Sony's 2026 Walkmans Start at $1,899.99, Topped by a 670g Copper WM1ZM3 at $5,899.99

Sony has refreshed the top of its Walkman line. On 15 October 2026 the company announced three new high-end digital audio players — the NW-ZX900, the NW-WM1AM3 and the flagship NW-WM1ZM3 — and opened US preorders the same day. The range was shown publicly for the first time the following morning at the StereoNET Melbourne Hi-Fi & AV Expo, which ran 16–18 October.

The three players replace the 2022 NW-WM1AM2 and NW-WM1ZM2 and the ZX700 series, and US prices land well above what the outgoing models asked. The ZX900 is $1,899.99, the WM1AM3 is $2,999.99 and the WM1ZM3 is $5,899.99. Japan's Stereo Sound ONLINE notes that the WM1 pair has roughly doubled in price versus the previous generation.

A copper flagship that weighs 670g

The headline change is physical. The NW-WM1ZM3's main chassis is precision-machined from 99.99% pure oxygen-free copper and gold-plated, with a separate oxygen-free copper rear chassis and its own gold-plated screws. Internal balanced wiring comes from KIMBER KABLE, and Sony says the wiring derives from work done for its DMP-Z1 desktop player.

All that metal has a consequence: the WM1ZM3 weighs about 670g, against roughly 490g for the WM1ZM2 it replaces. This is a portable player in the sense that it runs on a battery, not in the sense that you will forget it is in your coat. It carries a 5.5-inch Full HD screen and 256GB of internal storage.

The NW-WM1AM3 sits a step below with a machined aluminium main chassis and a press-formed, gold-plated oxygen-free copper rear. It shares the 5.5-inch Full HD display, halves the storage to 128GB and weighs about 425g.

The NW-ZX900 is the most compact of the three: an aluminium main chassis with a gold-plated OFC rear, a 5-inch Full HD screen, 64GB of storage and a weight of about 345g. That is a substantial jump from the ZX707, which Stereo Sound puts at about 227g. Sony has also given the ZX900 the new ultra-low-noise LDO regulator and crystal oscillators used in the two WM1 models, so the power and clocking work is shared across the range rather than reserved for the flagships.

What's new inside

Every model uses Sony's S-Master HX digital amplification, now with a new look-ahead noise shaper. The DSD Remastering Engine returns, converting PCM to 11.2MHz DSD, and for this generation it also works with streamed music rather than local files alone — a change several outlets singled out. Worth being precise about what that is: it is a conversion applied on the way to the output, not a route to a native DSD recording.

The two WM1 models now carry two large solid high-polymer capacitors where the previous generation used one. All three players offer 3.5mm and 4.4mm balanced outputs, USB DAC mode and microSD expansion.

On Bluetooth, Stereo Sound reports that the ZX900 supports LDAC, aptX Adaptive and LC3, while the WM1 models add aptX Adaptive and LC3 to their codec list.

Sony has not disclosed the DAC implementation or output power figures for any of the three, so anyone trying to compare them on paper against rivals is working with an incomplete sheet.

Battery life

Sony's quoted runtimes are measured with MP3 at 128kbps over the balanced output — a best-case benchmark rather than a figure you should expect from high-resolution files. On that basis both WM1 models are rated up to 35 hours and the ZX900 up to 40 hours. Using streaming apps in offline mode, the figures drop to 31 hours for the WM1 players and 35 hours for the ZX900.

Prices and availability

• NW-ZX900 — $1,899.99 (A$2,799 in Australia; about $1,350 / JPY 214,000 estimated market price in Japan)
• NW-WM1AM3 — $2,999.99 (A$3,999; JPY 346,500 estimated market price in Japan)
• NW-WM1ZM3 — $5,899.99 (A$8,499; JPY 654,500 estimated market price in Japan)

The Japanese figures are open-price estimated market prices and Sony's Japanese release date is 27 November. Australian retailer Minidisc has opened preorders locally. In the United States, preorders opened 15 October; Sony has not published firm US ship dates. All figures quoted here are announced MSRP.

Reading the move

Two things stand out about this generation. The first is that Sony has pushed the flagship further into the realm of the desk-bound object — 670g of machined copper with audiophile-brand internal wiring is a statement about construction more than about portability, and the price moves with it. The second is that the engineering trickle-down is broader than usual: the ZX900, at roughly a third of the flagship's price, gets the same regulator and oscillator work, the same amplification architecture and the same streaming-capable DSD remastering, and it is rated for the longest battery life of the three.

Whether the copper chassis and KIMBER wiring justify the gap between the WM1AM3 and the WM1ZM3 is a question no specification sheet answers, and Sony has kept the measurements that might inform it — DAC, output power — to itself. Every sonic claim attached to this range so far is Sony's own. With the players only just shown in public in Melbourne and US units not yet shipping, independent listening will have to wait.

Dollar figures converted from local currencies are approximate, at the ECB reference rate of 15 October 2026.