Full-packed lightweight Hi-Res portable player, hands-on experience with Sony Walkman A15

In order to expand its Hi-Res product line layout, Sony launched the A10, the successor model of the A series at the entry level. In addition to being the lightest HiRes player, it is also Sony's first expandable memory card. Walkman music player, Taiwan is the first to launch the 16GB A15 and 64GB A17, and they are distinguished by color. The author tested this time the 16GB black model A15.

Unlike Sony’s recent appreciation Walkman, which is based on the Android system, the A15 returns to a pure embedded system, although it lacks the expandability of Android apps and WiFi-based extended applications such as DLNA and network. The radio listening function, however, also makes the system simple, just for listening to music easily.

The appearance of the A15 is a bit like a slimmed-down version of the F880 series. Unlike the last-generation A865, which is mainly touch-based, the A15's simple lines and rectangular buttons are closer. The design style of the S10 and E083 series, but the round button, nicknamed the Mickey Mouse button, has been changed to a square shape, but the button occasionally gets stuck. It is worth mentioning that although the A15 is very light to hold, the appearance of the A15 is still made of metal. It is composed and produced by cutting method, with fine texture on the front and matte finish on the back.

The biggest change between the A15 and the previous Sony Walkman is the smooth addition of memory card expansion. The A15 and A17 can be expanded with microSDXC up to 128GB, which also prevents the built-in storage space of only 16GB from being quickly used up by high-quality files. The problem of full occupancy, after all, the file capacity of 24bit 96kHz and above is quite large; however, the author has to complain a little about its dust cover design. The mold precision of this dust cover is not enough, it is not easy to cover, and it is slightly Easily pops open.

The A15 also uses physical buttons for operation, relying on the cross keys, play keys and side volume keys for control. This also avoids the control inconvenience caused by the introduction of touch controls on small-sized screens in previous generations of A-series models. Confused; the operation of the music playback interface is left and right, up and down, and up and down to select album folders. The interface is not too complicated. It also provides Bluetooth that supports the ATP-X protocol and NFC for auxiliary pairing. For those who prefer to use Bluetooth headsets to listen to music. Friends are also quite convenient.

Perhaps it follows the previous Sony Walkman embedded system platform, so functions such as photo preview and video playback are also retained. I think these two functions are a bit useless, after all, the screen is a bit small. , it is better to watch it with a smartphone; however, A15 allows you to change the tablecloth pattern, and you can change the personalized tablecloth of your choice according to your personal mood.

In terms of architecture, it is a player developed by Sony after all. The technical structure is also the same. It adopts S-Master HX digital expansion and also provides DSEE-HX digital sound quality restoration technology (algorithm to make low-sampling music (improving listening experience), and supports WAV, AIFF, HE-AAC, FLAC, ALAC and other high-quality formats based on PCM sampling, up to 24bit 192kHz, but does not support DSD.

At the same time, like ZX1, A15 also uses a power line that is 1.5 times thicker than standard wire to reduce interference and lower impedance. It also uses high-purity lead-free solder, although it does not use Sanyo Electric POSCAP's audio-grade tradition like ZX1. Cylindrical capacitors, but POSCAP's chip capacitors are still used to ensure the audio quality of the analog part. The commendable thing is that although it is only 66 grams, the A15 can play up to 50 hours of MP3 format, and it also has 30 hours of FLAC playback.

This is also because the embedded system used by A15 is simpler than the Android system of F880 or ZX1, and the analog part is simple in design, so the battery life is greatly improved; basically, A15 rarely enters a complete shutdown mode, long pressing Power just goes into sleep mode and wakes up in almost a few seconds; secondly, it actually goes into a complete shutdown, and the startup speed is still much faster than Android Walkman.

A15 is Sony’s first card-enabled Walkman. How has the response been to reading a memory card? The author's personal feeling is that it still depends on the number of files in the memory card. After inserting the memory card for the first time, a scanning action will be performed. During playback, it can be saved with the built-in stored music and played randomly; as for ejecting the memory card Or after inserting the memory card, the music files will be scanned again. After the completion, the computer will be restarted. Ejecting the memory card and restarting is very fast. Inserting the memory card is determined by the number of files as mentioned above.

In addition, A15 can also support OTG to PHA 2 and PHA-3 functions. Therefore, for PHA-2 and PHA-3, A15 can almost be regarded as the cheapest and the storage space can be expanded. Digital turntables, if the focus is on matching PHA-2 and PHA-3 and there are no DSD playback requirements, it seems to be a more affordable choice than F880 and ZX1; the Japanese original factory also sells a Sony special pin to USB female socket, which can Perform OTG for UDA-1, SRS-X9 and other equipment, but unfortunately Taiwan has not introduced it.

As for the sound? The author uses the A729 and Z1060 that I have owned as a control group, as well as the F880 in my impression. I think that the performance in terms of resolution and clarity is far better than that of the A729. There is also no subtle noise common in early Walkmans, and the sound level is considered to be good. It is quite dark, and the overall tone is biased towards the neutral and slightly hard style of ZX1, which is more analytical. However, the detail presentation ability is still not as good as Z1060 and F880, but it is enough for portable listening, and the sound field is between Z1060 and F880.

Driving power has always been a weakness of the Walkman. Even if the output performance of the ZX1 is not outstanding, the driving power performance of the A15 is naturally average. However, the driving performance generally does not mean that the performance of the A15 driving headphones is the same as that of mobile phones; After all, Sony's S-Master HX architecture does not follow the existing digital amplification architecture on the market, but is a digital amplification architecture developed by Sony over the years. Even if the book data is not outstanding, ordinary mobile phones cannot compete with it.

According to the author’s experience, the driving force of the A15 is sufficient to load most in-canal headphones, excluding some balanced armature headphones that use too many monomers or dynamic headphones with oversized diameters and special coatings. Generally speaking, Double-balanced armature or 10mm dynamic coil headphones can achieve good driving performance. As for some triple-balanced armature headphones and multi-dynamic headphones, although they cannot obtain sufficient driving, they are better than ordinary mobile phones. A significant improvement, not to mention the detail performance is better than most mobile phones.

Compared with the F880 series, the A10 series is not equipped with a touch screen, and the system does not use the highly flexible Android platform, but if you just want a device that is light enough and can be easily placed in a shirt pocket For music playback equipment, the A10 series has the advantages of simple structure and the ability to increase capacity through memory cards. It can also be used with PHA2 and PHA-3 as a digital turntable; the F880 has a slightly fuller driving force and can be used through the network. Stream music and pair with original noise-canceling headphones.

Perhaps in the near future when high-quality digital players are springing up, the A15 does not have amazing driving power, and the file support is not diverse enough. However, it is small and has Bluetooth and the function of being used with Sony's own portable DAC headphone amplifier. , is also a feature that other competing products do not have. In the market, the main focus is to return to the analog amplification structure. The A15 follows Sony's consistent self-developed digital amplification system, and therefore achieves a more balanced performance between size, battery life and sound quality.

If you want a better listening experience than a mobile phone, or don’t want to waste your mobile phone’s power on playing music, the space-saving A15 is more suitable for those who prefer easy portability and listening with portable headphones. Mainly for gamers, coupled with the battery life of at least 30 hours, commuters do not need to charge frequently, which is also the charm of A15.