Sony has announced a $160 ‘Premium Sound’ memory card because, well, f*ck it, why not. (The sheer number of headlines that have gone through my mind for this headline and the rage and problems that this represents at Sony are beyond comical). Designed to be used with the new premium Walkman NW-ZX2, which by itself fetches a $1,200 price tag and offers oodles of features like noise cancelation and native support for Hi-Res Audio, the new lossless audio format, these latest Premium Sound micro SDXC memory cards will be sold in Japan for around $160. Best part, they cost roughly 5 times the normal price of an SDXC card but surely we can expect a sound difference right?

According to Sony, the SR-64HXA micro SDXC memory card creates less electrical noise when reading data. Those familiar with flash memory already know how near silent the format is compared to traditional hard drives that spin. In fact, it’s likely that nobody can actually hear any sound from their flash drive, though the theory is that even the small vibrations can leak into the music you’re enjoying.

Sony is betting that, if you’re willing to pay $1,200 for the Sony Walkman NW-ZX2, then you won’t mind paying a little more for their memory card. It’s like buying a $10,000 TV and purchasing Belkin HDMI cables vs. Monster cables. You’re already paying that much so why not a little more to ensure nothing is lost, even though there is no evidence to point that the Monster cables or the Premium Sound cards provide any cleaner or more quiet data?

Discuss:

Do you think there is a market for the Sony Premium Sound SR-64HXA micro SDXC memory cards?