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- Sony has unveiled three new premium Walkmans, led by the gold-plated AUD $8,499 NW-WM1ZM3.
- Its flagship Walkman features a precision-machined oxygen-free copper chassis, gold-plated screws, Kimber Kable wiring and redesigned power circuitry.
- With Australian availability beginning in late November, you can grab the NW-WM1AM3 for AUD $3,999 or the NW-ZX900 for AUD $2,799.
Well, I’ll be damned. It’s 2026, and Sony has unveiled a gold-plated Walkman for AUD $8,499. It doesn’t play cassettes. It won’t play CDs like its Discman brethren. This thing is designed for the world of digital music, with a precision-machined copper body, gold-plated screws, and the sort of intricate metalwork you’d expect in a space shuttle, not something that fits in your pocket.
Nearly five decades after the original Walkman changed how we listen to music, Sony is still finding ways to make a dedicated portable music player intriguing in a world where streaming has taken the reins from discs, tapes and vinyl. Its latest premium lineup includes three models: the flagship NW-WM1ZM3, the AUD $3,999 NW-WM1AM3, and the AUD $2,799 NW-ZX900.
Now, you might wonder what on earth goes into a Walkman that costs more than plenty of home hi-fi systems do all put together. It costs about as much as a lot of the watches we show off. Hell, you could probably buy a near fully-specced-out Mac Mini M4 Pro with 4TB of storage for AUD $7,349 and still have money left over to drop on a pair of Grammy-tuned Sony 1000X THE COLLEXION headphones.
But beneath that shiny exterior, things start to get a little crazy. The flagship’s copper chassis features intricate machined grooves and recesses, with Sony going to extraordinary lengths to refine the electrical components inside.
1/4What’s Under All That Glitter and Gold?
Sony machined the NW-WM1ZM3’s main and rear chassis from 99.99 per cent pure, oxygen-free copper before applying a gold-plated finish. It’s a massive elemental leap beyond the previous generation, which paired a copper main chassis with an aluminium rear section.
Even the screws that hold it all together have received extra special treatment. Sony says its low-resistance gold plating improves electrical grounding and helps reduce unwanted interference. Basically, the copper chassis and gold-plated screws create a low-resistance path for unwanted electrical currents, helping prevent interference from affecting the music. Those screws ensure a more reliable connection between all that metal. Sony says it’s all about reducing interference from the delicate audio circuitry. And according to sound engineer Hiroaki Sato, those seemingly insignificant fasteners made “a world of difference in sound quality” during development.
Inside, Sony replaced the single large capacitor with two, giving the amplifier a smoother electrical supply to reduce fluctuations during playback. They’ve also introduced hand-soldered copper wiring and fitted thicker Kimber Kable wiring inherited from their DMP-Z1 music player.
A larger copper coil helps filter the balanced headphone output, while a much heavier machined copper block covers the digital circuitry to improve grounding and reduce interference. Pretty much every component has been reconsidered to help keep unwanted electrical noise out of your music.
If that sounds like a lot for a Walkman, it is. Sony reckons these changes contribute to more powerful bass, greater clarity and a wider soundstage. Whether that translates into an audible improvement worth $8,499 remains to be heard, but the engineering is quite frankly fascinating.
1/10Three Walkmans, Three Price Tags, One Made of Gold
The NW-WM1AM3 costs AUD $3,999, and swaps out the flagship’s all-copper construction for an aluminium-alloy main chassis and a gold-plated copper rear section. It might not be as pretty, but it retains much of the upgraded power circuitry, including the dual capacitors.
At AUD $2,799, the smaller NW-ZX900 takes a similar aluminium-and-copper approach, with upgraded voltage regulation and clock components borrowed from the higher-end players.
All three use Sony’s S-Master HX digital amplifier and DSD Remastering Engine, which can now process downloaded music and audio streamed over Wi-Fi. The WM1 models feature 5.5-inch touchscreens and up to 35 hours of claimed MP3 playback, while the ZX900 gets a 5-inch display and up to 40 hours.
The ZX900 arrives in Australia from late November, followed by both WM1 models in mid-December.
Unless money is no object, I wouldn’t suggest a casual listener drop nearly $9K on a gold-plated Sony Walkman. Instead, I can imagine these in the hands of mastering engineers listening back to a high-resolution mix away from the studio, an audiophile with a library of lossless recordings wanting something purpose-built to play them or an up-and-coming DJ listening back to their latest tracks. Whether the flagship justifies its extraordinary price is another question, but there’s no denying it’s a stunning piece of audio engineering that lives up to the Walkman name.
Sony Premium Walkman Lineup – Key Specs
Sony NW-WM1ZM3
- Price: AUD $8,499
- Chassis: Gold-plated, 99.99 per cent pure oxygen-free copper main and rear chassis
- Audio: S-Master HX amplifier, DSD Remastering Engine, Kimber Kable wiring
- Display: 5.5-inch touchscreen
- Battery: Up to 35 hours (128kbps MP3 playback)
- Availability: Mid-December 2026
Sony NW-WM1AM3
- Price: AUD $3,999
- Chassis: Aluminium-alloy main chassis, gold-plated oxygen-free copper rear
- Audio: S-Master HX amplifier, DSD Remastering Engine, dual-capacitor power circuitry
- Display: 5.5-inch touchscreen
- Battery: Up to 35 hours (128kbps MP3 playback)
- Availability: Mid-December 2026
Sony NW-ZX900
- Price: AUD $2,799
- Chassis: Aluminium-alloy main chassis, gold-plated oxygen-free copper rear
- Audio: S-Master HX amplifier, DSD Remastering Engine
- Display: 5-inch touchscreen
- Battery: Up to 40 hours (128kbps MP3 playback)
- Availability: Late November 2026
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