Sony HAP-Z1ES has arrived

[wormcycle]

Very timely note as today was the first time when I used the HAPZ1ES balanced out to a Bryston preamp (actually BHA 1 with preamp out). Even though my power amplifier balanced input seems to be there only for convenience (Emotiva XPA-2) the improvement of sound quality was evident. Cannot say if this is Sony balanced output or Bryston, could not compare it with any other preamp, but I was sublime. By the way buying HAPZ1ES was the best decision about my audio system I ever made. I was able focus on my music instead of on regenerating USB...

[gstew]

I've been pretty deep into the HAPZ and I would suggest in the stock unit, the two outputs are roughly equivalent. The SE has better op amps, but not quite as good output coupling caps. The situation reverses for the balanced output. There are likely sonic differences, but they should be pretty slight... when I compared them, I didn't find much difference between them into my DIY'd Hypex NC400 monoblocks.

 

I don't doubt the two outputs will sound different into most amps or preamps that have both SE and balanced inputs, but I strongly suspect has more to do with the difference between those inputs, not a difference between the HAPZ outputs.

 

See my more detailed post over at that Headfi thread.

 

Greg in Mississippi

[likearollingstone]

Remove the top cover and install a SSD, I recommend a 1TB Samsung 850 EVO. (2TB even bigger)

Once the SSD is installed, perform a factory restore from the menu, it will format the SSD in less then 3 minutes.

 

 

have been playing with this device for the past couple of months and saw this and was wondering if you ever changed out the HD for an SSD

 

Linux (which I am assuming the HAP uses) does not activate TRIM by default. In time this device, (if not trim enabled) will become slower and slower...

 

I did add a 2TB internal and experimented with a 4TB. Although one person said he was successful in adding a 4TB internally, I could not get it to work

 

One of the things that was really bugging me was when adding large number of songs via network, the unit would always turn off (especially when trying to drag and drop). I found a workaround, just use the radio feature and the unit will not only play music, but still allow songs to added in the background AND will not turn off..

[Hydrology]

Great firmware update to the unit overnight - music server ability as well as USB DAC functionality. Hard to find info on Sony's site at this time so working off what I read on screen before pressing OK...

[Mike37]

Great firmware update to the unit overnight - music server ability as well as USB DAC functionality. Hard to find info on Sony's site at this time so working off what I read on screen before pressing OK...

 

Look in product support downloads on Sony US site:

 

Release Date10/18/2016 Version18033R File Size1 Bytes DOWNLOAD File Description:

IMPORTANT: This update is available only by performing a Network Upgrade.

This firmware upgrade (version 18033R) provides the following improvements over version 17384R:

 

• Adds support for the Media Server function
  
• Adds support for the USB digital output function(USB hub support for connecting each of one HDD drive, one CD drive, and one USB DAC)
  
• Adds support for Seek operations
  
• Adds support for the Fade In/Out function
  
• Adds the Go to genre/artist/album/folder function to the Options menu
  
• Adds the following operations:
  
  • Queuing the track next to the one currently playing, and queuing the track last
    
  • Deleting the track from the play queue
    
  • Creating a playlist with the play queue
    
  • Deleting the playlist
    
  • Deleting the track from the playlist
    
  • Deleting the information of a disconnected external hard disk drive
    

IMPORTANT: To use the HDD Audio Remote app on your smartphone or tablet you must update the app software using the Google Play™ online store for Android™ devices, or the iTunes® App Store for iOS devices.

[likearollingstone]

 

• Adds support for the Media Server function
  
• Adds support for the USB digital output function(USB hub support for connecting each of one HDD drive, one CD drive, and one USB DAC)
  

 

 

nice of them to update

would be nice to know what these 2 buy you

 

also, wonder if they added support for larger than 2TB internal drive?

 

TRIM support for SSDs ?

[gadame]

I understood on the :

• Adds support for the USB digital output function(USB hub support for connecting each of one HDDdrive, one CD drive, and one USB DAC)
  

Is just possible to connect a USB HUB to connect a HDDdrive and CD drive at the same Ext USB port, but not possible to connect at the same time on the HUB USB DAC? or Just connect one device on the Ext USB port? Just one HDD drive or one CD drive, or one DAC? Does anyone can clarify my doubt? Hope to explained well! regards.

[Mike37]

Gadame,

I agree that the wording is confusing. The definition of "each" is "everything in a group of two or more". My understanding therefore is that you can connect a USB Hub, and then connect a CD Drive, a HDD and a DAC all at the same time. I have not tried this so cannot confirm that this is correct. Any other views?

Regards

Mike

[likearollingstone]

Gadame,

I agree that the wording is confusing. The definition of "each" is "everything in a group of two or more". My understanding therefore is that you can connect a USB Hub, and then connect a CD Drive, a HDD and a DAC all at the same time. I have not tried this so cannot confirm that this is correct. Any other views?

Regards

Mike

 

 

i currently have both a 4TB external and cd for importing on a small 4 port usb2 hub, so yes, i would think you can now add a usb out to a dac

[dennis336]

i currently have both a 4TB external and cd for importing on a small 4 port usb2 hub, so yes, i would think you can now add a usb out to a dac

 

Is the hub you are using powered? Seem to recall there was an issue on that in an earlier HAP manual. Note that OPPO just announced a new DAC which might be a good fit.

 

I have a 2TB external which has filled up -- if you had to transfer how did you do it your 4TB -- drag and drop --

[likearollingstone]

Is the hub you are using powered? Seem to recall there was an issue on that in an earlier HAP manual. Note that OPPO just announced a new DAC which might be a good fit.

 

I have a 2TB external which has filled up -- if you had to transfer how did you do it your 4TB -- drag and drop --

 

can confirm a USB DAC also works in conjunction with external HD, external Cdrom

 

i was able to use headphones with my dac, however dsd playback did not work as it was not supported by the DAC i was using..i just picked up a micca origen+ (will have it tomorrow) and will report back

 

audio output to receiver is stopped when using the headphones

 

the hub i use is a usb powered mini (usb2.0, 4port) that they were giving away at a computer show i went to a million years ago

 

as far as the 4tb goes, right now still have 200GB on the internal, so haven't used the external yet

 

i originally bought the 15mm 4tb 2.5" to put internally (it fits), but it would only format to 1.8tb

if i formatted it on a pc and tried it internally, it would become corrupt

 

for big copying, supposedly you can remove drive, install exfs on your pc and plug it in and drag and drop

when you put it back in the hap, you have to do a rescan

 

although i did play with this when i first got my hap and was able to read/write the drives, so far i have not been pressed for time to hurry things up, so when i need to go external, i'll just upload to it normally

 

what i would really like to do is add a 2tb evo ssd, but without knowing if there's TRIM support, won't invest the time

[likearollingstone]

 

Is just possible to connect a USB HUB to connect a HDDdrive and CD drive at the same Ext USB port, but not possible to connect at the same time on the HUB USB DAC? or Just connect one device on the Ext USB port? Just one HDD drive or one CD drive, or one DAC? Does anyone can clarify my doubt? Hope to explained well! regards.

 

 

u can hook one a time or all 3 concurrently if you have a hub

[gadame]

Thanks for your valuable response, I would like to connect a R-2R Ladder DAC to HAP-S1, It would be wonderful. Another question arises me, If you connect the HUB with other devices including the DAC, do you know if this affect the bitperfect transfer from the source to the DAC, I mean possible errors or other artifacts?

[gadame]

And it would be great if the HAP-1 o S1, dont do anything to the digital audio data out to the Ext USB, like apply some algorithm or upsampling,in order to make it worthwhile to connect an external Ladder DAC with No Oversampling. The better would be direct data from the HDD to the internal BUS and then to the Ext USB.

[likearollingstone]

And it would be great if the HAP-1 o S1, dont do anything to the digital audio data out to the Ext USB, like apply some algorithm or upsampling,in order to make it worthwhile to connect an external Ladder DAC with No Oversampling. The better would be direct data from the HDD to the internal BUS and then to the Ext USB.

 

i dunno, will have a DSD capable DAC here tomorrow and will report back, the cheapo Pyle headphone DAC i used to test sounded great, but with 48Khz limit and no DSD, not optimal

[legaltrouble]

I connected my Sony USB to my PS Audio jr. in. Can confirm it sounds great. Can confirm it will play DSD over DOP.

[Kal Rubinson]

I connected my Sony USB to my PS Audio jr. in. Can confirm it sounds great. Can confirm it will play DSD over DOP.

Is native DSD, not DOP, possible?

[legaltrouble]

Is native DSD, not DOP, possible?

 

Seems to be, but don't know. There is a selection to do DSD over DOP, without that, DSD wouldn't play back through the PS Audio DS Jr.

[gadame]

That's good news legaltrouble, And what about the compatibility to the multiple DACs are in the market, or ti works like Mac s? I refer to this because windows needs the USB drivers to each DAC, I guess the Sony use kind of Android OS?

Regards.

[likearollingstone]

Is native DSD, not DOP, possible?

 

 

not with the micca origen+, in fact .dsf didn't even play right, you could hear the audio, but mostly static

 

with DOP off, it would not play DSD at all

 

This DAC uses a micro USB port and I found it would not work with the hub, only by itself

 

does anyone know which hubs are supported? Which DACs work with DSD out? That PS Audio Jr. is out of my league

[likearollingstone]

can verify that this $9 hub works

 

 

[h=1]UNITEK Portable USB 3.0 4-Port High Speed Hub with BC 1.2 Charging[/h]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MHIVYZ8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

[vrdsp0]

hello, I got the new firmware.

The addition of USB DAC is a great news, and must have been a difficult choice for Sony. Better have added COAX and SPDIF output from the beginning.

 

there are limits and drawbacks though :

-limit of DSD128 which is already great, but curious given Sony strategy to promote the DSD format

-no transcoding of DSD to PCM, which is impairing the ease of use in combination with a PCM192k only DAC (the dsd files are skipped), but understandable given the Sony strategy

-no simultaneous output through usb and speaker output (on my HAP-S1), did not try the analog rca output though

 

I just hope there will be a more affordable version of this Z1ES, with COAX and SPDIF output, to be used with my current DAC. With the same great screen.

with added filter selection (remind the MDS-JA50ES) of plain, spline, normal

NTFS support (wonder if a licence is costly?)

 

would wish also very little more functions on the remote : input selection, ability to browse menus, output selection (if no support of audio replication through all outputs), DSEE on/off, oversampling 2x/4x/off, filter selection

[vrdsp0]

im using a M2TECH HIFACE TWO USB to COAX adapter to my old trusty CYRUS DAC

[vrdsp0]

Quality is tremendeous compared to the analog output of the HAP-S1.

I wish I could compare with DAC of the Z1ES

[likearollingstone]

hello, I got the new firmware.

The addition of USB DAC is a great news, and must have been a difficult choice for Sony. Better have added COAX and SPDIF output from the beginning.

 

though pretty tricky to have had it all along

 

-no simultaneous output through usb and speaker output (on my HAP-S1), did not try the analog rca output though

 

this is the way it is on the my z1es also

 

would wish also very little more functions on the remote

 

they hope most use the app and not notice how spartan that remote is