Sony's Walkman Makes Comeback

I agree 100%. Jobs was a fascinating guy, but he had equal mixtures of genius and ogre in his genetic makeup. As I said when the best-selling bio came out about him a couple of years ago, I thought I knew a lot of bad stories about Steve Jobs and the way he treated people, but the book made him far worse than I even expected. A genius at technology and product design, and one of the biggest a-holes in history in terms of his personal life and his people skills.

Yep, I've been to Sony HQ in Katashinagawa in Tokyo and interviewed some of the top management in the 1980s. Very arrogant, difficult people, but they did brilliant things in electronics until Morita had his stroke in the early 1990s. I trace the downfall of Sony beginning right around that time.

 

Did you consider the Don King Personal Digital Recorder edition?

 

Half the stuff I've looked up that uses the word "hi-fi", price wise, does not add up.

Go look at the price of turn table mounts, feet, isolating feet, whatever they're called. Geez!

It seems to me, the market has found yet another "male" version of a wedding. As soon as you mention it's for "hi-fi" the prices double and triple.

 

Yea. And that turtleneck!

 

I wonder if all of this was because Sony had so many patents on physical formats,like CD,DAT and MiniDisc,that they wanted to keep the revenue from these formats coming in??

 

I just got my A17, and it sounds great.

 

That's not true. It took about five years, but eventually Sony Pictures became one of the most profitable divisions in the entire Sony Corporation, actually supporting the consumer electronics division for at least a decade. Back in 1989, Sony paid about $3.5 billion for Columbia Pictures, plus going through another $500M in buying the old MGM studios, leaving Burbank, and signing producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber to run the studio. Many critics at the time said that Sony had grossly overpaid what the studio was worth... yet today, Sony Pictures is worth about $10B (plus real estate and movie/TV rights), so it was clearly a good investment over the past 25 years.

You can find out more about the real problems with Sony being in the media business and in the hardware business by reading Hit & Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood and also Walter Yetnikoff's autobiography Howling at the Moon. Both of these are very entertaining reads, very outrageous accounts of some terrible behavior and ridiculous spending (and bad decisions). But ultimately, I think Sony was proven right and it was advantageous for them to own a record label and a movie studio. What's really hurt them in the long run has been their inability to own TV stations and networks, because it's a foreign company.

I've predicted for the past few years that it's just a matter of time before a major corporation like Apple or Microsoft buys Sony Pictures out and makes it an American-owned business so they can get back into the TV-ownership business, but it's a good question as to when and how that will happen. At the moment, Sony isn't doing well at all with consumer electronics; it's said that Sony's insurance division makes more profit than any other division:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/b...-its-not-electronics.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

It sort of makes twisted sense... To read about an overpriced portable player you have to pay to read the article...

 

can't see how this player is gonna take off, its a waste of time, it's just another money making scheme.
and im sure you wont be able to put previously purchased mp3's, WAV files and import export in iTunes....

you can download FLAC. files, and convert to mp3's etc etc

why not make a player to play FLAC, mp3, wav etc etc?

another controlling idea like iTunes....

not for me.

RickB

 

What is so controlling about dragging and dropping files on an SD card or the internal memory?

• Audio Format(s) Supported :
  MP3: 32-320 kbps (incl. VBR) at 32, 44.1, and 48 kHz
  WMA: 32-192 kbps (incl. VBR) at 44.1 kHz
  FLAC: at 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192 kHz
  L-PCM: at 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192 kHz
  AAC: 16-320 kbps (incl. VBR) at 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, and 48 kHz
  HE-AAC: 32-144 kbps at 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, and 48 kHz
  ALAC: 16-24 bit at 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192 kHz
  AIFF: 16-24 bit at 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192 kHz

 

I assume WAV too? Or is that the same as L-PCM?

 

that's all good providing the unit will allow to 'import' your files to play... that's all I mean?

or do you have to purchase through the pono?

but still, to the general masses, are they really gonna care about more than good mp3 quality?

I only see this suited mainly for audiophiles..

Rick

 

Is anyone using this as a car player, vis direct connection (USB?) vs. Bluetooth?

 

Yes it does, that's why I didn't understand your point.

 

BTW, this isn't the Pono thread.

 

I have a Walkman, but it's from the mid 1980s and plays cassettes. I loved that thing back before I could afford a portable CD player.

 

The problem is, they took their focus off their core business - electronics - which has collapsed as a result. Does Sony Pictures make money now? Sure. But not Apple (or even Samsung) kinds of money.

 

No, Sony is doing very, very badly. Samsung just posted their estimates for this year and their profits are down 40%. Nobody is making big money in the TV set business, which is one reason they're pushing for 4K to be the next big thing.

 

Well, I didn't say Sony should focus on TVs - that's a commodity play now where the margins have evaporated - but it's clear that if they'd stayed in the electronics business, the iPod (or something like it) might have been a Sony device. There's billions in revenue they missed out on with portable music players (a market they pretty much invented), and success there could have made them the dominant force in the smartphone market as well, which is worth tens of billions of dollars a year in revenue to the major players. But it ran afoul of music division, so...

Sony became a "media" company, enjoyed a few years of media success while their electronics business withered and died, and now the media business has gone to the dogs as well and an electronics company modeled on the Sony of yesteryear is making, what, $40 billion a year in profit.

Sucks to be Sony...

 

I picked one of these up today to give it a try. You can drag direct from iTunes and the purchased files play fine. Model number NWZ-A17

 

I have been using my new NWZ-A17 all week.

Battery life is nothing short of amazing. I charged it four hours on Monday and have been listening while at work (I work 9 hour days) without another charge (today is Thursday) and it's got a lot of juice left according to the Battery meter.

Sounds gorgeous, I have all ALAC files on it, using a 128GB microSD card, it integrates seamlessly with the internal 64GB.

Like the EQ and the various 'effects' choices.

It pairs quickly with my two Bluetooth speakers. I have it set for Audio Quality 1st (other setting is Range Capability 1st).

I have been really happy with it. Sound Quality is outstanding and it's nice and light, all solid state, feels like it will last a long time.

Only problem has been most of my album covers did not appear. I am using an MP3Tag editor to embed the JPG album covers. I have a gigantic music collection, this will take a long time to get straight. I have worked a couple of hours a day and an still on letter B...

But it's a great player, capable of very high quality playback. I highly recommend it.

 

I was surprised to hear recently that Sony first introduced the Walkman in 1979!

 

I just purchased an NWZ-A17 and have been enjoying it. It sounds very good and with it I'm able to tell the difference between Red Book FLACs and highest-quality LAME MP3s. The difference was enough for me to decide to load FLAC files on my player whenever possible. Additionally, it came with some free tracks, including some hi-rez ones, and I was able to compare a segment of The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Blue Rondo a la Turk in FLAC at 44.1khz/16bit and 96khz/24bit and I could not tell the difference, so I will use Red Book FLACs on my player.

As far as the player's interface, it's basically the same as my previous Walkman player (an NWZ-E465) and it is just as usable. Unlike with my iPod, I'm able to navigate through my music collection easily and quickly, getting to the song I want without having to rotate a scroll wheel through hundreds of songs. Plus, it doesn't have a bunch of features that don't relate to playing music.

Overall, this is a great player and I look forward to enjoying it for a long time.

 

I wonder if this device will be recognized and operate in our Kia Sorento the way my iPod does?

 

Loving my new A17 and been playing it for nearly two weeks and the battery is still showing full, the little time when connected to transfer my flac music files is enough to keep it topped up