Sony relaunches Walkman as high-end $1,100 personal music player

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- In the age of portable music streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora, rather than use its once flagship product to compete in the increasingly cloud-based mobile electronics field, Sony is instead relaunching the Walkman as a high-end digital music player aimed at audiophiles and studio professionals.

Armed with the ability to easily play high-resolution and lossless FLAC files without forcing users to download additional software or follow a series of complicated steps, as is required for iPhone users looking to bypass the limitations of MP3 and AAC files, Sony's Walkman NW-ZX2 won't come cheap -- the device will retail for $1,119.99 when released in the spring.

While most portable music devices are capable of at least offering storage space for large high-quality audio files, the Android-based ZX2 features playback software Sony says won't degrade the quality of larger files, and 128 GB hard drive so users don't run out of space after uploading only a handful of albums. In addition to FLAC files, the ZX2 will support playback for DSD, WAV, AIFF and Apple Lossless, as well as other compression-free music files.

"The new Walkman ZX2 is a great example of the quality of our high-res audio offerings," Mike Fasulo, president of Sony Electronics USA, told CNN Money from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"This Walkman is tailored for outstanding sound, and every piece of material and component has been crafted to realize the ultimate high-res audio experience on the move."

The first Walkman debuted in stores on July 1, 1979, for $200 with the TPS-L2 offering users the first reasonably priced portable cassette player.