NW-A55 - Digital Audio Walkman Review

Hey Mat: have you bought a spare cable since getting this? If so did you opt for an official Sony or one of the copies?

So.. the differences in the audio output are very tangible. The things that can affect the audio output aren't the gold soldered cable and fancy aluminium stuff. Probably the cheaper one is not so well egineered. Probably some kind of buggy firmware, with a not so good decoding algorithm. Who knows.

Sony seem to be trying to get into the elitist super-hifi market. Staggeringly expensive stuff marketed with interesting claims like gold solder etc. Have a look at Furutech, they talk about " a special crystalline material that has two ‘active’ properties. First, it generates negative ions that eliminate static. Second, it converts thermal energy into far infrared. Furutech combines this remarkable material with nano-sized ceramic particles and carbon powder for their additional ‘piezoelectric effect’ damping properties. " Up to $2500 for a power cable... Nothing you will be reviewing, I expect 😃

I enjoyed the A/B-testing done here. I suppose you could instead have hit ''Pause" on one device and then heard if the sound kept playing or not. But following the cable made for better viewing. 😃

Is Sony's LDAC codec compatible with any other known FLAC-type codec, or are you married to Sony products if you embark with LDAC for your music files?

This must be a Thursday - I never could get the hang of Thursdays. (Douglas Adams - HHGTG) Great video as always, Mat. I wonder if you took the audio output from those two players into something like Adobe Audition whether you would see any differences between them?

You don't need golden ears. Gold plated ears work just as fine and the sound is very warm indeed. As for the A55 sound quality - perhaps the belt is worn out?

Good work as always, TM. If you are interested, this video from a local audio specialist store describes some of the difference between the NW-A55 and the previous NW-A45 models. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uOp5Y-rTGs

I have A35 for a long time now. So far what I can tell, USB DAC, Bluetooth Receiver and "Vinyl Processor" are the features that A35 doesn't have.

And I imported the Sony folio case, like you did! It makes for a terrific, satisfying little package.

I thought Walkman DAPs are "dead" products nowadays, it was a big surprise to see Sony still makes these devices. I never had one of them, but tried a lot of Walkman phones from the Sony Ericsson pre-smartphone era, and loved them. Shame to hear that the expensive device has lesser battery life, and uses Android, but has better sound quality. My problem here is the Android system. Why we have to use a DAP with better sound, AND ability to install apps, use WiFi, etc.? It is a very disappointing decision from Sony. By the way it was a great video. At first I was thinking about getting one used Walkman DAP from eBay, after that I changed my mind, and buyed another pack of used MiniDiscs. 😁

Another excellent video. I'm not disappointed by the possibility that I might prefer the audio of the A105 if I did an A/B test. I had to think very hard about the mission I wanted my DAP to perform. While I was VERY tempted by the 105, the 55 was simply a better fit. My only real complaint about it after two weeks (besides the power/data port, natch) is that Shuffle Play isn't at the top of the UI surface. I'm always either listening to playlists (which should be shuffled) or whole albums (verymuch not). Turning that mode off and on is a reeeeallllll drag.

Loved the A/B comparison and methodology!

While watching your comparison for the two devices, I was wondering if there could be some 'scientific' method to compare the two sounds! Like for example recording sounds from both devices then mathematically analyze/compare their waves! I think I've read something like this is used when testing speakers, but I'm not sure.

Oxygen-free copper? Does that refer to a cyanotic policeman or an isotope of the element Cu?

I have the A45. I too have found it lacking. It’s not bad but like you I was expecting more from it. I’ve tried clear audio setting and found it terrible! Too used to mega bass on my Sony 100XM2s. I tend to use the eq swings on the iOS app to set up those before I then connect to the A45. Might give the 100 a go but really I’m looking for a player with usb c connectivity so I can take s as single cable on travels. Another great video 👍🏻

Thank you for this. Over the holidays I picked up an NW-A45 from Amazon here in the US, it was on sale for $148. Then I happened to see that the NW 55 was coming out a few weeks later. Thought maybe I missed out on a much better player. I use Sennheiser HD599 wired headphones with the NW 45, I don't really hear anything metallic, but it just doesn't have much volume. So I bought a new headphone amp, a Topping NX4 DSD and it has helped greatly. I still much prefer my old Pono paired with my Sennheiser HD 700s in balanced mode. Would love to see your take on the Pono, I love it, many didn't. Great video, sorry for the novel I just wrote. One last tip, the NW45 can handle a 1TB micro SD card, just make sure it is a SanDisk. The Pono can handle it as well, I have one, nice to have that much storage, though It is already full!

Great video, as always! =) I've been looking to do some blind A/B tests on a couple of devices, do you have a link for that tester you got?

Thanks for this video, as I've owned the earlier A45 for a year or so now, and there's some things you've covered that I didn't know mine did! The battery life is poor, and I'd never thought of looking for an update, so I'll have a look. The case I have for mine is made by Inorlo and that's a neat fit, with buttons on the side that press the actual buttons contained within.

Round of applause for the OFC joke. Bravo sir.

Love your blind side by side comparison. And on your multiple tests you never once picked the A55?

Am so glad you did this video as I was just about to buy the 55, however am going to give it a miss because of the bespoke cable... and sound quality

does it use those dumb sony memory sticks?

Excellent review thanks. Using an A45 here both as a DAP for my hi-res files & lossless CD rips and as a DAC for hi-res streaming on my PC. So far I’ve been impressed with it, an auble improvement over the same albums (dadrock & classical) on my iPhone/Apple Music using the same headphones. I have looked at the A100 but it ‘down-resses’ anything above 16/48 to 16/48 when using anything other than Sony’s own music app for playback - footnote from Sony’s website on the A100 “When using a music application other than Sony original music player app," High-Resolution Audio is down-converted to 48 KHz/16bit for playback.’. As much as I’ve like to upgrade to the A100, limiting non-Sony apps (Qobuz, Tidal etc) to 16/48 seems overly limiting. The DAC mode on the A45 is pretty impressive, although how much of the improvement is down to the DAC itself and how much to well-mastered classical music itself is anyone’s guess. Keep up the excellent work and the videos though! Always a pleasure to watch your videos about this kind of thing for people like us who like this sort of thing.

Watching this has made me want to go out and buy an old cassette Walkman. Simple audio for a simple man!

That's pretty interesting that two similar devices sound different playing the same digital files. Since nothing mechanical is going on until it hits the headphones, it's surprising that there'd be a difference. It has to be how the device processes the file. Very weird. It challenges my perception that all digital players do the same thing, once you get past all the features. I still use my old clickwheel iPod for my music player.

Sony and propriety ,two words that should be next to each other in the dictionary.