Sony HAP-Z1ES Hi-Res Music Player RMAF 2013

I went ahead and bought one and am loving the sound, especially on my bad recordings. The double DSD must be the reason. My wife loves it too, less cords and components lying around the living room and easy enough for her to use.

I went ahead and bought one and am loving the sound, especially on my bad recordings. The double DSD must be the reason. My wife loves it too, less cords and components lying around the living room and easy enough for her to use.

Stereophile has now reviewed this unit, just FYI to anyone who may be following this thread.

Does anyone know HAP-Z1Es is fully balanced output?

Yes, the Hap-Z1es is fully balanced. However, it inverts phase....pins 2 and 3 are backwards to the American standard. The unbalanced is inverted too. Sony is said to be addressing this issue in a software upgrade soon.

The balanced outs have a different op amp in them and different coupling caps with no bypass caps. The unbalanced outs have better Burr-brown op amps and different caps with small bypass caps. I would think the unbalanced might sound better. Never listened to balanced as I use the unit unbalanced and modified.

My modified units have the phase correct on all outputs.