Walkman A Series
They were the replacement of the NW-HD5 in the Network Walkman line and remained a hard disk player.
The player is pebble-shaped and has a highly reflective front, build with a metallic back, and a generally minimalist style.
It was available in black, silver, purple, pink and blue,[6][7] Koichiro Tsujino, a Sony executive, said that the goal of the A Series was to revive the Walkman brand which had been struggling both domestically and internationally.
[9] There are a number of features to select music according to a variety of criteria, which Sony advertized as adapting to the listener's "individual tastes".
The means of putting music on this device (as with previous models) is to use Sony's SonicStage software, though originally at release it was a new piece of software called Connect Player which tied in with the Sony Connect online music store, or with mora in Japan.
[11] Billed as Sony's much-anticipated answer to the iPod, the NW-A3000 and NW-A1000 series became a quick sales success in Japan and Europe and a big seller during the Christmas 2005 period.
In January 2006, Sony acknowledged "serious problems" with the software and advised customers to use SonicStage instead.
This player is an ATRAC Audio Device which relies on SonicStage to manage music.
Announced August 2007, the NW-810 hardware wise is the same as NW-A800 but introduces some substantial changes in its media manager software for the international market.
It did not include an FM radio, additional memory storage, or a voice recorder.
Introduced September 2009, the A840 Series was very thin (marketed as "Super Slim"), only 7.2 mm thick.
It has a 2.8 inch OLED display; it was not filled with extras such as touchscreen or internet capabilities, which was reserved for the Walkman X Series.
It introduced for the first time in the A Series the SensMe channels and Karaoke Mode functionality.
The A Series returned with the NWZ-A10 hi-res Walkman introduced in September 2014, with the ability to play 24-bit FLAC files as well as ALAC and DSD.
The A100 series has a similar design as the A50 but with a larger display and borrowing physical key designs from the NW-ZX300 - it includes a 3.6 inch display, 26 hours of audio playback, and both a 3.5 mm headphone and USB-C port, the latter replacing Sony's proprietary WM-PORT.
[38] The Japanese domestic model, for the first time, no longer has ATRAC audio support.
[39][40] In January 2023, the A300 was announced featuring a new sleek design, 36 hours of battery life, Android 12, USB DAC support and DSEE Ultimate.
