[castleofargh]

 

Anyone received the Sony newsletter booklet via regular mail? It mentions the A10 as Their first audiophile player! Kinda puts doubt where the ZX1 belongs.

 
This depends where you live, if you are in an area which retails the ZX1 on the sony website then first audiophile player tag is odd, but if you live in the US or any other area which never carried the ZX1, then the A10 is the first audiophile player.
 
Although, the ZX1 was always a limited edition device, designed for the 35th anniversary of the Walkman, so technically not a series, just a stand alone model.
 
Same could be said for the X-Series, was released in 2009, when the walkman had it's 30th anniversary but it was not mentioned as an anniversary model I believe.

I though about that too, as they did with some products years ago that were available only on the sony store online and nowhere to be found in stores, they often tagged the underdog in store as the best or the first something. but that wouldn't explain the F866 not being the first.
 
@tenedosian I mostly agree with your findings, like the F886 having the most width, the X3 the smallest but more depth (height could be counted to as the X3 doesn't have much and often gets voices and drums on the same disturbing axis). to me this is explained by some crosstalk or crossfeed, anything that would significantly impact the stereo separation. great stereo should sound unnatural on headphones, a little like the F886. and I suspect that most DAPs (on purpose or not) push the sounds forward a little by mixing channels. in that effort the X3 has abused that idea in my opinion.
 
 about the bass, if I again agree with your conclusion, I would like to say that the reason is not that much the signatures of the DAPs. it's just that the sony has like 50 times less power compared to others and that would obviously have consequences at some point on your headphones. unlike what could happen with IEMs where the DX50 would still sound with flattish to rolled off bass, when the F886 kicks b-asses in most situations with low clean bass, but can't keep up at all on a harder to drive fullsize headphone.
and plugging the F886 into an amp shows immediately that it's very much about power and not signature.
but overall I'm just being picky on the reasons, I agree with the observations. it's a good analysis and a lot of people talking on the respective DAP topics could learn a thing or two from your post.

 

[malifact]

Is it likely that this player will have lyric support? I know it hasn't been mentioned, but I was wondering if Sony normally include this with the Walkman range.

 

[lo-fi-head]

Is it likely that this player will have lyric support? I know it hasn't been mentioned, but I was wondering if Sony normally include this with the Walkman range.

 

Other Functions	Karaoke, Dance, Display Lyrics, Language Study, Sense Me™ Channels

 
http://www.sony-asia.com/product/nwz-a15/sku/nwz-a15_bm++e

 

[castleofargh]

I secretly hoped for karaoke to get away this time.

 

[lo-fi-head]

To those who are familiar with the latest Sony Walkman GUI's - do you expect the a15's GUI to be customizable to a certain extend? I am thinking of e.g. the "homescreen" Icon order/selection. The Wallpaper seems to be changeable or there are different versions matching the device color only.

 

[castleofargh]

if as it seems, it's the classic sony house UI, then outside of the wallpaper you probably won't be able to custom anything.
maybe go look for android walkmans like the F866 instead if you want your own UI using another music player app.

 

[pietcux]

  if as it seems, it's the classic sony house UI, then outside of the wallpaper you probably won't be able to custom anything.
maybe go look for android walkmans like the F866 instead if you want your own UI using another music player app.

+1 have the A845, and that UI only lets you change the wallpaper. But that is fine for me.

 

[AUDIOBREEDER]

No hell raising intended. I have X, Z & F807 Walkmans and don't see any screen issues. Since you mentioned about screen quality of F886, it would have been better you mentioned that previously.
I don't think there is any point in Sony selling high quality walkmans because there ain't any demand for them as compared with iPhone/iPod touch. A stand alone music player just to play music without the extra benefits of a touch phone is too late in this day and age. I 'm pretty sure most people have an iTunes account and know the ease of purchasing and transferring files.
IMO, Sony abandoning the VAIO computers was a grave mistake. For transferring files to a gadget one does need a laptop (for back up too), a music store and a dap itself,

What I'm asking is not "does it matter", please don't talk to me like I'm raising hell where there is none... What I'm asking is, why does sony not make walkmans with the higher-quality look and feel that persists in some of the similarly-priced smartphones?

If you've seen an F886 display unit with that plastic cover of the display so scratched up, it inhibits light from getting to the display, then yes it does matter.

Hmmm, still I don't think just because ZX1 was never released here they should label A10 as their first audiophile player. I'm pretty sure anyone who is interested in the A10 know it's not their first but I could be wrong.

This depends where you live, if you are in an area which retails the ZX1 on the sony website then first audiophile player tag is odd, but if you live in the US or any other area which never carried the ZX1, then the A10 is the first audiophile player.

Although, the ZX1 was always a limited edition device, designed for the 35th anniversary of the Walkman, so technically not a series, just a stand alone model.

Same could be said for the X-Series, was released in 2009, when the walkman had it's 30th anniversary but it was not mentioned as an anniversary model I believe.

 

[mrenvy]

Will Sony release a player with the balanced jacks? I prefer the one player do all principle.

 

[castleofargh]

Will Sony release a player with the balanced jacks? I prefer the one player do all principle.

probably never. and they probably never even thought about it.
all the Smaster stuff is based on trying to push the amp section to a minimum. they don't even try to give more than barely minimum power to their DAPs.
they follow the "portable player for portable stuff" principle   if you look for power and/or balanced config without adding external amps, you can forget about not only that DAP, but about all sony portable products right now.

 

[heatofamatch]

IMO, Sony abandoning the VAIO computers was a grave mistake.

 
Now I totally agree with that! Computers are so all-purpose today that if I were Sony, I'd want to be present in that space, even at a loss. The TV business can go before the PC one.
 
Sony's trouble with VAIO was that they kept trying to make premium laptops but may never have had adequate engineering prowess, so the end product often had a long string of compromises or "acted up" which eventually we will perceive as not being premium enough. Like all the other Japanese vendors, they also always attempted to make the laptop smaller/lighter than the Intel chip really is designed for, and no amount of engineering they do can overcome the Intel CPU's heat and power requirements.
 
So I would've made the argument that the entire VAIO line needed to dial down to become non-premium, and for instance traded solely on good looks and lifestyle aspirations. There's a great market for that and the Sony brand allows it. But what's done is done, so anyhoo.
 
Now, I do think Sony is the modern cat-with-nine-lives of the electronics world. In spite of the accusation of all their mismanagement, they just keep going, they're always on top of trends (versus Panasonic) and actually get to dominate one space or another from time to time. So I expect it'll survive more than another 2-3 rounds of tech paradigm shifts, minimum, and that we'll have walkman-branded stuff for another 30 years. They'll be like the Preparation H or Gold Bond of audio.

 

[mrenvy]

probably never. and they probably never even thought about it.
all the Smaster stuff is based on trying to push the amp section to a minimum. they don't even try to give more than barely minimum power to their DAPs.
they follow the "portable player for portable stuff" principle   if you look for power and/or balanced config without adding external amps, you can forget about not only that DAP, but about all sony portable products right now.

But there are balanced jacks in their PHA-3 PORTABLE amp. It may not be a bad idea to add player functionality on PHA-3.

 

[castleofargh]

 I remember seeing a documentary on sony and it was pretty sad. job loss, brains going to samsung, changes of CEO ... but they do seem to look better and be more active right now.
maybe people in japan can tell more than I can, as they must have seen first hand how sony's global influence have changed over the years.

 

[heatofamatch]

   I remember seeing a documentary on sony and it was pretty sad. job loss, brains going to samsung, changes of CEO ... but they do seem to look better and be more active right now.

 
That's a narrative I've heard a thousand times, I disagree with it and I'm really a little tired of it, I don't think it's 100% true.
 
There are a LOT of former Sony employees in Japan writing books and spouting sound bytes talking about how good it used to be and how crap Sony is today. But my opinion is that most of them are just bitter.
 
This is an analogy I once used in another thread, if you specialized in the mechanical decks of a cassette player, there's no room for you in the creation of an MP3 player. Of course at least some of them would've had to be let go. If I were in that situation and I were let go? Of course I'd take every opportunity to speak badly of the corporation who laid me off with no promise of a secure senile life.
 
When these people are not laid off they're often inside the company resisting Howard Stringer or now Kaz Hirai, because they don't trust the guys who started out in the entertainment divisions. What's to say it's not them hindering Sony's progress and competitive abilities?
 
And in spite of all this internal resistance, Sony has very much rolled with the punches of the market, even though they often botch the execution. They know they need some sort of a network walkman; they know they need smartphones; they'll know they need to do this or that before Apple jumps into the market. Other Japanese majors like Panasonic and Sharp are less capable in this way, and ends up abandoning a lot of consumer electronic categories. If we say these issues are inherent with the Japanese in some way, then Sony is the least affected of them all.
 
Also I think too few people remember that, back in the day, Sony had very little audiophile cred compared to some other Japanese brands. yes they had the ES, the Walkman DD, but which Japanese brand didn't have a hi-end audio sub-brand in the 80s? So I give them credit for doing so much the past few years to focus on sound quality, even though Apple pretty much forced them into this by taking all of Sony's old yuppie customers. Considering this, the balanced PHA-3 is a pretty big deal.

 
 
The same revisionist, over-inflated expectation that people heaped on Sony is now severely threatening Apple. We'll see how that goes...

 

[lo-fi-head]

Originally Posted by castleofargh /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
maybe go look for android walkmans like the F866 instead if you want your own UI using another music player app

 
call me picky but i am a little irritated by the blue coloured bluetooth symbol which makes the UI inhomogenous to me. personally not needing bluetooth in here at all  i'd put that shortcut out of sight. besides that i wouldnt see a need in customizing here. really looking forward to the release, this being a dedicated music player not distracting you from it's essentials (e.g. with android apps).