Sony: "The newly developed Vinyl Processor feature recreates via some clever processing, the acoustic phenomenon unique to vinyl playback such as the tone-arm resonance, tiny surface noise and the rich sound from the vibration by acoustic feedback from the speakers to the turntable."

Huh. This setting sounds nothing like anything I’ve experienced on my Rega RP3, but OK. I may have heard “tiny surface noise" on an old recording of Jacqueline du Pré, but that could also be on the original recording. But, I will say this: I found "Hilary Hahn Plays Bach” a more pleasing experience though the Shure SE535 IEMs with the Vinyl Processor enabled. I’ve left it on.


BLUETOOTH USAGE

Super easy to setup. You tap on the little icon on the top-right (phone with waves), you tap on OK and it reconnects. Done. On the first connect, you pair it with your phone, just like you would with any other speaker or headphones. Best of all, the NW-A55 DSP settings are all available while playing back bluetooth audio from your phone.

My Pixel 2 and the NW-A55 both report an LDAC connection. I am pleasantly surprised that it all works. Again, mission accomplished, as this was the second use case that drove my purchase of the NW-A55 (first being a DAP that does a better job driving my Shure SE535 IEMs).




FINAL CONCLUSION

Sony has restored my faith in Walkman. Yes, it took five major releases, but whatever.

I feel sorry for people that are growing up listening to heavily compressed music on an iPhone with Apple EarPods. This is my 16 year-old daughter. When I can get her to try my desktop rig, her reaction is always: “...wow, that’s amazing…", but no interest in changing how she listens to music. I tried buying her some nice ‘phones, but she really wanted Beats because … yeah.

Could this replace my desktop rig? Hard no. Will I stop carrying my PHA-3 with me when I travel? Soft yes - with my Shure IEMs, yes; with my Sony MDR-Z7, no (especially when using the balanced cable with the Z7).

Will the battery life live up to my expectations (i.e. travel without a WM-PORT cable and needing to recharge every workday)? We will find out, as the NW-A55 takes its place as my daily driver.

Thanks for reading and congratulations to Sony on a great iteration in the Walkman line!

End Note: I was not prompted/compensated to write anything on Head-Fi - it's a hobby for me, I like to write, and I just wanted to share.

 

[jant71]

@Krutsch sorry to mention it but the sound settings are also there with BT for the A45 but as the A55 manual states they are "invalid" so you can change them but they don't do anything.

 

[Krutsch]

@Krutsch sorry to mention it but the sound settings are also there with BT for the A45 but as the A55 manual states they are "invalid" so you can change them but they don't do anything.

I don't know what you've read, but the DPS settings definitely do work in Bluetooth Receiver mode (that was the feature I was describing above; also shown in the photos).