New Sony HAP-Z1ES Firmware Out Today


I installed the newest firmware today and was pleasantly surprised that the player now supports an external DAC via the USB connection. It now does DSD over USB2 and there is a provision to turn it on/off. I played a couple of different artists and the player seems to work perfectly with the iPad remote.  Here is the skinny, direct from Sony:


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

128x128stereo5
Thanks very much for this report.  Do you find it convenient to use the CD drive to load disks into memory (without using a computer as a first step)?  Also: any idea whether this unit will be physically updated in the near future, or will firmware updates by the main thing?


I'm not sure what you mean, there is no cd drive, everything is done via the network.  As far as your second question you never know what Sony has in mind. 

@stereo5 , Have you tried an external DAC?   Does iPad App works the same except playing via external DAC if attached?




I have not tried an external dac.  The iPad app works as it always did, no different.