What Is Best Inexpensive Walkman Style Headphones Discussions and Reviews

: Lovely sound. LDAC Support. Genuinely useful features. Compact Size. Good battery life. Fast NFC pairing.

: Sony specific cable. Not as powerful as some others.

Well made, inexpensive and sounds great.

Well I have to admit that this is the first completely unjustifiable buy I accept made in quite some time. Firstly, I tend to practice a lot of my listening with bluetooth headphones which really don't offer any audio quality differences between dissimilar players - assuming they're using the same codec of course. Secondly, I spend more and more fourth dimension listening to streamed content (ordinarily Google Play Music) and am pretty much satisfied with its sound quality. Thirdly, I pretty much always carry my phone effectually with me (kinda like everyone else on the planet) and then always take admission to not only my personal music collection on Micro SD card but also the before mentioned streamed content. So why the hell would I want to drop nearly £200 on a dedicated MP3 actor which, apart from its small size, brings virtually nothing to the tabular array when compared to my smartphone?

Well…..if I'chiliad going to exist utterly and completely honest - considering I wanted to. Secondly though I recently got sent a pair of Fiio's rather first-class FD-i wired IEMs and suddenly became 'woke' again to the joys of higher resolution music. My telephone is the Samsung Milky way Notation eight which is not renowned for sound quality through the headphone jack. Strangely I recently changed it from the LG V20 which is the complete opposite - having superb wired headphone output. The truth is that Samsung has much MUCH better bluetooth capabilities and I have an external wired DAC/AMP which I can connect to the phone for that 'loftier-res' experience.

In my defence, there were some other reasonably constructive rationalisations that I employed in order to mentally justify the expense. The player has excellent battery life (unlike the NW-A105 which I was very tempted to get), and can deed every bit an external wired DAC and wireless bluetooth 'amplifier' - with the ability to command the streamed content with the players own external media controls. This effectively means that I don't have to worry about not beingness able to stream Google Play Music from the device directly (no wifi) but rather tether it to my telephone'southward LDAC bluetooth output and actually have the best of both worlds. Excellent battery life in a very small package but also capable of replicating many of the features found in the NW-A105.

So how is the Sony NW-A55? At that place'southward plenty of YouTube videos showing the unit off so there's not much point in going into as well much detail regarding the externals - I really desire to focus on the features and sound quality elements.

Useful Features

There were a couple of features I read about on this histrion which effectively tipped my mitt - the external DAC/AMP function and the Bluetooth receiver. I think I will definitely make use of both these features. The bluetooth receiver office works brilliantly with my Milky way Note eight. It connects using the LDAC codec to the sound quality is excellent. I have the Axium Aqua + bluetooth amp and this sounds improve. LDAC actually does make a difference.

The NW-A55 as well offers LDAC bluetooth output to uniform headphones - and this sounds really good. My WH1000XM2's connected using the NFC function seamlessly and the connectedness was rock solid with much ameliorate range than what I get on my telephone - and…..I actually don't want to say it but they actually sound better too. At that place's significantly more than book available when using bluetooth headphones. Unfortunately the same cannot exist said when pairing up Sony's latest WF1000XM3 bluetooth noise cancelling earbuds as the A55 doesn't support AAC - only SBC and APtX/APtX Hd and LDAC - so the WF'southward only connect via SBC. Whilst they don't sound likewise bad, they definitely sound better when connected to my phone.

Another really useful feature is the external playback controls. Basically this allows you to operate the device without having to take information technology out of your pocket. Another useful advantage to these is that you don't have to actuate the screen every time you want to switch tracks or increase/subtract the book - this can really help increment battery life.

Information technology can act equally an external DAC/AMP for laptop/desktop computer utilize. This has effectively given the A55 most of the advantages that the A110 would offer without the disadvantages (crap battery life and limited headphone output). I can use my Galaxy Note 8 to stream from Google Play Music to the A55 via bluetooth using the LDAC codec. Although this may sound like a flake of a faff it'southward really not that hard and only takes a few seconds to set up. The end result definitely sounds better than the headphone output from my phone'southward headphone socket. You tin can't use bluetooth headphones when doing this - in all fairness you would simply connect your headphones to the phone instead of the player nether these circumstances.

Sound Quality

This is e'er a subjective thing in my opinion - bear in mind that I'm an old dude and my taste in music is somewhat varied. Beginning things start - the volume effect.

My role player is (or was) Eu volume capped which express the output. I do like my music fairly loud a lot of the fourth dimension and I have to say that I really didn't accept any problems in getting the volume levels I wanted. Headphones used include the Ultimate Ears Triple Fi x, Fiio FD1, Sennheiser HD598SR, Sony WH1000XM2, Mavin Air-X and the Sony WF1000XM3's. Even the Sennheiser's got pretty loud - admittedly I could take coped with a piffling more. Withal, after united nations-capping the Eu Book restriction the 598'southward can be driven uncomfortably loud now. The most impressive results I got were with the IEM's (except the Sony WF's) and the WH1000XM2's. The pairing of this player with the Sony WH'due south is a match made in heaven. They really open up up nicely and wow - they become really Actually loud! I like the Sony 'house' sound. Information technology's non afraid of showing a piffling grunt in the low end whilst still beingness polite and controlled. Whilst the various EQ/Audio Shaping functions are quite impressive, I tend to always listen with all these bells and whistles switched off. I feel this offers more resolution in the mids and highs likewise. Even when pushed hard, these headphones remain in command and rock out.

Bluetooth range and stability are kickoff rate also. I am able to travel much farther away from this little MP3 player than I ever could with my phone. Gardening (with lovely agile dissonance cancelling) is going to be a lot easier without having my bulky phone sticking out of my pocket. I dearest it!
The more than I think almost this the more I feel that this is the last of Sony'southward sensible players. All their players further up in their price range all tend to take some serious shortcomings - typically battery life, express headphone output and/or excessively bulky/stupidly expensive. Whilst information technology would have been nice to accept Wi-Fi - this would require the Android operating organisation in social club to make the Wi-Fi worthwhile by allowing y'all to run your own favourite music applications. The end result is appalling battery life. The A55'south solution through Bluetooth pairing to your telephone is a really nice impact - definitely a smart way of overcoming this limitation.

In case you lot haven't guessed information technology by now, I really like this player. It'southward the best sounding histrion I've ever heard - here's a listing of some of the players I've had in the past:-

• Sony Discman 555
• Sony Discman D350
• Sony Minidisc - MD1, MD900 Md R35
• Artistic Nomad Jukebox 3
• Apple Ipod one, 7
• LG V20

Trust me when I say that the list is embarrassingly incomplete - I've spent bloody thousands of pounds over the years on music playback. Wow - I could have bought a bloody Jag.

This player ticks an impressive corporeality of boxes - ane that's perhaps overlooked by many though is how long this thespian could theoretically last - the rather fantabulous bombardment life means that y'all don't demand to charge it very often which volition consequence in the player lasting a adept time longer. To give yous an thought of just how impressed I am with information technology, I'thousand seriously thinking of buying a very large Micro Sd carte and storing all my music on it.

For a player which has a reputation for beingness depression powered, the NW-A55 hasn't had any problem driving all the wired and wireless headphones in my collection. Whilst the Sennheiser HD598SR requires nearly full volume, it notwithstanding sounds powerful and effortless - and accented total volume is actually uncomfortably loud. The audio character is detailed and full sounding. I'm reminded of the outset fourth dimension I heard the Etymotics ER4P - the amount of detail and the stone solid imagery was unique. It was easy to choose a specific instrument for instance, and follow it throughout a rail without fifty-fifty having to concentrate. The NW-A55 definitely has this characteristic. It's a player that's piece of cake to heed to and tends to brand the well-nigh of any headphone that you lot connect to it. There is one exception though and that is the Sony WF1000XM3's. These noise cancelling Bluetooth Earbuds support AAC which unfortunately the NW-A55 doesn't which means that the headphones revert to the SBC CODEC. Whilst they all the same audio pretty good, it's a real shame that they don't work at their best with this player as they would make a great pocket combination. Every bit it is I have paired my rather excellent Lypertek Tevi's to the Sony and, again I accept to say it, they sound better than through my phone. And then at present I have (in my opinion) a really squeamish ultra-portable (Tevi's), portable (WH1000XM2's) and at-dwelling (Sennheiser HD598SR).

I dear this little player. Sony have gone and got so many things correct with it. No distractions with other apps, superb connectivity options (we all have Bluetooth enabled smartphones don't nosotros?), really Really good sound quality, excellent battery life (which ensures 18-carat longevity) - the list can continue. I'm so glad I got the A55 instead of the A110.

Update

Thank you to the magic of Mr Walkman - the A55 can exist 'flashed' with a kind of firmware update which brings some of the sound graphic symbol and quality from Sony'southward top MP3 player (to phone call it that really doesn't do it justice) - the legendary DMP-Z1. This has elevated the sound quality to another level altogether. Highly recommended.

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Source: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/sony-nw-a55-dap.24824/

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