Review on Sony NW-A55 16GB High-Resolution Digital Music Player Walkman Moonlit Blue - International Version with Seller Warranty by Nate Nelson

The interface is vivid, elegant, well organized, and the text and album art are crisp and clear. It is a pleasure to use and navigate. When navigating through the menu, the small icon takes you back to the currently playing song with one click. In general, I prefer ClearAudio mode when using headphones. I also connect headphones to my main stereo where I prefer a flat output response. However, there are many audio processing options that are very effective when I want to change the output profile. They can also be used in combinations. The sound quality is excellent in my opinion. It also sounds very good with headphones connected to the main receiver. The only issue with the headphone output is that even with the player volume turned up to 95/120, I still have to crank the receiver volume up a lot. I wish the player had a line out jack for connection to a stereo system or even better a SPDIF digital output so it could act as a digital transport to the Denon receiver's built in DAC. Sounds so good I've replaced all my mp3s with flac - you can clearly hear the difference even compared to a 320kbps mp3. This is the first player I've used that supports Flac. I put a 256GB microSD card in the player, there are no problems. The player acts as a USB DAC input, which is very convenient for a computer. I use it when listening to music on my computer but I don't use it when watching videos as there is a sound lag. Maybe it's a configuration problem on my end. I appreciate the LDAC support for Bluetooth. Too bad my built in receiver only works with SBC so I can't use the player's LDAC but there was no problem connecting the SBC and playing it but the SBC is too compressed. The player works seamlessly with Sony Media Center for PC. It doesn't seem to work well with Windows Media Player as it isn't recognized as an audio device. The build quality is excellent. It feels durable and well built. The first day I had it I accidentally dropped it 3 feet onto the tiles with no problem. I then bought him a silicone skin in case that happens again. Battery life is really excellent and the charge saver feature maximizes battery life in the long run by not allowing the battery to charge more than 90% or something like that. I would definitely buy this player again but wish it had a digital output option. In the small form factor, the device packs a lot - actually pretty amazing. The size is just right - not too big and not too small. The price is great for such a high quality player.