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Sony HAP-Z1ES has arrived


Merko

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The remote app simply reads the genre tag of all your tracks and displays a list of genres it finds. So if you had a 100 tracks with a 100 different genres then you'd have 100 genres to choose from. Remove one of those tracks and you'd see a list of 99 genres. If you misspelled one then simply edit the genre tag for that track and the app will pick it up at the next scan. If you misspelled it on 10 tracks then you'd have to correct it on all 10 tracks.

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Interesting! Rechecking, I find that I can indeed edit Genre in individual tracks, but attempts at editing or deleting genre for the ALBUM can't be done by my Android app. I can get the little screen allowing me to type or delete, but then, after hitting OK, the "save" button in greyed out, allowing only "cancel." I actually have never used the genre feature. -=Art=-

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I find that I can indeed edit Genre in individual tracks, but attempts at editing or deleting genre for the ALBUM can't be done by my Android app. I can get the little screen allowing me to type or delete, but then, after hitting OK, the "save" button in greyed out, allowing only "cancel."

 

The Android app DOES allow you to edit multiple album tracks at once. After typing in your edits to the genre text and clicking OK in that little window, you then have to click the "Apply to All Tracks" button. Now the Save button is enabled. This also applies to editing album artist.

 

Also note that when clicking the genre text to bring up that little edit window, you can also click the triangle at the right of the text line to bring up a pick list so you can choose from your list of existing genres.

 

The Z1ES remote app has plenty of undocumented quirks that take time to learn -- just like all the other digital audio contraptions I've used.

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Thanks for the "heads up," walt..Actually makes sense when tagging a whole album. I'm amazed how clever the program actually is, despite the documentation which is sometimes a bit sketchy....

 

The other approach, which I'm using with the HAP-Z1ES, is to do the tagging on your PC with a program like Tag & Rename and then copy the files fully tagged to the HAP.

 

Mp3 tag editor Tag&Rename - edit tag in mp3, wma, mp4 files, automatic discogs and freedb import

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Hi. I previously indicated i might have close to 80 playlist. Fact is its not playlist at all, its album series ie. Compilation western instrumt music series 1.2.3 etc. Chinese compl instrmt music series 1.2.3 etc. English male voices. E Female voices. C m voices. C f voices. Artist album series (i have many singers, each singer consisted of 20 to 40 cds). Major label series etc etc just to list a few. Thats is how i want to browse my albums, cause its a pitty i love listen to chinese voices but i dont read chinese therefore i will rely heavily on cover art to find my music. Alternatively is browse by folders, question is does sony allow sub folders. Ie artist folder and a list of albums in subfolder. I just look into the app that browse by folder does not seem to show cover art.

Another question on embedding image to album and individual flac. Is dbpamp allow small 200x200 pixel embed in each flac file while a large image say 1000x1000 for album cover.

Thankyou

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does sony allow sub folders. Ie artist folder and a list of albums in subfolder. I just look into the app that browse by folder does not seem to show cover art.

Another question on embedding image to album and individual flac. Is dbpamp allow small 200x200 pixel embed in each flac file while a large image say 1000x1000 for album cover.

 

Yes, it allows subfolders. If you use the music transfer app to keep the Sony automatically in sync with your computer then it exactly replicates the folder structure from your computer. Alternatively, you can manually transfer all your files and put them in any folder structure you want. You can't create folders from the remote app; you would do that while manually transferring files from your computer. For example, like while using Windows Explorer.

 

You are correct, in the remote app the Folder view does NOT display album art. However, you do get to see album art while browsing Genres, Artists, Albums, Favorites, and Playlists. And what they call the "Full Browser" view in the tablet version of the app.

 

As far as multiple album art images, I don't see how that would be possible. If a file has album art imbedded, then the app uses that for display everywhere. Whatever image you embed, then that is considered the album image and it would never look anywhere else for a second images.

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I have seen a few posts from people who already replaced the internal drive. Can you please post the steps how to do it? Where is it located and what's the best way to get to it. Sorry for maybe silly questions but I want to put SSD into HAP-Z1ES my skills are pretty limited in this area.

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I have seen a few posts from people who already replaced the internal drive. Can you please post the steps how to do it? Where is it located and what's the best way to get to it. Sorry for maybe silly questions but I want to put SSD into HAP-Z1ES my skills are pretty limited in this area.

 

1) Remove the top cover - 3 screws on the back, 2 on top at the front

 

2) Unplug the SATA cables (2 - power and data, both molded red ribbon cables)

 

3) Unplug the power connector for the fan cable - note orientation of the connector. I don't believe it is keyed

 

4) Remove 4 screws to free the HDD/fan carrier bracket. Two of the screws are on the top accessible though oles in the flange of the front panel. The other two are on the bottom. You will need a small phillips screwdriver with a reasonable long shaft for the bottom ones.

 

5) Remove the 4 screws to release the HDD.

 

reverse everything for assembly with the SSD. You will want a magnetic screwdriver to work with the screws for the HDD bracket so you don't loose them in the bowels of the unit.

 

Once the SSD is installed, turn the HAP on and you will get a error message about not being able to read the drive. Do a factory reset via the System Settings menu and after a few minutes, you will be ready to go with the demo tracks copied over to the SSD.

Rig 1: CM9s2, CM8s2, CMC, VTF-15H, Emotiva XMC-1, XPA-5, Aries Deluxe via S/PDIF

Rig 2: Sennheiser HD650, Woo WA-2, PS Audio Power Plant Premier, Sony HAP-Z1ES

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Hi. I previously indicated i might have close to 80 playlist. Fact is its not playlist at all, its album series ie. Compilation western instrumt music series 1.2.3 etc. Chinese compl instrmt music series 1.2.3 etc. ..

 

For each album or rack in your classification, try entering the name of your classification as a Genre in the remote app (or tag with mp3tag on the PC before transfer) and then select that genre for playback and you will have a playlist of sorts....

 

JM

Nearfield Desk System: PC with JRiver MC > Sonore microRendu > Schiit Gungnir USB DAC > 6AH4 Linestage > 6CB5A Amp  >Dave's Cables > Omega Super 3 Desktop Speakers on 1-3/4" Maple Butcher Block Table

 

My "Living Room" System: Sony HAP-Z1ES Player, 2 Pass Labs XA60.5 (Mids/Lows), Pass Labs XA30.5 Amp (Highs), First Watt B4 & B5 Crossovers, Nuforce MCP-18 Preamp, Oppo BDP-103D Video Player, Parasound 275v2 Amp (Center), Parasound 275v2 Amp (SL, SR) Paradigm 90P Full Range Speakers with Powered Subwoofers, Paradigm CC Center Channel, Paradigm Mini Monitor Surrounds, Sony KDL46XBR9 Monitor

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Thanks JM.

Yes I think im going to do as advised filling in the "Genre" tag with classification or album group/series as genre. This I think would be the simplest way of navigating and browsing my cd collections for me. Even thought the word "Genres" not really is genres for what Im going to do (wish I could rename it to appropriate title heading ie "Album Groups").

Does any here include (embed) lyrics in their flac file? Does sony app display lyric while playing and how much file size space doe lyric take up?

Its good to have all the answers I want so I only need to do it once and do it right.

Thankyou

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The well known 'compilation disc' problem...

 

I want to be able to 'find' a compilation album through it's Name or Genre and play the tracks while showing the track name and artist name.

From several specialists I read the advice to fill in the track artist name and set the album artist name to 'various'. When I do this I cannot find the album under Genre (all tracks are scattered under the track artist names). If I select such a track and press/hold my finger (using the IOS app) I get an option to merge albums (which then says there is only one album in that folder, which is correct). But I would love to see the option "Merge tracks" here...

The only working solution I know so far is renaming all track titles to "track name - artist name", but this makes the artist name get lost...

 

Who has found a good working solution for the compilation tracks problem, in this case on the ZAP-Z1ES?

 

This is what I use currently:

 

Album name = Sounds of Wood and Steel

File name========Track Name======Artist======Album Artist====Genre

01 - Guitar Land.flac==Guitar Land===Russ Freeman==Various Artists==Acoustic Guitar

02 - I Will Take .flac==I Will Take===Susanna Hoffs==Various Artists==Acoustic Guitar

03 - Cajon Pass.flac===Cajon Pass===Phil Keaggy===Various Artists==Acoustic Guitar

 

When searching for the album, using the IOS app:

 

=> Albums => "S" => Album found!

=> Genre => Acoustic Guitar => No album found with this name

=> Artist => Russ Freeman => One album track found (and all tracks thus scattered)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Have been playing with my new HAP-Z1 for a couple of weeks now. I had the Marantz NA7004 as a network player and was very disappointed about the user interface and app. I read many positive reports about the Sony and finally gave it a try. And I am not disappointed! This Sony makes playing music to fun again. The app works fast, looks great and has some unexpected nice features. For instance, I can switch between the console, the iPad and iPhone and the music keeps on playing. Start a song on the console and notice on the iPad that the sing is playing. Also nice: turn off the Sony and the next time the Sony starts where it was left at shut down!

The app responds super fast, I can scroll through 35.000 (!) tracks with no problem. And the user interface matches its background color to the current art work.

Switching between current track (with tech info), album and whole collection is easy, both forward and backward.

Multiple CD's are recognized as well!

 

The Sony starts up pretty fast too.

 

The only negative thing is that I had to copy my music collection to the internal hard disc. Apart from taking a very long time the biggest disadvantage is that I can no longer rename or move folders on the source drive. If I do the Sony sees it as new music.

 

But all in all I am very happy with the Sony's user interface. It makes playing music to fun again!

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Have been playing with my new HAP-Z1 for a couple of weeks now. I had the Marantz NA7004 as a network player and was very disappointed about the user interface and app. I read many positive reports about the Sony and finally gave it a try. And I am not disappointed! This Sony makes playing music to fun again. The app works fast, looks great and has some unexpected nice features. For instance, I can switch between the console, the iPad and iPhone and the music keeps on playing. Start a song on the console and notice on the iPad that the sing is playing. Also nice: turn off the Sony and the next time the Sony starts where it was left at shut down!

The app responds super fast, I can scroll through 35.000 (!) tracks with no problem. And the user interface matches its background color to the current art work.

Switching between current track (with tech info), album and whole collection is easy, both forward and backward.

Multiple CD's are recognized as well!

 

The Sony starts up pretty fast too.

 

The only negative thing is that I had to copy my music collection to the internal hard disc. Apart from taking a very long time the biggest disadvantage is that I can no longer rename or move folders on the source drive. If I do the Sony sees it as new music.

 

But all in all I am very happy with the Sony's user interface. It makes playing music to fun again!

 

I thought the limit was 20,000? Has that changed?

 

Yes, Sony states in a published manual 20,000 (twenty thousand) is the limit. Otherwise corruption will occur. This limit has not changed.

 

boomklever I am glad you like the HAP-Z1ES, can you provide a cellphone pic of your library count?

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I have it on good authority directly from Sony reps that the 20,000 track limit is for optimal speed and responsiveness, and that you can go to a much higher number of tracks while only sacrificing the system's response time.

 

I noticed the 20,000 limit after I bought the Sony and was very disappointed about that, but also surprised. Why a limit and why at 20,000? Then I read a posting about performance, so I just started uploading my music. There is no limit in the uploading process, so that is already a good indication.

I wrote 35,000 but that was my local disc file count. Apparently I did not upload everything. The counter now shows 28,005:

 

image.jpg

 

The performance is slightly slower than initially, but I find it quite acceptable. Especially the scrolling is still superfast.

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Hello there,

 

I'm sorry if this was asked before (I tried to search for as many keywords as possible without success). So here it goes:

 

I'm wondering if I could plug my iPhone or iPad into the HAP-Z1ES or the matching TA-A1ES and then play whatever is playing in it onto the unit. I know there is no airplay so to be able to stream over the USB cable would suffice. The reason for it would be the lack of Pandora, Songza and other stream radios which I listen constantly as background music. I want this units for the sound quality and because my Denon Piccolo does not play DSD files (which I convert to 24-192 and stream from the NAS), but the lack of not so hi-res options is making me wonder if there will be a second version with it in the future.

 

Thanks in advance

 

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The HAP-Z1ES will only play what is stored on its hard drive(s) and the vTuner service, so you cannot play files from your phone or tablet on it. Of course you can connect your device to an available input of your TA-A1ES, but it will not benefit from the superior D2A conversion of the Z1ES.

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  • 4 weeks later...

My quest for a simple player of files could be this product from Sony, shame no digital out but I think I can live with that but one thing I can't live with is noise.

 

I sit with my system to the left side of my listening seat and any excessive noise, fans or hard drives, disc drives annoys me so the question I haven't seen asked so far is how much noise does the internal drive create during use. Is it audible from a few feet away?

 

To date getting a dedicated silent PC built as a simple player, digital out to DAC and a few inputs to external HDs was going to cost a lot and not give me a nice simple, bug free way of playing the files I have and the Sony seems to be the best option, as I don't want streaming or hook up to a NAS etc, so internal drive and additional music on another HD, suits what I would like almost to a T.

 

Yes not being able to hook up an existing drive loaded with music up is a pain, unlike the quick process it is to add an HD to any PC and JRiver sort it in minutes but reading this thread there was a comment re FAT 32 now being supported is that correct ? And can one now hook a music loaded FAT32 HD up without having to repopulate it via the HAP app?

 

So is this unit noisy in use, is my only deal breaker question if the answer is yes.

 

Does anyone know how the sound compares to an AMR DP777 DAC?

 

 

Thank you in advance.

 

 

Regards Neil

Regards Neil

 

System Details: Fujitsu/Acer Notebook/Sony Vaio laptops + 2TB eGo HD, J River/Winamp, Belkin Gold USB cables, AMR DP777 DAC, BAT VK300 SE Integrated amplifier, Gallo Reference 3 SA amplifier , Moon Andromeda CD Player, Anthony Gallo Reference 3.1 speakers + much more.....

 

 

 

 

 

'Its only by asking questions that we can learn'

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