Sony ... announces DSD capable hardware

[Paul R]

I think you miss the point- it doesn't matter if it is CD or downloads or whatever, if you make it easily available, people will buy it.

 

Musicians? If someone sells 50K singles on Apple? Probably pretty good, as that is $34,650 straight into the musician's pocket. Not too shabby. The hot singles that sell well - hundreds of thousands of copies - obviously make quite a bit more. Just from iTunes.

 

Again, you miss the point. The key is to convince Sony to abandon it's entire physical disk distribution system and accelerate the takeup of digital downloads. Apple doesn't need convincing. Now, how would musicians feel if all they sold were singles and very few albums?

[JJJ]

Were I a shareholder of Sony I'd be glad you're not CEO.

 

As for how much the musician gets, don't give up your day job and start playing guitar for money! :-)

[Audio_ELF]

I easily stream 24/96 to my phone now, anywhere I have cell or wifi service. That includes driving down the highway in my Jeep.

And the 16/44.1 and better files sound a lot better than Sirius XM or local FM broadcasts.

Yes, but how much data do you use on your phone tarrif a month? Thats the issue here in UK...

 

Eloise

[Paul R]

What is a phone tarrif? A charge on how much cellular data you use?

 

We have "unlimited" cellular data usage, which means after 3 gigs AT&T will throttle the connection, but we have never even approached that limit on any of the phones. That is mostly because pretty much everywhere, outside of my Jeep, that I tend listen to to music, has wi-fi. That does not count against any limits of course.

 

Of course, with 5 iPhones on my mobile plan, the monthly bill runs $300 anyway...

 

Paul

 

Yes, but how much data do you use on your phone tarrif a month? Thats the issue here in UK...

 

Eloise

[Paul R]

Ah- one of the many many wags I paid my way through school was playing piano in some upscale bars and for a friend vamping up the torch singer act. I remember the pay scale well, and not with fond memories.

 

The CEO of Sony does not care about much save profit- they see DSD as a way to make more money is all.

 

Paul

 

Were I a shareholder of Sony I'd be glad you're not CEO.

 

As for how much the musician gets, don't give up your day job and start playing guitar for money! :-)

[JJJ]

 

The CEO of Sony does not care about much save profit- they see DSD as a way to make more money is all.

 

Paul

 

He's there for that reason, yes. They're not a charity.

[JJJ]

We have "unlimited" cellular data usage, which means after 3 gigs AT&T will throttle the connection,

 

For now you do. One of the biggest mistakes made by the US "cellular" industry...

[Paul R]

Big mistake - yep. Only 10's of billions in revenue instead of 100's of billions. Thanks to Apple. My heart aches for poor old AT&T...

 

 

For now you do. One of the biggest mistakes made by the US "cellular" industry...

[Miska]

Of course, with 5 iPhones on my mobile plan, the monthly bill runs $300 anyway...

 

5 subscriptions for 1000 minutes call + 100 SMS + LTE (4G) data package would be 140€/month here. But I guess you have the phone included?

 

5 * iPhone 5 16 GB plus above package would be 265€/month here, 24 month plan. No upfront payment.

[Paul R]

Five iPhones equals upfont cost of $995 ($199 each, with two year committment to At&T, with 700 shared 'anytime' minutes per month. But... That includes unlimited mobile to mobile minutes, unlimted calling to any phone from 6pm to 6am, no long distance charges, unlimited texting, and unlited data on each line, including the use of facetime.

 

We never go over the minutes, even with me on the phone for work every day. In fact there are a ton of 'rollover' minutes on the account too.

 

Data on each phone is $30 per month, which is easily about half the bill. And two of the phones are a long way from Texas too - with one in Illinois and one on Michigan, but we never ever see long distance charges.

 

All the phones have LTE service, with network speeds around 40mbs. Now, if I can just get used to iOS 7!

 

inthink you guys have much better pricing than we do, unless you convert Euros to Dollars.

 

 

5 subscriptions for 1000 minutes call + 100 SMS + LTE (4G) data package would be 140€/month here. But I guess you have the phone included?

 

5 * iPhone 5 16 GB plus above package would be 265€/month here, 24 month plan. No upfront payment.

[Hiro]

The build quality on the Sony seems far better than on many (all?) USB DACs from this price range. I'm curious if it's as impressively built inside. The player weighs 14.5kg so surely it isn't filled with much "audiophile air".

[ted_b]

The build quality on the Sony seems far better than on many (all?) USB DACs from this price range. I'm curious if it's as impressively built inside. The player weighs 14.5kg so surely it isn't filled with much "audiophile air".

 

Which new Sony are you referring to, the ES player ($3k)? The USB DAC ($799)?

[Hiro]

Which new Sony are you referring to, the ES player? The USB DAC?

 

Their top ES HDD player HAP-Z1ES ($1,999).

[JJJ]

Much more interesting:

 

Universal Music launches High Fidelity Pure Audio discs, uncompressed albums on Blu-ray - Pocket-lint

[Miska]

Much more interesting:

 

Universal Music launches High Fidelity Pure Audio discs, uncompressed albums on Blu-ray - Pocket-lint

 

Yet another DRM'ed-to-death format. I don't know why to sell physical discs when future is in downloads.

[wappinghigh]

Much more interesting:

 

Universal Music launches High Fidelity Pure Audio discs, uncompressed albums on Blu-ray - Pocket-lint

Yeah right. Like back to the future..

[One and a half]

The Pre-release post is on Amazon for all players.

[surfmaker11]

I just read this entire thread and had to respond:

I really do not care about Sony’s motives for bringing these products to market; I believe that as someone who enjoys great sounding music, I can see some opportunity for expansion of our hobby. What I read from Sony is that they have manufactured some Hi Rez music components as well as contacted some Hi Rez music web-site distributors that when given access to the original master recordings can produce and distribute this music in download formats i.e. DSD, PCM etc. This is a big commitment from Sony regardless of your opinion of them; they came to us with an expensive marketing campaign and products they can deliver. This includes a full line of products and access to precious music vaults for people like us. The average consumer will not spend this kind of money on music yet. We (us), as audiophiles, are driving this truck and Sony knows it. If it only lasts a short period of time, maybe we gain ownership of some decent new music files. Who knows, Sony has also shown us some great ES products in the last 30 years that they abandoned and I own and use some of them every day!! As a group we represent the community that embraces great music reproduction. Let’s enjoy this and support it with excitement!!

 

 

 

As a side note,

 

I started reading and further educating myself with all your input from this forum. You all brought up very important issues in this thread that we are all very passionate about. I cannot believe how big this Forum has become in a few short years. I see this forum quoted, referred to and revered by many. This forum has shown me the power of a few passionate people. This community is growing, just look all of the DAC’s manufactured for sale today. Somebody besides us is listening and responding!!! Cheers

[Sam Lord]

Sony's move gives me more hope for hi-rez than I've had in a long time. They do have a monstrously big library.

 

The only thing that would improve my day is if we get it before Wap does. Revenge for the Battle of Brandywine, cheers.

[bmoura]

I just read this entire thread and had to respond:

I really do not care about Sony’s motives for bringing these products to market; I believe that as someone who enjoys great sounding music, I can see some opportunity for expansion of our hobby. What I read from Sony is that they have manufactured some Hi Rez music components as well as contacted some Hi Rez music web-site distributors that when given access to the original master recordings can produce and distribute this music in download formats i.e. DSD, PCM etc. This is a big commitment from Sony regardless of your opinion of them; they came to us with an expensive marketing campaign and products they can deliver.

 

Sony was showing their Hi Rez Audio servers at the recent Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) in Denver. The servers were very simple to operate and offered good sound. An impressive start for the Sony team.

[xieqiao]

I wonder how it can be possible that for HAP-S1 compact HDD audio player system, DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) faithfully restores those subtle high frequency details that get sacrificed with heavily-compressed digital music files. Sony claims that even ‘lossy’ MP3 files tracks sound clearer and more satisfying. Is this just media hype?

[xieqiao]

Oh yes, back catalogs are incredibly profitable. For instance, while iTunes sells pretty much everything new under the sun, you don't think the billions of songs they sold are all, or even mostly, new do you?

 

For instance, I would probably re-buy a bunch of my catalog in DSD if it were remastered. Certainly all the Beatles, Alan Parsons, Al Stewart, Beethoven, Copeland, Dire Straights, ELO, and so on.

 

-Paul

 

I like SACDs remastered from LP albums like RCA Living Stereo series. They sound as well or even better than CDs.

 

I'm also quite excited about the launch of HDD audio player HAP-Z1ES; integrated stereo amplifier TA-A1ES; compact HDD audio system HAP-S1; USB DAC amplifier UDA-1. It’s a milestone event marking the beginning of the end of CD/SACD players. All those debates about Vinyl vs. CD Vs. SACD are no longer relevant, since a hard disk drive player can now handle all music file formats seamlessly. This is despite the fact that by 2008, some industry experts considered the Super Audio CD format to be a failure.

 

I’m eagerly awaiting hands-on reviews of HAP-S1 and UDA-1. I hope Sony won’t regret their decision or stop upgrading this product series as it has the potential to threaten the sale of their Blu-Ray Audio discs, or what they're calling High Fidelity Pure Audio.

[xieqiao]

I have downloaded Sony’s HDD Audio Remote app for HAP-S1, and read its online help, which indicates that transferring music files stored on the PC/Mac to the HDD Audio player can only be done via WiFi or your home router’s LAN ports, and the USB port on the HAP-S1 is for connecting to an external USB hard disk drive only. As my speakers are far away from the router, I can only transfer files through WiFi, which would be too slow for transferring large music files. In addition, I don’t think HAP-S1 supports the embedded CUE sheets for FLAC and APE files, which each consists usually of multiple songs, as cue sheets apparently cannot be transferred.

[xieqiao]

Online instruction manuals for both HAP-S1 and UDA-1 are available.

Help Guide | Top HAP-S1

Help Guide | Top UDA-1

I assume that as the UDA-1's Hi-Res DAC Amplifier incorporates an asynchronous USB connector, we should be able to play APE files as well that are not directly supported by UDA-1 via MacBook's Cog audio player or Foobar2000 player on Windows 7. Under that scenario, our computer will first convert an APE file to PCM before sending it via USB to UDA-1 for processing. But there is a warning: When a signal of a format not supported is input, the USB REAR lamp flashes. Inputting such a signal may produce noise or even damage the speakers or headphones if played at a high volume.

[AudioPhil]

Yet another DRM'ed-to-death format. I don't know why to sell physical discs when future is in downloads.

 

...couldn't agree more with you. Downloads are the future for 100%.