I too assumed that dedicated MP3 players were relegated to very low-budget devices, and I didn't realize that Sony was still producing the Walkman line. I decided to take a look at their line up to what was happening in the space - https://electronics.sony.com/audio/walkman-digital-recorders...
Boy... what a massive range of prices. There's a touchscreen-less device for $75, one resembling the one described by the author at $350, an $850 model with different chassis and higher output but nothing else I can immediately see, and then models jumping up to $1100, $1400, $3200 (!), and even $3600 (!!!) which is apparently made out of a gold-plated copper. I was vaguely interested in such a product but even $350 seemed too much, let alone the other ranges of products with, for the general audience, not much in the way of obvious differing benefits.
Yes..."Sony" is probably better seen as a group, with a lot of different entities doing their thing almost independently (not even talking about their entertainment and financing branch, really just the main bloc)
For instance Sony's audio branch is probably completely separate from the camera branch, which is separate from the TV branch, which doesn't talk to the EV car branch. I don't know if financially they are separate companies, but from what I got they are clearly cut divisions.
I imagine them as an archipelago of products and services, all under a common flag, but only talking to each others by delegations.
For instance Sony has a NFC venture that is really good with encryption and hardware data transfers, it's even integrated in their VAIO computer line. Yet their Network Walkman was an utter pile of poop when it came to move songs from the computer to the encrypted MD disc.
> For instance Sony has a NFC venture that is really good with encryption and hardware data transfers, it's even integrated in their VAIO computer line.
They also support Felica (NFC-F) on most of their hardware.
> Yet their Network Walkman was an utter pile of poop when it came to move songs from the computer to the encrypted MD disc.
The only NFC part in the walkman is pairing headphones by touching them - something I actually enjoyed!
Now I wish music could be transferred in the same way!
One thing to factor in is the longevity of these devices, they aren’t an 18month affair like the typical smartphone. Battery aside, I have an original Zune that boots right up, and an unmodified iPod Mini with 4GB of spinning metal that doesn’t skip a beat, that’s about 17 or 18 years gone by, people also offer them on eBay spec’d out with upgraded battery, memory, and DACs
> I was vaguely interested in such a product but even $350 seemed too much, let alone the other ranges of products with, for the general audience, not much in the way of obvious differing benefits.
I was also skeptical, but after hearing the difference, I'm not coming back. I'm rediscovering my favorite tracks! I'm hearing instruments in the background that I couldn't hear before!!
> even $3600 (!!!) which is apparently made out of a gold-plated copper
TBH I don't care much about gold, but 40h battery life? That speaks to me. And if there's as much of an audible difference as I got from my middle range NW-Z507, I'll be happy to spend $3600 on an item that brings me happiness every single day.
> You’ll be happy to hear that you also get that on the cheap low-end devices!
It won't matter much if their quality is so poor I don't want to bother listening, or if the interface doesn't provide hardware buttons meaning I won't be able to skip tracks in my car.
They have several devices, old and new, some with an in-house UI on Linux and others atop Android, at vastly different prices. So this comment isn't very clear or helpful.
Boy... what a massive range of prices. There's a touchscreen-less device for $75, one resembling the one described by the author at $350, an $850 model with different chassis and higher output but nothing else I can immediately see, and then models jumping up to $1100, $1400, $3200 (!), and even $3600 (!!!) which is apparently made out of a gold-plated copper. I was vaguely interested in such a product but even $350 seemed too much, let alone the other ranges of products with, for the general audience, not much in the way of obvious differing benefits.