The Sony NWZ-A17SLV: The new face of the Walkman

The A17 is an interesting offering from Sony, obviously throwing down a challenge to the Fiios and the iBassos, and shall I say it...the Ponos of the world?

On the surface this is a great looking DAP. What you are really paying for here is Sony's expertise in the audio industry, with their proprietary hardware and firmware tweaks.

Sony has a great track record, from the original Walkman on. Some super hits (the NWZ series of DAPs), some gear that is absolutely stratospherically good (the PHA2, XB500/700/1000) and even some iconic cult classics (the MDRR10, even the TPS-L2).

But more than any other audio manufacturer (yes, including HiFiman!), Sony has broken my heart. I can forgive them the tizzy MDRZ7 and the surprisingly clunky and redundant UDA1/S, but the internet-connected NW ZX1 really took the cake. I lusted after it for months, couldn't wait to get my hands on it, had dreams about it, and then when I finally nabbed one, it was a huge disappointment, mainly because it had an excessively high noise floor. For the price, it wasn't just a trivial nagging background hiss, it made music literally hard to listen to on some of my more finicky IEMs.

But I didn't learn my lesson (and a very expensive lesson it was too) with the ZX1, I went and checked out the A15. Another gorgeously built device from Sony with all the usual Sony bells and whistles, but no internet connectivity, an interface that made even the crappy Fiio X3 interface bearable, and, wait for it, the dreaded hiss.

You would think I had learned my lesson, but then alas I started lusting after the A17. Third time is a charm, I said to myself, they would surely get it right this time, right?

So what is the A17 all about?

It's not internet enabled, though, like the ZX1 or ZX2 are. And it doesn't run Android but a version of the old Sony firmware that I have become familiar with since my NWZ-S616 days.

It does allow you to play almost every audiophile format you can throw at it, including flac and alac and aac (thankfully no ATRAC!), although it doesn't support DSD. Which is not surprising, because how many DSD songs can you get into that 64GB memory? Four? Five?

You can extend memory with a 128GB SDXC card though, although that adds to the cost. But you have to admit that 192GB is plenty of shelf space even for the most die hard audiophiles (you know the ones that are cybernetically connected to their 1st gen iPod classics).

Battery life is the bane of these devices (except my trusty old Cowon D2, which has the kind of battery life you would expect a nuclear powered aircraft carrier to have) but the A17 manages a healthy theoretical 50 hours. I say theoretical because when I was trying it out, it lasted only about 20 hours or thereabouts. I have no idea if that is par for the course or not.

I'm typically not a fan of the gimmicky digital processing that Sony does, for example DSEE, but its amplification design for the A17, including the so-called HMaster HX digital amplification, is on the money. Check out how Sony implemented the amp topology, its pretty cool, for example they used a POSCAP capacitor as the charge pump.

The interface is more intuitive than the crap on my Fiio X3 (Sorry X3 fanboys, but you know that even with the firmware update, the X3 interface is, well, crap) but it is still somewhat clunky. The screen is tiny but well illuminated (OLED?) but even though you can view video, i wouldn't use the A17 as a video player any more than I would use it as a smartphone.

Overall the sound is remarkably neutral. Highs are crisp (something I found lacking with the ZX1) and detail is superb. The only minuses are that it struggles to power even moderate impedance headphones, and there is an irritating hint of a hiss with exacting IEMs (floor noise is what killed the ZX1 for me as well). Which is frustrating, because if you can't pair audiophile DAPs with something like the Shure SE535 (which is great but nitpicks when it comes to floor noise) then what would you pair it with?

And the A17 struggles even with moderate impedance headphones with its 10mW per channel output, so it's really not an option except for portable use.

I suppose the A17 should be on the shortlist for folks looking at a standalone DAP, and I do prefer it to my Fiio X3 (which is languishing in a drawer somewhere because every time I use it I end up more irritated than happy). And
if you don't have prima donna IEMs that act like divas when it comes to amps, then the A17 may be a great choice. The S-Master HX topology is actually very cool and innovative, Sony DSEE is one of the fre implementations of digital sound enhancement that does not strip the music of its soul, the battery runs for longer than you would expect (around 30 hours by my reckoning), plus it charges quick too, the max of 192 GB storage (64 internal + 128 addon) is enough for any audiophile (at least for now), and the build quality is excellent - it just feels solid and right in your hand.

But the damn hiss makes your mambo sound more like a mamba. It makes me wish that Sony included Riki Tikki Tavi in the box with every DAP they sold to me.

And there are three more compelling reasons to pass on the A17.

First, from a price performance perspective its hard to look beyond the Fiio X1, or even the Sony NWZ-E385, which doesn't allow lossless files but then how many people critically listen to flac files when they are on the go anyway?

Second, the lack of internet access is irritating, because most of my on-the-go music now comes from streaming services. The A17 does have Bluetooth streaming though, but I did not test it.

But third (and probably most tellingly), it still doesn't demonstrate a compelling advantage over my Cowon D2, which has been my DAP workhorse for a long time now, mainly because I can't find anything better
But oh yes, one thing I learned during my time with the A17 is that it has an FM tuner.

Who knew FM radio still existed?