Sony's early walkman products once led an era. When many young people have become accustomed to the digital music world and gradually forget what a "Walkman" is, Sony wants to find opportunities to lead again.
On September 2, Sony released a series of new Hi-Fi flagship audio products at the Consumer Electronics Show (IFA) in Berlin, Germany, and in the Chinese market at the same time. They are MDR-Z1R, Walkman NW-WM1Z/NW-WM1A and TA-ZH1ES headphones, vinyl record player PS-HX500, floor-standing speakers SS-AR1/SS-AR2/SS-NA2ES and bookshelf speakers SS-NA5ES.
The so-called Hi-Fi is the abbreviation of High-Fidelity in English, usually translated as "high fidelity", that is, a reproduced sound that is highly similar to the original sound.
According to Xie Biao, President of the Consumer Electronics Business Division of Sony (China) Co., Ltd., China's music enthusiasts mainly consist of two parts. First, the traditional Hi-Fi audio market that appeared in the 1980s and 1990s gradually moved from Hong Kong to first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Now this group of people is small but still exists. Next is the new generation of young people aged 20-30, who mostly use headphones to listen to music. In addition to first-tier cities, small and medium-sized cities in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions are also developing very rapidly.
Sony hopes that more and more young people will use high-quality headphones and Walkman to enjoy music, and gradually develop the habit of using speakers to listen at home. This also determines that Sony has chosen to solve the design idea of sound quality first and then consider the appearance, so in terms of appearance, you may think that it is more professional than fashionable.
Sony headphone MDR-Z1R, Sony Walkman NW-WM1Z/NW-WM1A and Sony desktop headphone amplifier TA-ZH1ES maintain a unified overall style in design, and combine high-quality digital and analog technology in performance to bring a more restored, rich and real music experience.
Among them, the Sony headphone MDR-Z1R has a built-in 70mm HD driver unit and a paper acoustic filter installed in the arc-shaped casing, which can well control air resistance, reduce unnecessary spatial resonance and display subtle sounds. The genuine leather headband and beta titanium alloy headband and ergonomic ear pads also make it more comfortable to wear.
According to the on-site listening results, the sound range of the entire headset is extremely wide, and many subtle sounds can also be expressed. The sound quality will sound distant, clear, and natural.
Sony Walkman NW-WM1Z and NW-WM1A are equipped with the newly upgraded S-Master HX digital amplifier, which supports the playback of native DSD formats during balanced output. According to Sony, the body of the NW-WM1Z uses gold-plated oxygen-free copper with a purity of approximately 99.96%, coupled with selected customized electronic components, which helps to express richer detailed sounds.
This TA-ZH1ES, which looks a bit like an old-fashioned cassette recorder, is Sony's first desktop headphone amplifier. It is equipped with a D.A. (digital + analog) mixing amplifier circuit, a DSD mastering remastering engine, and a DSEE HX digital sound enhancement engine. It can not only play 11.2MHz DSD and 384kHz/32bit Hi-Res (high-resolution) format music, but also improve the sound quality of compressed audio sources to a level close to Hi-Res level.
Sony naturally does not intend to "let go" of the vinyl record players that have received a lot of attention at CES in recent years. The PS-HX500 has a 30mm medium-density fiberboard body, a 5mm-thick rubber turntable pad and the use of off-center mounted foot spikes to prevent excess vibration from affecting the sound quality. The lightweight integrated direct-tone tonearm brings stable sound pickup effect, the digital-analog separation circuit ensures sufficient analog sound, and the DSD ripping function can convert analog vinyl records into DSD or 192kHz/24bit LPCM. In addition to these professional functions, listening to vinyl is more of an expression of literary and artistic feelings.
However, Katsura Nakagawa, vice president of Sony Audio and Video Products, also said that the vinyl record market in Europe and the United States has been growing and expanding in recent years, and some young people who have never listened to CDs will even choose to listen to vinyl records. On the one hand, it’s nostalgia, and on the other hand, everyone has a unique warm feeling about the sound quality of vinyl records.
In addition, Sony has also launched the SS-AR1/SS-AR2 floor-standing speakers positioned at the HiFi level. Sony claims that the 50mm/40mm (AR2) thick speaker panel is made of maple from the cold climate of Hokkaido, Japan, and the side and back panels are made of 32mm thick Finnish birch. The reason why these woods are selected is to suppress the unnecessary vibration intensity of the speaker while delivering rich resonance. In terms of appearance design, the SS-AR1/SS-AR2 speakers have a simple and rounded design, and the piano paint on the surface is painted by hand, giving it an extremely luxurious feel.
Bookshelf Speaker SS-NA5ESThe technical and timbre characteristics are the same as those of the SS-NA2ES series. Its tweeter also uses the I-ARRAY SYSTEM system, which improves the resolution and directivity of the tweeter through a 25mm diameter speaker and two 19mm soft dome speakers. The woofer unit uses a 130mm aluminum speaker with double inverted holes.
Sony has not announced the prices of these products for the time being, but judging from the product positioning, the prices will not be too "friendly".
