georgelai57 said:

  Hi,
 
Could you expand on the wireless streaming from a wifi drive please? I know Seagate has a (up to) 2 TB Wireless Plus portable HDD so I presume we load their playback software on to the ZX1? Would that be correct? (I'm not an Android user)
 
Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

 
You start streaming by connecting to the wireless drive via wifi. Then click the DLNA app, search for that particular drive (will pop up as liux drive), and then you can stream directly from the wifi drive.  No down conversion of sampling rate either.  I connect the USB digital out from Sony to a DAC with a screen display, and the DAC verify the bit depth correctly in all counts.

purk said:

You start streaming by connecting to the wireless drive via wifi. Then click the DLNA app, search for that particular drive (will pop up as liux drive), and then you can stream directly from the wifi drive.  No down conversion of sampling rate either.  I connect the USB digital out from Sony to a DAC with a screen display, and the DAC verify the bit depth correctly in all counts.

Click to expand...

Thank you.

georgelai57 said:

Thank you.

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George, sony makes it easy.

A bazillion people (ok, maybe not really) asked me about the Master 7 vs. the Hugo. Short answer: I think the Master 7 will need an OR5 to sound as clean and natural as the Hugo. 
 
The only way I could A/B them easily was to use a Digital Interface with the I2S output going into the M7 and coax out into the Hugo and both going into the Studio Six. It made for easy volume matching.
 
The Master 7 had a slight hardness to the sound in comparison to the Hugo, which, like I described before, has a liquid flow to how it delivers music, but an infinitely fine liquid that can bring out micro detail and texture well. It's not a warmth like we describe other equipment, but a smoothness that comes from a lack of distortion. It is rather like a digital version of the Studio Six (or a good SET amp).
 
The Hugo is best from my AP1 via coax, but all the inputs are good, including the USB from my MacBook Air, with minor differences between each and depending on the source used.
 
The amp is pretty good, so far, with HD-800s, except when you turn the volume up loud where I feel it sounds a bit shouty. At quiet to moderate volumes it is lovely, however. It is a good example of why listening volume is very important and why people can end up with quite different impressions. 

currawong said:

A bazillion people (ok, maybe not really) asked me about the Master 7 vs. the Hugo. Short answer: I think the Master 7 will need an OR5 to sound as clean and natural as the Hugo. 

The only way I could A/B them easily was to use a Digital Interface with the I2S output going into the M7 and coax out into the Hugo and both going into the Studio Six. It made for easy volume matching.

The Master 7 had a slight hardness to the sound in comparison to the Hugo, which, like I described before, has a liquid flow to how it delivers music, but an infinitely fine liquid that can bring out micro detail and texture well. It's not a warmth like we describe other equipment, but a smoothness that comes from a lack of distortion. It is rather like a digital version of the Studio Six (or a good SET amp).

The Hugo is best from my AP1 via coax, but all the inputs are good, including the USB from my MacBook Air, with minor differences between each and depending on the source used.

The amp is pretty good, so far, with HD-800s, except when you turn the volume up loud where I feel it sounds a bit shouty. At quiet to moderate volumes it is lovely, however. It is a good example of why listening volume is very important and why people can end up with quite different impressions. 

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Wow thanks Amos. This is great endorsement for the Hugo and just about seals the deal for me.... my poor wallet will blame you!

Round 2, June 2014:

 
FiiO X5, Astell&Kern AK240, Calyx M:
 

 
While at the Tokyo headphone festival, the CEO of Calyx introduced himself to me and I arranged to borrow the Calyx M, which arrived today. There's a firmware update due in June, so my impressions will start after the update.

Great! A long awaited addition. Many thanks

cosmicholyghost said:

Great! A long awaited addition. Many thanks

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Someone send Currawong a DX90 quick!!

@Currawong I see you had and liked the Metrum Octave for its natural sound, which is my home rig DAC - any chance you could say a few words about how it compares to the Hugo?  

tokengesture said:

  @Currawong I see you had and liked the Metrum Octave for its natural sound, which is my home rig DAC - any chance you could say a few words about how it compares to the Hugo?  

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Had is right. I couldn't compare them now as I don't have it any more. It was probably closer overall to my NOS1704 in performance.

solude said:

  Quote:

62ohm said:

  Does anyone have the specs for the ZX-1? What DAC chip(s) is uses and its power output? I couldn't seem to find it. 

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Sony like Apple doesn't have to use off the shelf parts.  They use these:


And yes like Apple most of the space is screen and battery.

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What is so special about the parts they use?  They order ICs to their spec like Apple.  What is the significance of the bottom picture?  What are you pointing out?

silverears said:

  What is so special about the parts they use?  They order ICs to their spec like Apple.  What is the significance of the bottom picture?  What are you pointing out?

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The top left of the picture is the ZX1's custom digital amplifier chip presumably made and designed by Sony, while other daps use an off the shelf dac chip. The significance is that Sony's chip works like no other dac, being a digital amplifier rather than a digital to analogue converter. Those 4 capacitors in the picture work with the digital amplifier in a phase locked loop charge pump configuration, another design unique to the ZX1, not found on other daps. Not saying its a better design, but it certainly is a very modern and interesting design. The design is only in its infancy being the first time something like this has ever been implemented in a dap, I really look forward to Sony innovating further on this design in future daps and lessening its short comings.

t.r.a.n.c.e. said:

   
The top left of the picture is the ZX1's custom digital amplifier chip presumably made and designed by Sony, while other daps use an off the shelf dac chip. The significance is that Sony's chip works like no other dac, being a digital amplifier rather than a digital to analogue converter. Those 4 capacitors in the picture work with the digital amplifier in a phase locked loop charge pump configuration, another design unique to the ZX1, not found on other daps. Not saying its a better design, but it certainly is a very modern and interesting design. The design is only in its infancy being the first time something like this has ever been implemented in a dap, I really look forward to Sony innovating further on this design in future daps and lessening its short comings.

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I don't understand.  Why would you amplify a discrete signal which serves no purpose in driving?  Digital is for information only, not a signal for purpose to drive mechanical function(headphones) like any amps.  
 
Well, modern DAPs do not use electrolytics in the path except some audiophile DAPs such as Ibasso and etc.  I think the Sony's uniqueness is custom chip, but has been don with Apple, which hasn't turned into audiophile grade DAPs.  The custom chip alone doesn't have any merit. We know as high-end uses parts from shelf DACs such ass the ESS9018, and etc..  The AK uses off the shelf and it's very successful. As for the Electrolytics, Id like more details on that. You have any links discussing the design?  
 
Just because they use PLL charge pump doesn't mean it provides more power as ZX1 is speced low power than others in it's league.  What you measure is what you get, charge pump doesn't magically increase the power.  Where is PLL being used?  Is it for the clock?  It's purpose is to keep deviations of timing(or phase).  Charge pump is part of PLL, it's keeps the timing.  If this is the case, charge pump has nothing to do with power delivery.

Essentially ad speak for how a dac that feeds a class-d amplifier works.  If someone pasted the how a dac that feeds a class-a amp works as marketing people would be just as impressed.  When you dumb it down... less so.  My point for the photos was to illustrate that despite it's size, that space is for the most part not being used for pcb real estate much like the Apple offerings.

ZX1 uses a class D digital amp chip, which takes a digital signal and using PWM amplifies it, the PLL is the clock, the Charge Pump converts the signal into frequency output via voltage oscillator.