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# Sony Gold-Plated the Walkman and Charged $5,900 for Musical Purity
- URL: https://www.siliconsnark.com/sony-gold-plated-the-walkman-and-charged-5-900-for-musical-purity/
- Published: 2026-10-16T19:16:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-16T19:16:35.000Z
- Description: Sony’s new Walkmans start at $1,900 and peak in gold-plated copper. They are absurdly expensive, obsessively engineered, and annoyingly coherent.
- Author: CircuitSmith
- Tags: Review, Consumer Tech, Launch

Sony has built a music player with gold-plated screws.

Not decorative screws. Sonic screws. The company says their low-resistance treatment helps create a stable ground connection, which contributes to powerful bass, an expansive soundstage, and smooth high frequencies. Somewhere, a normal screw has just learned that it lacks musicality.

This is the new Walkman NW-WM1ZM3, the $5,899 flagship in a trio of premium digital audio players that [Sony announced](https://sony.mediaroom.com/2026-10-15-Sony-Electronics-Updates-its-Premium-Walkman-R-Lineup-Including-New-Signature-Series-Walkman-R-NW-WM1ZM3,-NW-WM1AM3-and-NW-ZX900-Digital-Media-Players?ref=siliconsnark.com) this week. Beneath it sit the $2,999.99 NW-WM1AM3 and the entry-level—please enjoy that phrase responsibly—$1,899.99 NW-ZX900\. All three are available for preorder.

These are not nostalgia toys shaped like cassette players. They are thick Android computers built for audiophiles who want a dedicated device, wired headphones, expandable storage, aggressive signal processing, and fewer notifications interrupting the part of the song where the drummer breathes near a cymbal.

The pricing is ridiculous. The product logic, inconveniently, is not.

## Your phone has been asked to leave the listening room

A modern smartphone can stream practically every recorded song, drive many headphones, and fit inside a life you already paid for. Sony’s response is to make a second touchscreen rectangle that does less, costs more, and treats “does less” as the entire point.

I understand the appeal. Phones are casino floors with cameras. You begin by opening an album and end twelve minutes later reading a stranger’s argument about dishwasher loading. A dedicated player restores a boundary: this object is for music. No work email, no group chat, no weather alert explaining that outside remains operational.

Sony then reinforces that simplicity with an absolutely nonsimple interior. The flagship ZM3 uses a precision-machined chassis made from 99.99 percent pure oxygen-free copper, gold plating, thick Kimber Kable wiring, dual solid high-polymer capacitors, hand-soldered copper wiring, a larger copper coil, and a milled copper block over the digital section. The block alone has 34 percent more mass than the previous version because apparently noise can be intimidated by metallurgy.

This is the audio equivalent of [putting carbon fiber and gold accents on a gaming mouse](https://www.siliconsnark.com/attack-sharks-carbon-fiber-mouse-wants-to-be-luxury-gear/): excessive, theatrical, and easier to respect when the materials are aimed at a measurable enthusiast goal. Nobody needs it. The buyer does not believe need is the relevant department.

## The analog warmth is produced by an extremely digital machine

All three players use Sony’s S-Master HX digital amplifier and a new look-ahead noise shaper that predicts quantization noise before applying its corrections. The DSD Remastering Engine converts PCM audio—including streamed music—into an 11.2MHz DSD signal intended to sound more analog. This is a computer working furiously so your computer music feels less like computer music. I mean that as both a joke and a compliment.

The players handle up to 384kHz/32-bit PCM and 11.2MHz DSD, while [B&H’s launch overview notes Wi-Fi, LDAC, aptX Adaptive, Bluetooth, and microSD expansion](https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/pro-audio/news/sony-unveils-the-new-walkman-lineup?ref=siliconsnark.com). There are proper 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm headphone outputs. The ZM3 carries 256GB, the AM3 gets 128GB, and the ZX900 gets 64GB before you add a card.

That is the genuinely appealing part. Sony did not bolt a gold shell onto an ordinary phone and call it “reference.” The device is organized around audio from the power supply outward. It has physical playback controls. It supports local files and streaming services. It lets people use demanding wired headphones without building a little dongle village below their handset.

We have already seen premium audio drift toward feature-pageant territory, as with [JBL putting a tiny touchscreen on an earbud case](https://www.siliconsnark.com/jbl-put-a-tiny-touchscreen-on-earbuds-and-i-kind-of-get-it-2/). Sony’s approach is almost refreshing by comparison. There is no AI life coach asking how the chorus made you feel. The machine plays music. It just pursues that assignment with the material intensity of a lunar probe.

## Six thousand dollars, last year’s Android

Now the loving exasperation.

The players run Android 16, not Android 17\. As [Android Authority observed in its launch coverage](https://www.androidauthority.com/sony-wm1zm3-1am3-zx900-walkman-launched-3724327/?ref=siliconsnark.com), that is a peculiar compromise in hardware costing up to $5,899.99\. Music apps will work, and buyers are not choosing a Walkman for the freshest notification shade. Still, if a product costs more than some used cars, “nearly current software” feels less charming.

Battery claims also arrive wearing an audiophile comedy hat. Sony advertises up to 35 hours for the two WM1 models and 40 hours for the ZX900, measured using 128kbps MP3 playback through the balanced connection. A 128kbps MP3 is not illegal, but testing a $5,900 high-resolution music altar with one is like measuring a restaurant’s kitchen by how quickly it microwaves soup. Streaming estimates are a still-strong 31 hours for the WM1 pair and 35 for the ZX900.

Then there is portability. [Notebookcheck reports the copper ZM3 weighs 670 grams](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Sony-unveils-gold-plated-5-900-Walkman-that-delivers-only-1-1-mW-of-power-in-some-regions.1425983.0.html?ref=siliconsnark.com), compared with 425 grams for the largely aluminum AM3\. That makes the flagship heavier than many tablets and almost three times the weight of a large phone. It is portable in the sense that a decorative brick is portable if your trousers have accepted a structural role.

The same report flags a more serious regional problem: European versions are limited to 1.1mW output, versus up to 250mW per channel from the balanced jack in some other markets. A luxury player that may struggle with demanding headphones is not charming eccentricity. It is a purchasing trap with lovely machining. Buyers outside North America should inspect regional specifications before allowing the gold screws to begin courtship.

## This is a wrist trophy for your ears

The obvious question is who spends this much to avoid using a phone.

The ZX900 is for the committed headphone listener who wants Sony’s processing, local storage, proper outputs, and a dedicated interface without turning the purchase into estate planning. At $1,899.99 it is still wild, but it occupies a recognizable high-end audio bracket.

The AM3 is for someone who wants the flagship architecture and a tastefully serious aluminum body. The ZM3 is for the collector who considers copper purity a personality trait and wants the object itself to carry luxury weight. It belongs in the same consumer-tech habitat as [Garmin’s $3,100 wrist trophy](https://www.siliconsnark.com/garmin-put-satellite-rescue-in-a-3-100-wrist-trophy/): specialized equipment promoted into jewelry without completely abandoning the equipment part.

That last distinction saves the Walkman. Beautiful overreach becomes irritating when the engineering is decorative. Here, Sony is plainly obsessed with power stability, grounding, signal integrity, output stages, file support, and the interface between software and hardware. Whether a listener can hear every claimed benefit is a different question—preferably answered through blind testing rather than a velvet product brochure—but the design is coherent.

It is also gloriously free of the current requirement that every gadget become an ambient assistant. Compared with [Snap’s $2,195 computer for your face](https://www.siliconsnark.com/snap-built-2-195-ar-glasses-and-accidentally-cosplayed-siliconsnark/), the ZX900 is almost monastic. One screen. Two headphone jacks. Your music. A microSD card containing the live recordings you insist have superior room energy.

## Verdict: a beautiful overreach with excellent grounding

The new Walkman line is not a consumer hit. It is a niche flex, and the ZM3 is a beautiful overreach in 99.99 percent pure copper. The lineup costs too much, weighs too much, and launches with an operating system already one generation behind. The European output limitation deserves particular skepticism.

But I am more impressed than annoyed. Sony has made dedicated music players for people who genuinely value dedicated music players, not a mass-market nostalgia prop wearing a cassette-shaped costume. The physical controls, expandable storage, long battery life, serious wired outputs, streaming support, and obsessive electrical design all serve the same purpose.

I would steer most buyers toward the ZX900, then gently remind them that $1,899.99 is “value” only inside a building where the flagship costs $5,899\. The AM3 and ZM3 are luxury objects for listeners who want the chassis to participate in the sound and the ownership ritual.

That is absurd. It may also be wonderful. The Walkman once liberated music from the living room. Sony’s new one liberates it from your phone, your notifications, and—at the top end—roughly six thousand dollars. At least the screws know what they are doing.