Hefty Price of Sony Walkman When Launched In 2015

When Sony announced a new Walkman at CES 2015, everyone was ecstatic. But when they followed this up by saying that will be priced at US$ 1,119.99, the same excited people were aghast.

Audiophiles everywhere were stunned. At the same price, they could easily buy almost two dozens of iPod Shuffles with change to spare. Even the more pricier Fiii X5 players paled in comparison to what would cost to purchase Sony’s NW=ZX2.

What can Sony say about this?

"Every piece of material and component has been crafted to realize the ultimate Hi-Res Audio experience on the move," said Mike Fasulo, president of Sony Electronics USA, at CES 2015 during the company’s keynote speech.

So, what in blazes is Hi-Res Audio that will make Walkman an expensive item to have? Online sources say that it suppose to refer to a “group of very high-quality digital audio formats that try to banish lower-quality CD and MP3 formats to the pedestrian audio player market."

Anybody get that? Maybe "Hi-Res Audio" is just another vague marketing term being used whenever somebody cannot convincingly justify the reason why anybody should part with US$ 1,120 for an audio that one could just hear on your iPhone, albeit at lower quality.

But Sony is not fazed. They seem ready to defend its pricing scheme in ways that are hard to understand. For instance, in a Q&A with a Sony audio expert identified only as “Jeff” at CES, the obvious question was posed: “It looks beautiful but I have to ask, what makes this so premium?"

The Sony expert then launched into a long answer. Here are some of the highlights:

• Quality: “It comes down to quality. Up until now people have been sacrificing quality for convenience.”
• Display: It sports a 4-inch Sony Triluminos display.
• Android: It runs Android 4.2 (but that’s hardly a plus, since Android 4.2 was announced way back in 2012).
• Audio engine: It includes Sony’s Digital Sound Enhancement Engine: “It will make everything sound better, even the MP3s.”
• DSD: It supports Direct Stream Digital-Dff, a professional and uncompressed format that is used in recording and mastering Superior Audio CDs.
• Better bass: The device packs a powerful bass and “improved sense of stereo” due to better audio components, such as an improved power supply and the use of a large capacity Li-ion battery.
• All formats: It supports “any kind of format that you can throw at it.”
• Lots of aluminum: The Walkman boasts an aluminum chassis with genuine leather backing.
• And copper and gold: “Copper chassis inside that’s gold-plated for rigidity and reduction of noise…Very high-purity solder goes into it as well.”
• Storage: A 128GB of storage is the standard.
• Wireless: It supports NFC, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

At present, this Walkman will retail between US$ 150 to US$ 500, depending on the condition.