Sony’s new Walkman trio runs from $1,899 to a $5,899 gold-plated flagship

Sony has refreshed its top-end Walkman line with three dedicated music players for audiophiles, announced on 15 October. None of them is cheap.

The three models

• NW-WM1ZM3 — $5,899. The flagship has a machined chassis of 99.99% pure oxygen-free copper (OFC), plated in gold and held together with gold-treated screws. Sony says this gives a stable ground connection. It also uses thick KIMBER KABLE wiring borrowed from the DMP-Z1 desktop player.
• NW-WM1AM3 — $2,999.99. Almost the same player, but with an aluminium-alloy main chassis and a gold-plated OFC rear section.
• NW-ZX900 — $1,899.99. The “entry” model uses the same chassis approach as the AM3, adds an ultra-low-noise LDO regulator and the crystal oscillators of the higher models, and has a 5-inch screen instead of 5.5 inches.

What changed inside

The two WM1 models now use two large solid polymer capacitors instead of one, hand-soldered OFC wiring and a bigger copper coil in the output filter. Sony says a milled copper block over the digital section is about 34% heavier than before. The S-Master HX digital amp gains a look-ahead noise shaper, and the DSD Remastering Engine, which converts PCM to an 11.2 MHz DSD stream, now works with streaming apps over Wi‑Fi as well as downloaded files.

Battery and availability

Sony quotes up to 35 hours of 128 kbps MP3 playback for the WM1 models and up to 40 hours for the ZX900, measured with its own player app over a balanced connection. The packaging contains no plastic, according to the company.

All three are on pre-order in the US from Sony and retailers such as B&H and Crutchfield (Amazon for the two cheaper models). Sony’s announcement lists US and Canadian prices only; European pricing and dates were not included.