The NWZ-A17 was lighter in tone, with a smaller sound stage. The X5 sounds warmer and fuller paired with my Audio Technica ATH-M50x and Sony MDR 7520 headphones. The X5's controls are awkward to use, and worse yet, it occasionally stops playing tunes (the reset gets music back on track). The X5 is more powerful and can play full-size headphones a lot louder, but it's bigger and bulkier I prefer the NWZ-A17's user-interface and easier-to-read display.
I would also say the NWZ-A17 made standard-resolution ALAC and FLAC files sound close to high-resolution files.Ī shootout between the NWZ-A17 and FiiO X5 high-resolution players seemed like a good idea, as they're nearly the same price. Is the sound better or different enough to justify spending extra for higher-resolution files? That's up to you, I'd say for well-recorded music you really love, absolutely, but in order to hear high-resolution sound you'll need a set of audiophile-grade headphones, otherwise you'll miss out on the detail and clarity high-res files can offer. You hear the "spaces" between instruments more clearly, and the dynamic shadings of the piano and drums are more nuanced. The high-resolution files sounded significantly clearer than ALAC files, played on my iPod Classic. What exactly do high-resolution files sound like, compared to ALAC files ripped from CDs, played on an iPod Classic or phone? Listening to jazz pianist Dave Brubeck's iconic "Take Five" album in high-resolution on the NWZ-A17, the differences were immediately clear. Some audiophiles might be surprised to note the NWZ-A17 doesn't support Sony DSD high-res files, but that's a story for a different time. It supports MP3, WMA, WMA lossless, AAC, FLAC, AIFF, WAV and ALAC files, with audio resolution up to 192 kHz/24-bit. The NWZ-A17 features 64 GB of built-in memory (expandable via optional microSD to 192 GB), and it can play tunes for up to 50 hours. The controls and user-interface are intuitive to use, which is far from true with most high-resolution music players. It feels like a precision made design, with an easy to read antireflective TFT LCD display. The sleek, die-cast aluminum body measures a trim 1.75 x 4.3 x 0.3 inches (44.4 x 109.1 x 9.1 mm), and it weighs next to nothing, just 2.4 ounces (66 grams) but still manages to exude high-end glamor. I love that the NWZ-A17 is (probably) the smallest bona-fide high-resolution player on the market.
Sony went on to sell boatloads of CD, video, radio, network, and even MP3 Walkmans, but the NWZ-A17 is the first one I really wanted to try since the original player. Sony's latest reboot of the Walkman - the NWZ-A17 high-resolution music player - brings back memories of the original Walkman analog cassette players that were all the rage in the 1980s.
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