SonyNW-ZX707 Walkman 64GB Hi-Res Portable Digital Music Player with Android, Large 5.0" (diag) Touchscreen Display, up to 24 Hour Battery, Wi-Fi & Bluetooth and USB Type-C – Black NW-ZX707/B

I was really excited when I first saw this item as it recalled how much I loved my original Walkman in the early 80’s along with a myriad of Sony products. I was looking for a quality portable dac/headphone amp so I wouldn’t have to carry around iPhone and ifi hip dac3.The good is that it is a beautifully finished product and is essentially an android “iPod” . That’s great because it’s easy to get apps you need from Google store. I easily loaded Apple Music and began streaming. However, even at max volume , every headphone I tried was at best at a medium volume. I was hoping to use my meze 109pro (40 ohm impedance) with it , but the volume was inadequate. I even tried it with some inexpensive low impedance headphones which didn’t improve situation much. In retrospect , I should have tried my 7hz IEM’s but I was so disappointed with the headphone performance I quickly boxed it back up for return.Apparently, the American version does not feature a high-gain soft switch in the volume control menu. The product manual specifically states that the switch may not be available in certain regions. Other reviewers have noted this, I wish I had read them earlier. I am contemplating finding a Japanese version, or more likely will pony up for an astell and kern portable player.UPDATE:3/3/2025I ended up picking up the Japanese version and am very glad that i did ! After fumbling/navigating the Japanese menu, I was able to find the change language to English 😀 I have now updated rating to 5 ⭐️ for the Japanese version. Oh, and the 7hz timeless IEMs sound excellent. I mostly stream lossless from Apple Music, and I have only put a few .flac files on my SD card to try it out. In the future, I will maybe try other formats. I’m happy that I can now listen with my sennheiser hd660s2 which are more power hungry than most headphones I own. In the volume picture below, you can see the message “balanced high gain on”. This feature is NOT available on the U.S. Version.

I got my North American NW-ZX707 today, tested it with Brand New Sony IER-Z1Rs and it is not able to power them adequately even on max volume set to 120. When I test the same earphones using my desktop amplifier they sound much better, more bass, punchier, broader soundstage, stronger, everything. With the NW-ZX707 and no High Gain available, these earphones sound flat and unimpressive. Otherwise I agree with what I have been reading in other online comments, which is that the build quality and fit and finish are top notch, beautiful case, but the Android Google software is crap, annoying and asking you to login to some online paid service. Wifi intermittently randomly disconnects and setup takes 1 hour to complete. I have a 3 year old iPhone and the ZX707’s user interface is very sluggish and unresponsive compared to that so it takes some getting used to, as an iPhone user. I really like the Classic Walkman Cassette Tape Screen Saver, I like how it also speeds up and slows down the tape animation when you fast forward or fast reverse, and the name of the artist and song appears written on the Cassette Label, however the tape doesn’t appear to wind up or spool up as you would expect as the song progresses. Nevertheless, it is a very nice touch. Unfortunately I can’t accept the low gain volume limit especially when it is available in other markets for similar or lower price. Therefore I am going to be returning it for a full refund immediately from Amazon. But I am planning on keeping the Z1R’s Because I really like them, they have a ton of punch and kick and make you feel like you’re standing next to the giant loud speakers at a rock concert in a huge arena. Anyways these notes are just my humble opinion and I would also point out that the serial number / region code printed on the packaging for this was UC NW-ZX707//C UC. So that is another code to add to the list of “volume capped” product ID codes. What a shame, that this happened this way, you would think that acceptable VOLUME CONTROL for your flagship products is one of the basic principles of product testing and sales strategy! I really wanted to like this device, with all the premium components and features, but it’s not worth if I am paying top dollar and getting a product that is being sold with artificially hampered and factory imposed restrictions especially knowing that other countries are not having to deal with this problem.

A 7 07 is good quality premium quality. The battery goes down really fast. Due to the fact that if you had the brightness up or any of the other items, the twenty five hours to thirty hours, they say is, if you have everything turned off.So keep that in mind, but it does sound great with good headphones. But I think the price should have been about five hundred not nine hundred I didn't buy it.It was a birthday gift.