The Wall Street Journal reports that Sony will be bringing what is labeled as a "premium sound" microSDXC card to market in Japan next month. In spite of the fact that these cards use packetized digital signaling and "noise" below a certain threshold is immaterial to the proper reading of data from media, and despite the fact that even Sony isn’t sure about the viability of a "premium sound" microSDXC card, the company does think that there are people out there who will want it.

"We aren’t that sure about the product’s potential demand," the Journal quotes a Sony spokesperson as saying, "but we thought some among people who are committed to great sound quality would want it."

That statement can be unpacked in a number of different ways, including a few that are particularly unflattering—like, "We figured we could make this and sell it for a ludicrously high margin and there would be people out there who would buy it because it says 'premium sound' on it, regardless of its actual efficacy."

Speaking of margins, the 64GB "premium sound" SR-64HXA MicroSDXC card is expected to retail in Japan for about $160—a price that the Journal characterizes as being about five times the price of other Class 10 microSDXC cards (a quick check on Amazon shows that cards with similar sizes and speed ratings cost a bit over $20 at the low end).

It’s not obvious what effect the SR-64HXA will have on music; Sony says only that the card will produce "less electrical noise when reading data," a statement that contains no quantitative technical details. However, a total lack of details isn’t something that stops a certain class of audio-obsessed consumer from spending crazy sums of money on products that do basically nothing.