SI: Sony™'s Gorgeous New A-Series Walkman Features OLED, Up To 64GB Capacity

[Christopher]

Sony has unveiled the latest update to the A-Series Walkman line with some serious features. The new NW-A840 series, available in black and brown, simply is the most brilliant Walkman offering from Sony to date – it has all of the features people have been asking for in previous Walkmans while shedding what it needed to. In my opinion, this is the most stylish appearance I’ve seen in a personal media player – and it has a jaw-dropping 2.8 inch WQVGA OLED screen. This is also the thinnest Walkman ever created at only 7.2mm. Sony has also finally come to the table with a better assortment of capacities – with the NW-A845 (16GB, Y24,000), NW-A846 (32GB, Y30,000), and NW-A847 (64GB, Y40,000) all due on October 31st. What’s also new for the first time is a TV-out function, that can output at 720×480 (SD) quality.

There is no Wifi or touchscreen. Let’s face it – the browser on the X-Series was a disaster. The X-Series Walkman used an old CPU and lacked the memory needed for an optimal iPhone-esque browser experience everyone has become accustomed to.

Of course, the newest A-Series is drag n’ drop, which also includes for the first time autoconverting video transfer! Additional features to round out this sweet package include a S-Master digital amplifier, FM radio, digital noise canceling (which we really think is incredible) and comes with premium MDR-EX300SL earphones. That is a really nice pair of stock buds to come with a Walkman – I am glad to see they didn’t skimp out. Other premium features to color your sound include DSEE, Clear Stereo, Clear bass, and lyric display.

I’m seeing here that the new A series has about 29 hours battery life at 128kbps, and 9 hours of video playback at 384kbps MPEG-4. Codec support looks like MP3, WMA, AAC, HE-AAC, ATRAC, ATRAC AL, PCM/wav. I assume ATRAC support will probably be limited to Japan, but we are not sure yet. For movies, the usual AVC (H2.64), MPEG-4 and WMV are allowed.

Here’s a keen introduction video courtesy of Sony Japan:

Sony also released a picture of a special SonyStyle limited edition Violet NW-A847:

This information, brought to you in English, is a Sony Insider exclusive, brought to you here first.

View the full article

[Richard]

Well my black NW-A847 arrived from Japan earlier this week and it's really a nice piece of hardware, I've just started to play with it this afternoon and it's very nice to use. The X-Application software is still essentially Sonic Stage in some places underneath, but they have improved the performance quite a bit and made the user interface a lot smoother.

[Anthony]

Well my black NW-A847 arrived from Japan earlier this week and it's really a nice piece of hardware, I've just started to play with it this afternoon and it's very nice to use. The X-Application software is still essentially Sonic Stage in some places underneath, but they have improved the performance quite a bit and made the user interface a lot smoother.

I need to catch up. Are you Japanese, so English menu's aren't a problem? Is the new X-Application in Japanese also? Is X-application the only software that the A847 works with, ie no Drag and Drop?

[Richard]

I need to catch up. Are you Japanese, so English menu's aren't a problem? Is the new X-Application in Japanese also? Is X-application the only software that the A847 works with, ie no Drag and Drop?

No I am English, most of the menus on the player you can figure out from the manual or from trial and error. The operation of the player is very easy especially if you have used another Sony player before (I also have the A808) - the menu structure is very similar. The hardest thing to figure out is all the settings menus, but once you have configured these you shouldn't have to change them too often.

Drag and drop does work fine with audio and video, but you have to use the X-Application to transfer Atrac tracks. You can also use it to manage the some of the more advanced features like the lyrics lookup, converting various audio / video formats adding cover art, ripping cd's and managing your library in general. Again the software is only in Japanese but works fine on english Vista and and can actually co-exist with SS 4.3 on the same machine (but SS4.3 will not be able to transfer to the A847). A lot of the menu options are very similar to Sonic Stage and if you have used SS you will be able to pick this up pretty quickly.

[DanteSS3]

How much did you pay for your A847 if you don't mind me asking?

I've been using the A808 since it came out so very familiar with it, so its starting to sound better and better

[azteclife]

No I am English, most of the menus on the player you can figure out from the manual or from trial and error. The operation of the player is very easy especially if you have used another Sony player before (I also have the A808) - the menu structure is very similar. The hardest thing to figure out is all the settings menus, but once you have configured these you shouldn't have to change them too often.

Drag and drop does work fine with audio and video, but you have to use the X-Application to transfer Atrac tracks. You can also use it to manage the some of the more advanced features like the lyrics lookup, converting various audio / video formats adding cover art, ripping cd's and managing your library in general. Again the software is only in Japanese but works fine on english Vista and and can actually co-exist with SS 4.3 on the same machine (but SS4.3 will not be able to transfer to the A847). A lot of the menu options are very similar to Sonic Stage and if you have used SS you will be able to pick this up pretty quickly.

Sorry to reply to an old thread but I'm thinking of importing an A847 to the UK from Japan. I have 1000+ CDs ripped into sonicstage 4.3 and don't fancy going through the process again.

Also not convinced about programs to convert ATRAC to MP3.

Richard's post is encouraging and having had many Sony players in the past I reckon I'll be able to navigate round the player ok. My only concern is getting the ATRAC files into the X-Application program, with Japanese far from my speciality!

Any advice as to whether this is an easy process would be appreciated.

Regards

Paul

[Richard]

Sorry to reply to an old thread but I'm thinking of importing an A847 to the UK from Japan. I have 1000+ CDs ripped into sonicstage 4.3 and don't fancy going through the process again.

Also not convinced about programs to convert ATRAC to MP3.

Richard's post is encouraging and having had many Sony players in the past I reckon I'll be able to navigate round the player ok. My only concern is getting the ATRAC files into the X-Application program, with Japanese far from my speciality!

Any advice as to whether this is an easy process would be appreciated.

Regards

Paul

Sorry for the late reply...

As long as your Atrac files are not DRM-protected then you can import the folders into X-Player from the same location as they currently sit in (I keep all mine on an external hard-disc and did the same thing.) You may need to re-add the cover art / date info on some of them, but all the other meta data should get picked up correctly. You can then transfer direct to the NW-A847 without any conversion required.

[sfbp]

Richard, I just got an S Series (S754, 8GB) which is finally available here in Canada. I managed to install X-Application 2.01 which as you say is (mainly) Sonic Stage. It's all in Japanese but there are enough glyphs that I figured most of it out and am happily playing music on the PC with it.

The missing piece is the "right" driver to make it work with Sonic Stage/X-Application.

Can you suggest the steps to take, so that I can do exactly what you describe, namely transfer to NWZ series? (I realise this term may be too broad a description, but the JAPANESE and ENGLISH versions apparently are supposed to support ATRAC - this makes me think that it is all in the PC software with identical hardware and firmware in the player)

[tds101]

ARRGH!!! Still no 64gb luv for us in the USA!!! Sony, really, WTH!!!

[sfbp]

Still looking for a way to Japanify (or Anglify) my NWZ-S754. To sum up, the promotional literature for Japan and UK suggests the NWZ-S75x series available there are in fact capable of talking to Sonic Stage V (aka X-Application) and thus to Atrac.

Can ANYONE out there in UK or Japan tell us of experience with these models (someone just joined today with S755 in comment)????

On the topic of workarounds, I tried converting all ATRAC to 256kbps MP3 and on this unit it actually sounded quite decent. Even my LP4 recordings (which up to now have not survived transcoding of any sort). I haven't done a controlled test to see where things get derailed. But this is the first time MP3 has actually sounded good to me, so presumably Sony researched the conversion and also playback as MP3 quite carefully.

[NickyJay]

Still no 64gb version.

Maybe my future grandchildren will live long enough to see it.

[Stuge]

Seriously ,sometimes I feel they have surrendered to Apple

[drewandthecrew]

Hello guys, I need some help here. I love my japanese a847 as I think it's the best player I have heard, replacing my old hd-1 and ipod 5th. Anyways, is there a way for me to use the fm radio? Thanks in advance.

[tds101]

We're getting a nice new Sony A Series Walkman here in the USA - where's the front page news article people???