Sony’s legendary Walkman family gains a new flagship that’s specially made for serious music lovers. The High-Resolution Walkman NW-ZX2 puts the exquisite musical refinement of Hi-Res Audio right in your pocket – taking you beyond CD quality for an unparalleled listening experience while you’re out and about.
Converting analogue sound to digital formats like CD and MP3 can compromise the purity of the original signal. Hi-Res Audio retains far more detail during the analogue-to-digital conversion process, for a more authentic, emotionally involving musical experience.
The beautifully styled Walkman NW-ZX2 is an accomplished performer, with a host of meticulous design refinements ensuring audio that captures every nuance of the artist’s original creativity.
Sony’s S-Master HX full digital amplifier keeps audio signal processing entirely in the digital domain to support pristine playback of Hi-Res sound. This advanced technology accurately processes massive amounts of wide-bandwidth audio data while minimizing noise and distortion.
Powerful DSEE HX processing recreates crucial high-frequency musical information that’s lost in compressed sound files. CD and MP3 sources are upscaled, expanding sampling frequency and bit-depth beyond their original values to near Hi-Res quality (corresponding to 192 kHz/24-bit audio). With immense amounts of musical detail to enjoy, you’ll feel as if you’re really there in the studio or concert hall.
The audiophile credentials of the next-generation Walkman NW-ZX2 are clear from the very first touch. The player’s frame is milled from solid aluminium alloy for immense rigidity, while internal use of gold-plated copper plate reduces electrical impedance to assist with overall sound quality.
Inside, there’s an impressive list of other design enhancements to excite any true audiophile. Significant improvements in the player’s power supply include an electric double-layer capacitor to smooth out voltage drops.
Every stage of the audio pathway is upgraded with extensive use of thick-film copper-layer PCBs, OFC (Oxygen Free Copper) cables and high purity lead-free solder. Overall sound quality is further enhanced by use of carefully-selected components including coils, MELF type resistors and film condensers with superior audio characteristics. No less than seven extra-large condensers, ‘OS-CON’, maintain superb frequency response and minimise noise at the output stage.
One digital clock source is replaced by two, with dedicated crystal oscillators for 44.1/88.2/176.4 kHz (CD/DSD) and 48/96/192 kHz sources respectively. Whatever music file or format you’re listening to, you’ll enjoy extra clarity and transparency with improved stereo separation.
The NW-ZX2 is the first ever Walkman that supports the efficient LDAC codec. This new audio technology from Sony lets you enjoy high quality wireless audio via Bluetooth. Transmitting data three times more efficiently than previous Bluetooth connections LDAC provides an enhanced wireless listening experience for all your music. One-touch pairing with NFC makes wireless connection between Walkman and other devices instant and effortless.
Serious music lovers will appreciate a generous 128GB of internal storage – plenty of space for your Hi-Res collection. Expanded to 256GB (with optional microSD card), there’s room over 1700 songs stored as Hi-Res Audio files (at 150MB/song). In addition, stamina is boosted by a new high capacity Li-ion battery that boosts playback time to as long as 60hrs (MP3 files) from a single charge.
Dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) Wi-Fi compatibility lets you enjoy Hi-Res music stored on your DLNA home network, free of electrical interference. The player also supports a USB audio connection function for direct, jitter-free digital connection to portable headphone amps and USB DAC amps.
The new Walkman NW-ZX2 with High-Resolution Audio from Sony is on sale in Europe from Spring 2015.
