索尼似乎正在推动恢复其35岁的Walkman音乐播放器，与新的Walkman ZX1高分辨率音频设备恢复。
The 128GB digital music player is among a couple dozen productsSony has rolled outover the past year, all aimed at audiophiles who believe they can discern the difference between compressed music formats and uncompressed "ultra-high quality" files.
According tothe Wall Street Journal, Sony has launched more than 25 types of high-resolution audio devices since September, 2013. The company says the new devices account for "more than 20% of all audio sales for the October through March period."
The Sony Walkman ZX1 with 128GB of capacity and the ability to play high-definition audio (source: Sony).
索尼没有回复计算机世界的要求，以评论ZXI Walkman销售数据，但根据期刊，新的高清步行者在日本销售，在12月份首次发布。2月，ZX1在亚洲和欧洲的其他地区发布。它尚未在美国释放
Among consumers,the most popular file format或者编解码器仍然是mp3 - 压缩文件格式称为“有损”，否则数据在从原始主站到压缩格式的转换中丢失了数据。通过对每秒采样44,100次来记录“高清晰度”或模拟音频，然后使用样本在数字上播放时重建音频信号。例如，CD上的未压缩文件使用44.1kHz或每秒数据的1,411英镑（Kbps）。
In online music stores such as iTunes, an MP3 music file offers a bit rate of up to 256Kbps. Uncompressed audio files, however, can take up to ten times the amount of storage space on a device drive.
The original Sony Walkman released in 1979 (Source: Sony).
For example, a typical album of songs stored as uncompressed WAV files takes up 640MB of space. The same album of songs in MP3 format can vary in size depending on the quality a user chooses during the ripping process (if they're copying it), but in general it will take up about 60MB.
There are other lossless formats beyond WAV (short for Waveform Audio File Format), including FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format), WMA (Windows Media Audio), and Apple's ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec). These lossless file formats have been gaining popularity because they require less storage space than WAV files. They first compress the data and then, like a zip files, allow it to be opened and heard in the original, uncompressed format. The highest resolution lossless file, for example, has a whopping-high bit rate of 9,216Kbps, or 36 times more data than an MP3 file from iTunes offers.
Sony's ZX1 Walkman supports AAC (a lossy file format), FLAC, MP3, WMA.
大卫·切斯基创立高清音乐download sitehdtracks.com.六年前，称几十万人每月访问该网站购买文件。
"And we're scaling out: Millions of people in the world are audiophiles," he said in an earlier interview with Computerworld.
HDTRACKS以包含96,000 / 24位的格式销售音频文件（指为每秒96,000个样本和24位率）和高级192,000 / 24格式。HDTRACKS允许用户在AFFF，FLAC，ALAC和WAV格式下载下载音乐之间。
"It's not rocket science to see how much more information is in that file," Chesky said. "We're like a 1080p high-definition television set next to a 15-inch black and white. We're for people who listen to music attentively. If you want to listen to music while you're vacuuming, we're not the service for you."
不是每个人都同意谢谢斯基。
有些专家认为，人类耳朵无法辨别压缩音频文件和无损格式文件之间的差异。
Paul O'Donovan是Gartner的主要研究分析师，说，可能有些人在一个具有非常高质量的音频设备的安静的休息室，可能能够听到格式之间的差异，但即使是高品质的耳机，外出关于在街道上行走或公共场所“那些微妙的东西一般会丢失。”
"After all, this is the purpose of a mobile device, that you can take it anywhere, so I'm not really sure what the advantage would be to the ordinary man in the street," O'Donovan said. "Is it worth $700? Probably not to most people, but then I don't think this is the aim of Sony."
Paul Gray是DisplaySearch的电子研究主任，同意索尼的ZX1是Aigiophiles的利基产品。
Gray believes the average consumer can hear the difference between a CD and an .MP3 recording, and increasing the bit rate on that .MP3 file is also detectable.
But when it comes to increasing the sampling rate of an audio file, that is a different animal.
“对CD的更高速率取样是有争议的，因为它与所有数学采样理论相矛盾。我从未遇到过双盲测试结果证实它是听觉的，”格雷说。
While some distortions, also known as "artifacts," can be introduced when music is compressed into a new file format, hearing those noises would require "a very clean listening environment, not so easy for a mobile product," Gray said.
“大多数消费者更愿意在一部新手机上花700美元，”灰色补充道。
Lucas Mearian涵盖消费者数据存储，消费化IT，移动设备管理，可再生能源，可再生能源，远程信息处理/汽车技术和娱乐技术。在Twitter上关注推特上的卢卡斯@lucasmearian或订阅Lucas's RSS feed. His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.
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This story, "Is Sony's Walkman set to make a comeback?" was originally published byComputerworld .