Sony Walkman makes a grand comeback with their latest stunning gold-plated hi-fi audio player

February 11, 2022

Priced at $1,300, the Sony Walkman NW-WM1ZM2 (or just the Walkman for short) is for music aficionados with large pockets and a distaste for Tidal.

Slated for an April release, the NW-WM1ZM2 is Sony’s latest Walkman audio-playing device targeted towards high-definition music lovers. The tiny device comes with a design that mimics its 2016 predecessor (the WM1Z), and is coated in real gold, a material that doesn’t simply hint at luxury but also does a hat-tip to the use of gold-plating found in high-end audio hardware. The device sports a 5-inch touchscreen that runs Android 11, allowing you to stream music and podcasts from your favorite services, although where it truly shines is in lossless playback, brought about by transferring lossless music onto the device through your PC. Oh, and yes, it comes with an audio jack.

The Sony Walkman NW-WM1ZM2 comes with a copper chassis that’s plated with an oxygen-free layer of gold. While that may sound like some sort of afterthought, Sony worked pretty hard to arrive at this material combination in 2016 with the WM1Z to give the device its “unique natural, acoustic sound”. Needless to say, the technology carries forward in the 2022 upgrade, as Sony claims the material’s conductivity and strength provide an “unrivaled” audio performance and enable a “clear, expansive sound, so you can experience each instrument as if it were performing live”.

The WM1ZM2 is complemented by its variant, the NW-WM1AM2, which sports an aluminum chassis and a black anodized colorway. Both models have the familiar gold Walkman logo on the bottom right corner of the bezel, playback controls on the side, USB-C charging on the bottom, a memory-card slot with support for storage up to 256GB, and support for wireless headsets. If you’re interested in knowing more about the NW-WM1ZM2 or the NW-WM1AM2, you can read more about them on Sony’s website.

Designer: Sony