SONY NW-A30 : Hi-res Walkman
-Hands on-
It’s such a long time that I have not tried those digital music player. I remember that last time I bought this thing is more than 10 years ago, with Ipod Video 30GB. Since its battery is dead I have been using smart mobiles instead and they are doing things great as a media player. However, if you are a little bit of serious music listener, you may look for other alternative that give you more “feeling”
Actually there are so many brands available and Sony A series is considered as a budget one that meet my expectation such as additional memory SD Card, Hi res support, bluetooth, lightweight, touch screen and physical button.
Actually in my country, Thailand, is available with 2 models for this A series. One is A35 with 16GB and A36 with 32GB and noise cancellation earphones, with promotion price 6990 and 9990 Baht respectively. Both support external micro SD card til 128GB and they are running with Sony own OS not an android like other the expensive models.
Features : So what’s new about A36?
- It’s touch screen! but not that fast interaction
- External storage is welcome.
- Supports DSD, Flac file format(hi-res) but no more picture files.
- More powerful output to drive headphone.
- Physical buttons without turning on the display
- Able to delete songs on player.
- Music auto pauses when headphones is removed from the audio port.
- Right now it supports Thai language.
And you need a “Media Go” the software that allows you to communicate with this player which works similar to iTune.
Sound Quality?
This’s quite hard to explain, I’m not that serious music listener and I don’t have other brand for comparison but I can say this is much better from smart phones and if you have a good earphone to match with, you’ll feel its potential.
I’d say that the vocals appear to sound clearer, slightly less warm. Bass sounds slightly tighter which is the outstanding thing of Sony. It’s more pleasant to listen to yet without too much emphasis on the highs or lows
There are still a set of sound settings on earlier A-series, so you can enjoy functions of ClearAudio+, DSEE HX, VPT (Surround). The Equalizer setting allows adjustment on 6 bands, with +/- 10 steps per band.
Battery Life?
This one is quite disappointed but I’m not that worried since I don’t have any marathon activities to do with music player. You can go with mp3 for 40 hours approximately but if you need hi-res songs, it will go down like 20 hours only. Anyway full charges take almost 4 hours, that’s quite long for me.
There is screen protector, silicone/leather/hard case available for this A30 Series. Interestingly Sony Thailand does not have a plan to sell it so you are on your own, if you need it you may look on ebay or amazon Japan.
Final calls
If you are looking for an affordable digital audio players, I think Sony NW-A30 is the one you should consider. With the new block designed with touch screen interaction. Anyway I have say this touch response is not as instant as smartphones, it is certainly more intuitive than the non-touch Walkman series. Still I really like physical button coz you don’t have to open the screen if you want to forward/back the music as an old fashion way. Also improved audio processor, more powerful amplifier, you may get the more fun of listening music.
Spec sheets
Memory size: 16GB (NW-35), 32GB (NW-36HN)
External memory: micro SD, microSDHC, microSDXC, max 128GB
Display size: 3.1-inch, 800×480 pixels
Output power: 35mW per channel for balanced audio signal
Audio formats: MP3, WMA, FLAC, Linear PCM, AAC, HE-AAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF, DSD 2.8224MHz
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.2 (SBC, LDAC)
FM Radio: Yes
USB charging time: 4 hours
Weight: 98g
