Portable Audio Player

Portable Audio Player

Portable Audio Player
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High quality parts

Disassembled metal machined chassis of Sony NW‑WM1ZM3

Uncompromising components for peerless sound

The main and rear chassis are both precision milled from oxygen-free copper (OFC) for audio quality. The main chassis features gold-plated 99.99% (four-nine) pure OFC, while the rear chassis uses 99.96% pure OFC with direct gold plating. The result is clear and powerful bass, an expansive soundstage, and mid to high range sounds that linger beautifully.

Direct-coupled structure for exceptional ground stability

The main chassis and rear chassis are directly fastened to the structure using low-resistance, gold-plated screws. This ensures a more stable ground connection, resulting in a smooth and extended high-frequency response.
Gold-plated custom securing screw
Circuitry surrounding the D3778 audio DAC chip

Faithful sound reproduction

S-Master™ HX digital amp technology, independently developed for Walkman®, is compatible with the Native DSD format, and supports balanced and high power output.

Furthermore, we have developed an advanced look-ahead noise shaper that predicts and responds to quantization noise in advance, thereby improving D/A conversion performance. It responds quickly to sudden changes in sound, producing powerful, energetic bass and clear, fast sound. The WM1ZM3 features three selectable look-ahead types.

S-master HX icon
Close‑up of audio circuitry and capacitors inside NW‑WM1ZM3

A powerful power supply

Great sound starts with dependable power. Our meticulously engineered supply features premium components, including a large second solid high polymer capacitor for instant power delivery and uncompromised dynamics. Our attention to detail even extends to hand-soldered OFC wiring, for authoritative bass, exceptional clarity and a wide and immersive soundstage.

Dual large solid high polymer capacitors

Large solid high polymer capacitors provide the power reserves needed to respond to sudden changes in power demand. Inheriting the design philosophy of the DMP-Z1, dedicated capacitors are assigned to both the digital and audio sections. This enables noise generated in the digital circuitry to be absorbed within its own block, minimizing its impact on the audio circuitry.

The result is powerful and accurate bass sound and clearer, crisper vocals.

Dual large solid high polymer capacitors on PCB
Close‑up of NW‑WM1ZM3 audio PCB with hand-soldered OFC cables

Audio power directly supplied via an OFC cable​

Hand-soldered OFC cables further enhance sound quality, ensuring a cleaner power path, minimising circuit board noise and delivering greater delicacy, power and a wider soundstage.
Close‑up of ultra-low noise LDO regulator

Ultra-low noise LDO regulator

A high-current power IC ensures stable power supply, enabling the S‑Master to perform at its full potential. This eliminates switching noise and interference, delivering clear, powerful audio quality with music signals produced by the high-definition power supply.

FT CAP3 (High-polymer capacitor)

Custom-made for Sony and tuned by Sony engineers, FT CAP3 is adopted for all bypass capacitors in the audio block power supply. Drawing on know-how cultivated in high-end home audio development, it has helped to improve sound expression and create a smoother sound, with a wider sound space, more transparency and tighter bass.
Array of FT CAP3 (High polymer capacitor) on PCB

OFC milled block

An OFC milled block covers the digital block, helping both to strengthen digital ground and improve noise shielding from digital block elements such as the application processor and memory devices. The result is a clearer sound that appears to rise up from silence.
OFC milled block with dark background
Close‑up of High Polymer capacitors within the NW-WM1ZM3

High-polymer capacitors

The high polymer capacitors within the WM1ZM3 are used to strengthen the power supply of the amp block for unbalanced output, enhancing low-range reproduction performance for a more expansive listening experience.
Meticulously‑arranged film capacitors on PCB

Film capacitors

High-quality film capacitors deliver voltage with a linear response across frequencies, resulting in reduced distortion and noise.
Winding inductors on circuit section

Winding inductors

Winding inductors in the digital block power supply contribute to a pure sound. 
Main circuit board of the Sony NW‑WM1ZM3 audio player

Manufactured for sound perfection

Not only have we upgraded a number of parts, but we have also optimised our component layout in order to further improve the sound quality of the WM1ZM3.

OFC large coil for balanced output

To supply the optimum balanced output signal from the digital amp, a larger, High-purity 4N copper coil is used as the L-C filter. By incorporating flat conductive wire, we‘ve achieved lower distortion and lower resistance, which creates an improved sound resolution across all frequencies. Now the sound feels clearer and more detailed than before.
Showing components including large high-purity 4N copper coil and digital amplifier

KIMBER KABLE®

The wiring material from the amp base to the balanced headphone jack features thick KIMBER KABLE®, just like on the DMP-Z1 music player. This helps to shut out external noise, transmit high quality audio signals, and achieve powerful and smooth sound quality.
Twisted internal copper wiring for the headphone socket assembly

Crystal oscillators

Two compact low-phase-noise crystal oscillators ensure precision clock stability at sampling rate multiples of 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz. The crystal electrode piece is formed with gold vapour deposition for enhanced electric characteristics and improved instrumental separation. This helps remove a veil and reduce noise to realise clear, open sound reproduction.
Two compact low-phase-noise crystal oscillators on circuit board

Fine Sound Resistor

The surface-mounted Fine Sound Resistor ensures even, effective distribution of power to the circuit components, for consistent sound quality.
Fine Sound Register on a white background
Signal path area with precision surface‑mount circuitry

Reflow solder containing gold

The WM1ZM3 uses reflow solder containing gold, and it features extensively across the circuit board surface - so the overall effect is significant, including improved sound localisation and a wider sound space
A spool of high quality sound solder containing gold

High-quality solder containing gold

The exceptional conductivity of gold ensures absolute minimum signal loss. For clearer sound and vocals, a premium, audio-grade lead-free solder with a small amount of gold connects the circuit of the WM1ZM3 to the battery.
Micro‑section comparison of improved circuit board trace structure

Low dielectric circuit board and filled via

The printed circuit board uses 10 layers of low dielectric materials to ensure accurate signal transmission, while the via holes are filled with copper to further reduce impedance. The result is a wide sound space with clear, bright sound.

[A] Normal via  [B] Filled via

Optimised circuit board layout

By dividing the Audio block (highlighted in red) and the Power/Digital block (in blue), the circuit board layout has been optimised to ensure sound quality is unaffected by digital interference.
NW‑WM1ZM3 circuit board layout, dual audio PCB comparison
Close‑up of the top headphone jack section on NW‑WM1ZM3

Balanced connection

The WM1ZM3 features a balanced plug, designed for the Ø4.4mm balanced connection cable. This separates left and right sound signals, while minimising signal transmission loss and resulting sound deterioration. 

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