Exactly one year ago Sony introduced the new WH-Series 3-in-1 Walkman. I have personally yet to see anyone using one here and wonder if sales have been good enough to warrant a replacement of new model, regardless of sales, I hope a second generation will be introduced. Now for my rant.
My biggest issue with the WH-Series was the lack of Bluetooth. I would have purchased the WH505 if it came with Bluetooth but it did not. You can use the headphones with a cord but then this defeats the purpose of having no wires. Some would argue why have Bluetooth on the WH to connect to a phone/wireless speaker, you already have a Walkman built in to listen to music. I agree, but I feel Bluetooth would have helped sales and would have permitted pairing the headphones with phones, mp3 players and wireless speakers. Having the ability to stream to the headphones as a wireless speaker would have been a fantastic feature but again missing; this I feel would be a nice upgrade to allow sharing of music with just the headphones.
Now why post a photo of the MDR-XB950s? Well, when I first saw the headphones in the press photos, I initially thought it was a WH-Series replacement. I feel the design would work nicely as the higher end version but that is just my opinion.
Finally, Hi-Res support, Sony has been pushing this heavily this year, and adding Hi-Res support to a WH successor would be a no-brainer, probably the higher end model only, keeping the lower end model as more affordable alternative. Of course, micro-SD support should also be included.
Checking e-POSTEL, FCC or the Korean RRA, shows nothing for a new WH successor. This could mean 3 things, first, there is no successor and the series will be discontinued; second a successor will be released but without Bluetooth; and third, a successor with Bluetooth is coming but not anytime soon.
If anyone knows anything about a successor, please email me or leave a comment on this post.
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