Listening To: Alan Jackson - Midnight in Montgomery
Word of the Day:Hi-Res
Yeah, I know that's actually two words for the word of the day, but I'm so excited about what I got to audition today, that it called for two words.
Sony is trying to make an aggressive comeback in audio. When I think HiFi, or high quality audio, Sony is usually at the bottom of the list. With so many companies out there like Bryston, Rotel, Arcam etc. that have some of the most respected equipment out there, it's hard to compete. But, with respect, comes a heavy price tag. Audio purists will pay big bucks for big clean sound.
And Sony, while the first thought of brand when someone mentions television, in my opinion has never been a go to brand for audio equipment.
Well, today I was impressed. Which to anyone who knows me is a huge thing for me to admit. I've had a huge dislike for that little 4 letter word for about 11 years, since the launch of the Grand Wega. I'm stubborn and pig headed, and it takes a long time for me to get over things.
When I came back to selling tv's after focusing on audio for 7 years, I was overwhelmed with how far flat panels had progressed. Overwhelmed is an understatement. SmartTV, made me feel really dumb. My unlove affair with Sony came to an end as I started researching, and looking into what made one brand/model stand apart from the rest. I came to respect them as a company again at least from a video standpoint.
Audio? That's a whole different thing. Sony was still stagnant in my opinion, half assing what they were doing. Their receivers were great for first time buyers, getting into their first 2 channel or even 5 channel system, but nothing I would take seriously. And their turntables? They will have to go to great lengths for me to consider EVER bringing one of theirs into my own home. I'll spend the extra couple hundred bucks and purchase a turntable that won't eat through my vinyl.
As I said above, before I went off on a tangent, they impressed me today. Today I was introduced to the HAPZ1ES a 1TB HDD Hi Res music player. What is this you might ask? The most basic way to describe it, is a hard drive for you music collection that is capable of storing and playing back music in high quality form, including FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, WAV, and the HiRes format DSD, a Sony Creation. So what is Hi Res? I'll let the folks at WhatHiFi explain, as I'm still new to this game.
"...Before we address this, it’s worth pointing out that the definition of high-resolution audio isn’t set in stone. Unlike high-definition video, which has to meet certain criteria to earn the name, there’s no universal standard for high-res audio.
But it tends to refer to audio that has a higher sampling frequency and bit depth than CD, which is 16-bit/44.1kHz. High-resolution audio files usually use a sampling frequency or 96kHz or 192kHz at 24-bit, but you can also have 88.2kHz and 176.4kHz files too.
Sampling frequency means the number of times samples are taken per second when the analogue sound waves are converted into digital. The more bits there are meanwhile, the more accurately the signal can be measured in the first place, so 16-bit to 24-bit can see a noticeable leap in quality."
Still confused? It's ok, it's taking me a bit to get used to it as well.
MP3's are great, they're a convenient way for us to take our music with us either on our phones, tablets, or MP3 Players. But we sacrificed a lot when we started settling for convenience. When a music file is compressed, we lose some of the track information, actually depending on the quality we choose to create the file in, we could loose a lot. A whole range of frequencies in the music get chopped off at both ends. And while this doesn't matter necessarily if all we're doing is listening through headphones, it makes a huge difference when we're listening through a home stereo system.
What impressed me further was the fact that the HAPZ1ES can take an MP3, and rebuild part of the lost wave patterns in a track, opening the music back up, and taking our tin can music, and turning it back into something enjoyable to listen to.The HAPZ1ES is a great unit, however, on it's own it's not going to do the full job. While it's a great music server and DAC, it doesn't have the ability to drive your speakers. This is where the TAA1ES comes in. This amplifier delivers a nice rich sound. At 80w a side, it was more than capable of driving the CM10's from Bowers and Wilkins we had it hooked up to. I've hear several high end amps hooked up to these speakers, and I gotta tell you, while it wasn't the best I've heard these speakers sound, it was still one hell of an experience. The TAA1ES has a Class A/B amplifier section in it. This was discovered though a bit of extra digging. Sony touts it as a Class A which it will do through the first 15w of power or so, but beyond that it turns into a push pull system, hence my calling them out on it. But don't let the misleading discourage you from auditioning this equipment.
At $4000 CAD, it's well worth the investment if you're into audio, but don't have the full budget that some audiophiles sink into their equipment.
Good on you Sony.
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