Having been driven almost to extinction by the iPod and smartphone, the Walkman is back. Ed Selley checks out Sony’s flagship
Few names in the industry have managed to possess as much standing with the general public as that of the Walkman. For many years, it was up there with Hoover as a term that’s more or less interchangeable with the item it described. The advent of the iPod (which neatly usurped Walkman to become a catch-all term for the latest generation of personal audio players) very nearly destroyed the name for good. The move from physical media to stored files saw Sony wrongfooted and its initial offerings fell somewhat wide of the mark. The moment when Sony released an iPod dock was a fairly graphic indication that the Walkman had lost the fight rather emphatically.
Happily, the Walkman name is back in the spotlight and is attached to a product that is nothing if not ambitious. The NW-ZX2 is Sony’s flagship personal audio player and the specification is rather enticing. Building on the earlier NW-ZX1, this is an Android-based device that is supplied with 128GB of internal memory and bolstered by a micro SD card slot that supports an additional 128GB. This is enough to give the NW-ZX2 some clear capacity advantages over smartphones even if it still probably isn’t enough to carry your entire music collection around.
There should be no limitations based on format, though. The NW-ZX2 supports pretty much every compressed and lossless sound format except WMA Lossless and will also playback DSD files as well, although these are converted to PCM for playback and then processed to restore the ‘DSD sound’. Additionally, as the Sony is Android based and comes with access to the Google Play Store, it supports playback of material via streaming services, which can be saved to run offline from the internal memory. These can be played via the headphone socket, NFC or Bluetooth using Sony’s proprietary LDAC encoding, which promises a high-quality lossless-capable transmission. There is no digital output, however, so the Sony can’t be easily employed in a conventional system although it is possible to use it as a storage device on a streamer.
The only difference between material played back via the embedded audio player and downloaded apps is that the ClearAudio+ software is not selectable when listening to installed apps. ClearAudio+ adjusts the settings to produce a more natural sound. Additionally the NW-ZX2 is fitted with DSEE HX upsampling software that is primarily aimed at compressed music, but as there is no means of switching it on or off it is applied to all files including apps and is intended to effortlessly restore lost data to them.
This software and the partnering S Master amplification is what really sets this portable player apart from smartphones. The amps operate exclusively in the digital domain and are a Class D-based design that incorporates digital-to-analogue conversion as part of the same process. Sony has also fitted clock twin oscillators – one for multiples of 44.1kHz and one for multiples of 48 – in a bid for a higher performance. This amplification also means that it is capable of driving headphones that are beyond most smartphones and there is plenty of headroom on offer, but efforts have been made to ensure that the output is quiet with more sensitive designs.
Sony has then wrapped all this in a very heavy duty piece of casework. The NW-ZX2 is built around a single-piece metal chassis that feels immensely solid and is superbly finished. Little touches like the row of physical buttons to control track selection and volume and the hefty 235g weight combine to give it impressive presence when held in the hand. The black finish can leave it looking a little drab in pictures but this is a superbly executed piece of industrial design. There are some areas of weakness, though. The use of the older Android 4 operating system leaves it feeling a little slow and dated compared with most modern smartphones and the smaller display can be a little cramped to use some apps on. Another slight annoyance is it won’t respond to inline remotes on headphones and earphones, which limits control to the device itself. Having spent some time with the NW-ZX2, I also suspect that the claimed 33 hour battery life will be hard to hit in reality.
Sound quality
With a selection of lossless and hi-res material on the internal drive – a process that proves entirely painless – the good news is that the Sony delivers a very strong performance with lossless and high-resolution material. Starting with a 16/44.1kHz FLAC of Fink’s Distance And Time, it is extremely assured. There is a smoothness and refinement to the way that it goes about making music that is consistently likeable. The top end has an almost liquid quality that is often found with Japanese high-end electronics. There’s no loss of fine detail or sense that the presentation is artificially smoothed over, just an overall refinement that’s appealing.
I’m a believer
The overall tonality is consistently believable. Greenhall’s vocals are well defined and their relationship with his guitar is well judged and manages to have an appreciable sense of space even via the comparatively affordable Etymotic Research HF3 earphones. Switch to the rather more talented (and considerably more expensive) Noble 6 and it has a truly impressive soundstage. Moving to the hi-res 24/88.2kHz recording of Kraftwerk’s phenomenal Minimum Maximum, the NW-ZX2 is perfectly capable of capturing these sizeable recordings without issue.
The huge reserve of power from the headphone socket is also extremely impressive. Not only does this allow it to run devices like Oppo’s PM-3 headphones without breaking sweat – a tall order for most smartphones and even some rival players – but it also gives a sense of effortlessness to lower levels, which aids the refinement and makes this a tremendously easy device to listen to for long periods. Equally, when using more sensitive in-ear designs, there is little sense of noise or hiss although it has to give a little ground to Chord’s impressive Mojo in this regard.
The Kraftwerk piece also goes on to demonstrate that the very refined top end is underpinned by deep and assured bass. There is a tremendous sense of drive and power to the NW-ZX2 even at lower listening levels and it manages to sound consistently agile and entertaining. This is something that does tend to suffer a little if the ClearAudio+ setting is engaged, however, as the bass response can become a little too much of a good thing and I find it a little overblown for normal use – although I appreciate that it works well in noisy environments on the move. Switching it off also means that the performance between the player software and apps like Tidal is very consistent.
While it is unlikely to be the main area of use for the NW-ZX2, the Bluetooth implementation is well thought out and easy to use. The player connects to every test device available and even the frequently temperamental NFC contact pairing system seems usefully reliable here. Given the relative weight and bulk of the Sony would limit its use when exercising, the ability to connect Bluetooth earphones to it at the gym and leave it in a bag is a handy one and the good news is that with the Optoma NuForce BE6 here at the same time, the paired range of the two devices easily reaches as far as eight to 10m, which would make for a more than flexible partnership in such circumstances.
Against all of these very positive attributes, there isn’t really that much to complain about. There is a sense with a wide selection of material that compared with something like Chord Electronics’ scrupulously accurate Mojo the Sony’s presentation is slightly softer and more laid back, but this does make the NW-ZX2 very easy to listen to over time. Conversely, it is still revealing enough to make the limitations of compressed audio and streaming services like potify periodically sound a little on the thin side, despite the very best efforts of the DSEE HX software.
Conclusion
The Sony faces a different market to that which its ancestors made their own, but the NW-ZX2 manages to do a great deal right. Compared with some other high-end portable rivals, the £950 asking price is not entirely unreasonable and it competes on an even footing in terms of specifications and build. The overall package feels more cohesive than bolting a DAC onto a smartphone interface. But where Sony has been particularly clever with the NW-ZX2 is that it has used its experience with phones and other mass-market devices – that is considerably more extensive than the bulk of its rivals – to ensure that it has the user friendliness and experience that we have come to expect from devices of this nature. The fact that it has then gone on to use its equally comprehensive audio engineering skills to partner it with extremely high-quality hardware, has paid off.
Against this, there is the sense that the player could be even better still if it ran a more modern version of Android and tweaked some aspects of the interface and design for greater user friendliness. For many people, though, that ‘want one’ solidity and feel of the NW-ZX2 will be enough to tempt them over trying to boost the performance of a smartphone. One of the best names in the business is back doing what it does best, and the NW-ZX2 is a welcome return to form for the Walkman name.
FEATURES
● Supports PCM 24/192, DSD64 & DSD128
● NFC Bluetooth with LDAC
● 128GB internal storage plus micro SD slot (max 128GB)
WEIGHT 235g
DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 65 x 131 x 18mm