Sony Makes Gold-Plated Walkman MP3 Player Priced at $5,900

Sony has introduced three new portable Walkman media players, priced from $1,899.99 for the NW-ZX900 and rising to $5,899 for the gold-plated NW-WM1ZM3. The NW-WM1AM3, priced at $2,999.99, falls in between and is nearly identical to the WM1ZM3, minus the attractive gold shell. All […]

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A $6,000 gold-plated media player is the perfect gift for the music-loving millionaire in your life.

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This render with a transparent background is the closest we'll ever get to one of these. Image: Sony

is the Verge Editor of the Week. He's covered the tech industry for over 18 years and knows a thing or two about synthetics.

Sony has announced three new Walkman portable media players, starting at $1,899.99 for the NW-ZX900 and rising to $5,899 for the gold-plated NW-WM1ZM3. In between is the $2,999.99 Walkman NW-WM1AM3, which is pretty much the same as the WM1ZM3, just minus the beautiful gold casing.

All three devices are aimed squarely at the audiophile market, if the price tag doesn't make that clear. All three feature Sony's DSD (Direct Stream Digital) Remastering Engine, which upsamples standard PCM audio to an 11.2MHz DSD stream and claims to deliver a more analog sound. Also, they all have gold plating on the rear chassis to reduce interference and reduce noise.

The advanced NW-WM1ZM3 and NW-WM1AM3 Walkmans add hand-soldered oxygen-free copper (OFC) wiring and an upgraded power circuit for even more noise reduction. A milled OFC block separates digital circuits from analog circuits to limit potential interference.

What sets the WM1ZM3 apart is that the entire chassis is made of OFC and then gold plated.

This is not the first time that Sony has tried its best to make a golden media player. In fact, you can buy the previous model – the NW-WM1ZM2 – which is now on sale for $2,599.99. A real steal though, an old iPod bought off eBay is still probably a better deal.

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