[buzzlulu]

Keep the impressions coming. I am away this week however I will be placing my order for the TA-ZH1ES so that it is there next Monday when I arrive back home.

I will be using it with my Utopia - and maybe I will dust off my old Grado RS1 from when I was last active on Headfi back in 2003. It has been a while but I am back now!

After much debate I decided to send back the Z1R. Much like Whitigir I found the Utopia to be that much better and all it is cracked up to be. I truly felt that the Z1R would sit and gather dust while the Utopia saw all the action. Once you listen to it everything else pales in comparison. The money can be used for other things - did I hear WM1A or Z?? Or maybe throw caution to the wind and go crazy - I still can't get out of my mind the Stax 009 I heard at CanJam NY.

Look at me - 14 years since I last prowled this place and I am going crazy again.

Next thing on my agenda - research a balanced cable for the Utopia which has the new Sony balanced plug - to use on the TA and a potential WM1A/Z

 

[tradyblix]

So, with the TA-ZH1ES it is not necessary for me to go in like I used to do with the PHA-3 and force upsampling to get the best sound. The player in default mode is automatically up sampling to DSD 512 (11.2-12.1 Mhz) anyway. 
 
So in that respect you can just let your player do it's thing, and hopefully it's outputting the correct format - The display is useful to know exactly what format you're in. 
 
Here's a list of the support sampling rates on mac for interest : 
 

 

[Daroid]

Thanks for your impressions, Tradyblix.
I have finally pulled the trigger and ordered from Advancedmp3players in the UK. Going to test it with HD800S and will let you
you know what I think of it, in particular the analog input performance using my vinyl rig (Thorens TD2001 w/ Benz Micro Silver, with THEL Phono-X RIAA/pre-amp).
I'll also (more often, I think) use the digital inputs with my PC and Oppo UDP-203, so it's not like the analog input means everything to me.

 
 

Look at me - 14 years since I last prowled this place and I am going crazy again.

 
Funny, it's about 12 years for me. They used to say "sorry about your wallet" and people were often suffering from "upgraditis". I guess this still applies, but I think it has been healthy not following the forums, and just be satisfied with the current state of audio equipment (until it's worn out of course).

 

[buzzlulu]

Why are people using this DAC - and others - to upsample from straight 16/44 cd rips?
Myself, and others I know, have gotten off of the "hi res" train as in hi res files bought from HDTracks and other online sellers. They are not true hi res files but rather simply upscaled- just as this DAC is doing. Most of the time they simply do not sound good. All of the upscaling in the world can't turn a true 16/44 into something it is not.

Not looking to start a flame war - but rather mine is a serious question looking for some answers and alternative feedback.

With that said - how does the TA perform as a straight pass through DAC/amp without any upsampling trickery i.e. a 16/44 rip is played exactly as that - 16/44.

 

[tradyblix]

The whole point of this Dacamp is upsampling. Everything is up sampled to DSD 512 by default out of the box. 
 
To me, up sampling makes a noticeable difference. If you don't like it, or don't think it makes a difference, then this is probably not the amp for you. 
 
The PHA-3 make a believer out of me in terms of up sampling. This just takes it to another level.
 
There's a ton of people out there that don't believe in a.) phase linearizers b.) software filters (DSEE HX) or c.) upsampling (DSD, etc). In that case you might want to look at something like a WA22 that doesn't offer any digital enhancement at all. 
 
I think this hobby is definitely not one size or one approach fits all. Some don't believe in burn in, some don't believe in upgrade cables, some don't believe in usb filters like the uptone regen or aq jitterbug, some do. It's similar with all this tech as well. 
 
I have actually not run it without up sampling much because to me it sounds better with it on. I had the same experience with PHA-3. YMMV. 

 

[tradyblix]

 
Funny, it's about 12 years for me. They used to say "sorry about your wallet" and people were often suffering from "upgraditis". I guess this still applies, but I think it has been healthy not following the forums, and just be satisfied with the current state of audio equipment (until it's worn out of course).

 
I think that people generally tend to go to Head-Fi when they're in the market for, or just bought, new equipment.
 
Because of course they want to validate that they bought something considered good by other music afficionados, and by other people with equipment experience.
 
The hobby is actually much more fast moving than I realized. The amount of change since 2010 is truly staggering. Still remember when it was all weird boutique stuff and Grados, lol. I certainly thought I knew it all once and realized that I don't... Still don't, probably never will. However, I am a lot more knowledgable now about different equipment and price / performance than I used to be. 

 

[buzzlulu]

The whole point of this Dacamp is upsampling. Everything is up sampled to DSD 512 by default out of the box. 

To me, up sampling makes a noticeable difference. If you don't like it, or don't think it makes a difference, then this is probably not the amp for you. 

The PHA-3 make a believer out of me in terms of up sampling. This just takes it to another level.

There's a ton of people out there that don't believe in a.) phase linearizers b.) software filters (DSEE HX) or c.) upsampling (DSD, etc). In that case you might want to look at something like a WA22 that doesn't offer any digital enhancement at all. . 

Wow. As someone who was about to pull the trigger on this amp you have just seriously put me on the fence. Is it true that the whole point of this Sony DAC/amp is upsampling? This is the default setting i.e. Intended use by the designers?

I thought I would be getting a phenomenal DAC/amp all in one box which provided stellar performance with the - "option" - of upsampling should one want it. If upsampling was, instead, the whole point of the design and intended to be on all the time than it sounds like I should be looking elsewhere.

Do other TA owners feel this was the design brief of the TA - to be primarily used for upsampling?

 

[AppleheadMay]

Wow. As someone who was about to pull the trigger on this amp you have just seriously put me on the fence. Is it true that the whole point of this Sony DAC/amp is upsampling? This is the default setting i.e. Intended use by the designers?

I thought I would be getting a phenomenal DAC/amp all in one box which provided stellar performance with the - "option" - of upsampling should one want it. If upsampling was, instead, the whole point of the design and intended to be on all the time than it sounds like I should be looking elsewhere.

Do other TA owners feel this was the design brief of the TA - to be primarily used for upsampling?

 
It sounded better with upsampling indeed.
Also a bit underpowered if you ask me.

 

[purk]

Wow. As someone who was about to pull the trigger on this amp you have just seriously put me on the fence. Is it true that the whole point of this Sony DAC/amp is upsampling? This is the default setting i.e. Intended use by the designers?

I thought I would be getting a phenomenal DAC/amp all in one box which provided stellar performance with the - "option" - of upsampling should one want it. If upsampling was, instead, the whole point of the design and intended to be on all the time than it sounds like I should be looking elsewhere.

Do other TA owners feel this was the design brief of the TA - to be primarily used for upsampling?

What does it matter if it is upsampled or not if it has proven to sound good?  Some people prefer tubes to color the sound while some others use exotic resistors and capacitors to do that job?  Why people still enjoy the heck out of the Yggy when it down converted DSD into PCM?  Seriously though...you are over thinking this.  You can always audition the TA and use the return policy if it doesn't suit you.  

 

[tradyblix]

Well, it's 

Wow. As someone who was about to pull the trigger on this amp you have just seriously put me on the fence. Is it true that the whole point of this Sony DAC/amp is upsampling? This is the default setting i.e. Intended use by the designers?

I thought I would be getting a phenomenal DAC/amp all in one box which provided stellar performance with the - "option" - of upsampling should one want it. If upsampling was, instead, the whole point of the design and intended to be on all the time than it sounds like I should be looking elsewhere.

Do other TA owners feel this was the design brief of the TA - to be primarily used for upsampling?

Well, it is THE ONLY amp that can convert PCM streams on the fly to DSD 11/12 mhz AFAIK.  Or at least the only mainstream amp with that capability. 
 
So... kinda hard to say it's not intended to be used right ? I mean if you want to turn all that off... why buy the amp ?
 
As far as underpowered - it's a sony digital amp - it isn't as loud as say, tube amps I have that can push it, for sure. Loudness is also highly source dependent. On my mac, iTunes is louder than the Audirvana 2 / Tidal output. I haven't used a mobile device yet but I could see that it might also not be as loud as some want - especially with the 800 and LCD2. On the Z7 and TH-X00 I could probably blow my ears out. There's a lot of variables at play. 
 
Nobody should be listening over 85 dbs anyway. Have you ever checked your headphones decibels? that's not that loud. There is a real trend in this hobby to "turn it up" as you enjoy stuff - you'll trash your hearing long term if you listen for 6 hours over 85 dbs that way. Trust me, I already did it in my 20s. I have permanent tinnitus that I just live with. 
 
If someone writing something on the forums "puts you on the fence" i would urge you to go and have a listen in a hi-fi shop, can meet, or at a friends house and decide for yourself.  I would say you need to have at least 30 minutes with it to settle in tho. Snap judgements on sound quality in the first few minutes really can be deceiving, especially if your expectations are too high. 

 

[tradyblix]

And just to be clear - I'm keeping project Ember for that reason. if I want to use this as a pure dac and get a tube amp stage I can. I haven't used it in that config because I'm just exploring the capabilities of this as a dac / amp. Again - one size does not fit all when it comes to audio. Which is probably why I have so many headphones 

 
 
As always - this is just my opinion - subjective experience and YMMV and you may not concur. 

 

[Bren Arden]

U could always look into other dac-amp combos such as: RME-Adi2 pro, Grace designs m920, COS Engineering H2, Benchmark Media DAC3 HGC, Antelope Audio Zodiac, Lynx Studio Hilo, Audio-GD master 11/NOS11, Ifi audio PRO IDSD, Goldmund HDA, Questyle CMA800i/600i etc...  Just to provide a few alternatives u might or might not yet know.

 

[Whitigir]

What does it matter if it is upsampled or not if it has proven to sound good?  Some people prefer tubes to color the sound while some others use exotic resistors and capacitors to do that job?  Why people still enjoy the heck out of the Yggy when it down converted DSD into PCM?  Seriously though...you are over thinking this.  You can always audition the TA and use the return policy if it doesn't suit you.  

This is too true, either way, every device will be tuned and colored in it own flavor anyways.

Yes, the TS is an superb sounding device with excellent DSD remastering engine. There are noticeably improvements, out it simply, my YouTube 320kpbs now sounds so lively from iPad streaming.

 

[buzzlulu]

Wow - thanks for all of the replies

I might have opened up a can of worms with this one. I did some googling and reading up on DSD upsampling and I am starting to dig myself into a hole trying to get an understanding.

Anyone care to enlighten me with a "brief" synopsis?

From what I gather it appears that almost all current DAC chips upconvert to DSD internally before outputting an analog signal - so this appears to be pretty universal.
Software programs such as Foobar, JRiver etc can also upconvert to DSD so that the DAC already receives a DSD signal before hand.

Finally - I also read some who say that DSD is dead in the water and never gained any real traction. It is logical that Sony has made the TA for DSD conversion - they were the ones who invented DSD with Phillips.

Can anyone give me a down and dirty primer?

 

[buzzlulu]

U could always look into other dac-amp combos such as: RME-Adi2 pro, Grace designs m920, COS Engineering H2, Benchmark Media DAC3 HGC, Antelope Audio Zodiac, Lynx Studio Hilo, Audio-GD master 11/NOS11, Ifi audio PRO IDSD, Goldmund HDA, Questyle CMA800i/600i etc...  Just to provide a few alternatives u might or might not yet know.

Thanks for the list
You forgot to mention the elephant in the room - Hugo 2!!