Sony tempts audiophiles with new super-expensive 'Premium Sound' microSD card

Sony tempts audiophiles with new super-expensive 'Premium Sound' microSD card

Sony announces a new 64GB "Premium Sound" microSD card for audiophiles that costs about $160.

Sony

Audiophiles, you're not totally happy with the the sound quality of your top-of-the-line digital player and not sure what to blame? Turns out, it might just be the SD card you're using. At least Sony thinks so.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the company announced today a new "Premium Sound" memory card, called the SR-64HXA, that will start shipping next month. According to the company, this card is designed to create little to no electric noise when data is being read from it, hence offering clearer sound quality compared with regular cards.

The good news is that this is not another Sony Memory Stick, but a standard Class 10 microSDXC (or microSD card for short) that fits in any device that has a microSD card slot. The bad news is that this new card will cost some ¥18,500 (that's roughly equivalent to about $160 in the US, £100 in the UK and AU$200) for just 64GB of storage space. In comparison, you can get a regular Class 10 64GB SD card for less than $30.

Financially, there's no reason for you to get this new card for your smartphone or tablet. However, if you're going to get the high-end Walkman NW-ZX2 that Sony started shipping earlier this month that costs HK$8,880 ($1,150), spending another $160 for the memory card doesn't sound too over the top.

And that's a big if. Even Sony is not so sure about the demand of the new card, according to its spokesperson, but it believes that some "who are committed to committed to great sound quality would want it."

The SR-64HXA is slated to be available on March 5 in Japan. After that, if the sound quality is still not on par with your expectation, maybe you should have your ears checked.