There are serious music lovers who choose high-end wireless headphones. There are very serious music lovers who only enjoyed music through wired cans. And then there are adamant audiophiles with deep pockets who will never settle for anything less than dedicated, audiophile-grade portable music players – in addition to a good pair of wired cans. The latter is why Sony Walkman premium music players exist.
Speaking of which, Sony has recently debuted two new Premium music players, namely, the NW-WM1ZM2 Walkman Signature Series and the NW-WM1AM2 Walkman Digital Media Player, successors to the NW-WM1ZM and the NW-WM1AM from 2016.
These are portable music players for anyone who is super serious about music quality and who is willing to part with a lot of money. But more on that in just a second.
Both devices are engineered with Hi-Res Audio in mind, with the NW-WM1ZM2 rocking a 99.99% purity gold-plated oxygen-free copper (OFC) chassis and the NW-WM1AM2, an aluminum alloy frame.
Key highlights include a 5-inch HD touchscreen display, S-Master HX digital amp technology for Walkman, stronger power supply with upgraded fine-tuned capacitors, thick KIMBER KABLE connecting the amp base to the balanced headphone jack (on NW-WM1ZM2 only, low-resistance OFC cable on the AM2), DSD Remastering Engine, and support upscaling of compressed music files in real-time with DSEE Ultimate.
The devices further feature WiFi-enabled for access to music streaming and download services, or download tracks from PC, USB Type-C port, Android 11 OS, and up to 40 hours of battery life per charge.
The NW-WM1ZM2 Walkman Signature Series has 256 GB onboard storage, expandable via a microSD card. The NW-WM1AM2 Walkman Digital Media Player has 128 GB storage, also expandable via a microSD card.
We are not sure when the new Sony premium music players will land stateside. However, we heard the NW-WM1AM2 will sell for €1,400 (≈ US$1,588) and the NW-WM1ZM2 for €3,700 (≈ US$4,198) when they become available in Europe in April 2022. See what I mean when said “adamant audiophiles with deep pockets”?
[UPDATE June 15, 2022, 6:16 PM PT] The Sony NW-WM1ZM2 Walkman Signature Series and the Sony NW-WM1AM2 Walkman Digital Media Player are finally announced for the U.S. market. The good news is, they are not as much as the conversion we did in February it was announced for the EU markets. The NW-WM1ZM2 has a suggested retail price of US$3,699.99 and the NW-WM1AM2 sells for US$1,399.99.Images: Sony Europe.
