Sony lists three new Walkmans from $1,899 to $5,899 without a ship date

Take a listener with a library of lossless files and about $1,900 to spend. TNW says the iBasso DX340 and FiiO M27 both sell below Sony's cheapest new Walkman. ^[10] What Sony adds at that price is a newer base: the entry model moves to Android 16 from Android 12, and to a 1080p screen from 720p. ^[12] A buyer can check both on the day the box arrives.

The rest of the premium is harder to check. Sony says the flagship's gold-plated screws provide "a stable ground connection that delivers powerful bass, an expansive soundstage, and smooth, extended high frequencies". ^[19] The Verge describes the gold plating on the rear chassis of all three players as meant to reduce interference and lower noise. ^[5]

The Verge also says the NW-WM1AM3 is nearly identical to the flagship minus the gold shell, and that a chassis made entirely of oxygen-free copper and then gold-plated is what sets the NW-WM1ZM3 apart. ^[6] The two list prices are $2,899.01 apart. ^[16]

Sony's pitch assumes the buyer will hear what the screws do. In the one comparison TNW cites, a 2013 survey, 151 listeners compared a 320kbps stream with a lossless file, and 52 per cent preferred the lossy files. ^[13] It tested file formats, so it does not speak to the screws.

Sony built the same thing in 2016, TNW says, when the NW-WM1Z cost $3,680. ^[7] The new flagship lists about 60% higher in nominal dollars. ^[15]

We think the entry NW-ZX900 is the easiest of the three to defend, because its upgrades are the only ones the sources put numbers on. The tradeoff is that it is also the model with two rivals priced under it. For the two dearer players, the coverage offers Sony's description and no measurement, so a buyer has little to go on until there is a ship date and a place to listen.

Two tests sort a premium hardware pitch. The first is whether the buyer can verify the claimed difference without taking the maker's word. The second is whether the buyer's own library or workload uses that difference. Together they give four cells:

- Verifiable and used: worth the premium. - Verifiable and unused: not worth it, since the capacity sits idle. - Unverifiable and used: a taste purchase. Listen before paying and do not book it as an upgrade. - Unverifiable and unused: not worth it.

For a listener with a lossless library, the Android and screen upgrades sit in the first cell, and the gold screws and copper chassis sit in the third.