Sony HAP S1. I like this unit

[regeHA]

Total DAC is selling complete systems the same as Linn.

They probably perform at a different league too.

The highest offering is 39500, around 30 lac INR.

 

[prem]

Hi the Sony HAP Z1 ES Has been launched in Singapore a couple of days back. It's priced at SGD 2500. That's the cheapest it's available at anywhere in the world. Am sure can get some dealer discount. Looks to be a good deal. Now to figure out how to get it from Singapore

 

[panditji]

Looking forward to your purchase and your impressions Prem...

 

[prem]

Panditji, should happen in a couple of months for sure.

 

[regeHA]

@Prem - Something else to consider.

Bryston is coming out with a Raspberry Pi + HiFiBerry media server/player.

More details at - New Bryston BDP-Pi Server

 

[venkatcr]

@Prem - Something else to consider. Bryston is coming out with a Raspberry Pi + HiFiBerry media server/player

Will be interesting to see what price they quote over the $100 components.

Cheers

 

[prem]

Thanks regeHA

I don't think it has a built in dac though.

 

[venkatcr]

I don't think it has a built in dac though.

The HifiBerry is a DAC. It sits over the PI.

Cheers

 

[ajeshkumarts]

Looks like a pi + digi combo. They are stressing the spdif / toslink outputs. Digi is just an extension board for pi with spdif / toslink outputs. There is no dac chip in digi. Important is the player used ( mpd or LMS or some custom developed player)

 

[prem]

Thanks Venkatcr. I wasn't aware of that

 

[regeHA]

Thanks regeHA

I don't think it has a built in dac though.

To my knowledge only the Sony and Aries Mini have DAC. If any do then its only going to be a DAC south of $1000 so unlikely most folks will use it.

It does have streaming functionality so that's a huge plus over anything limited to serving i.e. strictly as a server.

The HifiBerry is a DAC. It sits over the PI.

Cheers

I believe they are using the Digi+ here, it will add digital output to the Pi, not DAC. DAC+ is another addon board for DAC functionality.

 

[rikhav]

Will be interesting to see what price they quote over the $100 components.

Cheers

Hi venkat
If you see the picture it's not just the pi with hifiberry
It will have
1) typical bryston built quality chasis and one knows chasis cost a bomb
2) superbly designed power supply unit. Mostly a lps and not smps
3) tft screen
4) and maybe software tailor built to bryston requiremwnts. Surely would be based on something existing

So surely this is not just USD 100 components

 

[venkatcr]

If you see the picture it's not just the pi with hifiberry
It will have . So surely this is not just USD 100 components

I do understand that. But taking some 100$ of components (particularly when you are openly admitting what is inside) and charging, say 1500-2000$, will be a bit much. If it sells for 500-750 it will be hot sell out. They should do a flash sale and walk away selling some 50K to 100K units!! They should hire an Indian VP for marketing!!

Cheers

 

[venkatcr]

Thanks Venkatcr. I wasn't aware of that

My mistake. They are not using the DAC version of HifiBerry. They will just give you digital out and leave the DAC processing to your choice.

Cheers

 

[regeHA]

I do understand that. But taking some 100$ of components (particularly when you are openly admitting what is inside) and charging, say 1500-2000$, will be a bit much. If it sells for 500-750 it will be hot sell out. They should do a flash sale and walk away selling some 50K to 100K units!! They should hire an Indian VP for marketing!!

Cheers

I personally love their honesty.

I've checked the specs and the s/w and everyone from Aurender to Auralic is using a Pi inside, built on ARM processors and using the same (or very similar) specs. On top of that they are using MPD as s/w of choice and hiding it (against GPL license and TOS) and they have even been called out for it on forums like CA.

Regarding the price, well its not highway robbery.

Aurender actually sells NAS boxes for $4000 to $18000 that don't do anything else, not even streaming. They are just source + transport, pretty much the same as any external HDD or NAS yet costing 20 times more. And again using the same Pi on the inside and with MPD for s/w.

 

[rikhav]

I do understand that. But taking some 100$ of components (particularly when you are openly admitting what is inside) and charging, say 1500-2000$, will be a bit much. If it sells for 500-750 it will be hot sell out. They should do a flash sale and walk away selling some 50K to 100K units!! They should hire an Indian VP for marketing!!

Cheers

Look at this way
Its for someone who wants the versatility of raspberry but want it on steroids

Like henessey engineering does with Cadillac cars. Makes them 1000 bhp monsters and excellent handlers, putting to shame the italian cars

As I said such chasis would cost a bomb if you tried to make one for yourself
There are companies selling linear PSUs for 500 to 1000 USD

I am not sure what would be the pricing but anywhere near 1000 USD should be a good pricing considering what are the prices going on

 

[prem]

If it doesn't have a dac built in, it's pretty much out for me at least as of now

 

[Maxprocrj]

Prem, you can beat that sound by putting together a computer yourself at the same cost or less.

My music only computer has beaten Aurender, Resonessence Labs products in the USD 2-4k range.

Though I must admire Sony for bringing such a high-fidelity sound at such affordable price. 2010-2020 is going to be the golden age of digital playback.

Whats the config. of that PC sir? May we know

 

[ranjeetrain]

Whats the config. of that PC sir? May we know

Hi, I have tried a large number of computers for music playback duty. It is hard to pinpoint one configuration that worked. Essentially last 2-3 years there is no computer I have tweaked and it has't performed well. You can pretty much buy *any* computer in production today and it will likely sound very good after some work. It will sound excellent after making some more conscious design decision. And it will sound amazing (equivalent to high end CDPs/media players/streamers) after even more work, even more optimization.

Not too long ago I was listening to Lavezina Catina (Esther Ofarim) on my portable rig and it was a hair raising experience. I could feel sensation in my neck and shoulder region, an experience I didn't even have with digital front ends worth US $5000-$30000 in systems with total cost $20000-$100000+. Gear: HP 6530b computer with RAM upgraded to the max -> M2Tech Evo USB Converter -> Nuforce Icon HDP -> AKG Q701.

As you can see the computer wasn't something too special. So, the answer to your query is pretty much any decent computer available today can be made to sound extremely good.

 

[prem]

Have decided to pull the trigger on the Sony HAP Z1 ES. Should have it by end of May.

Was partially influenced by this article where the user Dan has simplified his system to a Voxativ 9.87 with Berning amp and APL Hifi dac.

6moons industry features: 6moons HQ 2016

APL Hifi dac upsamples all pcm to dsd on the fly. This is what excited me first towards the Sony Z1. AFAIK, very few machines do this. The APL Hifi, PS Audio Direct Stream, Nagra and Sony Z1.