TORONTO – Sony unveiled its latest Walkman branded device at the International CES show in Las Vegas this week. The gadget is far from the cassette player we cherished in the 80s and 90s.
Gone are the days of clunky plastic CD players – the new Walkman ZX2 is a high-end audio player geared toward audiophiles, with a price tag to match.
The MP3 player comes with a price tag of US$1,119.99, thanks to its ability to support high resolution audio playback. According to Sony, the device can reproduce master quality recordings that sound like the artist originally intended.
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“Converting analogue sound to digital formats like CD and MP3 can compromise the purity of the original signal,” read a press release from Sony.
“Hi-Res Audio retains far more detail during the analogue-to-digital conversion process, for a more authentic, emotionally involving musical experience.”
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High-res audio is enabled through the ZX2’s S-Master HX processor, but the device needs to be used with headphones or speakers that support high-res audio – something that isn’t included in the purchase price.
But a music player priced higher than most top of the line smartphones couldn’t just be used for casual listening. The device does allow users to download and play apps via Google Play; it runs Android 4.2, which first debuted in 2012.
This isn’t the first time Sony has tried to make the Walkman a household name again.
Last year the company released the Walkman ZX1, which also promised high resolution audio playback for a more modest US$700 price tag.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the device sold well in Japan, where it was initially released.
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High resolution audio is becoming a growing trend for portable music players.
Last April, music icon Neil Young raised over US$6.2 million on Kickstarter for his Pono Music player, which aims to provide users the high resolution versions of their favourite artists’ work.
“In the process of making music more convenient – easier to download, and more portable – we have sacrificed the emotional impact that only higher quality music can deliver,” reads the Pono Music Kickstarter page.
“Finally, quality enters the listening space so that we can all hear and feel what the artists created, the way they heard and felt it.”
The ZX2 will include 128GB of storage and supports extra storage with a microSD slot in order to store the bigger high-res files.
According to a press release, the device will initially be available in Europe later this year. Sony has not yet announced North American availability.
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