Sony WH Series Walkman is headphones, an MP3 player and speaker all in one
One music device to rule them all? That’s the plan with Sony’s new WH Series Walkman, managing a trio of functions from a single device.
First up, as its shape suggests, it’s a pair of headphones. It makes use of a 40mm dome driver unit with a 5-25,000Hz range, with a selection of sound modes to push bass frequencies of increase the clarity of vocals among others.
Secondly, and true to the Walkman name, it’s an MP3 player, with the NWZ-WH505 model packed with 16GB of storage and its own power supply to let you play tunes directly from the headphones without needing to be tethered to a standalone MP3 player or mobile device. You’ll get up to 20 hours of battery life from a single charge, while just three minutes of charging will give you a whole hour’s worth of playback. A cable for hooking up to your mobile device is or course also supplied.
Last of all, the WH Series also acts as a loudspeaker, letting you broadcast your tunes to all around you. Not sure yet how you activate this feature – hopefully there’s a failsafe to prevent you from switching to loudspeaker mode while you’re still wearing the WH Series as headphones!
A variant model is also on the way and will likely be cheaper, with the NWZ-WH303 version offering 4GB of storage, a 30mm driver, and a 30-20,000Hz sensitivity range. This version will be available in white and black, where the WH505 comes only in black.
No pricing or availability has been announced yet, but we’ll pass on the details as soon as we have them.
