[Jepalan]

Why was this getting so much press on the evening news?
Sony introduces a $1,200 Walkman for rich audiophiles · Newswire · The A.V. Club

What is your opinion?
Is this "innovation" news worthy? Is this a good thing or is Sony grasping at straws?

ARTICLE QUOTE:
The reason for this high price tag apparently lies in the new Walkman’s audio quality— it utilizes something called a S-Master HX digital processor that makes music sound awesome, as the more insufferable audiophiles out there will be happy to explain at length as you silently contemplate whether it’s okay to beat somebody up and steal their $1,200 Walkman if they’re being condescending about it.

 

[optimaprime]

Hmmmm there are others that have been out for while . I can't think of brands off my top of head right now .

 

[sirvent_95]

Another HI-FI player...

The Pono Player brings high-quality music to audiophiles - CNET

 

[Jroo]

There are a couple of high end players out there, but I personally could never justiy the price for a portable unit. It almost seems wierd for a Sony to put money into a segment that would have to be super super small. I guess if you are a doctor that just cant deal with the dreaded ipod sound quality on your dog walks, knock yourself out and drop 1200 bucks.

 

[etroze]

I couldn't justify the price even if I was a doctor, specially when there is the Fio player out there that I bet sound just as good for a fourth of the price.

 

[ErinH]

anyone remember the minidisc?...

 

[Thumper26]

i do

and ipods play .wav files so i dunno the problem you talk about with low quality. my issue is there just isn't enough room on them

 

[teldzc1]

Guys it's only half the price of the Astell-Kern AK240.
http://www.amazon.com/Astell-Kern-AK240-Mastering-Quality/dp/B00IFEC88U

Seriously though, as much as we're serious about car audio, there are people as into or more into home and portable audio. All your music available in a super high quality format. 128gb plus micro-SD is nice too. I agree $1200 is too steep for me, but for others it's not that outrageous.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

[Orion525iT]

Guys it's only half the price of the Astell-Kern AK240.
http://www.amazon.com/Astell-Kern-AK240-Mastering-Quality/dp/B00IFEC88U

Seriously though, as much as we're serious about car audio, there are people as into or more into home and portable audio. All your music available in a super high quality format. 128gb plus micro-SD is nice too. I agree $1200 is too steep for me, but for others it's not that outrageous.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

Go look around at many of the "headphone" forums and you find people spending that much or more on headphone DACs and amps which they then have to connect to a computer. So agree, it's not outside the realm of reason.

 

[Jroo]

Go look around at many of the "headphone" forums and you find people spending that much or more on headphone DACs and amps which they then have to connect to a computer. So agree, it's not outside the realm of reason.

I agree, if you build it somebody will buy it. i just wonder home many of these sony will actually sell? Kinda like the 8" midbass for some on the forums. You hear people cry about the lack of larger midbass and the honest answer from companies is, "we are only gonna sell 20 this year, so no thank you"

 

[jdigital]

This is kind of insulting. According to Sony whoever mastered the audio files I listen to did a poor job, but I don't need to worry because Sony will save the day by applying some generic/default sound enhancement preset to my files? I agree that a high end DAC is worth it, but I'm not seeing any mention of which chips this is using. The fact that this is marketed at people with poor quality audio files who get excited about sound enhancement presets for low quality audio files, which claim to be 'audiophiles' is also hilarious.

 

[Mike Bober]

its big news because its called a walkman again, and the price was so high! But for that much it better come with at least 2 terebytes of internal storage and a seperate amp for some loudspeakers at least!

 

[nineball76]

i do

and ipods play .wav files so i dunno the problem you talk about with low quality. my issue is there just isn't enough room on them

IPods are limited to 16/48, this is 24/192. Not only that but the memory is expandable to however high microsd can be had Plus it's 128gb internal flash. The dac and headphone amp built in rival that of nicer desktop players.

 

[Jedclampet]

Astell And Kern / Iriver have been cleaning up here with several models ranging form $ 700 - 2500. I suppose this fits with Sony's recent push to open up there Content library to making higher quality files available, still yet to be seen. And a host of home products to play them receivers, dacs and such I believe from $ 500 -2000. But the best kept secret are two high end speakers which I heard at the New York Audio show were amazing easily competing in there price range @ over $ 25,000 a pair. These high end players intrigue me since they can easily be incorporated into our car systems to play hi rez files. I would also suspect that prices should start to fall as more players enter the market. Any thoughts out there in using these in your car?

 

[nineball76]

For the price I like the iBasso daps. I have the dx100 and dx50. The dx50 I like for the ability to play dsd files, but the dx100 has optical, coax, line, and headphone output whereas the dx50 is coax, line, and headphone out, no optical. But the line out would use the already great internal wolfson dac. The dx100 has 64gb onboard Plus microsd slot so in theory it's capable of more storage. But the dx200 is in the works. I'd be on the lookout for it.

For a lot less, fiio has several hirez players also. If $1200 isn't in your league, try out the $200 fiio x1 or dx50. Better than iDevice any day of the week.

 

[nineball76]

Also on the Ibasso Daps, the Digital out does have volume control. So if using a processor you can adjust the volume from the unit. If your processor can handle the hirez Digital.

 

[jdigital]

These high end players intrigue me since they can easily be incorporated into our car systems to play hi rez files.

Paying top dollar for a DAC that will end up feeding into another ADC/DAC DSP system kind of makes it seem like the money would be better spent on a portable lossless media player with spdif output (~$200 on aliexpress) that feeds the digital inputs on your dsp. The quality has to be better since there is less ADC/DAC happening. Ideally this would all be built into the amp, but I'm not aware of any amps with onboard dsp that have digital inputs? Still waiting for Clarion to release those car speakers with digital inputs for a completely digital signal path.

 

[fcarpio]

I hope it comes with a nice set of headphones.

 

[richiec77]

Meh. Fiio X3, X5 or the new X1 would satisfy most people for a fraction of the price. I have both the X3 and X5. The X5 is pretty impressive. Can drive my HE-500's well and plays everything. Dual XD card slots with up to 256GB support per slot.

I have the Centrance Hi-Fi M8 and the SQ of the Fiio piece is DAMN DAMN close.

 

[Jepalan]

Great discussion.
Will there be a one-stop shop for lossless audio from all my favorite artists? Not likely.
---
a gold headphone jack (meh)
the ability to upgrade “lossier” formats like MP3 for highest audio quality (what! how?)
feels very nice in your palm (meh, so does my...)