product.”>Details)
Enjoy a high-quality sound from this stylish and compact music player that lets you download and stream more of the music you love. With full Wi-Fi® compatibility, a long-lasting battery and a stylish and sleek design, you can play and find new music wherever you want to go.
Wi-Fi compatible for direct download and streaming
Made with a rigid aluminum frame and gold solder inside a precisely engineered chassis
Up to 36 hours of 44.1KHz FLAC playback
Supported by Android
Connect to a PC to access your music collection
Lightweight and designed for pockets
NW-A300 series high-quality PCM conversion
DSD audio formats up to 11.2MHz
The NW-A306 lets you enjoy 360 Reality Audio.
Rigid aluminum milled frame for improved sound quality
product.”>Details)
Customers say
Customers praise the MP3 player’s build quality, with one noting its hardware and OS are very snappy, and appreciate its music playback capabilities, with one mentioning the ability to create and edit playlists directly on the device. However, the sound quality receives mixed feedback, with some finding it great while others report poor volume output. Moreover, the functionality and user interface get mixed reviews, with some saying it works fine while others find it unusable and the interface not user-friendly. Additionally, battery life and Bluetooth connectivity are also mixed aspects, with some reporting great battery life while others find it subpar, and some experiencing poor Bluetooth connectivity. The device is slow, taking minutes to boot up.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Anonymous Andy –
A Powerful and Affordable Little DAP for Anyone Still Looking for a Dedicated Music Player
When Apple removed the headphone jack from their newer phones other phone manufacturers began to follow suit. It ushered a new era of how we listened to music today by using Spotify/Tidal/Apple ect. as our primary music provider. For some it was a convenient change. No longer did you have to dedicate precious storage space for music and you had almost complete access to a massive library of music from around the world at your fingertips.Sony’s a306 Walkman feels like a product made in a era where it shouldn’t exist and yet its one of my favorite devices that I take with me almost everywhere. It’s small pocketable form factor makes it easy to tuck away in your pocket during a workout or jog session. The device also feels solid and well put together and It also doubles as a USB DAC making other devices sound quality way better if you’re into that type of thing. The device also supports all major music files like MP3, AAC, FLAC, ALAC, WAV and MQA(lmao) just to name a few off the top of my head.The a306 does have a few issues. If you have US firmware your device will sometimes nag you for having your music too loud and will lower the volume once but after shooing the notification away your free to crank your music back up to 11 but every once in a while the notification returns making this safety feature a headache for most. The device also has difficulties driving larger power hungry over ear headphones but if you use IEMs or Bluetooth headphones you should be fine. There’s also a search bar widget that cannot be removed from the device’s home page but because the device is an android device you do have access to the Google Play Store and I was able to change the launcher that allowed me to swap the search bar with controls for the music player and the Sony Music Player software itself is just ok. It allows you to access the music files on your device but it lacks some sorting options that urks me wrong (The software sorts albums alphabetically while I would perfer that albums be sorted by Release Year, But still you can sort Artist by Album Artist so some thought about organization was consider I just wish they did more.) Nothing special about it imo but if it really bugs you, again you have access to the Google Play Store to find a new one to that better suits your style. Actually access to the Google Play Store gives this device a fair bit of customization that allows you to make this device truly feel yours.Now your probably wondering as to why even have this device when I can just use my phone and while sure you can just use a phone with bluetooth headphones and spotify premium for music. There are also cheaper alternatives like buying a second hand ipod and modifying them to give them more storage and customize cases that Apple never intended for their products are also a valid option for anyone looking for an MP3 player on the cheap but For someone like me who still buys music (CDs, Vinyls, Digital ect.) and have been doing so for years and wants to enjoy my music to the highest possible quality. My personal music collection is fairly large (about 8000 files and still adding more daily) and there are just some music from band that no longer exist that I have that I will never be able to listen on Spotify or elsewhere and being able to listen to them without the need to listen to commercials or having to pay 10.99 a month is a freedom I refuse to throw away. This little device makes that possible.Update 1/30/24: Having used this device for a few months now I still use it regularly and it is still my go to device for music listening to my digital files. Sony recently allowed the device to be update to Android 12 which is nice. The loud volume warning while I understand is necessary due to US law, I wish there was a way to just tick an option on the device “Yeah i know loud music will damage my ears. You dont have to remind me every week.” was a thing. The last annoyance has to do with the way Sony configured its buttons for Next, Play/Pause and Rewind. I wish Sony had swap the Rewind/Next buttons to make it feel like nearly every other electronic device with physical buttons but I’ve gotten use to it but if Sony added an option to swap these buttons around in a menu I would change it in a heart beat.
K. Hollins –
Get the Japanese Version
I really, really wanted to like this. The form factor is great. I can even get over the lag in boot time and app responsiveness, which really is not that bad. However, the volume limiting is a deal killer for me. To be fair, that’s not Sony’s fault, as the limitation is a function of EU regulations. The Japanese version of this Walkman does not have that limitation. It is possible to manually get around it, but there is no “one and done” setting to override the limit, which just ruins the enjoyment of the unit.The idea behind the limit is to protect your hearing, however like many regulations it fails to account for what happens in real life. If you’re listening to an audiobook while running on a sidewalk with traffic beside you, you won’t be able to hear the narrator. When I was sitting on the beach listening to jazz, I had a very hard time hearing over the sound of the water and people nearby. On an airplane just forget it–absolutely no audible sound comes through. It’s like the EU only considered volume in a silent room rather than in outdoor situations.Bottom line: great design, but volume limit renders it unusable except in quiet indoor situations.
audiom3 –
Solid DAP for the price
I have, for decades, owned Android devices and never one thing labeled Apple. Not even an iPod. So reading the reviews and seeing people complain that this Sony WM is Android-based is what led me to purchase one. Having first bought a Shanling, I couldn’t even get it to recognize the same 1TB memory that is working fine in the Sony. So I returned the Shanling without hesitation…I have used Roon ARC since release and before that, PlexAmp while on the go. I mainly use them in the car with a portable USB DAC. The apps work well “overall” – barring cell phone reliability. ARC runs into minor issues nearly once a day. It might pop up a ‘Poor Connection’ error or it will just pause what you’re playing and then start to buffer. Can become very annoying… This is especially true in heavy traffic because I prefer all of my music files to be in their native format and resolution. So CD rips – 16/44.1 wav, SACDs DSD 1x (dsf) and hi-rez downloads, DVD-As and Bluray audio at their native bit rates and sampling rates. So this takes some bandwidth off my cellular provider and they fail miserably at times. PlexAmp is far more reliable but you’re only getting mp3 quality. They transcode everything, as far as I can tell, when on cellular data. Such a shame…And so began my search for a capable but reasonably priced DAP. I am a hi-fi home audio guy, so I pick my battles. On the road, I just want everything to be there. A nice, tight thump when the bass drum kicks, clean midrange that isn’t harsh and extended highs. I know I will never get the imaging and ‘air’ that my expensive home system provides, so I don’t fret. It’s not very complicated. And we won’t even get into the ‘you can’t tell the difference between an mp3 and a DSD file in the car’ rubbish.Before I get into the good and the bad, I will say that the complaints about Sony’s Music app are very spot on. What a piece of horse dung. It is ugly, poorly implemented and slow as all heck. When I first mounted my memory card, I had to figure out how to get things onto it. And Sony said you had to add their Music app for Windows 11 to do this. Fine, I did it. Then I started moving files over (8800+ songs) and Sony was taking an eternity! It would have literally taken between 3 and 4 whole days to transfer all of them. I did not want to leave my gaming PC running for that long. My GPU alone would probably make my electric bill sky high this month! So I figured I would remove the Micro SD and put it in my old, slow-as-heck card reader and transfer the music that way. And slow it was. But it still happened sometime while I was sleeping. I would guess 8-10 hours compared to 48-72 for the Sony. That is just unacceptable. Anyway, here are some of the good and bad about it so far:The Good:- Android OS- Google Play Store- Compact chassis- Good function/button location (once you get used to them)- All the connections you should need – including Micro SD slot up to 2TB- USB C charge/transfer port- Sound Quality from top to bottom is good. Clear, extended highs, clean midrange and kick drums well,kick.- Sound great through car speakers or my IEMs.- programmable auto-offThe Bad:- Volume, volume, volume. Where is it?? It is limited on IEMs. Sounds plenty loud in carstereo though, and that is the main reason for buying it. Can go to 120 in-car.- Can be a little slow to react. But not as bad as some of the reviews say.- Sony Music App – really, just get rid of it and use VLC player. You’ll thank me.Can’t think of anything else at the moment but will update if/when I find more. I can say it’s a good buy if you love Android OS.
Lex –
Fantastic sound – even through bluetooth, itâs silky smooth and clear sound – whatever you are listening toFinally compatible with AirPods 4 and pro 2Reasonable battery life with wifi offCons – android, price, google bloatware
DHuddo –
Great value for those that use music players. Sounds great and easy to use too.
Alan D. –
Desde que llegó me gustó lo pequeño que es, pero al momento de tenerlo en la mano se siente la calidad de sus materiales y de su construcción. Para alguien como yo que no es experto en audio, la calidad de sonido es impresionante. Lo he probado con varios audifonos y he de decir que en mi opinión, este Walkman saca lo mejor de cada uno de estos. La capacidad de almacenamiento del reproductor es buena, si solo piensas usarlo con formatos MP3, pero si piensas uasarlo con formatos mas pesados, es impresindible comprar una tarjeta SD de 256Gb como mÃnimo.En general este Walkman me ha encantado, espero me acompañe en muchos de mis momentos donde solo me preocupo de disfrutar de esto tan hermoso que es la musica.
Amazoncustomer –
Mine came with Android 13 out of the box. Nonetheless, felt little laggy in response, but not a deal breaker.Little greedy on the battery consumption side with bluetooth and wifi on.Matches well with my Sennheiser Momentum 3. The bass is just to be felt, beyond explanation.Bought plainly for nostalgic reasons. I already own Sony NW-A55. In my personal opinion, look and feel and build quality of NW-A55 was much more elegant and better.The real differentiator with NW-A306 is the rolling cassette screen saver, that is just irresistible. It’s so peaceful, so mind soothing to look at it while music being played. There’s something magical about it. What’s more, it changes skin with different songs with different source quality. The song title is printed automatically on the cassette label area.Just to be noted, the screensaver works only when the physically stored songs are played via the already installed Sony Music player App. Will not work with streaming music.If price was little lower ( around 20k), this would be an easy recommend. The problem these days is it’s hard to squeeze value from any one music product as there are so many alternatives and options, bluetooth powered speakers, stereo amps, hi-fi headsets and hi res streaming via your smartphone, that ROI is helplessly low. We buy more, but fail to settle on just one good quality thing.
Vikas Singh –
As a music enthusiast after I purchased Sony WH1000XM4 headphones I was looking for some enchantment to my music listening hardware. On headphonezone website I came across the category DAP(Digital Audio Player). That facinated me I selected this Sony walkman because of its brand, price affordibility among all DAPs and other features like Android which can givs lot of options to listen lossless music on apple music and other music streaming apps like Amazon music, Spotify etc. Also it has Hi Res, Hi res wireless for LDAC format, xmaster, Dsee etc which all claimed to enhance the music quality even for streaming music or low bitrate music files. But after purchase below are my disappointmenting experience with this device:1. Even on jio fiber wifi the music keeps stucking while using music streaming apps2. The UI is laggy(The response is not instant like in mobile)3. No music quality enhancement whatsoever. I subscribed to apple music for HiRes lossless music, I purchased Poweramp music player app pro version to use LDAC files on the device, I had the good Sony headphone but all these was not able to make me happier while listening to my music.In short my music listening experience was same or rather worse compared to that on an Android mobile. So what’s the point in spending 27k and having an extra piece of hardware for music listening. So I returned it. The only feature I liked in this device is the notalgic cassette graphics while using its inbuilt music player app.