It is easy to understand his logic. The Japanese brand had obvious expertise in audio and computing, and what is a personal music player if not a portable computer dedicated to sound; but crucially it was also a music company. Factor in the allure of the hugely successful Walkman sub-brand, and Sony, perhaps uniquely of all the electronics giants, already possessed everything it needed to produce a machine to rival the iPod and develop the ecosystem needed to make it work.
History shows that Sony didn’t join those dots, and never managed to transfer its success with the cassette Walkman into the digital age. The iPod? Well, everyone knows what happened to that. Still, Sony did go on (much later) to make a decent fist of digital music players; but, for us at least, it is the company’s more premium models that have shone the brightest. Despite having some issues, the impressive new NW-WM1ZM2 on test here is a fine example of what happens when Sony aims for the stars.
The Sony NW-WM1ZM2’s price puts it at the top end of the market as far as portable music players are concerned. Take a close look and it doesn’t take long to see where the money has been spent. While the gold plating on the casework grabs the headlines, this interests us less than the high-purity oxygen-free copper chassis it adorns. Sony’s engineers experimented with copper of different purities and found that the 99.99 per cent variant sounded best, citing better digital grounding and improved rigidity as the benefits.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 2023 من What Hi-Fi Sound and Vision India.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 2023 من What Hi-Fi Sound and Vision India.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
YG Acoustics Carmel 3
On paper, the Carmel 3 from Colorado-based speaker specialist YG Acoustics has a credibility problem. They cost a huge amount of money but are small, rather plain-looking two-way floorstanders.
SME Model 20 Mk 2/Series V
SME launched the Model 20 turntable back in 1992. The partnering tonearm on our review sample, the now legendary Series V, dates back even further to 1986.
TOP FIVE LAUNCHES
Five products to look out for this month
Real slim shady...
FOR Slim profile, superb dispersion, soundstage AGAINST Can get a little expensive
THE BIG PICTURE
This projector-based home cinema set-up aims to please
MOVIES ON THE MOVE
Great pictures and quality sound-wherever you are
DREAM CINEMA
An incredible high-end home cinema experience, at a price
GAMING GEM
Serious gamers will be well served by this serious rig
CINEMATIC STUNNER
A truly immersive system for both gaming and movie nights
SOUNDBAR SUPERSTAR
The benefits of a surround set-up, without the fuss