Sony released a new portable audio player (aka DAP) in the form of the NW-A306 . Consider it a fashionable 21st-century replacement for the iPod or Walkman, but don’t be fooled by Sony’s talk of hi-res audio support – it’s a half-truth in Bluetooth’s case. Build quality, audio circuitry and software user interface are what determine the enjoyment factor of using a portable player.
The NW-A306’s aluminum body houses a 3.6-inch touchscreen and playback control buttons on the right side. What type of glass is used in the screen? Sony doesn’t say. The specification says it’s a “TFT color display with white LED backlighting.”
Sony has loaded the NW-A306’s Bluetooth playback engine with an AI-enabled version of its proprietary DSEE software, which aims to restore lossy-compressed audio files (like MP3s) to their lossless former glory: but a reality check reminds us that no matter what DSEE returned to the sound, this is just a best guess as to what was removed first; and that even the highest bitrate Bluetooth compression – Sony’s own LDAC – is lossy. My own past experience with DSEE in other Sony Bluetooth audio products tells me that the audible boost of DSEE is minimal (if at all).
The listening experience of wired headphones will be influenced by the signal path and amplifier stage of the NW-A306. Like (all?) Sony portable players past and present, we note the lack of an off-the-shelf DAC chip like many competitors. Instead, the digital audio signal generated by the source file/stream is directly fed to the S-Master HX headphone amplifier. This is a digital amplifier whose sound quality is largely determined by the nature of its power source (which remains unknown). One of the main benefits of using digital amplification in a portable player is longer battery life. Sony says the NW-A306 can last up to 36 hours: that’s twice as long as even the best competitors.
Since Sony has long abandoned proprietary connectors, the battery is charged via a USB-C connector located on the bottom edge, next to which there is a fold-out slot for micro-SD memory cards. The latter will be an indispensable ally for those who want more than 18 GB of music to be stored simultaneously on their Sony portable device. The amount of internal memory is nominally 32 GB, but it seems that more than half of this volume is consumed by the Android 12 operating system installed on the NW-A306.
I had to go beyond the press release to find a screenshot showing the presence of the Google Play Store, which, in tandem with the IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi module, opens up Sony’s portable device to the world of native streaming applications music and their offline storage potential.
All that remains to be asked from Sony is this: how long will the NW-A306 receive over-the-air security updates? The Japanese giant’s policy for its Android smartphones is only two years. This uncertain future is one of the reasons why last year I didn’t buy Sony’s flagship NW-WM1ZM2 portable player (€3,372), which runs Android 11.
Price: $399
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