Sony HAP-Z1ES Hi-Res Music Player RMAF 2013


Did anyone get a chance to hear this digital player. Seems similar to the Bryston BDP-2. I am very interested in how the upsampled DSD sounded.
yyzsantabarbara
Here is a small marketing piece that may shed some light on the newest HD audio offerings from Sony Hi-Res Audio.
http://discover.store.sony.com/High-Resolution-Audio/

browse down the page after watching the video at the top of the page.
12-09-13: Mitch4t asked: Does it do Pandora and Rhapsody?

Nope. vTuner only.

Hi all,

To summarise these 3 products :-

1. The Sony HAP-Z1ES has a built-in dsd DAC but no digital output to an external DAC.

2. The Marantz NA11s1 has a dsd dac with digital outputs

3. The Bryston BDP-2 has no dac and does not do dsd

So, for the price, the Marantz seems to be a good value with its own dsd dac.

If you need dsd, the Bryston is out. If you already have a very good pcm only dac, the Marantz lets you have dsd and also allows you to output hi-rez pcm to your hi-rez dac.

So, the Sony is good if you need both a hi-rez pcm and dsd dac.

For me, i am looking for a dsd capable media player to connect via usb from my pc to coax into my hi-rez pcm only dac and use the analogue outputs of the player for dsd duty. The Marantz seems to fit the bill for me.

Hope this helps.
There are a number of other distinctions but, imho, a notable one is that the Sony has on-board storage and depends on a network only for downloads and Internet radio. It is also significantly less expensive than the other two.