Sony NW-A45 3.1 Inch Touch Display High Resolution Audio Walkman 16 GB, 45 Hours Battery Life - Black

This is a great piece of hardware for music lovers. Been using it for almost a full year now. Not sure I'd necessarily call myself an audiophile but I care for my music and am always listening to something. As such I want high quality but without spending thousands on equipment. Basically I'm after the best possible audio quality from pro consumer gear. As I have begun adding more FLAC to my music library this device seemed like an obvious choice and it's been great. The battery life is fantastic, it takes a 128GB microSD no problem, and I've dropped it a fair few times and it's still going strong. The audio quality is astounding, it supports pretty much any format including lossless, it has a handy touchscreen, It does everything you could want from a dedicated audio player... as long as you don't mind fiddling with the software a bit. Other reviews have already covered the issue of the volume limiter. This appears to be mandated by the EU. You can disable the volume limit option in the settings, but it will still randomly turn your volume right down and throw up a box telling you to "check the volume" just completely out of the blue which, if you're immersed in a song, kills your vibe completely. According to online posts the volume itself is also still limited to a lesser extent even with the limiter option disabled. Another not so severe but yet still obvious oversight is the lack of ability to add a playlist. There's a menu option to do it, but when you try to use it you're told you need to connect your device to special software just to make playlists. This is frankly absurd when pretty much any basic cheapo MP3 player can make playlists. What's even worse is that the ability to create playlists is right there in the software, it's just disabled by default. The fix is to look up software called "SonyNWDestTool" by Rockbox. There's a version for Windows and Linux. It runs in the command line and with just a few simple keystrokes you can remove these limitations just by changing the "destination code" to "J" (Japan). Once you run the commands successfully, just reset the settings (no, this won't remove your music) and boom it's done. Takes 5 minutes. A few other features are unlocked when you do this too. For example it can now do in-line recording, although this requires a special cable. Once the limitations are removed this is a great device and I'm sure the true audiophiles will love not only the audio quality but all the little features it has like custom EQ as well as presets, the ability to upscale MP3 to lossless quality which works better than I expected, and some fun stuff like surround sound effects. It also has something called "ClearAudio+" which tries to automate the best way to output music, but if you want my opinion you're better off manually adjusting the EQ as many songs sound much better with manual adjustment. Other than the easily fixable software limitations this does have one small bug which is that it is very hit and miss with picking up album art, and in regards to FLAC, it is more often miss. So you get a lot of songs that just show a generic music logo instead of the album art. Hardly a huge deal but it seems like a basic oversight (much like the ability to create playlists). Another basic oversight is the lack of a clock. Seems like a very basic feature to me, and although you can set the time on the device, there's a box telling you explicitly that this setting is only used to manage the library, not to tell you the time. Again not an enormous deal, but how hard would it have been to just let me enable a clock on the top of the screen? Overall I recommend this to people serious about their music as long as you know your way around a computer enough to run a few commands. Paired with some decent (preferably wired) headphones, this gives you banging sound quality.

I grabbed this player when it was a warehouse deal at £70. Even with the exchange rate to CAD, shipping and duties it was half the price of the one sold on Amzn CA. I own the Hidizs AP80 that I got from their KickStarter campaign last year. The AP80 is an amazing little player when it comes to sound quality and EQ/MSEB options but the small form factor and fragile scroll wheel left me looking for something a little larger with solid button layout. The Sony NWZ-A45 fit the bill. I was not put off by the fact that it is a couple of years old at this point. Sound wise it is pretty close to the AP80. The touchscreen is a good size and is fairly responsive. I have not tested the 45hour battery claim as I tend to add new music to the 400gb card I have installed but I can say that the it is far better than the AP80. Reg FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC and DSD files have all played perfectly. I have used the NWZ-A45 with KZ ZS10 Pro, KZ ZSN Pro, Audio Technica M40x, Bose QC25, Sony MDR-XB950N1and enjoyed the sound profiles in each. The UI is fine, nothing special. A little dated but it gets the job done. You can navigate with ease and the font is a reasonable size. Some minor complaints: The only negative with the display is that you will notice screen tearing. It's a little annoying but I can live with it. Cover art can be hit or miss. There appears to be a problem with "processed" album art. Most of my music was tagged with Mp3Tag. I found that the NWZ-A45 does not like album art added using that program. After searching some forums I found a program called TagScanner that was able to fix the album art. Another minor issue is the slow boot up time and the fact that it will re-scan the library once it boots up. I've owned multiple MP3 players and DAPs over the years and this is the only one that does a scan even though nothing new has been added. This should be optional not part of the boot up process which is already slow especially if you are not using the built 16gb. I could not find a gapless playback option so I will have to test out some Floyd or Classical to see how this player works with music of that type. While I have not experienced any issues using Sony or even a cheap Anker BT speaker I was not able to control the volume properly when connected to my Edifier R1010BT speakers. The AP80 connects perfectly. I have not used the NWZ-A45 as a dedicated DAC for my phone or laptops but I would expect that sound fine based upon my regular us. Once again this is a solid Hi-Res player. If you're in the market for one and the price works for you it is a great buy.

Finally got myself one of these, after lusting after it for some time but not being able to justify the outlay. I used to own a Cowon D2-DAB and that too was a great little device, but the need to use a stylus to operate the touchscreen, and the limitation on memory kind of forced me to use my smartphone(s) instead as it was just easier. I recently sold on the D2, so was looking for a replacement, since while my smartphone with the DSub (Android) app gave me remote access to my *entire* music collection remotely (via the Subsonic Music Server I run on my NAS), the phone is a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Battery life degredation being the main concern since i'm not on contract, and the chance of being able to afford a £500+ upgrade once the thing dies is unlikely in the short-term future. Therefore a dedicated music player with good battery life, that's not going to premeturely "age" my phone (Xperia XZ1 Compact) was the order of the day. Ironically, the NW-A45 shares many similar design elements to the XZ1-Compact (one of the initial reasons I was drawn to it in the first place). It's a neat, small device, about 1/2 the size of the smartphone, and fits neatly in the pocket. I purchased the base model (without headphones) with 16GB internal memory and purchased a 128GB memory card to enable me to put the smartphone's existing 256GB card in the NW-A45. The UI on the unit could be simpler, but once you get the hang of it, it's certainly not obstructive. My biggest gripe with it is that there are a lot of "sub-category" menus that could of been consolidated down, to make configuration a bit easier, and there's also a few minor "engrish" translation issues in a few places, but nothing too serious. With regards embedded (or seperate) album art, it going to need to be under about 800k per image, and in 'baseline-JPEG' format. The player won't load 'progressive' format JPG's, and also seems to baulk on files much over 800k in size. YMMV on this issue. Likewise, Sony's 'Music Center' app for this device suffers from the same issue(s), but will (as far as I can tell) correct any imported artwork if nessecary. The fact it plays DSD files as well as all the popular music formats like MP3, AAC/M4A, FLAC, and even WMA and WAV files is really good. Shame it doesn't support OGG format, but again, this is rare in the wild too, so not a massive issue, unless of course your music library is in those formats. It incorporates a traditional FM radio, which is a nice addition, but it would of been better served / nicer to have seen a DAB radio included instead. Where I live, I can get a total of 9 (nine) FM radio stations, whereas DAB radio offers at least double this number, and possibly more. My Cowon D2 which was at least 12 years old when I sold it had DAB functionality built in, so IMHO, Sony missed a trick here. Another minor issue is the charging port / data connector. It looks somewhat like a very skinny HDMI port, but is referred to as a "WM-Port" by Sony (Walkman Port). This is no doubt an effort to tie you in to Sony approved after-market accessories / add-ons / docks and the like. I intensely dislike efforts like this as it limits your options. For example, have a phone charger you carry with you or a data cable for similar use? Your not going to be using it with this device, without an adapter. Said adapter is available only from Japan, and costs approx £68 for a small piece of plastic & metal to convert the proprietry "WM-Port" to USB Micro-A or USB-C for example. Over-complication for sure. Finally, the port itself is unprotected from dust / water ingress. In Japan, you can get dust covers for this port, but anywhere else in the world and your S.O.L. Since the MicroSD card slot has a protective door, would it of increased production costs so much, to include a similar feature for the charging dock? I somehow doubt it. Another opportunity missed here. On the whole, aside from these minor issues, it's a great little unit. Probably not up to the standards of Sony's £500 offering, but that's a lot of money for a PMP device anyway, and probably more geared towards the niche audiophile type anyhow. This unit works well, sounds equally as good as, if not better than the smartphone, and it's battery life will last a lot longer. Not sure it will last up to the "45 hours" quoted by Sony, and that is based on 128Kbps files anyway, and so, again, YMMV. Finally, to allay some fears as posted in other reviews here; It has been quoted here that the SD card is "difficult to remove", and requires "long fingernails or tweezers" to get it out. I'd like to debunk this right now. The SD card slot works in *exactly* the same fashion as on Sony smartphones. i.e: you push the card in (upside-down) with your fingernail more than required until it clicks into place. The slot being spring-loaded will then partially eject the card when you repeat the proceedure to remove it. All you then need to do is hook your fingernail inboard of the lip of the SD card at the edge and hook it out. Easy, simple, my mother could do it blindfolded and she's no tech-wizard. Secondly, the quality of the responsiveness of the touch-screen has also been critisized in some reviews. This is a £150 PMP device, not a £500-600+ smartphone. It's not *quite* as responsive as my XZ1-Compact, but it is better than my £80 Samsung J1-Mini. If you avoid stabbing and jabbing at the touchscreen it will work fine. It may be more awkward for those with bigger fingers, but for those with average-size hands, who also treat the device with some respect during operation, it will be responsive enough. Your expectations need to be tempered somewhat by the price of the device, and it's intended use. So in summary, while not *perfect* in every respect. If your looking for a (relatively) simple to use, no nonsense Music player, you could do far worse than the NW-A45. It also has NFC / Bluetooth, and works well with the SBH-54 bluetooth headset (also by Sony). It's even possible to have said headset connected to this and your phone at the same time, which is nice. Alas the NW-A45 *won't* pair with the XZ1-Compact via bluetooth, which is a shame, but there are ways around that by use of data transfer cables and the like. All-in-all 4 out of 5 stars, and glad I've now taken the pressure off my smartphones for music duties. Reccomended.

I dislike iTunes and I tried about four cheap and cheerful generic Chinese MP3 players before giving up and going for a quality brand. Other reviewers have criticised the Sony music management software but I find it works well and was easier to use than other products like Media Monkey. The Sony software (can’t remember the name), is also very good at finding album covers on the Net. Files can be easily dragged and dropped from a PC without the need for software anyway. I haven’t yet found an updating function on the software yet and I am copying all files across to the player when I need to update. The case is solid and works perfectly with an igadgitz flip up outer case (Amazon). A few niggles: The radio was virtually useless where I live in Surrey, which admittedly is behind a hill but even so I couldn’t get Radio 4 which is one of the strongest UK stations. Recommend that you ignore the radio if you are thinking of buying this product. Radio function is disabled when using Bluetooth headphones anyway so not much point in having it. Sound quality is very good and works a treat with my £90’ish AKG Bluetooth headphones (highly recommended). Worth noting that the sound equaliser function is disabled with Bluetooth devices. On board memory is supposed to be 16gB but available is actually 12gB. I bought a 128gB card as I hope to get all my music on to this player. The menu system is a little cranky but is quite limited which makes life easier. Main thing to remember is to read the instructions about swiping a finger on the screen to bring up top menus and settings etc. which makes life easier. All in all very good - so far...........!

I wanted to upgrade my bluetooth sound as my new iphone xr didn't thrill me for quality or volume with its iffy AAC bluetooth codec when I purchased the 1000-XM2 Sony headphones, which are compatible with way better things like apx-hd and ldac. The cable sound was way better and i wanted to reduce that difference! I'm also no fan of iTunes. For 15years I've watched it become harder and harder to use! Now to beat the convenience of music on a smartphone (i can even control volume on my watch!) this Sony system was going to have to be really good. Well, i won't bore you with tech specs covered elsewhere but: it's really gorgeous. Lovely bright contrasty screen. Colour album art and sharp black and white text - think sony e-ink on kindles... Buttons - wow i didn't realise how much i'd missed side buttons The sound quality and volume are unrecognisable. Instant smile ear to ear. Now there are more expensive full on audiophile devices but trust me I'm fussy and this is a huge huge improvement on an Iphone. The £300 Sony headphones I've bought can now show themselves off to their full potential! The menu is totally fine and the screen sensitive . It's all rather elegant and pleasant to use. I have a Walkman again and I'm loving it! Size-wise, it's like a half-full deck of cards. The music-on-the-move features show Walkman's pedigree - one tap to shut off the screen, hold button to lock keys, sleep, auto-off, settings galore -it's all there to make you enjoy your music and it works without frustration. The Music Centre app on the PC is fine. I used it as an opportunity to consolidate all my itunes music libraries spread over so many years and file systems and sort my music out generally. Now i feel more in control of my music than i have for years and OMG that improvement in sound quality ! Wow. I should have done this years ago. I think it was only getting really good headphones that showed this up. Now i can choose from LDAC, apx-hd and others. So with good source files you're looking at essentially lossless from Walkman to headphones for the first time. The interface is fast and intuitive. I have over 100gb of music and I've had absolutely no delays, slow starting up, scrolling, loading album art or anything like that A lovely thing, this. If I'd known when I had my first Walkman what this device would be able to do in the future I'd have been awestruck!

I loved my Apple products when I got them; Classic (x2), Micro, Touch, iPad and iPad 'something else' but what let them down was the software interface. iTunes has a problem. Enter the device that is better, the Sony NW-A45, or A40 series. It talks to grown-ups who know their way around a computer and doesn't rely upon a proprietary application for every transaction. When I want to put my radio plays and recordings from CD onto this device, I can and put them where I want. I now control directories and how they are displayed. I dictate the folders and can enter each one at my choosing. This is across 128g and I intend to create a library of all other files on other micro SD's. Then there's the quality, functionality, size and control. Control is better than iPod as it has buttons. Anything wrong? Nothing so far. Anything that could be better? Their proprietary software is quite good but seems to be of a totally different build to the device and I think this is where I came in. UPDATE: 19/5/2018. I absolutely love this device. I've got a nice Inorlo cover for it (not easy as I live in the Canaries which is an Amazon delivery dead spot) and a pair of MEE IEMs. External buttons are excellent and to me prove that Apple and others are daft to exclude them. I also got a 256gb card for it which now confines my much loved ipods to 'in car' duties and playing the audiobooks I bought on itunes Apple hasn't lost (so far). The Sony Music Centre Software is actually very good. Unlike iTunes, you can tame it to do what you want. It uses Gracenote to fulfill the details when ripping and has a charming obsession with anything under a directory on your PC called 'Music' coupled with, bizarrely, language learning tapes. I have Audiobooks and BBC radio shows so it can be a bit tricky but all are easily corrected, unlike in iTunes. I've built the file structure completely how I want it and it works very well for me. There is also MediaMonkey should you want to play more with the file properties. The flexibility and speed of doing this compared to being faced with greyed out references and the word 'cloud' on your PC is the one of the reasons I bought this but the device is good in it's own right. Bluetooth very impressive and has a quick connection. Volume is also controlled from the device. Is there a fault? Well when I pick it up after last having played it 7 hours previously (time between dog walks) and press the play button, the player needs to have 2-3 seconds to wake up. It does sound a tone to indicate that it is ready and recognises therefore that Toby is indeed in need of another walk and I want to listen to 'Cabin Pressure' but it is feint and not up to the rest of the high standard this device has set. The whole thing reminds me of an iRiver device that I have in a box somewhere and how good I thought it was at the time. It was and this is better. Highly recommended. PS: My 256 is nearly full. I think it was all those Andy Hamilton radio boxsets.

Ever since Apple stopped making the iPod classic I have been after a good alternative. I have been using an iPod Touch for a little while, where all that was used was the music app with music I added. All apps I could remove were. Wi-Fi was never used as all I wanted was a music player with blue tooth. I am not sure if any of the 3 classics I previously owned had bluetooth as I never had anything to stream to. However as I buy my music on CD and import in Apple Lossless (ALAC) whatever I got now had to play these files. On paper this little sony NW-A45 did everything I needed. Played Apple Lossless, had Bluetooth that I though would do for the car as my Pioneer in car Hi-Fi only has aux through bluetooth. I don't have bluetooth headphones as I prefer wired, so for me bluetooth is to connect to the car for streaming. As bluetooth speakers never seem to be good quality in pairs for good stereo these have never appealed. So I though this little device would be great. I will come back to the bluetooth side and it's not good! Sound through headphones though is excellent. I have some Sony MDR10's and some Sennheiser Urbanites through both the sound is awesome, head and shoulders above any Apple device. Space is for storage is as good as the SD card fitted and as I have already more than doubled the space my ipod has it is on a winner already. Importing playlists from my itunes library has been easy on my mac using Sony software, however Albums display in an interesting manner in that some show on the Sony as two or more, especially if guest artists are dueting with the main album version. I have single cd compilations split into 3 sections! However I am mainly using the playlist part and songs on shuffle. Playlists will show as the playlist was done in my itunes library I am just modifying the title slightly. In ituness have all playlists by one artist such as Elbow under a playlist folder so it keeps them grouped togetether. These folders do not show on the Sony. If you drag the whole folder over this is created as one huge playlist, so if you want the separate playlist as you did it drag it on its own. I then find the playlist file on the sd card and rename with artist name in front to keep the albums grouped together by one artist. So far so good, all of my artwork for album covers has come across as has titling etc. Bluetooth connecting in car was main thing I wanted as two thirds of my listening is done in the car connected through bluetooth with only a third usually at work or when traveling on trains etc through headphones. I would say if like me you want it this way forget it! Bluetooth connecting in my car to the in car Pioneer system is pants! The ipod touch I have with worse sound than the sony has excellent bluetooth and autoconnects as soon as the car starts. Bluetooth just works. The Sony does not. If I'd known this I would not have bought it. I'd have have stumped up extra for the £300 pioneer. To make the Sony connect you have to go hunting through the settings each time and manually click on the device it has paired with. In theory it then just connects. In paractice it depends on how it feels. Sometimes it connects perfectly. Other times you get an error on the device saying it failed. If you are lucky and it has connected if you have to stop for anything, petrol, shopping etc you may as well forget listening again when you go back to the car as it will fail connection again. A friend has the £300 pioneer which seemed like an android version of the touch but connects to his car perfectly. However as the Sony is very hit and miss with bluetooth I wish I'd gone for the piuoneer. Bluetooth never autoconnects as the ipod touch does, or my friends Pioneer does. You never know from one time to the next if you can get the Sony to connect at all. I am now left with a few choices keep using the ipod just for the car or buy a separate bluetooth device to connect through the headphone socket. I don't like music on my phone as I look forward to times I can ignore the phone which is why I like separate devices. So my samsung device with a hi-res app on will not be used. At some point I feel I will go for the Pioneer XDP-30 which annoyingly I see today is even cheaper on Amazon at £229. So my advice to anyone reading this far. If all you want is personal music through headphones the Sony is great, buy it. If you like me want it for use in the car don't! I feel I wasted my money and have to now look at other options. Don't take the chance that you will have the same issues as me.

I like this player overall but here is the summary:- GOOD - It feels quality and built to last - Sound is very good - Some of the filters and upscaling provided actually DO improve the sound (so many in other TV's / cinema systems etc make it worse so that is a refreshing change). - Screen is clear and for the most part intuitive to use. - Range of files/connectivity/bluetooth with LDAC etc is all good. - Frame finish seems robust and shows no signs of scratching or wear after several weeks use without a case. BAD BITS (and stuff worth knowing before you start uploading your library) - Like many blutooth devices the equaliser only works with wired connections. That may not be a problem to you depending on whether your connected device already has it own adjustment. - Battery life isn't anything like the quoted run time. Even with all filters turned off, basic MP3 playback and wired headphones rather than bluetooth, I cannot get anywhere near the quoted battery life. - Playlists will only work with tracks from SAME drive, so if you have one track on SD card and another on device memory it cannot take both in one playlist. That is worth knowing before you upload your stuff. Now I separate my podcasts from my music on different drives, all is now well !! Also playlists have to be created on your desktop / PC. You cannot create them on the device itself. None of this is a problem as long as you know first, but upload randomly and it can get a bit confusing. The 'bookmark' function sort of gets around most issues if you want to create your lists from within the device and across internal memory/SD card mixing the two, but it took me a while to understand that. Despite the above I still like it and would therefore recommend. PS always open to correction on anything as (being a bloke), I still havent read the manual.