Frequency Response (8.8) 
The first aspect of performance that we look at is frequency response; how good a job does the player do of playing back the spread of frequencies evenly? Our test system ascertains this, and plots the graph on the right that shows the response.
Our ideal here is a flat line, which would indicate that all frequencies are played back at exactly the same level. The Sony Walkman NWZ-A729 had a rather odd response here: the bass is slightly exaggerated. Our first thought was that the equalizer might be doing this, but it wasn't; that was set to a flat response. We could not find any other settings that might control this. So, it seems that the player itself is set to boost the bass for some reason, and if that's not to your taste, you have to go in and specifically change the equalizer to drop the bass a bit. The response laos tails off a little bit at the high end, but the dip is minor, and otherwise, the frequency response is generally pretty good.
Distortion (8.83)
Distortion isn't just for guitars in heavy metal songs; media players do it too. Distortion is where the waveform that is output changes from the original sound. These changes can be caused by things like amplifiers that are poorly built or are being pushed too hard, or a problem with the digital to analog conversion of the audio file.
The Sony Walkman didn't seem to have an issue here; we found very little distortion in our test signals. This is good; a lack of distortion indicates that your music will come out just the way you like it; if it contains distortion, it will be because the guitarist turned the amp up to a Nigel Tufnel-esque 11.
Crosstalk (8.62)
Crosstalk is where the sound destined for one channel gets into the other. It happens because there is always some electrical or signal leakage inside the player, but that didn't seem to be happening with the Sony Walkman; we found only a minimal level of crosstalk, which would only be audible to the most sensitive of ears. The bottom line is that if you have a fever for more cowbell (but only in one ear), the Sony Walkman will be happy to write an appropriate prescription.
Output Power (2.25)
A media player like the Sony Walkman drives the headphones by outputting an electrical signal, and how useful this signal is is determined by the output power. The higher this is, the better job the player will be able to do of driving a set of high-end, high impedance headphones. To push out the sweet sounds in a pair of higher impedance headphones, the amplifier inside the media player has to output more energy. And it can't do that if it doesn't have the electrical muscle, so we measure this by determining how many watts a media player can output. The Sony Walkman only manged a rather puny 9 milliwatts, which is much less than many other players; even the diminutive iPod shuffle managed 18.6, and the iPod classic did a much beefier 29.5 milliwatts. This rather low figure for the Sony would mean that a pair of bigger, higher impedence headphones wouldn't get much volume, and this was borne out with our tests on a pair of Koss K501 studio headphones; with the Sony playing back at maximum volume, the volume level was only moderate. So, the Sony Walkman is not a good pick if you are planning to use the media player with a bigger pair of headphones.
Noise (9.44)
The Sony Walkman had a low noise level; we found that the signal to noise ratio (the ratio of the good output of the player, such as music against the bad, such as the noise the amplifiers generate) at around 77.2 decibels. All media players add some level of noise to the sound they output, but the Sony only introduced a very small amount; noise should not be an issue here.
Included Headphones (4.51)
The earbud style headphones that come with the Sony Walkman look pretty impressive, with a bulbous design that fits comfortably into the ear. However, they didn't prove to be that great in our tests; we found that because they sit just outside the ear, they let in a lot of outside sound and have a fair degree of leakage; you'll hear what is going on when wearing them, and the rest of the world will hear a good amount of what you are listening to as well. But they did have low distortion and pretty good frequency response, although they were a little heavy on the bass. The latter seems odd given that the player itself overemphasizes bass; perhaps the designers are drum and bass fans. Overall, the headphones are adequate, but those looking for a little aural privacy on their morning commute may want to look at investing in a pair of better in-ear headphones.
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