Sounds to make you happy
You'll get the best out of every track with Sony's new high-resolution audio walkman
A NEW AFFORDABLE High-Resolution Audio Walkman player in a light compact body and with good music quality, the Sony NW-A25 supports full Hi-Res Audio format of FLAC 24bit/192 kHz, which has five times better music definition than an audio CD and is near to the original analogue sound. It’s also shirt pocket-friendly weighing just 66 grammes and is a mere 8.7mm thick.
The A25 also supports Sony’s Bluetooth LDAC codec, meaning your Hi-Res Audio songs can be streamed at the resolution of 24bit/96 kHz, which is not a lot lower than the full 24bit/192 kHz sampling rate. Most other Bluetooth music players use SBC codec that lowers the sampling rate to that of an audio CD quality, so the LDAC has three times more music quality.
The LDAC lets you enjoy wireless Hi-Res Audio playback when you use the A25 with an LDAC compatible pair of headphones, such as Sony’s MDR-1ABT phones. The A25 also has NFC function that assists the wireless connection with other Bluetooth speakers as well as Bluetooth headphones with NFC function.
During the test, I had no problem connecting the A25 to my 1ABT headphones and the LDAC codec streaming made the music very enjoyable.
If you want to enjoy full Hi-Res Audio quality, simply connect the A25 with audio cable to a pair of Hi-Res Audio compatible headphones, like Sony's h.ear on headphones. I tested the A25 with Sony’s h.ear on headphones and was delighted with the result.
The A25 played the Hi-Res Audio songs provided by Sony for the test at an impressive quality. The songs all had good instrumental details, the vocals sounded beautiful and authentic and I could even hear tiny ambient sounds that enhanced the meaning of lyrics. The bass was satisfyingly powerful.
When the A25 plays a Hi-Res Audio song, it displays the HR mark. To enjoy the full potential of A25 and h.ear on headphones, you will need to buy Hi-Res Audio songs. They’re offered by a range of websites, including Hdtracks, Linn Records, ProStudioMasters and Naim Label.
Hdtracks specialises in classic albums, such as Simon & Garfunkel “Greatest Hits”, Pink Floyd’s “The Division Bell”, and Led Zepplin’s “Physical Graffit”i.
If you don’t have a collection of Hi-Res Audio files, you can use the A25’s DSEE HX function to upscale compressed audio files to a level closer to Hi-Res Audio.
The A25 delivers good music quality partly because of its S-Master HX digital amplifier. Using a simplified and fully digital signal path, S-Master HX reproduces the subtleties and wide frequency range of high resolution formats.
The A25 also has a Digital Noise Cancelling function that works in tandem with DNS headphones, among them Sony’s h.ear in NC model that sells for Bt4,990.
The A25 comes with 16 gigabytes of internal storage, which is plenty for normal MP3 files but not all that high for full Hi-Res Audio files, as a single FLAC 24bit/192 kHz file is larger that 120 MB. The problem can be partly resolved by inserting a microSD card of up of 128 GB in the walkman’s slot.
The A25 comes with 2.2-inch TFT display with LED-backlighting so it can be used to play video clips and display photos as well.
It’s not complicated to load music files, video clips and photos to the A25. You simply connect it to your PC or notebook computer with the provided proprietary cable and drag and drop the files to the player’s storage.
And the A25 has good battery life. Fully charged, it can play up to 50 hours of standard MP3 files or 30 hours of Hi-Res Audio files.
It’s in shops now with a recommended retail price of Bt6,990.
Key Specs
- Audio Playback: AAC (Non-DRM), AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, HE-AAC, Linear PCM, MP3, WMA (Non-DRM)
- Video Playback: AVC (H.264/AVC), MPEG4, WMV 9
- Photo Playback: JPEG, PNG
- Display: 2.2-inch TFT display with 320x240 pixels in 262,144 colours
- FM: 87.5 to 108.0 MHz
- Bluetooth: V3 and supported codecs: SBC, aptX, LDAC
- Sound effects: ClearAudio+, Clear Bass, Clear Phase, DSEE HX, Dynamic Normalizer Equaliser (5 band), VPT(Studio/Club/Concert Hall/Matrix)
- Storage: 16 GB, expandable with microSD card of up to 128GB
- Battery: Built-in Rechargeable lithium-ion Battery, 4-hour charging time, 30-hour Hi-Res Audio playback
- Dimensions: 43.6 x 109 x 8.7 mm
- Weight: 66g
