Sony NW-A55L identical to NW-A55 minus the FM tuner (update)
I have finally received a reply from Sony regarding the upcoming NW-A55L Walkman destined for Europe. In the original post there was confusion whether this would ship with a new USB type-C port and Bluetooth 5.0.
Update: Sony UK has responded on Twitter, providing conflicting information, USB type-C.
With Sony responding to me directly via email, I can confirm what I suspected, this is just last year's NW-A55 but with one major change, no FM tuner. I am attaching the email I received from Sony below. My thanks to Stephanie from Sony for getting back to me, much appreciated.
Hi again, we've asked internally, and this Walkman will use a USB type C charger and will have Bluetooth version 4.2. ^Sean— Sony UK (@SonyUK) October 2, 2019
With Sony responding to me directly via email, I can confirm what I suspected, this is just last year's NW-A55 but with one major change, no FM tuner. I am attaching the email I received from Sony below. My thanks to Stephanie from Sony for getting back to me, much appreciated.
Link to the specifications.
So there we have it, no Bluetooth 5.0, no USB type-C and FM tuner removed. The model in Europe will ship without the NC headphones (IER-NW500N) but I would imagine one could easily just buy the headphones separately on Ebay if someone wants them, but most listings are around $100+ so not cheap.
That being said, the NW-A55 from last year is a great model, offers great battery life, supports a wide variety of codecs, can act as USB DAC, and Bluetooth receiver mode. Prices are 180 GBP or 200 Euros.
how does this compare to the A40 model? is it worth the upgrade?
ReplyDeleteDepends, the A40 also has the USB dac mode, but lacks the Bluetooth receiver function. Likewise the A40 has an FM tuner, so if anyone uses that, it will be missing in the NW-A55L.
DeleteColour options are also different between the 2 models and the A40 had a version which shipped with the NC headphones, easily $100+ if bought separately.
Finally I feel the A40 can be found cheaper online, even new, so there is that as well.
Hope that helps.
The radio on the A55L can be easily enabled by the way :)
Deletewell don't leave us hanging, any tutorials or links to tutorials on how to enable it?
DeleteOh, sorry, yep. You could just change the region out of CEW2 (default for A55L), using the Rockbox destination tool: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SonyNWDestTool
DeleteOtherwise, I could make an installer that will do the change automatically, similar to a Sony official update. PM me for more details if you want to do the change - https://www.head-fi.org/members/mrwalkman.532953/
Can anyone confirm that changing the region brings back FM functionality?
DeleteI just did it myself, I wouldn't have mentioned it otherwise. Yes, it brings it back.
DeleteAlso, the default region of the A55L also comes with the annoying volume warning, so I'm not sure who would like those warnings and would choose not to remove them - unless you had no idea about the destination changing tool. :)
DeleteWhat are the DAB regulations mentioned as a cause fro dropping the FM tuner?
ReplyDeleteGood question, I do not have that info, and not sure how one would even check that, but perhaps it might be related to this
Deletehttps://worlddabeureka.org/2018/12/19/eu-directive-reveals-european-vision-for-radio-digitisation/
I know people still listen to radios, I myself do not, so removal of the FM tuner is not a big issue for me.
There is no mention of FM tuner on either the new A100 or the ZX500.
ie. market penetration of DAB requires all new radios to include DAB+ in some countries, so they can't sell a device with FM but not DAB+
DeleteI really don't get this. Super hi-fi devices which implemented wifi for lossy, battery draining and interfering streaming, yet removing FM tuning which is just, you know, not a difficult thing to keep. This device doesn't even have wifi, so you downgrade it removing tuner?
ReplyDeleteI doubt Sony removed the radio, just disabled it. I believe new rules for DAB radios and radios are coming into force in the EU so this is why the radio was disabled.
DeleteBut I agree, weird decision by Sony. They should have just released the A50 last year in Europe.
Any ideas on the differences between NW-A55L and NW-A55HN?
ReplyDeleteHN model comes with Noise cancellation headphones. The regular model A55 and A55L do not ship with any headphones in the box.
Delete