Sony Walkman NW-A35: HiRes in pocket size
7.4.2017
Translation: machine translated
Sony's Walkman NW-A35HN is an affordable high-resolution audio player for discerning music listeners who don't want to listen to their favourite music on the go via a smartphone. The test shows what it can do.
The Sony NW-A35 and NW-A35HN walkers, which are available in five colours, differ mainly in the HN in the model designation and the price. The HN version comes with in-ear headphones with noise cancelling. As low-cost devices, they have Bluetooth with the in-house LDAC sound enhancement system as a wireless networking option, but no WiFi. As a consolation, there is an FM radio.
This small, inconspicuous player, weighing just under 100 grams, is equipped with a 3.1-inch touchscreen and plays for between 22 and 45 hours on a single charge, depending on the operating mode. Although the internal memory only offers 16 GB of storage space, a huge audio collection can be created using microSD cards. For example, the HiRes album "Tracker" by Knopfler with 192 kHz/32 bit requires 2.91 GB of storage space, while "Portraits / The Clarinet Album" by Andreas Ottensamer with 96 kHz/24 bit requires 1 GB. This shows that high-performance microSD cards are an absolute must, especially for a high-resolution audio collection.
After a somewhat long start-up phase of around 45 seconds, the player was recognised immediately on the iMac with OS 10.9.5. The internal memory and the microSD card were displayed separately. This made it easy to start loading the player with various albums. There are also the MediaGo and Content Transfer programmes for Windows and Mac, with which the transfer to the player takes place with the support of the Gracenote CD DataBase.
The operation is quite simple and relatively quickly you have the almost infinite number of playback features and also the FM radio of this player under control. The first step in testing was to install the latest firmware. Among other things, this increased the speed of operation via the touchscreen.
Playground for sound tinkerers
Sony is incredibly imaginative when it comes to sound enhancement options and claims things that can impress non-technical music listeners but make experts smile.
As a special feature, Sony mentions the five built-in PSCAP capacitors, which should provide the S-Master HX digital amplifier with enough power for explosive impulses. And in contrast to the digital amplifier mentioned above, Sony writes about DC phase linearisation: "This function adjusts low-frequency phase shifts to reproduce the audio characteristics of analogue amplifiers."
With DSEE HX (this function reproduces the clear sound spectrum that is often lost), the original is upscaled to HiRes audio. The ClarAudio+ (automatically adjusts sound settings and provides an enriching listening experience) is another setting that did not really enhance the enjoyment of music with the supplied headphones or others in the listening test.
The list continues with Clear Phase (only for the supplied in-ear headphones), VPT (various surround modes, from studio, club, concert hall and matrix), Dynamic Normaliser (adjusts the volume of tracks at different levels) and various other technical highlights. However, in addition to these sometimes dubious or barely audible gimmicks for sound tinkerers, there is also a very useful 6-band graphic equaliser for correcting muffled, bright or low-bass recordings.
Much more important, however, are the playable formats such as FLAC, up to 192 kHz/24 bit, DSD up to 2.8 MHz, AAC, MP3, ALAC, HE-AAC, Linear PCM and WMA.
Special features for Bluetooth
You might rightly wonder what Bluetooth, which doesn't have a very high sound quality, is doing in a high-resolution player. The generally introduced aptX process for improving the sound quality of Bluetooth is well known. The aptX does indeed guarantee a sound quality that is practically CD-like, but not at high-resolution level.
So Sony has designed its own Bluetooth sound enhancement system called LDAC and writes: "By transmitting at the maximum possible transmission rate (990 Kbit/s), LDAC allows you to listen to high-resolution audio content in near high-resolution quality". It is striking that even Sony writes "almost high-resolution quality". It is clear that not only the player, but also the playback device, be it headphones, an active speaker or something else, must support the Bluetooth LDAC system.
The LDAC with its "almost high-resolution quality" only works with the latest Sony Bluetooth devices and not with third-party products. Sony has also left owners of the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless with aptX used for testing out in the cold when it comes to Bluetooth. The Sony MDR-ZX770BN, which is also equipped with aptX and tested at avguide, is no better. High-resolution recordings are transformed down to the level of normal Bluetooth 4.2. Although this is not so bad today, it is anything but audiophile. It would have been a noble move on Sony's part to integrate aptX in addition to LDAC. So for audiophiles, long live the cable!
Good sound - moderate noise cancelling
The MDR-NW750NE wired in-ear headphones included with the Walkman NW-A35HN, worth around 60 francs, don't sound bad at all for a headphone of this design and also passively shield ambient noise quite well.
Noise cancelling works here in a very special way and only in combination with this player. These headphones are passive, but equipped with microphones to pick up ambient noise. The signals from these microphones are transmitted to the Walkman via a cable, which can be recognised by the additional contact on the jack plugs. In the player itself, an electronic system produces and mixes in a correction signal to cancel out the noise in the listener.
The effect of this noise cancelling is noticeable, but very modest and therefore in line with the low price. So you should consider whether it might be better to buy the NW-A35 without the in-ear headphones and invest the money saved in buying more expensive headphones with a more efficient noise canceller.
More than just a respectable success
Now the question was: Would the NW-A35HN be a poor imitation of what is possible today in terms of high resolution, or could it even hold its own against real audiophile devices? We listened to selected high resolutions via cable and the B&W P5 and Sennheiser Momentum headphones.
The NW-A35HN had to compete against the following combination: MacBook Pro with Audirvana Plus Player and the USB DAC ami DS5 with integrated headphone amplifier. Certainly not a fair comparison, but a very interesting one. We listened to various high-resolution recordings, including Andreas Ottensamer's "Portraits - The Clarinet Album", Joshua Bell with violin Bach works and Knopfler's "Tracker".
With Ottensamer's "Clarinet Album", the two systems competed quite strongly and the Sony showed no weaknesses in terms of beauty of sound and spatial projection. At times, it seemed as if the Walkman was slightly softer and the high-end system a little tighter.
Although the Walkman downsampled the 32 bits of Knopfler's "Tracker" to 24 bits, it was still able to add crisp peak impulses at moderately loud levels. Knopfler's voice sounded full of character, the spatiality and atmosphere of this excellent studio recording were convincing.
However, there were clearly audible differences in Joshua Bell's violin sounds in the "Chaconne" of J.S. Bach's Partita No. 2. The reference system reproduced Bell's one million dollar Stradivarius with magical tone colours and an unheard-of level of detail. You thought you could see the old, precious Stradivarius wood treated with a mysterious varnish vibrating. The Walkman could no longer keep up, drew less precisely and turned the Stradivarius into a normal master violin. However, the NW-A35HN still earned a "very good" and was therefore a real respectable success.
Conclusion
Despite their favourable price, the Sony NW-A35 and NW-A35HN high-resolution players are successful devices that can give discerning music listeners a lot of pleasure even without WiFi & Co. However, Bluetooth with aptX and more effective noise cancelling on the in-ear headphones of the NW-A35HN would be desirable.
Profile NW-A35HN:
Affordable high-resolution audio player with included in-ear headphones and remarkably good sound quality.
Pro:
- Very good sound
- many playback options
- Bluetooth LDAC
- In-ear headphones with good sound
- MicroSD card memory
- At a favourable price
Contra:
- No Bluetooth aptX
- Noise cancelling not very efficient
- No WiFi
- Somewhat long start-up phase
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As dipl. musician, EL. Ing. HTL and founding member of the internet platform <a href="http://www.avguide.ch/" target="_blank">www.avguide.ch</a>, I am interested in electronics, especially when it makes music of the highest quality. So testing - i.e. listening to, measuring and describing loudspeakers, amplifiers, headphones, high-resolution audio players etc. - is my passion. Besides that, as an active bass player, for me it's true: No bass, no fun!