Sony - Walkman NW-A55 Hi-Res 16GB* MP3 Player - Black
User rating, 4.2 out of 5 stars with 85 reviews.
4.2(85 Reviews)- 62 Answered Questions
If received today, the last day to return this item would be Jul 19. Learn more ˃
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Description
Features
16GB* internal flash memory
Offers ample space for storing media. Also supports microSDHC, microSD and microSDXC for expanded storage options.
High resolution audio compatible
Enjoy up to 45 hours MP3, and 39 hours Hi-Res playback on a single charge.
Supported formats
Include Apple® Lossless, WAV, WMA, AAC and more audio formats so you can enjoy your music collection.
3.1" TFT display
Features touch screen.
Radio FM tuner
Allows playing of your favorite FM stations.
Adjustable 6-band equalizer
Lets you adjust the sound according to genre.
Bluetooth
Enables easy connectivity. The mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm headphone jack enable private listening.
Apple, the Apple logo and iTunes are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. iPod is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
*Formatted capacity may vary.
What's Included
- Instruction manual
- Sony Walkman NW-A55 Hi-Res 16GB* MP3 Player
- Startup guide
- USB cable
- clip
- ear-buds
Manuals & Guides
- Quick Start Guide (PDF)
- User Manual (PDF)
Key Specs
- Bluetooth EnabledYes
- Storage Capacity16 gigabytes
General
- Product NameWalkman NW-A55 Hi-Res 16GB* MP3 Player
- BrandSony
- Model NumberNWA55/B
- ColorBlack
- Color CategoryBlack
Audio
- High Resolution AudioYes
- Supported File FormatsAAC, AIFF, MP3, FLAC, Apple Lossless, APE, HE-AAC, DSD
Connectivity
- Wi-Fi CompatibleNo
Display
- Screen Size3.1 inches
- Display ScreenYes
- Screen Resolution800 x 480
- Touch ScreenYes
Features
- Memory Card SlotYes
Power
- Battery TypeLithium-ion
Included
- Integrated CameraNone
- Cable(s) IncludedYes
Dimension
- Product Height3.8 inches
- Product Width2.2 inches
- Product Depth0.4 inches
- Product Weight0.2 pounds
Warranty
- Manufacturer's Warranty - Parts1 year
- Manufacturer's Warranty - Labor1 year
Other
- UPC027242912359
Customer reviews
Rating 4.2 out of 5 stars with 85 reviews
(85 customer reviews)to a friend
Features
Value5 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use5 out of 5Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Pricey but excellent music player
||Posted .Owned for 2 months when reviewed.At the place that I currently work at right now, there are strict security guidelines, and having an unauthorized cellphones can get you in trouble if you are using one. So I bought this music player because it doesn't have a camera or a microphone. I've been using Samsung phones previously my whole life to satisfy my music needs, so how does this product hold up? So this music player uses it's own proprietary OS on this device. "Sony original OS" as it's called on their official product website. So it has a very nice "battery save" feature that prevents the device from charging past 90% in an attempt to make the battery last longer which I use. I'm glad the thought even a bit ahead of time to make this device last long and add in a measure to prevent the battery from frying from overcharge. However, the OS on this device is, well , slow compared to the Android OS. If you are used to playing music from a Smartphone from someone like Apple or Samsung, then the UI in this device will be slow to you. It's actually not slow like minutes slow, but it can take at most 3-4 for some things to appear like large music albums or large lists of albums available to play if you have imported tons of music onto this thing. But I got used to it over time, and I think that anyone willing to try to put up with the response time of this device for at least a week will get used to its UI speed and be able to use it no problem. As far as audio quality goes, because it is advertised as a high-resolution audio product, it is as good as my desktop computer with a desktop DAC. If plug in my headphones from my computer's external DAC into this music player, I will be able to hear pretty much the same quality of audio from this music player. I think that this small device plays music with great audio quality since it I can listen to audio from my computer without any noticeable distortions or missing parts to music I play. If you have some high resolution audio headphones you might have trouble driving it cause it's a portable music player that's using a small battery to drive headphones but something like smaller headphones and earbuds should have no problem sounding loud and clear. As for battery life with this device, it can last me a whole day with this device on and playing music, even on bluetooth. The official numbers of the battery life are available here: https://helpguide.sony.net/dmp/nwa50/v1/en/contents/TP0002342893.html I think that while this product is a little expensive compared to other music players, the features, functionality and battery life of this device justify the price of this product. I have brought out this product everyday for work and every time I go working out. The small size of this device mixed with it's bluetooth functionality and it's audio quality make it practically a fool proof way of listening to music independent of the internet or without a bulky phone.
This review is from Sony - Walkman NW-A55 Hi-Res 16GB* MP3 Player - Moonlight Blue
Features
Value5 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use5 out of 5I would recommend this to a friendFeatures
Value5 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use5 out of 5Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Excellent build quality, versatile functionality!
Posted .TL;DR I love this Walkman. The sound quality is excellent and it plays everything I've thrown at it. I'm sure there's a format or two that it's not compatible with, but so far, it's a moot issue for me. The Bluetooth features - transmitter AND receiver make this a very versatile device. The USB DAC (think external sound card) feature has become a go-to for me. I find myself using it on my Mac almost exclusively over the built in speakers/headphone jack because of the quality and convenience. The only downsides are lack of WiFi sync, no proper Audiobook support, some quirks with MP3 tags and album art as well as the need to recreate the database every time it boots makes for some minor inconveniences, but definitely not deal breakers. With the exception of WiFi, all should be able to be fixed with firmware updates (maybe Sony reads these reviews? One can hope.) Those shortcomings aside, this is still a definite buy recommendation from me. ===FULL REVIEW BELOW === THE GOOD Sound: It's phenomenal especially when using a quality lossless, high-res format like FLAC, ALAC, WMA or DSD. If you're playing an MP3, even ripped from a CD at the highest bit rate, you really can't tell the difference between this Walkman and an iPhone/iPod. However, once you dip your toes into the high-res pool, you won't want to get back out. Functionality: This is where it shines. It can pair with every BT headphone and speaker I own - from Bose to Sennheiser - with no problems (transmitter mode). Pairing is super easy and NFC makes it even more so. I haven't had a single issue here at all. This can be a Bluetooth receiver as well and act an a headphone amplifier for your music stored on your computer or even your iPhone/iPad/iPod! I even connected it to a Bluetooth transmitter on my TV to watch TV with my headphones instead of the speakers/soundbar! If I plug it into the USB port of my computer - I have a Mac and a Surface Pro - it acts as a USB DAC. It basically becomes a USB audio interface (think USB sound card) with no drivers necessary! Interface: It's very easy to use and very intuitive. I have many options as to how to access my library and Sony even provides an option to filter out just high-res audio. The screen is bright, clear and very responsive. What's especially nice is the physically buttons with conveniently placed "homing bumps" (like on the F and J keys on a keyboard) so you can operate the player while not having to look at it; in your coat pocket, for example. Capacities: 16GB is an excellent starting point, but the fact that you can expand the storage of the device with micro SD cards alone makes this a better choice than the iPhone/iPod. You can use a single large SD card for your whole music collection or many smaller ones for different collections (like a party mix, or a study mix, etc.) I've tested this with a SanDisk 512GB Micro SD and it worked perfectly. However, (full disclosure) I use 128GB SD cards instead because I currently don't have more than this in music and the smaller cards synchronize and update the internal database quicker. THE BAD While not many, there are some glaring faults with the device. For me, they're not deal breakers. However, some could be fixed with a firmware update to further enhance the product. No WiFi. The fact that I have to plug the device physically into a USB port seems so 1990's. The Microsoft Zune was able to sync wirelessly, so there's no reason for this not to. Whether you plug the whole Walkman into the USB or use an SD card reader to copy over the files, you need to physically connect to a host. No proper support for audio books. Sony makes reference to "learning" folder that can be used for audible language less (though they don't tell you where to obtain these lessons). There's no reason why it can't support audio books as the M4B format is just a container for audio files that it already supports! All they need to do is update the firmware with support for this file type. Updating the database. Every time you power on (not wake from sleep) or disconnect the Walkman from your computer, it has to create the database which adds to the boot time. If you have larger SD cards, the time is increased. There's no need to recreate the database if no files were modified. ID3v2 Tags. Unfortunately, Sony chose to use the OLDER v2.3 of the MP3 tags. This means that you have to embed a baseline JPG or PNG into the song itself for album art to show up and tags with multiple values aren't supported. Going to the latest v2.4 spec is just a firmware update and Sony should do this to stay current. CONCLUSION While inconvenient, the bad points don't carry enough weight to have much of an impact on the positives. These are "nice to have" features that for the most part, Sony could add with a firmware update. As such, it earns a "Good" rating instead of a "Great" but I would still highly recommend it.
Features
Value5 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use5 out of 5I would recommend this to a friendFeatures
Value5 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use5 out of 5Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Sony name which has always been good to me
||Posted .Owned for 1 month when reviewed.I absolutely love this MP3 player I had one before and I lost it because it was so smalle and it was the NWA45 series. It went on sale last year around Christmas time for $50 less and I didn't take advantage of it so I lost out. But this year it went on sale for $50 less and it was the newer model which is the NWA50don't really see any difference except that newer technology I guess it works totally OK a the sound quality is amazing it has a lot of memory and I've already added a couple of playlists in their. It would be nice if it came with some type of carrying case or Clip on my shirt or a carrying case on a lanyard but other than that I absolutely love this thing It has Sony as its name and Sony has always been high quality stuff. This is the 4th Sony walkman that I have owned, 2 of them were CD players and now with technology the way it is 2 of them were MP3 players. I definitely recommend to a friend. The only thing is I don't know why the headphone is on the bottom that kinda is funny to me but it doesn't matter this thing is extremely high quality stuff
Features
Value5 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use5 out of 5I would recommend this to a friendFeatures
Value4 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use4 out of 5Rated 4 out of 5 stars
almost a great music player
||Posted .Great music players but the only negative thing about this player is the charge/data port. Its not your typical USB port. So if you lose the cable that comes with the player, you're gonna be in trouble.
Features
Value4 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use4 out of 5I would recommend this to a friendFeatures
Value5 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use5 out of 5Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Enjoy my new player
||Posted .Owned for 1 week when reviewed.Really love the FM Radio on this version despite having to use my wired beats headphones. When I go for walks love the ability of this model to use my wireless headsets. Also love the many fine tuning I can perform regarding to the sound down to the equalizer feature, ability to set the sound to sound like a vinyl record. Enjoy the expandable memory right now using the 256g Sd card. Love how the album covers come up on the display while the music is playing . In addition the touch screen makes for easy and smooth navigation with the touch screen.
Features
Value5 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use5 out of 5I would recommend this to a friendFeatures
Value5 out of 5Quality4 out of 5Ease of Use4 out of 5Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Very Good Player, OS is Disappointing
||Posted .Owned for less than 1 week when reviewed.Very good player, taken aback only by its poor interface and recognition of tags on songs. The sound is great, especially compared to any phone. Music sounds good and a lot of different equalizer and sound processor options let you find the best tune. Only issue is that the tags and albums aren’t always recognized, so you often have to go and fix things manually (on pc). Other than that, all good.
Features
Value5 out of 5Quality4 out of 5Ease of Use4 out of 5I would recommend this to a friendFeatures
Value5 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use4 out of 5Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Loving my music again
||Posted .Owned for 1 month when reviewed.A tremendous improvement over prior digital music players I've had in the past. I wish I knew about the Sony Digital Walkman before I bought my last unit. I took the SD card from my previous player and put it in the Sony and WOW! Night and day. Bass response, separation, you name it, it improved. Two minor critiques: the touch screen is very sensitive so the locking feature is a must. Also, do not understand why the database needs to refresh every time the unit is turned on, but it refreshes quickly.
Features
Value5 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use4 out of 5I would recommend this to a friendFeatures
Value4 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use4 out of 5Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Sony Walkman NW-A55
||Posted .Owned for 8 months when reviewed.I bought this Sony Walkman NW-A55 player due mostly positive reviews. I purchased a 128gb card to increase storage. It was a little complicated initially to set up, but worked through it. I downloaded most of the playlists I have stored on my computer hard drive. The are recorded as wav files. I used a wired connection with my Sony 1AM2 headphones and the sound quality is excellent. Overall, very happy with my purchase.
Features
Value4 out of 5Quality5 out of 5Ease of Use4 out of 5I would recommend this to a friend
Q: Questiondoes anyone know up to what capacity micro sd card will this support?
Asked by bubbs.
- A:Answer Hi, Bubba, MicroSD cards up to 128GB are compatible. Using a higher capacity memory card may work, but isn't guaranteed. Check the links below for more details: - https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00162965. - https://helpguide.sony.net/dmp/nwa50/v1/en/contents/TP0002342837.html Vincent
Answered by SonyListens
Q: QuestionHowdy. Been waiting to buy one of these for 2 months. Any news on anticipated arrival?
Asked by Searles.
- A:Answer Yea, me too. Seems like everyone but Best Buy has them in stock. Guessing they are trying to clear out the old model NWA45 before selling this new NWA55.
Answered by bill
Q: QuestionDoes this model have a USB or is it still the wm port thing? Also can I use this with a bluetooth speaker such as a beats pill or headphones?
Asked by Bubbs.
- A:Answer Hi, Bubbs! This unit still uses Sony’s standard Walkman 22-pin WM-PORT connector. And yes, you can pair this with your Bluetooth speaker and headphones. Please refer to this link for instructions: https://helpguide.sony.net/dmp/nwa50/v1/en/contents/TP0002342869.html -Sam
Answered by SonyListens
Q: QuestionDo headphones or ear buds come with sony walkman
Asked by Naomi.
- A:Answer no, it does not come with headphones or ear buds.
Answered by Dana
Q: QuestionCan this unit be connected via USB to a car stereo, play music through the USB connection, compatible with Android Auto and/or Apple Car play Apps...?
Asked by Jose70.
- A:Answer No, I tried to do this and it didn't work.
Answered by Timothy
Q: Question1. Can it be connected to a stereo via an Aux cable? 2. Can I drag and drop my music from iTunes into the Walkman?
Asked by 2Questions.
- A:Answer yes and yes, it says in the manual to download some software but i just drag and dropped it right to the player, and i use it through an aux cable in my car
Answered by Bubbs
Q: QuestionAny idea when this device will come to America? The international version has been around for a long while.
Asked by Rutt.
- A:Answer Amazon USA has them, Crutchfield has them, Focus Camera has them. Best Buy...Best Buy? Would really like to build reward points, but this is too long.
Answered by brrr
Q: QuestionDoes this player have the AptX HD codec? If it is a firmware download, is the download through Sony?
Asked by AptXHD.
- A:Answer Hi AptXHD, Yes, aptX HD is a supported coded on this unit. Ref: https://helpguide.sony.net/dmp/nwa50/v1/en/contents/TP0002342892.html?search=aptx -Sam
Answered by SonyListens