[Shonen84]

Announced rather stealthily at IFA 2015, the Sony CAS-1 seems like a UDA-1 successor with Bluetooth/LDAC and NFC. It uses the DAC of the HAP-Z1ES, the headphone amp of the PHA-2 and inherits S-Master HX from their Walkman line-up. The device also comes with a set of speakers. No mention of DSD decoding, though.



http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/wireless-speakers/cas-1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOB0JuOWnoE
http://presscentre.sony.eu/pressreleases/fill-your-room-with-exquisite-musical-excellence-with-sony-s-new-compact-audio-system-1205192

Comes out in October, at $/€ 850 or £500.

It seems like it's designed to be more of a laptop/phone/dap desktop companion than part of a Hi-Fi stack like the UDA-1 and HAP series were. Colour me intrigued.

 

[pervysage]

Interesting!
 
My UDA-1 has served me well over the past year.

 

[qerub]

Looks very nice!
 

Comes out in October, at $/€ 850 or £500.

 
Sony's Swedish site mentions a price of "around 9000 SEK" (1100 USD, 710 GPB) which is prohibitively expensive for me. I hope your price is correct.
 

 

[Shonen84]

http://www.sony.be/nl/electronics/draadloze-luidsprekers/cas-1/buy
 
Listed at €850 on the Belgian website. With the shuttering of Sony's retail activities though, we'll have to wait till major online and brick&mortar stores start selling it to know the real street price.

 

[DaejeonCitizen]

This has just been released for 1,100,000 won here in Korea. Sony actually had a bundle with the Z7 for 1,400,000, which was a steal, but it sold out pretty quickly.
 
I'm trying to convince myself that I don't need this.

 

[klyzon]

Any idea if these are any good?
 
Was thinking of getting this for my laptop, not sure if it could drive my LCD2s though

 

[trhee]

Just got one of these in white for my home desktop setup and moved my Focal XS 2.1 for my office setup.

Very pleasant and articulated from mids on up. There's a slight warmth in the mids and highs are detailed without being bright. Obviously there is nothing much at the bottom end. If you're accustomed to listening to small stand mount speakers you'll feel right at home. If you're expecting anything more from the bottom end, you'll be disappointed with these.

Great for low to moderate volume listening and quite convenient with the Bluetooth setup so I can stream Spotify from my phone from anywhere within the room. Headphone amp is pretty good and I believe it is the same chips as used in the Sony PHA-2 headphone amp. Can drive my HiFiMAN HE-500s quite well.

Overall very happy with them.

 

[Richard Wray]

Just got one of these in white for my home desktop setup and moved my Focal XS 2.1 for my office setup.

Very pleasant and articulated from mids on up. There's a slight warmth in the mids and highs are detailed without being bright. Obviously there is nothing much at the bottom end. If you're accustomed to listening to small stand mount speakers you'll feel right at home. If you're expecting anything more from the bottom end, you'll be disappointed with these.

Great for low to moderate volume listening and quite convenient with the Bluetooth setup so I can stream Spotify from my phone from anywhere within the room. Headphone amp is pretty good and I believe it is the same chips as used in the Sony PHA-2 headphone amp. Can drive my HiFiMAN HE-500s quite well.

Overall very happy with them.

I'm seriously considering buying one of these but would like to know if they help at all with music from iTunes or does it have to be HiRes.....or even TIDAL to get the best results?

Thanks

Richard

 

[Richard Wray]

Announced rather stealthily at IFA 2015, the Sony CAS-1 seems like a UDA-1 successor with Bluetooth/LDAC and NFC. It uses the DAC of the HAP-Z1ES, the headphone amp of the PHA-2 and inherits S-Master HX from their Walkman line-up. The device also comes with a set of speakers. No mention of DSD decoding, though.



http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/wireless-speakers/cas-1

http://presscentre.sony.eu/pressrel...-with-sony-s-new-compact-audio-system-1205192

Comes out in October, at $/€ 850 or £500.

It seems like it's designed to be more of a laptop/phone/dap desktop companion than part of a Hi-Fi stack like the UDA-1 and HAP series were. Colour me intrigued.

 

[Richard Wray]

I've got a set of Sony MDR1000x headphones. Will they connect via LDAC to the CAS-1?

 

[xba3]

I've got a set of Sony MDR1000x headphones. Will they connect via LDAC to the CAS-1?

I believe they do connect through LDAC.