About me
As everybody here knows my Reviews are with classical music in lossless formats. I am not the Graphs and measurements kind of Audiophile.
Intro
I got this Little DAP because its Button navigation as my eye sight is failing and most modern ones are android with all the bells and whistles plus touch screen with no support for Accesibility.
Original MSRP in 2015 was of 199 Euro for the A25, I got it used here in Head-fi for 50 euro. Additionally got for another 50 euro the WMC-NWH10 digital output cable.
Packaging and accessories
I got it without its original packaging, so i can't really comment on this regard, but it may be similar to sony Hi-res walkman packaging that only feature the walkman, some papers (Instructions and Warranty card) and the USB data transfer cable. Maybe the HN variant includes Noise cancelling earbuds.
Usability, Appearance and UI
The usability is pretty straight forward with a home screen which features an icon Grid and each of these icons has a designated function. UI remains unchanged fron A10 series as well as appearance.
On the front we have a 2.0'' TFT LCD QVGA Screen with two rectangular buttons underneath
A. BACK/HOME Short press takes one screen back, e.g. from now playing back to the selected listing. Long press takes you directly to Main grid screen.
B) OPTION/PWR OFF short press opens a context menu to access additional features depending on the screen. Long press the devices "Turns off" (goes to stand-by rather than fully off)
Nest we have a Diamond with a circular button in the middle, this is the D-PAD and the circular button is the Play/Pause button. Each corner of the diamond is a direction e.g. Left/Right/Up/Down. On playback of video and music left and right serve as fast-forward/next track and rewind/previous track.
On the left side we have a volume rocker, a Hold (lock) switch and the micro SD slot covered by a door. Right side is plain, nothing's here. bottom, there is a wrist strap hole, the WM-port connector for Data trabsfer/Charging/Audio output and a HP jack (3.5mm SE). On the under side there is a RESET Hole.
Navigation is fast across the different screens. Audio listings have a Jump list based on the Alphabet accesed with D-Pad < and >. All lisyings display a popup balloon to show complete song name or album name etc. plus a cover if present in file (does not support external covers unfortunately)
Grid and icons
1. Heart with Music note -> SensMe channels. sony's Mood and tempo song classification system, creates Mood playlists
2. Radio-> FM Radio. Here you can listen and save your favorite FM-Radio stations (Headphone cord acts as antenna)
3. Bookmark -> On the go playlists slotted to only 10 lists and up to 500 songs each. You can add songs via pressing play/pause button for about 4 seconfs. The bad. they get erased if you remove the Micro sd card and you cannot export them
4. Photo with a mountain-> Photo viewer, only JPG is supported
5. Music Notes-> Music player
6. Film strip-> Video viewer, supports wmv, mp4 (m4v, mp4 and 3gp)
7. Headphonrd with "NC"-> Noise cancelling settings (only works with specific sony earbuds)
8. A beacon transmitting radio waves-> Podcasts
9. Bluetooth logo -> Bluetooth settings
10. Toolbox-> Settings /configuration menu
11. Micro SD Card-> Sd card settings like formatting and (Un)Mounting a micro SD card
12. Back arrow with now playing symbol-> Takes you back to Now playing
I didn't test BT, Radio, Podcast, Video and foto because i dont have interest in these features IMO screen too small to see a video or a pic.
Music screen has categories for
1. All songs
2. Artist
3. Albums
4.Genre
5. Release year
6. Folder
7. Hi-res content
8. Playlists and Bookmark lists
9. Received songs via BT
Pressing up and down on the music playback screen reveals sonys cover flow feature
The device does turn off automatically after 24 hours fixed timer of inactivity
Sound quality analysis
Used Gear MDR-Z1R Headphones, IER-M7 Quad BA/side Sony IEM, Koss porta pro and IER-Z1R Flagship IEM
Sandisk 400GB card
Lossless PCM from 16/44.1 to 24/192, Downsampled DSD (to flac 24/88.2 using DB Power amp music converter)
Bass The bass is quite good, punchy and hard hitting, but has some textures mssing as well it doesnt reach as deep as more modern DAPs
Mids. Smooth and natural mids, not too forward not too recessed, with nice clarity and details
Highs -> Nice silky smooth, not as airy as modern DAPs as well not as extended as recent offerings. But still not lacking
Separation and sound stage-> small sound stage and average separation but not bad if you use it as a travel DAP.
*1 NO DSD SUPPORT
Yup this device does not accept dff nor dsf files. However if you Have the WMC-NWH10 digital audio output cable you can output DSD encoded as DoP to a compatible DAC. As this device is limited to 192kHz playback it means that we are stuck to DoP'ing DSD64 (2.8224MHz) files, mainly because DSD DoP needs high sample rate PCM to blanket the DSD Dara F.E. DSD64 has a bitrate of 5600kbps so it needs 24/176.4kHz to cover this requirement (24/96 are 4600kbps) therefore DSD128 as DoP won't work with this walkman as DoP for 128 requieres 352,8kHz. Either you need to downsample DSD to PCM up to 192kHz 24-bit or use Dop for DSD64 (you'll need to downsample DSD128/256/512 to DSD64 and rhen Dop The files)
tl;dr
SMall device great for travel with some handy features such as Radio or podcast to photo and video. As music player works decent up to 192k 24-bit and DSD64 DoP (with the extra accessory WMC-NWH10)
