Thirteen years after production stopped on the original cassette-playing Walkman, Sony is bringing back the portable music player; this time it’s digital and damn pricey.
The Walkman was first introduced to the world in 1979 (43 years ago!) and changed the way we consume music forever. Gone were the days of stereos and vinyl and having to stay in one place to listen to music. Now you could bust a groove while on the move!
But then even newer technology, the CD, then the iPod, then the smartphone, made the Walkman obsolete.
Sony though is not giving up on their piece of technological history, introducing two new high-tech Walkman models to the world - the NW-A306 and the NW-ZX707.
If you want to take yourself back to the Walkman era, you’ll have to pay around NZ$560 for the A306 and a whopping NZ$1270 for the ZX707. There’s also a signature series, gold-plated Walkman that goes for just under NZ$5,800 - wowza!
They do look sleek and the sound quality is supposedly some of the best around, but that’s a lot of moolah for something that only plays music.
“Enjoy a high-quality sound from this stylish and compact music player that lets you download and stream more of the music you love,” Sony says about the NW-A306 on their website. “With full Wi-Fi compatibility, a longer-lasting battery and a stylish and sleek design, you can play and find new music wherever you want to go.”
The more expensive ZX707 is labelled as an “evolution in portable sound” and Sony says it lets you “experience your music as the artist intended, wherever you go, with the astonishing sound quality… which inherits the philosophy of the Signature Walkman.”
The new Walkman editions are currently not available for sale in New Zealand, so you can save that money!
