Almost everyone knows the name Sony Walkman. The brand has been around since 1979, when Sony launched the first Walkman, a portable cassette player. While portable music players have indeed gone the way of the dodo thanks to smartphones, the Walkman is still going strong. And these days, it’s happening in exorbitant style.
Sony has just unveiled the NW-WM1ZM3 Walkman, which it describes as its “flagship Walkman”. The Signature Series Walkman features the “highest quality components,” including a precision-machined oxygen-free copper body with gold plating, a large 5.5-inch display, and everything an audiophile would want. All this technology comes with a whopping price tag: $5,898.
The premium Walkman features Kimble Kable balanced cabling, Wi-Fi 6 streaming, support for various digital files, PC connectivity, 256 GB of internal memory, 11.2 MHz/1-bit DSD, 384 kHz/32-bit PCM, and advanced audio processing. These audio processing features include a “vinyl processor” that promises warmer, vinyl-like sound for digital audio files, a DC phase linearizer that applies digital signal processing to match the phase characteristics of six different analog amplifiers, and Sony 360 Reality Audio.
“Nothing else compares,” says Sony. At $5,900, I hope that’s true.
Audiophiles, like camera enthusiasts, can care a lot about the little details. This is of course a niche and specialized product space. The NW-WM1ZM3 Walkman features large, high-polymer solid capacitors to keep power delivery stable, ultra-low noise amplification, hand-soldered wiring, film capacitors that provide linear voltage response across all frequencies, and much more. Sony has left no stone unturned, optimizing almost every aspect of the Walkman’s design to deliver the best sound possible.
Obviously, this has nothing to do with the $29 Sony Walkman portable CD player I had in the late ’90s. Sony is targeting a very small, passionate subset of audio fans with its new flagship NW-WM1ZM3.
“Designed for music enthusiasts and audiophiles, the new Walkman models are designed to deliver exceptional sound and incorporate a host of premium audio components into their design,” says Sony.
“The NW-WM1ZM3 is built around a precision-machined, gold-plated oxygen-free copper (OFC) chassis, specifically designed to further enhance the sound quality of this flagship model. It features a 99.99% purity (4N) OFC main chassis and an OFC rear chassis. These are secured with screws featuring a low-resistance gold-plated treatment applied exclusively for this model, providing a stable ground connection that delivers powerful bass, “Extended soundstage and smooth, extended high frequencies. Thick KIMBER KABLE® cabling, inherited from Sony’s DMP-Z1, further reduces noise and preserves signal integrity for rich, detailed sound,” the company continues.
If that sounds too gimmicky for the less audio-obsessed, Sony also revealed two other (barely) cheaper Walkman music players this week. The NW-WM1AM3 ditches the gold plating but still costs $2,998. Meanwhile, the cheapest option, the NW-ZX900, costs just $1,898. No, they’re not also phones. Yes, they only play music. They are all available to order now and will begin shipping in January 2027.
Image creditsSony
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