[sterling1]

All this Sony stuff is about hi-rez, and the only need for any of it is DSD to analog conversion. Just my two cents, Sony should have introduced a new multi channel Home Theatre Control amplifier. They have not had a  new one in the market now for about 15 years.

 

[sluker]

trying to decide if i want the HAP-s1 or the uda-1b. I would probably use the HD but don't need it. The extra 40watt would definitely be a plus but I do have several vintage amps which put out more. Someone needs to buy both and compare the SQ.
Which is the better DAC?

 

[Rob49]

   
Well it depends on your overall setup, DACs do sound different, but how different and in what way very much depends on the individual DACs. 
I have no idea if the internal dac on the sony is good or not, but whichever it is there is no way of upgrading, e.g. if you only wanted to use the sony in future as a pure digital source. If this will make any difference to you or not depends on if you'll upgrade to a higher end setup in future, whether you care that much or not, and if you think it's worth any extra expense. It's almost certainly not worth spending £500 on a dac unless the rest of your stuff can do it justice. 
 
A DAC is just the digital to analogue converter, not a magic sound enhancer 
 
 

Isn't the main purpose of this DAC to improve music played from a pc ? ( or from a apple / Walkman / android device ? )
 
Reviews that I've read so far, seem to be positive, i.e. impressive sound. As I said, my only concern about buying is, can it be any better than listening to FLAC files through my Oppo player ??

 

[Rob49]

  All this Sony stuff is about hi-rez, and the only need for any of it is DSD to analog conversion. Just my two cents, Sony should have introduced a new multi channel Home Theatre Control amplifier. They have not had a  new one in the market now for about 15 years.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't they introduced 3 new multi channel Home Theatre receivers for this "new" ( loose term ) Hi-Rez format ?

 

[Rob49]

There's now a review of the UDA-1 on What Hi-fi.com. ( They give it 4 stars. )

 

[sterling1]

Sony has not introduced a multi-channel control amp since the TA-E9000ES. I  have one of those and use it still today to listen to TV, BD, CD, DAT, LP, AM/FM, Compact Cassette, and  Computer Audio via Airport Express or  X-FI HD.
 
When I saw these new Sony hi-rez products, I thought what was the point. They do not play multi channel, and the bottom line is that they don't do anything that you can't already do with a computer either hooked to a DAC or hooked to a digital receiver, with one exception, they process DSD. DSD is how SACD's are processed. With SACD the processing is done in the player, except for multi-channel SACD where DSD digital output is sometimes offered over HDMI. Listening to these multi channel SACD's requires a modern pre/pro with HDMI input. So, the only thing you get that you don't already have from a computer with Sony hi-rez units is the ability to play downloaded DSD stereo files. Sony is leading the charge on this, the idea is to  convince you that DSD is better than PCM.

 

[Zoom25]

I personally wouldn't bother with the UDA-1. Only the HAP-S1 seems interesting to me at it's price point. The other Sony piece going for $2000 will be going against similar offerings from the likes of Naim and Bryston.

 

[Spakka]

  Isn't the main purpose of this DAC to improve music played from a pc ? ( or from a apple / Walkman / android device ? )
 
Reviews that I've read so far, seem to be positive, i.e. impressive sound. As I said, my only concern about buying is, can it be any better than listening to FLAC files through my Oppo player ??

 
 
I suggest that you read a beginners guide to hifi before buying anything if you are unsure of some of the basics! A DAC is needed for every form of digital audio, mp3 players have them, £50k cd players have them. It's just some are built in, some are external. It is just the part of the circuit that turns digital into analogue. 
 
I wouldn't be too swayed by anything mentioning DSD audio... In the end 95% of what you listen to will most likely be CD quality. High res formats are there so the vendors can charge more for the same music! (ymmv)
 
Also... where are these reviews coming from? If they are random tech sites their audio reviews are (to generalise) fairly useless as they say anything beyond low end sounds great. 

 

[Rob49]

   
 
I suggest that you read a beginners guide to hifi before buying anything if you are unsure of some of the basics! A DAC is needed for every form of digital audio, mp3 players have them, £50k cd players have them. It's just some are built in, some are external. It is just the part of the circuit that turns digital into analogue. 
 
I wouldn't be too swayed by anything mentioning DSD audio... In the end 95% of what you listen to will most likely be CD quality. High res formats are there so the vendors can charge more for the same music! (ymmv)
 
Also... where are these reviews coming from? If they are random tech sites their audio reviews are (to generalise) fairly useless as they say anything beyond low end sounds great. 

With all due respect, I'm not that ignorant ! ( Regards what DAC is & where you find it ! )
 
The reviews I've read are from people that have bought the UDA-1. ( There's also a review on What Hi-fi. com )

 

[sluker]

Ordered yesterday and it came this morning, less than 24 hours. Awesome fast.
 
Still in the honey moon phase but I am fairly certain I will keep it. The synergy with my Magnum's is amazing. I knew these headphones could scale but this is well beyond what I expected.

 

[Zoom25]

  Ordered yesterday and it came this morning, less than 24 hours. Awesome fast.
 
Still in the honey moon phase but I am fairly certain I will keep it. The synergy with my Magnum's is amazing. I knew these headphones could scale but this is well beyond what I expected.

 
Beautiful. Keep us posted.

 

[Spakka]

 

 
 
I have to say that is one pretty bit of kit.

 

[Rob49]

  Ordered yesterday and it came this morning, less than 24 hours. Awesome fast.
 
Still in the honey moon phase but I am fairly certain I will keep it. The synergy with my Magnum's is amazing. I knew these headphones could scale but this is well beyond what I expected.

Thanks, looks a special product ! Looking forward to your thoughts.....

 

[PalJoey]

There's a review of two of these products in the current Hi-Fi News & Record Review.
 


I don't have a copy to hand, but I think I remember it said you can plug in an external HDD, if the internal storage isn't big enough.

 

[Krobar]

Just got a UDA1 (But seems I'm not allowed to attach a picture).
 
First thoughts:
Lovely sound and nice to have native DSD support at last
Plenty loud enough for desktop use through my PMC DB1s despite being only 20W
Very low noise floor and quick to switch audio sampling frequencies
DSD 128 and 32/192 PCM support
Requires driver to function in Win7
ASIO works well in 32 or 64 bit but at the moment DSD only seems to work with Sony's own player. I have e-mailed the Foobar SACD plugin dev to see if support can be added.
Update: DSD works perfectly with JRivers
Whathifi likely skewed the result by using a Mac as I suspect async support requires a proper driver.