Listen to your favorite playlist with this Sony Walkman MP3 player. The high-resolution audio has 45 hours of battery life for continuous entertainment on a single charge, and the 16GB of built-in memory offers ample space for storing media. This Sony Walkman MP3 player features ClearAudio + technology that ensures incredibly clear sound.
Listen to your favorite playlist with this Sony Walkman MP3 player. The high-resolution audio has 45 hours of battery life for continuous entertainment on a single charge, and the 16GB of built-in memory offers ample space for storing media. This Sony Walkman MP3 player features ClearAudio + technology that ensures incredibly clear sound.
Listen to your favorite playlist with this Sony Walkman MP3 player. The high-resolution audio has 45 hours of battery life for continuous entertainment on a single charge, and the 16GB of built-in memory offers ample space for storing media. This Sony Walkman MP3 player features ClearAudio + technology that ensures incredibly clear sound.
Listen to your favorite playlist with this Sony Walkman MP3 player. The high-resolution audio has 45 hours of battery life for continuous entertainment on a single charge, and the 16GB of built-in memory offers ample space for storing media. This Sony Walkman MP3 player features ClearAudio + technology that ensures incredibly clear sound.
Last updated at 06/08/2026 16:53:23
Sony Walkman A Series 16GB NW-A55 : MP3 Player Bluetooth microSD
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
Sony NW-A55HN B Walkman A Series, 16 GB, MP3 Player, Bluetooth, MicroSD Compatible, High Resolution Support, Up to 45 Hours of Continuous Playback,
Delivery between 13–17 June $15.52
Sony NW-A55HN B Walkman A Series, 16 GB, MP3 Player, Bluetooth, MicroSD Compatible, High Resolution Support, Up to 45 Hours of Continuous Playback,
Delivery between 13–17 June $15.52
originally posted on richersounds.com
Until I purchased this, I've been using both an old iPod Classic and an iPod Touch, and I have to say that the Sony Walkman represents a very noticeable upgrade in terms of sound quallity when playing my mp3s. Since getting the Walkman I've also downloaded one hi res album and a handful of hi res tracks, dating from the 1960s to the present, to compare the quality, and this gives a further noticeable upgrade e.g. I downloaded a Beatles track and the clarity, increased width of the sound stage and separation between the group members makes it almost feel like you're in the studio. I'm not a "tekky" or an audiophile, just someone who likes listening to music, but the difference is really noticeable.The controls and menus on the Walkman are simple and intuitive, and ... MoreUntil I purchased this, I've been using both an old iPod Classic and an iPod Touch, and I have to say that the Sony Walkman represents a very noticeable upgrade in terms of sound quallity when playing my mp3s. Since getting the Walkman I've also downloaded one hi res album and a handful of hi res tracks, dating from the 1960s to the present, to compare the quality, and this gives a further noticeable upgrade e.g. I downloaded a Beatles track and the clarity, increased width of the sound stage and separation between the group members makes it almost feel like you're in the studio. I'm not a "tekky" or an audiophile, just someone who likes listening to music, but the difference is really noticeable.The controls and menus on the Walkman are simple and intuitive, and I added a 128GB micro SD card and copied across all of my music files without any difficulties, apart from a handfull of files missing cover art which needed to be re-downloaded.I've previously used Media Monkey to organise my music files, so it took a little while to get used to the different interface/approach on the Sony "Music Center for PC" application, and the slightly more limited funtionality it offers, but I didn't encounter any real issues. I still prefer Media Monkey, though! (I'm not sure whether I can use it to manage the files on the Walkman.)My only regret is that I just bought the Walkman, rather than opting for one of the deals with a reduced-price wired headset. I have a good set of bluetooth earbuds, and they sound fine, but the playback quality with my wife's much cheaper set of wired earphones is noticeably better. It does, however, sound great played through my Cambridge Audio amp with BT100 bluetooth receiver.Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase.
originally posted on ebay.com
The touch screen is very sensitive, so it is easy to accidentally hit something that you don't want to touch, and some of the buttons on the touch screen are very small which doesn't help with that. However, it is also very responsive to input touches that you do want to make so that's the positive side of its sensitivity. The sound quality is very good, definitely better than my old A25's sound quality, with a higher total volume too. Depending on your personal settings preferences the battery life can be very good too, although if you leave its screen on and its not playing music the battery gets drained surprisingly rapidly. I have found this to be a bit of a frustration given that you would think playing music would drain the battery faster than it just being ... MoreThe touch screen is very sensitive, so it is easy to accidentally hit something that you don't want to touch, and some of the buttons on the touch screen are very small which doesn't help with that. However, it is also very responsive to input touches that you do want to make so that's the positive side of its sensitivity. The sound quality is very good, definitely better than my old A25's sound quality, with a higher total volume too. Depending on your personal settings preferences the battery life can be very good too, although if you leave its screen on and its not playing music the battery gets drained surprisingly rapidly. I have found this to be a bit of a frustration given that you would think playing music would drain the battery faster than it just being idle, yet it seems to be the other way around from what I have seen so far. If you use it heavily it will require charging on a daily basis, but given most smart phones require daily charging and not necessarily because of heavy use depleting their battery this is no big deal in my opinion, and honestly these days expecting a device to last 2-3 days without needing charging is a bit of a stretch anyway. The buttons on the side, which allow you to pause, play, rewind and jump tracks forwards or backwards are small andso its quite easy to press the wrong one as a result if you're not looking at them when using them, but once you get used to the layout and feel of the A55 you are less likely to hit the wrong button if you press it whilst not looking. I find I am pressing the side buttons almost as often as using the touch screen, just depending on where the A55 is sitting relative to me when I am using it, so I think that despite their small size they are an asset on the A55, rather than a liability. Unlike an Apple iPod or iPhone you can increase the storage of the A55 by adding an SD card to it, to increase the number of songs you want to store and play. It is also compatible to use with media management software such as Music Bee and Media Monkey, so if you dislike using Apple software and products, or Microsoft equivalents this device will work with almost any alternative to those options that is available to install on your computer. Overall I think the A55 is a solid all round MP3 digital music playing device, and if you want good quality sound and hate using smart phones to play music this device is a good alternative.
originally posted on sony.co.uk
Up till now I have always used MP3 players under £50 but the occasion arose that I treated myself to this player. I was a tad dubious about purchasing this player as I had done a lot of research on MP3 players and quite a few reviews left online mentioned the lack of volume on this player. A lot of users resorting to unlocking the volume limiter to get louder sound (UK users, as I am). I really didn't want to resort to this and void my warranty, but I bit the bullet and went ahead and bought one.All I can say is, they must be hard of hearing as I cannot turn the volume of mine past 87-90 out of the max 120 as this would deafen me. Believe me when I realised this, I was over the moon. I was expecting a device that would need an earphone amplifier or something, not ... MoreUp till now I have always used MP3 players under £50 but the occasion arose that I treated myself to this player. I was a tad dubious about purchasing this player as I had done a lot of research on MP3 players and quite a few reviews left online mentioned the lack of volume on this player. A lot of users resorting to unlocking the volume limiter to get louder sound (UK users, as I am). I really didn't want to resort to this and void my warranty, but I bit the bullet and went ahead and bought one.All I can say is, they must be hard of hearing as I cannot turn the volume of mine past 87-90 out of the max 120 as this would deafen me. Believe me when I realised this, I was over the moon. I was expecting a device that would need an earphone amplifier or something, not the case at all.... this is LOUD!Transfering music from my PC was simple, I just used the drag and drop method, I don't have any SONY software on my PC. And I played the music on the player itself by just selecting folders to play. That's how I have always had music on past MP3 players, Albums in folders. And it works for me.The control of the device is simple as well. The touch screen is responsive and unlike others I have tried, it works every time. Tapping, swiping, it's perfect it is no less responsive than my Galaxy smartphone. There are quite a few different sound options but I have never felt the need to change these as the sound is perfect for me. The bass is good without being overpowering, I just love this player. So much so that my wife has been convinced and is purchasing one too.If I had to be real picky, and it is hard to find something to be negative about, it would be just one thing. Every so often the player would stop your music you are listening to and a reminder message would appear in the screen to warn you about listening to music at too loud a volume. You have to dismiss this message before you can continue listening to your music. Not a deal breaker, but it really is something adults don't need on a player! And one other little niggle, is the volume resetting everytime you switch on the player, again not a deal breaker as it takes a second to turn the volume up again (either with the physical buttons or the touchscreen), but I wish it would remember the last volume you were listening at.Finally, would I recommend this player, darn tooting I would. I love it. I have used it with Turtle beach headphones and in ear monitors and in ear headphones, it sound superb with all the headsets I have used, and then you have the option of changing the equaliser if you want to. This player is worth the 5 stars especially since the price has dropped by around £50 since I purchased it.Get yourself a folio type case for it and the screen is always covered, and a screen protector if you wish (I have this set up and the screen protector does not interfere with the touch screen), and this should be the perfect music companion for a very long time. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! I am so glad I went ahead and bought it!
| General | |
| Product Type | Digital player |
| Digital Player Type | Flash based |
| Digital Player Functions | Radio |
| Enclosure Color | Black |
Sony Walkman A Series 16GB NW-A55 : MP3 Player Bluetooth microSD
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
Sony NW-A55HN B Walkman A Series, 16 GB, MP3 Player, Bluetooth, MicroSD Compatible, High Resolution Support, Up to 45 Hours of Continuous Playback,
Delivery between 13–17 June $15.52
Sony NW-A55HN B Walkman A Series, 16 GB, MP3 Player, Bluetooth, MicroSD Compatible, High Resolution Support, Up to 45 Hours of Continuous Playback,
Delivery between 13–17 June $15.52
Until I purchased this, I've been using both an old iPod Classic and an iPod Touch, and I have to say that the Sony Walkman represents a very noticeable upgrade in terms of sound quallity when playing my mp3s. Since getting the Walkman I've also downloaded one hi res album and a handful of hi res tracks, dating from the 1960s to the present, to compare the quality, and this gives a further noticeable upgrade e.g. I downloaded a Beatles track and the clarity, increased width of the sound stage and separation between the group members makes it almost feel like you're in the studio. I'm not a "tekky" or an audiophile, just someone who likes listening to music, but the difference is really noticeable.The controls and menus on the Walkman are simple and intuitive, and ... MoreUntil I purchased this, I've been using both an old iPod Classic and an iPod Touch, and I have to say that the Sony Walkman represents a very noticeable upgrade in terms of sound quallity when playing my mp3s. Since getting the Walkman I've also downloaded one hi res album and a handful of hi res tracks, dating from the 1960s to the present, to compare the quality, and this gives a further noticeable upgrade e.g. I downloaded a Beatles track and the clarity, increased width of the sound stage and separation between the group members makes it almost feel like you're in the studio. I'm not a "tekky" or an audiophile, just someone who likes listening to music, but the difference is really noticeable.The controls and menus on the Walkman are simple and intuitive, and I added a 128GB micro SD card and copied across all of my music files without any difficulties, apart from a handfull of files missing cover art which needed to be re-downloaded.I've previously used Media Monkey to organise my music files, so it took a little while to get used to the different interface/approach on the Sony "Music Center for PC" application, and the slightly more limited funtionality it offers, but I didn't encounter any real issues. I still prefer Media Monkey, though! (I'm not sure whether I can use it to manage the files on the Walkman.)My only regret is that I just bought the Walkman, rather than opting for one of the deals with a reduced-price wired headset. I have a good set of bluetooth earbuds, and they sound fine, but the playback quality with my wife's much cheaper set of wired earphones is noticeably better. It does, however, sound great played through my Cambridge Audio amp with BT100 bluetooth receiver.Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase.
The touch screen is very sensitive, so it is easy to accidentally hit something that you don't want to touch, and some of the buttons on the touch screen are very small which doesn't help with that. However, it is also very responsive to input touches that you do want to make so that's the positive side of its sensitivity. The sound quality is very good, definitely better than my old A25's sound quality, with a higher total volume too. Depending on your personal settings preferences the battery life can be very good too, although if you leave its screen on and its not playing music the battery gets drained surprisingly rapidly. I have found this to be a bit of a frustration given that you would think playing music would drain the battery faster than it just being ... MoreThe touch screen is very sensitive, so it is easy to accidentally hit something that you don't want to touch, and some of the buttons on the touch screen are very small which doesn't help with that. However, it is also very responsive to input touches that you do want to make so that's the positive side of its sensitivity. The sound quality is very good, definitely better than my old A25's sound quality, with a higher total volume too. Depending on your personal settings preferences the battery life can be very good too, although if you leave its screen on and its not playing music the battery gets drained surprisingly rapidly. I have found this to be a bit of a frustration given that you would think playing music would drain the battery faster than it just being idle, yet it seems to be the other way around from what I have seen so far. If you use it heavily it will require charging on a daily basis, but given most smart phones require daily charging and not necessarily because of heavy use depleting their battery this is no big deal in my opinion, and honestly these days expecting a device to last 2-3 days without needing charging is a bit of a stretch anyway. The buttons on the side, which allow you to pause, play, rewind and jump tracks forwards or backwards are small andso its quite easy to press the wrong one as a result if you're not looking at them when using them, but once you get used to the layout and feel of the A55 you are less likely to hit the wrong button if you press it whilst not looking. I find I am pressing the side buttons almost as often as using the touch screen, just depending on where the A55 is sitting relative to me when I am using it, so I think that despite their small size they are an asset on the A55, rather than a liability. Unlike an Apple iPod or iPhone you can increase the storage of the A55 by adding an SD card to it, to increase the number of songs you want to store and play. It is also compatible to use with media management software such as Music Bee and Media Monkey, so if you dislike using Apple software and products, or Microsoft equivalents this device will work with almost any alternative to those options that is available to install on your computer. Overall I think the A55 is a solid all round MP3 digital music playing device, and if you want good quality sound and hate using smart phones to play music this device is a good alternative.
Up till now I have always used MP3 players under £50 but the occasion arose that I treated myself to this player. I was a tad dubious about purchasing this player as I had done a lot of research on MP3 players and quite a few reviews left online mentioned the lack of volume on this player. A lot of users resorting to unlocking the volume limiter to get louder sound (UK users, as I am). I really didn't want to resort to this and void my warranty, but I bit the bullet and went ahead and bought one.All I can say is, they must be hard of hearing as I cannot turn the volume of mine past 87-90 out of the max 120 as this would deafen me. Believe me when I realised this, I was over the moon. I was expecting a device that would need an earphone amplifier or something, not ... MoreUp till now I have always used MP3 players under £50 but the occasion arose that I treated myself to this player. I was a tad dubious about purchasing this player as I had done a lot of research on MP3 players and quite a few reviews left online mentioned the lack of volume on this player. A lot of users resorting to unlocking the volume limiter to get louder sound (UK users, as I am). I really didn't want to resort to this and void my warranty, but I bit the bullet and went ahead and bought one.All I can say is, they must be hard of hearing as I cannot turn the volume of mine past 87-90 out of the max 120 as this would deafen me. Believe me when I realised this, I was over the moon. I was expecting a device that would need an earphone amplifier or something, not the case at all.... this is LOUD!Transfering music from my PC was simple, I just used the drag and drop method, I don't have any SONY software on my PC. And I played the music on the player itself by just selecting folders to play. That's how I have always had music on past MP3 players, Albums in folders. And it works for me.The control of the device is simple as well. The touch screen is responsive and unlike others I have tried, it works every time. Tapping, swiping, it's perfect it is no less responsive than my Galaxy smartphone. There are quite a few different sound options but I have never felt the need to change these as the sound is perfect for me. The bass is good without being overpowering, I just love this player. So much so that my wife has been convinced and is purchasing one too.If I had to be real picky, and it is hard to find something to be negative about, it would be just one thing. Every so often the player would stop your music you are listening to and a reminder message would appear in the screen to warn you about listening to music at too loud a volume. You have to dismiss this message before you can continue listening to your music. Not a deal breaker, but it really is something adults don't need on a player! And one other little niggle, is the volume resetting everytime you switch on the player, again not a deal breaker as it takes a second to turn the volume up again (either with the physical buttons or the touchscreen), but I wish it would remember the last volume you were listening at.Finally, would I recommend this player, darn tooting I would. I love it. I have used it with Turtle beach headphones and in ear monitors and in ear headphones, it sound superb with all the headsets I have used, and then you have the option of changing the equaliser if you want to. This player is worth the 5 stars especially since the price has dropped by around £50 since I purchased it.Get yourself a folio type case for it and the screen is always covered, and a screen protector if you wish (I have this set up and the screen protector does not interfere with the touch screen), and this should be the perfect music companion for a very long time. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! I am so glad I went ahead and bought it!
I decided to purchase this having done some research and found this unit had a 5* review from What Hi-Fi. I was staggered to find you could spend several thousand dollars on other units (similarly rated 5*) presumably aimed at the rich and famous with more money than sense.I was tired of running out of space on my phone and also calls and message alerts interrupting music playback can get a bit annoying. Thats a thing of the past with one of these.The on-board memory @ 16GB is the only weakness of this unit although clearly the designers decided to prioritise other features and clearly expect that you will buy an affordable micro SDXC card of up to 2TB capacity - I went for a 512GB card for under $100 and you'll find it difficult to get anywhere close to filling ... MoreI decided to purchase this having done some research and found this unit had a 5* review from What Hi-Fi. I was staggered to find you could spend several thousand dollars on other units (similarly rated 5*) presumably aimed at the rich and famous with more money than sense.I was tired of running out of space on my phone and also calls and message alerts interrupting music playback can get a bit annoying. Thats a thing of the past with one of these.The on-board memory @ 16GB is the only weakness of this unit although clearly the designers decided to prioritise other features and clearly expect that you will buy an affordable micro SDXC card of up to 2TB capacity - I went for a 512GB card for under $100 and you'll find it difficult to get anywhere close to filling it even with a decent collection of high res files uploaded. It also gives the Sony more memory capacity that whats onboard as standard those units at 10 times the price!The file support is extensive and the user interface is very intuitive with a number of excellent features. My only suggestion to Sony designers would be to add a menu button to allow quick & easy manual clearing of the "recent transfers" list. This would be a useful feature when uploading larger playlist files for instant tagging as a playlist on the walkman without having to scroll through other content and without having to use the "reset to factory settings" option which requires a full reboot plus a redo of any preferences / settings.The playback quality is claimed as "better than CD" - obviously you'll need decent quality speakers / headphones to fully appreciate it. The sound quality is great on my Sonos speakers and the LDAC bluetooth link with UE Hyperblast works great for outside gym sessions. Sounds like a high-res wired system...Highly recommended.
This is an excellent small DAP even in 2024. The sound with the MrWalkman firmware and direct sound mode is better than all of my ESS (not surprising) and AKM DACs. There's more detail and a slightly warm overall profile with solid mids and good treble extension. Battery life is excellent and Bluetooth support is decent if you're into that sort of thing. I bought this primarily for wired IEMs and it has more than enough power to drive the IEMs I have. USB DAC mode works very well and deliversthe same sound profile as local files. The build quality feels and looks very nice but from images online, I can tell that the paint will come off the edges and the screen can scratch fairly easily if handled roughly. My unit was bought new and immediately received a case and ... MoreThis is an excellent small DAP even in 2024. The sound with the MrWalkman firmware and direct sound mode is better than all of my ESS (not surprising) and AKM DACs. There's more detail and a slightly warm overall profile with solid mids and good treble extension. Battery life is excellent and Bluetooth support is decent if you're into that sort of thing. I bought this primarily for wired IEMs and it has more than enough power to drive the IEMs I have. USB DAC mode works very well and deliversthe same sound profile as local files. The build quality feels and looks very nice but from images online, I can tell that the paint will come off the edges and the screen can scratch fairly easily if handled roughly. My unit was bought new and immediately received a case and screen protector to help maintain new appearance. Overall I highly recommend the NW-A55 if you are looking for a small and inexpensive DAP was excellent sound quality and battery life.
The product itself is exactly as you would expect from a portable device, Its lightweight, and does the job.However I strongly this product could get 5 Stars if Sony would be prepared to update the device.Coming from someone who has used Ipods for a long time, i decided to upgrade to this purely for the memory increase. If you want a device that will only play music and nothing else, no apps or unnecessary clutter in the way this is for you.The comparison between the UI of the Ipod (the older models and this walkman) are quite different and to tell the truth Sony might find it beneficial to tweak the UI (User Interface) and some of the functions to make it more ease of use.Pros:Music has outstanding Quality, I would honestly recommend going into a store ... MoreThe product itself is exactly as you would expect from a portable device, Its lightweight, and does the job.However I strongly this product could get 5 Stars if Sony would be prepared to update the device.Coming from someone who has used Ipods for a long time, i decided to upgrade to this purely for the memory increase. If you want a device that will only play music and nothing else, no apps or unnecessary clutter in the way this is for you.The comparison between the UI of the Ipod (the older models and this walkman) are quite different and to tell the truth Sony might find it beneficial to tweak the UI (User Interface) and some of the functions to make it more ease of use.Pros:Music has outstanding Quality, I would honestly recommend going into a store like PC world take your headphones and give it a try you can get a feel for how the device functions.The buttons on the side allow quick use and their is a hold button that you slide, which disables the ability to use buttons or touch screen including volume, which is nice if you have a playlist or album you just want to listen too if your travelling or working out etc.The touch screen is really good, but due to the screen size and UI designs that I will mention again it can make operating the device a little awkward at times.It has an option to move songs to a language study which is really handy when separating audio studies from track lists, especially if you plan on listening to albums on shuffle.No Apps or other junk in the way on the UI it's just your categories settings and fairly straight forward just some more user friendly tweaks could make it less overwhelming and easier to use.Can use an SD card to increase the memory, something which outweighed the decision to purchase another Ipod.Cons:For example You can't create a Playlist on the Walkman device but can do on the Music software they recommend, however you can add songs to a play list you have on your device. (make the playlist on the computer then from device can add album to existing playlist.) also if you accidentally add songs to a playlist you would have to either delete the playlist entirely or delete the songs one by one.I also had an issue where some albums duplicated, so i would have the first song twice followed by the second song twice, I ended up deleting it all and restarting the process. This could of easily been avoided if the device allowed you to select multiple songs at once, instead you have to do it all manually 1 by 1. (which is a big time consumer for someone like me, i listen to a lot of video game soundtracks some of these albums have up to 100+ songs so deleting them one by one is a pain). Another annoyance is not being able to re-order songs in an album for instance number 53 in an album was at the top followed by the rest of the soundtrack (I have no idea why) but i couldn't drag it down and reorder it to its rightful place on either the software or the device itself.Another thing with apple's layout is albums are separated into Alphabetical categories so you have a list as you would, you would have A then followed by the albums that start with A then B and so on, with the walkman its still alphabetical but its a big big list with no real spacing its very easy to miss-click.Another minor issue is when you click and play a song then come off that song to your album list it takes it all the way back to the top, rather than leave you on the album you last clicked on.There is no speaker if you wan't to play a song without headphones a speaker is needed (separately) not a problem for me but other individuals may have wanted this.Looking at what i have written it seems the product is quite negative on the contrary, the product is well designed (physically) the device is responsive and its functionality i.e. touch screen, portability, buttons have all been thought out extremely well, whilst the UI is a bit rough not terrible but there are definitely more cleaner options that Sony could consider (a mere update could fix all the technical issues iv'e mentioned and it would be 5 stars all the way).I really hope Sony takes note at the things iv'e mentioned. i own a lot of sony products from Playstation ones to ps4, and all of them had clean UI even the old phones did. That's just the biggest issue for me, the ease of use and more convenience when managing songs on the device is all.
I bought this A55LL Walkman as a replacement for the previous generation Sony A45, which was nearly 4 years old and still playing but had always suffered from terrible battery life, something inevitably getting worse with age.The elephant in the room - shocking battery life compared to, say, a mobile phone - is mercifully not an issue with this newer A55 model. Some of Sony’s Walkman models higher up the range - especially those higher up the range using Android OS, cannot begin to equal the 30+ hours I’ve been able to wring from this playing lossless files, with or without wired connection. Great.As I do with all hifi electronics, I’ve run the Walkman for 70 hours straight to ‘burn in the electronics before reviewing it - good for reliability but I find ... MoreI bought this A55LL Walkman as a replacement for the previous generation Sony A45, which was nearly 4 years old and still playing but had always suffered from terrible battery life, something inevitably getting worse with age.The elephant in the room - shocking battery life compared to, say, a mobile phone - is mercifully not an issue with this newer A55 model. Some of Sony’s Walkman models higher up the range - especially those higher up the range using Android OS, cannot begin to equal the 30+ hours I’ve been able to wring from this playing lossless files, with or without wired connection. Great.As I do with all hifi electronics, I’ve run the Walkman for 70 hours straight to ‘burn in the electronics before reviewing it - good for reliability but I find essential with a device with amplification, especially with a ‘digital’ amplifier.I tried the unit with Grado SR325 (open back headphones) and without Bluetooth connection ( Sony WH-1000X M3 & WH800), as well as with the Bluetooth connected via Sony’s preferred proprietary LDAC ‘higher-res’ CODEC. There is no reason why the A55 should be better than its processor A40 series in this respect, but subjectively this newer unit sounded better. Perhaps the A55 Bluetooth connection is better or more stable. Wirelessly, Bluetooth cannot equal a wired headphone connection, as there is loss, and I’m with the HiFi community here in calling out anything Bluetooth Hi Res or hi-if. Nevertheless it produces immaculate timing - far better than an iPod - something of a holy grail for music nuts as it really ‘sells’ the ‘hooks’ in music. It betters everything from piano, to rhythm to vocals.Any decent headphone with a wired connection is going to give a more authentic bass, a better sense of scale, space and ‘analogue’ like dynamics. With or without wires, you will hear a massive difference between tracks, and like much decent equipment, you’ll notice the difference between poor source material and the best, which is not necessarily Hi Res audio recordings - there are as many poor versions of those as CD pressings. Any MP3 files - don’t bother. Upscaling tracks where all I’ve has been bled out by lossy compression is pointless. By a cheap player or use your phone. I use Apple Lossless (ALAC) for legacy reasons but WAV, FLAC are other lossless codecs are fine including PCM, APE, DSD and MQA are all present on this Walkman. That’s impressive.Decent source material gives you drive, dynamic range, and a really good insight into your material. No iPod since some of the early models 5th Gen Enhanced 5.5 iPod (‘Video’j or earlier, which featured a Burr-Brown DAC (digital-to-analogue converter), sounded this good. Having said that, I’m really not a fan of digital amplifiers of the kind used in this model and it’s predecessor - you get dynamics, extreme clarity and punch at the expense of ‘digititis’ - jitter, grain and other digital artefacts, including occasional harsh brightness, which prevent the music sounding right at higher volumes. Not all of Sony’s Walkman range uses a digital amplifier - some use analogue but their battery life looks less impressive. I would say pair with headphones very carefully, and avoid anything earbuds or ‘cheap’ if you actually love music.A word of warning - some users have reported that, with some difficult-to-drive headphones, the volume from the Walkman’s internal amp is utterly insufficient. I have not found this to be the case, other than with a Bluetooth source connection via APTX (Apple iPhone). BBC Sounds turned up full both on the phone and on the Walkman was really disappointing in volume. And actually I was none-too-impressed with Apple’s low quality APTX Bluetooth connection. It’s criminal that Apple never updated their audio and Bluetooth codecs to higher standards - they’ve become a lost cause on the audio front.You cannot simultaneously use the Walkman to connect to Bluetooth headphones and also connect by Bluetooth to an audio source - you have to use wired headphones. I believe the same is true if you use the Walkman as a DAC, connected by USB to your PC to use Spaulding files stored there.I tried this USB headphone amp function - using the supplied cable to connect the Walkman to use it as a DAC (digital-to-analogue converter) for music files stored and controlled, in my case, in iTunes on a MacBook. I found I had to go to System Preferences to enable the audio output through the USB and Walkman BEFORE launching iTunes. Very creditable as an alternative to a budget headphone amp and DAC, but it won’t challenge a decent stand-alone DAC. Why would you want to do that? Well, maybe you feel the limited playlist function on the Walkman is too restrictive - you can’t use your iTunes playlists directly on the Walkman otherwise, for example,. Or you may not want to buy a MicroSD card to put all your music on the Walkman, but have it all on a laptop. Or perhaps you find search and controls function much easier on your larger screen and keyboard / mouse, compared to the somewhat limited and fiddly controls of the Walkman. Certainly my Walkman used out and about goes on random play for that very reason.I gather this unit will support MicroSD cards up to 2GB in total with the Walkman s internal 16 Gb of RAM. As it was with the previous version, do not use Sony’s substandard proprietary transfer programme to copy your music files from your APC or Mac to an SD card via the USB cable.it doesn’t work. Instead, just drag and drop them to the music folder on the Walkman. I transferred mine across 1,000 at a time as I’ve had errors trying to transfer the lot. After that you need to allow the Walkman time to build a database for the first time.The other caveat about this Walkman concerns the extra artefacts of its internal sound processing for music playback, almost all of which are unnecessary. Turn off Clear Audio+ unless you like loud drainpipes. Vinyl Processor is mercifully really subtle - try it off and on. Dynamic Normalizer sounds like it uses compression to equalise track volume; don’t use it. VPT Virtual surround - not for me. DC Phase Linearizer is supposed to make low frequency response sound more like an analogue amplifier. Really? Not like any decent analogue amplifier I ever had.As for DESEE HX to upscale MP3s or CD s to High-Res audio standards? No; just no. This cannot restore material lost through compression of MP3s, whatever bit rate has been used - a 320 Kbps MP3 ‘music’ file is without question NOT CD quality which can vary but is often well over 1,000 Kbps. MP3s are worse sonically than audio cassette! Mercifully the Walkman’s sound processing is easy to reach without using the complex layered menu system; just swipe up.Keep it simple, then, to get the best out of this Walkman. There isn’t anything like it fir the money and in my opinion it thoroughly deserves it’s What Hi-Fi 5 star rating. Highly recommended.
For me the NW-A55L Walkman has 3 pros and 6 cons, as follows:The Pros:1. It's so small and so light that I am not aware of it being in my pocket while I work in the garden, connected to the NW-A55L via my excellent Sony noise-cancelling bluetooth headphones.2. Transferring files to and from the NW-A55L is much quicker than transferring files between my computer and a smartphone, tablet, or a laptop.3. The NW-A55L's software enables smooth transition from track to track, with few jolts - as can happen when I use a music-player app on my Android devices.The Cons:1. Because the NW-A55L is so conveniently small, its screen, menus, and text are awfully tiny and fiddly to work with. It helps if your eyesight is excellent and your finger-tips are tiny.2. ... MoreFor me the NW-A55L Walkman has 3 pros and 6 cons, as follows:The Pros:1. It's so small and so light that I am not aware of it being in my pocket while I work in the garden, connected to the NW-A55L via my excellent Sony noise-cancelling bluetooth headphones.2. Transferring files to and from the NW-A55L is much quicker than transferring files between my computer and a smartphone, tablet, or a laptop.3. The NW-A55L's software enables smooth transition from track to track, with few jolts - as can happen when I use a music-player app on my Android devices.The Cons:1. Because the NW-A55L is so conveniently small, its screen, menus, and text are awfully tiny and fiddly to work with. It helps if your eyesight is excellent and your finger-tips are tiny.2. Every time you switch on the NW-A55L it creates the database anew, which is an unnecessary step, holding things up by a minute or so before you can start listening again. The database should only be re-created after you have added one or more new tracks. But there's nothing that you can do to stop this process unless you leave the Walkman on between listening sessions, in which case you will lose battery power.3. If you play FLAC (high-quality) sound-files the battery life is short (about five hours after a full charge), whereas playing the same FLAC files on a smartphone uses nowhere near the same amount of power.4. Every time I power-on the NW-A55L I have to dig deep into the settings to reconnect the Walkman to my bluetooth headphones, when instead there should be an icon on the first screen of the NW-A55L to enable re-connection, as on a smartphone (where you just press the bluetooth icon).5. Creating playlists on the tiny screen of the NW-A55L is fiddly and difficult. You can't select a large number of tracks from different folders and add them all to a playlist at the same time. It seems the best way of creating playlists for the NW-A55L is to keep copies of all your sound-files on a computer and use "Sony Music Centre for PC" to create the lists, and then transfer both the lists and the sound-files to the Walkman. (I have not been able to organise the tracks which are already on my Walkman via "Sony Music Centre for PC" and my only option is to transfer all 5,000 tracks back to my computer - just to be able to quickly and efficiently organise them into playlists!)6. A playlist on the NW-A55L can only consist of a maximum of 999 sound-files, whereas I have playlists on a music-player app on my Android device which have about 2,300 sound-files in each of them.
I’ve been looking for a solution to take my large digital audio collection on the go with me.I’d been looking for a non smartphone option for a while, as I use it as a portable hard drive for DJ purposes also.The A50 along with a 1tb micro-sd has finally provided me with decent solution to my requirements.As well as allowing me to use both wired and wireless headphones for general listening, the addition of a portable DAC and Bluetooth receiver has done away with my need for my Chord Mojo, overall I’m very happy with my purchase.My reason for not giving a full 5 star review is due to some quirks of the interface. I’ve found properly tagged wav files don’t display their track/album details. It’s possible to view the files via the folder view but it’s less ... MoreI’ve been looking for a solution to take my large digital audio collection on the go with me.I’d been looking for a non smartphone option for a while, as I use it as a portable hard drive for DJ purposes also.The A50 along with a 1tb micro-sd has finally provided me with decent solution to my requirements.As well as allowing me to use both wired and wireless headphones for general listening, the addition of a portable DAC and Bluetooth receiver has done away with my need for my Chord Mojo, overall I’m very happy with my purchase.My reason for not giving a full 5 star review is due to some quirks of the interface. I’ve found properly tagged wav files don’t display their track/album details. It’s possible to view the files via the folder view but it’s less than ideal if you’re searching via artist or album view. The other interface issue that I have is with files not displaying embedded artwork unless the image is saved as a baseline jpeg, again, I’ve put a lot of time into properly organising my files so having to redo a lot of album art in this format is time consuming and could be easily rectified with a firmware update from Sony, fingers crossed that happens!Finally, allowing the radio function for UK models would be fantastic without the need to rewrite the firmware with another regions settings, a process that will void your warranty. While I understand this is due to certain regions having stricter guidelines regarding this functionality it would be a nice feature to have. I expect I’ll wait until my warranty has expired before attempting this, just in case.However, apart from the few minor issues I’ve mentioned, I would still happily recommend this Walkman to anyone looking for a decent standalone audio player with an excellent feature set.
I bought this item nearly a month ago as I am a huge music fan. I wanted something which was similar to my last Ipod Classic, but would instead would provide me with expandable storage, good sound and most of all, ease of use. After coming from an Ipod Classic (Also an Iphone XR) I had to get used to a bit more lag on the Walkman interface which is fine, but sometimes I do feel like it could be snappier. I am currently using a 400gb mini-SD card and it works wonderfully apart from one time going through my library caused the Sony Walkman to restart itself for some reason. Sometimes the tagging of songs can be hit and miss with most of the time everything being fine, but when it goes wrong its a right pain having to sort out all the tracks and artist tags. Also, ... MoreI bought this item nearly a month ago as I am a huge music fan. I wanted something which was similar to my last Ipod Classic, but would instead would provide me with expandable storage, good sound and most of all, ease of use. After coming from an Ipod Classic (Also an Iphone XR) I had to get used to a bit more lag on the Walkman interface which is fine, but sometimes I do feel like it could be snappier. I am currently using a 400gb mini-SD card and it works wonderfully apart from one time going through my library caused the Sony Walkman to restart itself for some reason. Sometimes the tagging of songs can be hit and miss with most of the time everything being fine, but when it goes wrong its a right pain having to sort out all the tracks and artist tags. Also, sometimes the Walkman can make copies of songs without reason whatsoever. I usually find I can just delete the duplicate songs from the Walkman but it would be a lot easier if you could delete several tracks at a time instead of having to do one at a time.When it comes to battery it is fine. It tends to drain quickly when transferring files for some reason. When you turn off the Walkman and turn it back on it takes quite a while for it to catch all the SD card data which can be really annoying when you need something on the fly. Also, I have noticed there is a slight problem with the headphone jack connector and some headphones. I have two pairs of headphones, both cheap in-ear earphones. When you connect them to the Walkman, the slightest of pulls tends to pull out the headphones a bit. I am not sure yet if this a problem as it has not had any impact on the sound/playback of the device.The sound itself is very good. I have found myself listening to older songs and enjoying them far more than my ipod but I cannot help but feel something is amiss in the bass department. Some heavy bass drum songs tend to 'clip'. This could due to using cheaper monitoring earphones but its unfortunate as my ipod did not have this same noise. The highs and mids are well covered, the sense of the music floating around your head is bar to none in this little device. I am not sure whether this player will last, I hope it does as its such neat little player. I do feel like a years guarantee is quite rubbish as I do feel like its not enough to cover battery usage as I will not be able to open it up and just replace it.
| General | |
| Product Type | Digital player |
| Digital Player Type | Flash based |
| Digital Player Functions | Radio |
| Enclosure Color | Black |
