Sony Walkman NW-A306 Touchscreen MP3 Player - 32GB, Blue

I recently purchased the Sony Walkman NW-A306 and I couldn't be happier with my decision. The sound quality is truly exceptional, providing a rich and immersive listening experience that truly brings my music collection to life.One of the standout features of this device is its expandable storage options. I was able to easily install a 1TB micro SD card, allowing me to store my extensive collection of lossless audio files with ease. This was a major selling point for me, as I have a large collection of audio CD files that I wanted to transfer and listen to on-the-go.The design of the Walkman NW-A306 is sleek and modern, with a user-friendly interface that makes navigation a breeze. The battery life is also impressive, lasting for hours on end without needing a recharge.Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my purchase of the Sony Walkman NW-A306. It has exceeded my expectations in terms of sound quality, storage capacity, and overall performance. If you are in the market for a high-quality music player, I would highly recommend giving this device a try.

WARNING: Out of nowhere, the volume on my earbuds automatically got so loud in my left ear that it almost blew out my eardrums. I had no issues with the earbuds while using them with my phone for over a year. Something is not right with the play button as well. It automatically plays and stops sometimes.There's no option for a double tap to wake up the lock screen. Since it's a touchscreen Android device such features should come by default.After having the device for couple of weeks, realised that it takes ages for the device to turn on once its been turned off. Device is too slow for such high price.The display feels bit off. And there was a little spec on the screen as well. Please inspect photos for details.I couldn't register the product on the Sony website. The register page seems like it's bugged and the issue has been ongoing since 2017 or maybe even longer.The device feels compact and portable. I will update you about battery life soon. I will probably be using maybe 7 hrs most in a week or even less.Easy to transfer files from PC.Sound quality: Compared to the Samsung S24Ultra, using Sony WH-XB910N headphones (wireless), the Sony MP3 player doesn't sound as wide (bigger). Both devices were used in default settings.There is a bit of a lag while trying to rewind or seek the exact part of the song. Again as compared to the S24Ultra, the phone doesn't have such lag. I think there shouldn't be such a lag for a dedicated mp3 deviceIt feels like I'm using an Android device with a Sony music player app.

I bought this because I wanted to listen to hi-res audio but didn’t want to pay an absolute fortune for a player. The audio quality (to me) is excellent, especially when paired with a pair of Sony wireless headphones (WF or WH1000XM5). Somehow the Sony to Sony connection just works brilliantly. There are many effects you can apply to the sound including an equaliser to tweak the frequency range, DSEE Ultimate to upscale lower res audio towards CD quality using AI, DC Linearisation to recreate analogue speaker characteristics and even a Vinyl Processor to recreate a vinyl sounding output. But I’ve found the best one (which disables all the others) is ClearAudio+; a one switch setting which seems to boost and enhance the clarity of every track.Yes, it’s an Android 12 O/S and yes it is a bit on the slower side to boot and can be a bit laggy, but I can live with that because I bought it as a music player and not a tablet and that is where Sony have put the emphasis.I see some reviews make references to loading files to the device as being “clunky” especially with a Mac. I’m not sure what the problem is here - I have a MacBook and file transfer is a doddle. Simply format the SD card on the A306 using the Android file formatting tool, take the card out and connect it to your computer and then simply cut and paste your music files and folders to the Music folder on the card that was created when it was formatted. Put the card back in and use the little icon at the top of the Walkman app to re-create the database and ….bobs your uncle! You don’t need Sony Music Centre and you only need Android File Transfer to get music on to the internal storage and because only about 17 of the 32GB of this is available, it’s pretty pointless anyway.The next great thing about this device is the wireless connectivity and the fact that it runs on Android means you have access to the Google Play store, and that means you can download anything you think useful, particularly streaming or content based apps like Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music and Audible. All of which I’ve found work great, just like an iPad but with better sound quality! I’ve even installed PlexAmp and set up a PlexAmp media server on my NAS so I can access my full music library from anywhere in the world - again this works great on the A306.I’ve also read, but not yet tried, that you can use the A306 as an external DAC, which means I could swap out my SoundBlaster DAC if I wanted, although….actually having a dedicated hi-res music player like the A306 negates the need to listen to music from an iPad or iPhone using an external DAC and wired headphones. 0n the topic of wired headphones - the A306 is good but not as good (in my opinion) as with (Sony) wireless headphones - the power output from the A306 is apparently relatively low and therefore needs the volume turning up to pretty much maximum.And finally….after the sound quality and the portability, the absolute next best feature on this device is the cassette screensaver which comes on after a few seconds, the colour/spec of the tape being shown matching the quality of the track being played!Overall this is a powerful, feature packed device which produces superb sound quality. It does have a couple foibles but fortunately these aren’t in the space that matters and what the device’s primary function is - playing great sounding music.