We'd like more dynamic punch and drive to songs that need it though the Sony can sound a touch reserved when a song demands outright fun or aggression. It can also play at loud volumes without ever sounding harsh or confused. In fact, there’s a familial throughline from the high-end NW-WM1ZM2 player to the A306 in terms of how mature and evenly balanced it sounds.

It's a pleasingly detailed and clean performance. The Sony player is adept enough to turn its hand to various genres and can even discern the differences in file qualities, while all sounding comfortable to listen to for long periods. Internally, NW-A306 is packed to the gills with features: the hi-res file support is extensive and excellent at this affordable price, the full Android OS means it effectively operates similarly to a smartphone (for better or worse) and lets you download your favourite music streaming app, and it even supports LDAC and aptX codecs over Bluetooth. The available onboard storage is rather small in comparison to other players, but it is possible to expand the storage thanks to the microSD slot. The NW-A306's connections are minimal, but that's no bad thing: the USB-C cable lets you charge, transfer files and use the Walkman as a DAC, while the 3.5mm headphone jack can be used with a variety of good-to-great headphones. It's compact and fits in palms and pockets alike comfortably, and we love the scalloped textured back that gives us a good grip without sacrificing style. Internal music storage space is only half of what’s availableĪs a portable music player, the NW-A306 fits the brief perfectly. Read the full review: Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 Best budget portable music player The presentation is hugely likeable, with a tonal balance slightly on the rich side, and a combination of power and finesse that feels very mature for a source at this level that most headphones will get along just fine with. The five-star player has the punch and rhythmic drive to keep you tapping along to upbeat tracks, and the insight to draw you into the details of those calmer ones. There's not a chance of the SR35 missing a beat with the music you send its way. The excellent SR35 boasts many of the features that made its five-star, What Hi-Fi? Award-winning predecessor so successful – including three headphone outputs (3.5mm, 4.4mm and 2.5mm), native playback of MQA, DSD256 and PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz files, 64GB of built-in storage (expandable by up to 1TB via a microSD card), and the neat ability to use the player as a performance-enhancing DAC between your wired headphones and, say, laptop.

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