Sony releases new Walkman with support for SACD quality

Sony has introduced a new MP3 player at CES in Las Vegas that supports DSD formats, which offer higher sound quality than CDs. The Walkman NW-A35 costs two hundred euros.

The Walkman has 16GB of storage and a micro-SD card slot on which, according to Sony, there is no limit to the capacity. The device also has bluetooth and nfc on board, with which wireless headphones can be synchronized. Sony claims that the battery can last 45 hours when playing MP3 files and 30 hours with Hi-Res Audio. The screen is a capacitive touchscreen with a size of 3.1″.

For the Bluetooth connection, Sony uses its own standard that it calls LDAC. The throughput of this has almost tripled at 990kbit/s compared to the usual speed of 382kbit/s for bluetooth-aptx. It supports 24bit depth and 96kHz sample rate. For comparison, a CD offers a depth of 16 bits and a sample rate of 44.1 kHz. Headphones that do not support LDAC will also work with the Walkman.

Sony gives a suggested retail price of 200 euros. Headphones are not included. For 280 euros, a version will be available with an in-ear ‘Hi-Res compatible noise-cancelling headphone’. The version with headphones is named NW-A35HN.