Sony Walkman A-Series (NWZ-A15) Preview (Update)
My Sony NWZ-A15 has just arrived, the courier just delivered it 10 minutes ago. I have snapped some quick photos, apart from the Walkman, USB cable and guides, there is nothing else in the box. Really excited to finally test it out this weekend.
UPDATE
FLAC album cover update - for those wondering, FLAC album art works with no issues, I personally use MP3tag to add my album art to my songs.
I will sum up the sound quality in one word, amazing. The A15 is louder than the A845 when comparing volume, at least 2 volume louder. The sound is cleaner, deeper and fuller. I have owned many Walkmans and I will say this, the A15 is the best sounding non-android Walkman hands down.
I will sum up the sound quality in one word, amazing. The A15 is louder than the A845 when comparing volume, at least 2 volume louder. The sound is cleaner, deeper and fuller. I have owned many Walkmans and I will say this, the A15 is the best sounding non-android Walkman hands down.
I did connect the A15 to my M-series via bluetooth (aptX) and while it works, I am having a hard time getting the NFC to connect automatically like with my Z1, I feel I will figure this out over the weekend. One positive note, the A15 when connected to the M-series as a bluetooth headset is louder than the combo of Z1/M-series.
Now all I need is a case for the new A15, meaning will have to import it from Japan I feel once it is released. Btw I did see the comment about the menu and a video, I will try my best to make one this weekend.
Now if only those new XBA headphones would be released, could finally grab a pair.
Now if only those new XBA headphones would be released, could finally grab a pair.
More photos after the break. If there are any questions, please leave a comment.
Click on photos for a larger size
what a beauty!
ReplyDeletelooks good... waiting for the good part!! SQ
ReplyDeleteJust a tad bit longer than my X-series, eh? Looking great so far!
ReplyDeleteIf you can point out differences between the A15 and the F887, it would be appreciated. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I do not have the F887, I never bought it since I had the xperia Z1 already and did not want another android device, especially one with a really old CPU meaning it won't be upgraded to any newer android versions. But I will compare it against the older X and A series from the photos.
DeleteReally looking forward to a well considered review, I've ordered mine from the UK site, got 5% off.
ReplyDeleteI have a A-847, upgrading to this.
Hi, how did you get 5% off?
DeleteUse code GENGAFF1014 for 5% discount
Deleteplease record a video of going through the player's menue
ReplyDeletei was reading it don't work with computers with a 64 bit os does that mean the software or does that mean you can't use the unit with it ?
ReplyDeleteI am using windows 8.1 64 bit, there are no problems, you can browse the walkman like any other external storage device.
Deleteawsome! looking forward to more impressions about menu, audio, connectivity and so on... a bit deeper...
ReplyDeletesurely it looks gorgeous and I'm very happy to hear that it's LOUDER!
I'll buy it for christmas, I think... how about importing it from japan? some tips? is it difficult?
If you are importing from Japan, so a NW model not NWZ, it will only have Japanese for the menus no english. Best bet would be to import from Hong Kong.
Deleteok! again I'll wait to see what the first importer will say about language in the menu... if there's english I'll import it too! I need at least 32gb... and NC would be a nice plus! and could you poitn out some sites for importing it?
DeleteHow to get MP3 files on the player?
ReplyDeleteIs there something like inelligent playlists?
what about usb-dac, do you have hi-res capable system?
ReplyDeletealso how does this compare to sony z3 phones?
last thing..album art, how does non-android sony os handle embedded art for flacs?
thanks
I do not own a usb-dac, sorry. I only own a Z1, so I can only compare it to that. While the Z3 does have hi res audio support and DSEE HX it lacks the S-Mastet MX amp.
DeleteI will test out flac and album art tomorrow.
Maybe you could answer one question I've had about this?
ReplyDeleteOne of the journalists at the preview event said that "there would probably be a lot of tapping if you wanted to navigate your albums list".
However the page at http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/hd-walkman-digital-music-players/nwz-a10-series mentions a scroll wheel.
Could you tell us which is it, and is it a problem to navigate long lists such as albums?
There is no scroll wheel, just regular directional buttons like on all previous non-android walkmans. If you have used any of the older walkmans, then the OS is the same, with album browsing done by alphabet.
DeleteHi, thank you very much for replying!
DeleteSo would you say browsing albums is a problem? Or can you just hold down the button and skip through the list quickly?
Sorry to take up your time but you're being very helpful ^_^;;
hi again, no problems with browsing the albums, songs or artists. If you hold down the button, you can skip through the albums really fast. :) I am guessing you have not used any of the recent non-android walkmans before?
DeleteI've used the A866 and thought it time to upgrade, but am sorely disappointed by the lack of a touchscreen which I've grown so accustomed to. :/
DeleteI've used the A866 and thought it time to upgrade, but am sorely disappointed by the lack of a touchscreen which I've grown so accustomed to. :/
DeleteHaving used every player out there, I would actually say that NOT having a touchcreen is a plus. This player is small, having a touchscreen wouldn't be any better in controlling precise and small menus. If you've used any of the older non Android Sony walkmans you'll know how they control, they're remarkably easy and the menus and sub menus all make sense.
DeleteAwesome device!
ReplyDeleteHow does the NWZ-A15 sound compared to the M-series by itself?
Would love to know if the NWZ-A15 sound more cleaner and crisp than M-series ?
I personally find that the M-series a little deep and male voice biased >.< would love to get the A15 if it sounds better with female voices.
Can you please confirm that gapless playback works on A15? I have NW-F886 and gaplsess playback works fine
ReplyDeleteYes gapless playback works just fine using FLAC. I will have to see if I have any other albums which I can test but from testing out Daft Punk - Discovery, I can't hear any gaps.
DeleteIs there a way to connect this to a home stereo system that only accepts composite audio(RCA)
ReplyDeleteThe only way would be to have a convertor from 3.5mm to RCA.
ReplyDeleteThe Walkman looks really sleek! Can't wait for your review!
ReplyDeleteP.S. I am a follower of Asian music - so can I please ask if you know if this Walkman (I would imagine that this is the European version?) would be able to display Asian characters (Chinese, Japanese etc) correctly?
as far as I know, this is the international model, and the menu can be changed to various Asian languages, but not Japanese, since only the NW model is in Japanese. If you mean lyrics, then I am not sure. As for song titles, it will display Asian characters, I have a few Korean songs with original Korean titles as characters and they show up with no problems.
DeleteYes! I was referring to song titles in my previous post :)
DeleteIt is great to hear that it is able to display Korean characters and from this I would imagine that it can display Chinese and Japanese characters in the song titles too. I was just wondering if new gadgets like this would still suffer from the same problem in the days before smart-phone, when foreign characters would never be displayed correctly in European models!
I am very excited about your full review - hopefully it will help me to make my mind up!
Hi, I've been wanting to get this A15 for a long long time but for some reason, Canada only offers the 64GB version. Where do you think I can buy this? Thanks a lot!
ReplyDeleteHi, everybody!
ReplyDeleteI bought my Sony NWZ-A15 from the italian official sony shop and i find the maximum volume quite low: comparing it with my Sony X-1060 (no volume limit version) the maximum volume step is 1 position lower on the 30 scale then X1060!
As well, there is a popup message when you go up volume level 15, stating that is dangerous to go up with the volume: may i ask you if there is also an unlimited version as i read message stating that there is a quite higher volume level then the one found on my unit? Is the popup message also present on international not Europeean version?
Perhaps, has happened in the past with others Sony players, there is an international version with better performance then the one sold in the europeean market?
I think so because i rread on others forums people stating that a comfortable level to use IEM with this player is of 9 on 30, while in my version is way to low at this volume step!
I'm asking this because i'm thinking of buying a Sony A17 from Hong Kong but this is not acceptable if it has the same low output!
Thanks!
I don't know whether it is too low or high.
DeleteI'm using step11 of 30.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteVery helpful reading through all the comments and replies. I am considering buying one of the hi-res "A" models (I ripped my CD collection to FLAC, so need a player that can support it, plus the micro SD slot is a boon and about time!).
I presume that it is possible to connect it to an outboard DAC that has a USB input (like the Musical Fidelity V-DAC) via the USB on the Sony, but it would be nice to know for sure.
Thanks for your time.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI recently bought one - A15. There are two things which i thought Sony overlooked. One is when you pause a song being played or press Forward (to the next) song, it doesn't do a gentle fade out/in - so you get that sudden 'jarring end' to the song being played.
Secondly, when you are in the song being played screen, pressing the top or bottom 'inclined square' button shows you the album cover - doesn't it make more sense to show song title? my sony walkman phone (very old model w995) does this - showing title rather than album cover.
Any ideas how to fix these two? Thank you.
The only thing that can be done about the second problem is to use language study mode. That disables the album cover flow thing from appearing. Nothing can be done about the first problem. Hope this helps!
DeleteMy only issue so far has been trying to make a playlist that combines songs from the internal storage and microSD card. I can make the playlist on the computer, but after copying it to the Walkman, it will choose one or the other storage mediums and ignore the other one. So if half the songs were from System Storage, and half from the microSD, the playlist looks fine in a text editor, but on the NWZ-A17, only half the songs are listed once selecting the playlist.
ReplyDeleteThe headphone Jack on my Sony Z-1070 64gig from Japan has broken.Could someone advise if it would be better to purchase the Sony A17 or the Sony ZX1...... Also how does the Sound compare to the Sony x-1060 which imo is the best sounding non-Android Walkman
ReplyDeleteI will be posting a comparison between the A15 and X series soon, but the ZX1 from user reviews seems to have a better sound, but it is also a lot more expensive.
DeleteHi, may i know which earphone do you use with the walkman a15 , or the better question is which is the better suited in-ear headphones for the player.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI recently bought one - A15, to listen some FLACs files, that in my A-845 I couldn`t.
But I'm a little disappointed until now, because I was expecting a big difference regarding the audio quality, comparing the mp3 albums played in the A-845, and the same albums played in FLAC (CD and Hi-res) files in A-15.
However, the problem could be in the head sets I use, but I really don`t know, so I expect that you can advise me about it. I use the in ear XBA-3 and the headphones Bose qc-15.
Thanks
Do you know how to edit ID3 tags?
ReplyDelete