back in 1979,
Sony released
a device that pretty much
changed the way we listen to
music forever: without the first
Walkman, there could never
have been the iPod. It was one of the most
iconic inventions of the late 20th century.
And now the Japanese giant is at it again with a new,
shiny Walkman. Only, instead of cassettes, this one plays
high-res audio (HRA) files.
It’s part of what audiophiles are calling the biggest
boost in sound quality for decades, and Sony’s device is
just one of a phalanx of portable
music gizmos that can play HRA.
So what does this mean? Put
simply, it refers to audio files of a
technically higher standard than
a music CD. You need to download
these tracks from specialist
vendors, such as 7digital.com
or HDtracks.com (the US firm,
launching in Europe this month,
that claims to have every major
label on board).
Some phones already support
HRA, but they lack the posh
circuitry to properly showcase it.
By contrast, the Sony NWZ-ZX1 is
audiophile gold. Big money buys
you a well-honed, if chunky,
device that sounds superb. And,
with Android in the engine room,
you can while away a flight playing
Fruit Ninja on the 4in touchscreen.
But the bigger question here
is: will Sony’s device take off?
In many respects, the stars are
“The sound of the future?”
Sony’s newWalkman is one of a swathe of devices hitting shelves this year that
promise better audio quality than ever before. Question is, asks
Alex Pell
, dowe care?
V I E W P O I N T S
T E C H
T A L K
vital
statistics
sony nwz-zx1
walkman
£549
sony.co.uk
aligning for high-res audio. Internet
connections are getting quicker and memory
cheaper, making it easier to download and
handle these fatter files. However, there are
some serious sticking points.
First, over headphones – as opposed to
speakers – the improvement in sound is
relatively subtle. Next up, I wonder howmany people
will choose to go back to the old days where they humped
around a phone
and
a dedicated music player – which
the newWalkman is. And the final nail is this: today,
virtually all but a few audio geeks have willingly traded
quality for convenience. In order to
have thousands of songs on a single
device, few give a hoot how it sounds.
Newer streaming services, such as
Spotify, which provide a celestial
jukebox, are persuading us to set the
bar even lower in exchange
for the ability to streammusic
anywhere, any time.
It all adds up to one simple fact:
Sony’s device can’t possibly have the
same impact as the first Walkman.
And yet... I urge you to give HRA a
whirl nonetheless. The most
persistent lie in technology is that
music services provide CD quality
– or, more often, its ugly sibling,
near-CD quality – and, frankly, it’s a
travesty that online music has
sounded so shonky for so long. The
advent of HRA redresses that balance.
Now all tech firms need do is
incorporate something as good as the
Sony into a smartphone and we’ll all
be laughing.
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