My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman • Hacker News Board

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#61

Post by nicklaf » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:12 AM UTC

This used to be available in the United States for purchase. I have one, and bought it in 2020 from Best Buy for $170. [0] Good to know it's still available in Japan, but it's a shame it doesn't seem to be in stock in the US anymore since it's a fantastic player. It's free from all the smartphone bloat and runs a slick interface on vanilla linux (and works just fine with linux as USB mass storage device, as well as an FM radio receiver, and a bluetooth client/host).

That there is no wifi in my mind is a feature rather than a bug.

I also like to think that model name is an homage to the hip hop group, N.W.A. :-P

[0] https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-walkman-nw-a55-hi-res-16gb...

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#62

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:13 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#63

Post by inferiorhuman » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:17 AM UTC

hug wrote: post #58

inferiorhuman wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience was (and one of the reasons I miss the headphone jack is) that the dongle quality + Apple ear buds wasn't as good as the DAC the older iPhones had.

I don't want to deny that, when picking up the two & due to some trickery of your own brain, you prefer the iPhone 8, but I do doubt is that it is because of a measurable difference in audio quality.

Perhaps, but I was comparing Apple ear buds with the 3.5mm jack vs lightning ones. Presumably the drivers and whatnot would be similar. In general I don't think audio quality has ever been particularly important to Apple. The iPhone (and all smartphones really) is a jack of all trades gizmo not a device for high quality audio playback.

I remember when I had a first gen iPhone and the call quality was atrocious with AT&T compared to my RAZR on Verizon. You get used to it over time but back to back it was pretty dramatic.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#64

Post by erwincoumans » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:26 AM UTC

inferiorhuman wrote: post #63

hug wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to deny that, when picking up the two & due to some trickery of your own brain, you prefer the iPhone 8, but I do doubt is that it is because of a measurable difference in audio quality.

Perhaps, but I was comparing Apple ear buds with the 3.5mm jack vs lightning ones. Presumably the drivers and whatnot would be similar. In general I don't think audio quality has ever been particularly important to Apple. The iPhone (and all smartphones really) is a jack of all trades gizmo not a device for high quality audio playback. I remember when I had a first gen iPhone and the call quality was atrocious with A…

If you have an iPhone and you care about its audio quality there are some DAC dongles, see also

https://www.whathifi.com/advice/how-to-play-hi-res-music-you...

Quoting the article:

"Next, you need a decent DAC such as the Audioquest DragonFly Cobalt, Cyrus soundKey or Chord Mojo 2 and a good pair of headphones, such as the Grado SR325x, Shure Aonic 3 or Austrian Audio Hi-X55.

This is just a starting point, of course. Don’t be afraid to build up to a more revealing system. You could combine the Chord Hugo 2 DAC with a pair of Beyerdynamic T1 (3rd Generation) headphones for a more premium set-up. That might be a touch overkill and punishingly transparent for an iPhone, but these are hi-res files, after all."

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#65

Post by brewdad » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:35 AM UTC

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #22

hug wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is this still true with latest iPhone? The latest iPhone doesn't have a DAC in it for headphones. The little 3.5mm-to-lightning dongle is active -- it contains a tiny DAC/amp powered by the lightning port. Is the tiny lightning dongle a good DAC? The answer is largely "it's fine". Anyone who isn't on the cork-sniffing side of audiophile trends will find it acceptable, assuming the amp is capable of driving the load…

The dongle always impresses me as slaying so many specialized DACs. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/r...

It really is amazing the Apple, the poster child for overpriced dongles and accessories, has built such an incredible device for $9 MSRP.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#66

Post by paulcarroty » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:36 AM UTC

mkoryak wrote: post #4

One thing no "new" mp3 player has done correctly is audio books. None of them do bookmarking as well as rockbox. Also, new mp3 players usually have terrible battery life. Because of these reasons, I bought myself about 7 sandisk sansa players on ebay and have gotten very good at fixing their shitty headphone jack problem. With a rockboxed sansa I get about 60 hours of battery life and bookmarking on stop with a list…

Bought Sansa Fuze+ several months ago and should say about good battery life on Rockbox - ~24h display on and 30-40h playback.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#67

Post by jazzyjackson » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:47 AM UTC

astrange wrote: post #52

NikolaNovak wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I don't disagree with your main point, but I hundred percent disagree with the notion audiophiles are the ones missing the 3.5mm jack. I miss it awfully and it's due to sheer convenience. Every one of my headphones used to work seemlessly with every one of my devices. I had cheap headphones (and later headsets) in each car, at the office, in the backpack, at home, and nice headphones at home, and they each an…

If you had nice headphones they probably didn’t work perfectly with everything, since most nice ones need a headphone amp to sound like they’re supposed to. The analog interface also means inconsistent volume, and using them on a walk means cable microphonics.

There are plenty of nice headphones with low impedance among grado, sennheiser, beyerdynamic etc, you kinda have to go out of your way to choose a high impedance “home stereo” style ‘phone

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#68

Post by inferiorhuman » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:48 AM UTC

erwincoumans wrote: post #64

inferiorhuman wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, but I was comparing Apple ear buds with the 3.5mm jack vs lightning ones. Presumably the drivers and whatnot would be similar. In general I don't think audio quality has ever been particularly important to Apple. The iPhone (and all smartphones really) is a jack of all trades gizmo not a device for high quality audio playback. I remember when I had a first gen iPhone and the call quality was atrocious with A…

If you have an iPhone and you care about its audio quality there are some DAC dongles, see also https://www.whathifi.com/advice/how-to-play-hi-res-music-you... Quoting the article: "Next, you need a decent DAC such as the Audioquest DragonFly Cobalt, Cyrus soundKey or Chord Mojo 2 and a good pair of headphones, such as the Grado SR325x, Shure Aonic 3 or Austrian Audio Hi-X55. This is just a starting point, of course.…

Oh I don't particularly care about audio quality from the iPhone, most of the time I'm using it in a noisy environment. I've a decent pair of proper headphones but there's no way I'd wear them in public.

More to the point I don't want dongles for my phone either. These are all solutions for Apple cheapening the product.

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#69

Post by drpixie » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:51 AM UTC

I can’t describe what a breath of fresh air this is compared to how bad modern smartphone music and streaming apps have become. It’s also nice having a dedicated player that isn’t inundated with notifications and other modern distractions.

Until you see something done well, we get seduced by "features" and loose track of how nice a really well design thing can be. (Got to hand it to old Apple, they did know design.)

Re: My New Sony NW-A55 Walkman

#70

Post by urlwolf » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:51 AM UTC

I use a dedicated voice recorder to think while I walk. It has made a world of difference in my thinking. And no, a phone with an app is not the same. A button you can press anytime that just records is a godsent. No notifications, no chats, no Trillion dollar companies giving you dopamine shots.

Your attention is too valuable. We are squandering it on devices that are designed so you can't think clearly.