Sony HAPZ1 For prospective buyers and owners


I have been encouraged to share my experiences with the new Sony HAPZ1ES. I hope a few who may be considering purchase of this unit will find this useful. I expect those not interested in purchasing this unit will want to tune this thread out. There is going to be some detail here. I will provide a summary statement with significant conclusions at the beginning of each days record for those not interested in the details.

It would probably be good to start with a few words to provide a frame of reference. I’m not a computer geek. I’m a reasonably bright guy, but a computer to me is just a tool. It’s a hammer that enables driving a nail, that’s it. I learn what I need to know to do what I want to do and that is all.

My interest in the new Sony is that I expected it would facilitate a long standing goal of assembling a computer based system. Further, it accommodates Hi Rez files, and does on the fly conversion of PCM to DSD. It also offers streaming audio, allowing convenient playback of internet radio. It has a 1 TB hard drive, so there is a lot of room for my substantial music collection.

For me, the deciding factor in purchase of this piece was Dan Wright’s enthusiasm for the stock unit and rapid development of a ModWright upgrade package which he says takes the HAPZ1 to reference levels.

Day 1- Initial set up easy, sound quality indeterminate.

I unpacked the unit and gave it about 4 hours to return to room temperature before turning it on. First order of business was to establish the wireless connection with my home network. This was straightforward and took less than 30 minutes to complete. The unit comes with a small amount of software on the hard drive, so this allowed me to begin playing without having to begin download of my existing music library to the internal hard drive. I played through the free music twice, just to give the unit a little burn in time. The free music selection was not my cup of tea, so I could not draw any real conclusions about sound quality.

Day 2- Some frustration with getting set up for download. Interactions with Sony Tech support a mixed bag. Concerned about Sony’s ability to help Mac users. Sound quality with a casual listen promising with under 10 hours burn in.

I spent about a half an hour transferring music from CD to my iMac. Once this was complete, I went to the Sony website and downloaded the free HAP music transfer software to my iMac. Again this was completely straightforward. Upon opening the program, I ran into the first snag. The box that popped up asked me to select the device to which I wanted to connect. There were no devices to select. I began a dialogue with Sony using the chat room accessible from their website. The person who attempted to help me was completely clueless. She referred me to documents which did not address my problem, referred me to documents addressing connection problems with windows machines, and finally, after wasting about 20 minutes of my time admitted she couldn’t help me. She gave me the Sony tech support number.
I called the number (1-800-222-7669) and went through about 3 people before I got to the correct department. This wasn’t as frustrating as it sounds- It just took a few seconds to get to the Sony home audio ES support line. There was about a 10 minute wait until someone took my call. The guy I talked to was pretty sharp. However, his ability to help was hampered by the fact that “ we don’t have a Mac here.” Well, I would suggest that Sony get one!
While we were talking, he indicated that sometimes it takes a few minutes for the music transfer software to find the device. We worked on the problem for a few minutes, and while he was looking something up, I figured out what was wrong. My iMac bluetooth was looking for the wrong network. Once I selected the correct network, the music transfer software found the HAPZ1 immediately. I selected the device, and he advised checking the content settings. A new box shows file extensions that you can select or deselect to be transferred. While flac, wav, mp3, and 12 others appeared as options, ALAC (Apple lossless) did not appear. However, the support guy did a quick Google and found that m4a is the correct file type for ALAC, and that is one of the types listed so I was OK there. I also added /users/my user name/Music/iTunes as a folder to be watched, which probably wasn’t necessary.
Next, I went to the transfer settings. I turned the auto transfer feature off, and selected internal HDD as the destination since I don’t have an external hard drive yet. I activated the manual transfer, which I was doing wirelessly to see how long it would take to transfer the 200 files (tracks). I walked away for a few minutes and when I came back, I found that the transfer had stopped incomplete. I started the manual transfer again and walked away again. When I returned, the same thing had occurred. This may be due to an auto standby feature which apparently shuts the HAPZ1 down after a few minutes with no activity. I turned this off, but I had enough music transferred to give a more serious listen to the unit. I listened to part 1 of the Dunedin Consort recording of the Bach Johannes Passion. This is a wonderful performance, with recording quality that I have found to be somewhat spotty. It is wonderful in the aria and recicitives, but rough in the Chorals. Played back through the HAPZ1, this was pretty close to what I remembered playing through my ModWright Sony 5400. Next I played the Purcell Quartet recordings of Bach’s Mass in G minor BWV235. This is a standard redbook CD, so I was interested to see what the conversion to DSD 2 would sound like. In a word, playback of this music was just absolutely lovely! I suspect this unit, stock, may give my ModWright Sony 5400 a run for its money, but a serious A/B is still several days down the road.
brownsfan
ERM, any differences in sonic quality between the 2 drives? What kind of usb cable are you using?
I have about 120 hours of burn in now on the ModWright modification. At this point, the upper harmonics have bloomed, ripened, whatever you prefer, to a substantial extent. I spent some significant time last weekend listening to Stravinsky. Dumbarton Oaks, Petrushka, the Rite of Spring, also Messiaen quartet for the End of Time, and Golijov Dreams and prayers of Isaac the Blind. Bassoon, contrabassoon, every possible permutation of clarinet, all sound just wonderful. Strings are also doing very nicely. Cello is pretty much to die for. Oboe and horn are just not quite there yet. I am still far short of the 400 hours necessary for the transformers to fully burn in.

I have about 400 cds loaded at this point. I've got most of my favorite recordings of my favorite works downloaded, and a few 2nd and third choices on favorite works as well. It is going to be a much easier deal now to find recordings using the tablet. No more, where are my glasses, where is the flashlight, and where did that Abbado Mahler 1 get to? Not to mention the Floristan Shostakovich trio.

Yesterday, I had a hankering for Bach's Wahrlich, wahrlich ich sage euch. It was so nice just scrolling down on the tracks listing to get the desired cantata, rather than fumbling through 54 cds trying to figure out which one had Wahrlich.

Also this week, I listened to some of the DSD freebies that came with the player. Looking at my first post, I was struck by my initial comment on these recordings--- " sound quality indeterminate." Much different this time. The Yo Yo Ma track from Appalachian journey was stunning. I will be willing to sample some dsd downloads, once something I actually want is commercially available. I don't know, maybe the Starker Bach sonatas.

Stay tuned
Hi Brownsfan. I was halfway responding to you, hit one key and everything disappeared. Hope this does not post twice.

I have not noticed any difference in the sound between the two drives, but do not have the same song on both drives to compare. I'm using the WD supplied 7 inch or so usb cable. One bonus of the Passport is no external power source to worry about. I have not done any merging of any sort, sorry not to be able to help you there.

I have been busy moving 4 yards of dirt and another 4 yds of mulch in between thunderstorms, so not much listening time. I'm still quite enjoying the HAP, and my wife especially likes the 'SensMe' feature.

Glad your unit continues to improve to your liking. Please keep up with the updates, they are very helpful. Now I'm looking for a pair of Harbeth P3ESR speakers for upstairs with the HAP as the source. Enjoy
Brownsfan, congrats on your Modwright purchase, retirement, and the pending move. I grew up in Charlottesville, VA and also very much enjoyed hiking through the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. I also very much celebrate your revelation about your parents and making the most of now. Alzheimer's a very, very evil disease.

Thank you for this thorough and detailed review. I think Sony has created something that will potentially free many audiophiles from the silly fiddle factor of computer audio. I have considered one, but the only downside is the absence of a digital output. If that was there, I would buy it in a heartbeat. At present, I am looking at the Auralic Aries as a non-computer transport.
You'll definitely want to do that! Suggest trying some of the DSD recorded material from the Downloads Now, DSD File and NativeDSD web sites. And some of the DSD and Analog Master tape sourced material on Super HiRez.

With the Sony HAP-Z1, the sound is excellent!