Sony's Goldman Walkman : Will It Sell for Sure?

What say you to a Walkman for 300 thousand yen? It's not a talk but a real product - Sony's  gold coated Walkman NW-WM1Z now ready for marketing October 29 at 300 thousand yen.

A copper-coated model NW-WM1A is marketed simultaneously with it for 120 thousand yen or thereabouts. Whichever way, Sony is marketing its high-end portable music player in two versions -  one going for the first time into the price range of beyond 200 thousand  yen. Some users complain it's too  expensive but others say not necessarily so.

According to Sony, the market of portable  music players over 50,000  yen is growing 120% over the previous year and they have two models within this price range - NW-ZX2 for 120,000 yen and NW-ZX100 at 80,000 yen.

In fact, this market is booming with still more expensive models like South Korea's iRiver "Astell&Kern" brand. Their AK-380-256GB-CP (CP for copper) introduced in February 2016 is priced at 549,980 yen.

In this market, products in the price bracket of 100,000 are entry models and those of 200,000 mid-level models. It's no surprise then that Sony is marketing its NW-WM1Z for 300,000 this time around.

Now, how come is NW-WM1Z priced at 300,000 yen? For one thing, this model is mounted with Sony's next-generation fully-digitalized amplifier and features such favorites of modern audio fans as the native reproduction of DSD-format sound sources and balanced output.

NW-WM1Z also features a powerful battery, 1.4 times the conventional models; an exclusive battery pack is provided anew. This model provides in addition to the conventional 3.5 mm earphone jack a headphone output terminal adaptable to high-quality balance output completely separating both channels.

Sony is apparently sure a sizeable number of customers are out there in the market for ultra-expensive high-end music players. NW-WM1Z  is, therefore, almost a cinch. (Nathan Shiga)