Sony announces a new Walkman, but it’s gonna cost you nearly $10K

Sony has brought back its iconic Walkman with a flash new portable music player, but the latest model comes with an eye-watering $5,899.99 price tag on its US website.

Yep, nearly six grand US for a Walkman. Which equates to roughly just over $10,000 NZD. And no, you can't chuck your old cassette in it.

The new NW-WM1ZM3 is a long way from the chunky little tape players we used to clip onto our belts. Instead, it's a high-end digital music player with a 5.5-inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and music streaming capabilities.

Sony reckons it's all about getting the absolute best sound possible, describing the new Walkman as having "unprecedented sound fidelity."

It's also got a body made from precision-machined oxygen-free copper, which sounds pretty impressive, although you'd certainly hope so for that sort of money.

The original Walkman first arrived in Japan back in 1979 and completely changed how people listened to music. More than 200 million cassette Walkmans were sold worldwide before Sony eventually pulled the plug on the tape-playing version in 2010.

Now, nearly five decades after the original launched, Sony's clearly aiming this one at serious music lovers who are happy to spend big for top-quality audio.