[trappedintime]

I've got a brand new TA coming in at the end of the week. Pretty excited.

 

[TSAVAlan]

Well OK the other hand Patron send him stuffs, do Sony even send Demo to anyone? I thought only dealers got them.
About the review itself, well~
He's not really iffed about the build, he loves it for its simplicity actually, what it can do, plugging 5 headphones at the same time, the remote, etc.

He's just not too cuffed with how underpowered he feels it is for the weight and heat it give off.

He's not really one to use IEM on desktop, and his lightest to drive Fullsize is the AD2000X. Heck he even commented, "plug in a Liquid spark to its RCA out and compare the A/B amp power on it".

For its sound. He ain't wowed by it, "it's. . Good", preferred his own THX789 to it.
DSEEHX, he said " try it out, on off for a couple hours, if you like the change, leave it on, if not, off", he much prefer a self adjustable EQ with clear technical term than the random DSP name like "string", or "acoustic" etc (like I also wonder what the heck does that naming mean, lol)

Well I know TA's Amp power is its Achilles heel, so I guess it's just not for him in the first place.

Overall I think he gave it quite a fair shake, he also shows basically all the quirk the amp has, in all its built, menu and settings.

Not that I'm really trying to shamelessly defend him, it's just I don't really see that vudeo has much of a bias, just a reviewer giving his opinion.

It's not even a bashing video, he snark at Chord's offerings much, much harder (poor Mojo and Qutest...)

Sony does send review units but Zeos does get most of his gear from fans. He does get gear from manufacturers to review though.

From a previous experience as a manufacturer sending him gear, he was quite easy to work with and quite professional.

 

[Automata]

Im enjoying the Stellia / TA combo. Pretty good synergy.

 

[Sp12er3]

Sony does send review units but Zeos does get most of his gear from fans. He does get gear from manufacturers to review though.

From a previous experience as a manufacturer sending him gear, he was quite easy to work with and quite professional.

Ah alright, that's good to know, it just thought Sony isn't quite as into review samples as other, more boutique brand, looking at how few did get and make a review of them I didn't think I'was wrong, good to know that there's some means to get a review directly from them then.

(I did remember Tyll said his Z1R was from Sony themselves, but he was kinda late on that review, and seems to be done in a quite a narrow review window)

 

[Viper Necklampy]

You know what would be cool? If the TA-ZH1ES could be measured in FR to see if have an actual boost in higher Frequencies up to 80khz like WM1Z
FUN STUFF/TIP, don't judge me: How nice would be that boost, in their DSD creation, with their first implemention of upsampling with Dsee hx, i mean, they create even Toslink connection in audio that i'm using with PlayStations, have we ever seen boosted high frequencies like in WM1Z and Pha-3 before? They have the only headphones marketed as 100 and 120khz, this drive me nuts. Sorry

Also, would really like to some real measurements! Which don't spoil the real sound but.. Measurements are measurements, and should come with every Amp/dac, but on 99% of product there aren't.. I Read somewhere that with coaxial Dynamic range is 106db, not the best in that repart actually

 

[Viper Necklampy]

Sorry, I know why i make double post, probably i reply to mine while i try to modify, there is a method to delete this kinda useless posts?

 

[tradyblix]

amps dont usually get the same attention from reviewers that headphones get, either. Outside of a few very well known brands like chord and schiit. And sony def didnt do what meze did with regard to getting product in “influencer” hands.

 

[purk]

I think the TA-ZH1ES is a strong product from Sony. You are paying more for the craftsmanship, in/out connections, 5-year ES warranty, preamp, remote control, DSD upsampling, DAC out features and a really good (albeit slightly under power for Orthos) Headamp section. Yes, the asking price isn’t cheap but the up and coming Headamp GS-X Mini is almost $2000 but offer less in features but likely with better sound. I think the TA-Z1ES should be reviewed against the Questyle 12/master and see who will come out on top.

 

[TSAVAlan]

Ah alright, that's good to know, it just thought Sony isn't quite as into review samples as other, more boutique brand, looking at how few did get and make a review of them I didn't think I'was wrong, good to know that there's some means to get a review directly from them then.

(I did remember Tyll said his Z1R was from Sony themselves, but he was kinda late on that review, and seems to be done in a quite a narrow review window)

Sony has lot of products and lots of teams so I can sometimes imagine how many steps of approval it can take to get a Sony for review

The IER-Z1R is super high demand right now from Sony, I can't get any to fill my orders! So anyone asking to review that is probably on a long list...

 

[ZenErik]

Interested in purchasing one of these if anyone has one available. Already have a thread up but figured I would post here too. Thanks!

 

[gorg]

Zeos reviewed the amp, sadly not with the Z1R to try it with.

He very hesitantly not excited about how it sounds (but then again he's more of a Powaaaaaa~! guy when reviewing amp stage, precisely the TA's Achilles heel)

But loves the build and care put into it.

He said "if it's $1K tho, it's a buy".

I don't really know or care who that guy is but I have probably watched some of his videos in the past. And judging by his review tone and hardware and music preferences, it is natural for me to understand that when he bashes something then it is probably something worth buying. But since I trust MY ears over anything else and have listened to TA-ZH1ES I didn't even need to go to that road - the Amp/DAC is really good.

 

[TSAVJason]

I don't really know or care who that guy is but I have probably watched some of his videos in the past. And judging by his review tone and hardware and music preferences, it is natural for me to understand that when he bashes something then it is probably something worth buying. But since I trust MY ears over anything else and have listened to TA-ZH1ES I didn't even need to go to that road - the Amp/DAC is really good.

+1 .....the guys reviews are more silly than factual or informative.

 

[ZenErik]

Have one of these coming tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing how it compares to my nano iDSD BL. I haven't seen many posts about the latency via USB on the ZH1ES. Hope it isn't as bad as what I've heard about the current Sony DAPs. I will be using it with my PC with games and movies/tv along with music.

I have to admit that part of the reason I became interested is to have a full Sony setup. It's a mistake to like the idea of matching things.

If I decide to keep it I'll need to get a nice balanced cable for my ADX5000. Wish it came with one like my MDR and IER Z1Rs.

 

[bdjul]

Have one of these coming tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing how it compares to my nano iDSD BL. I haven't seen many posts about the latency via USB on the ZH1ES. Hope it isn't as bad as what I've heard about the current Sony DAPs. I will be using it with my PC with games and movies/tv along with music.

I have to admit that part of the reason I became interested is to have a full Sony setup. It's a mistake to like the idea of matching things.

If I decide to keep it I'll need to get a nice balanced cable for my ADX5000. Wish it came with one like my MDR and IER Z1Rs.

I have wm1a and when using it as a dac It a delay for 1 sec approximately, impossible to watch something. I’m using ta-zh1es with pc for music, watching films and gaming and there is no delay or I can’t notice it.

 

[marvin3003]

Have one of these coming tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing how it compares to my nano iDSD BL. I haven't seen many posts about the latency via USB on the ZH1ES. Hope it isn't as bad as what I've heard about the current Sony DAPs. I will be using it with my PC with games and movies/tv along with music.

I have to admit that part of the reason I became interested is to have a full Sony setup. It's a mistake to like the idea of matching things.

If I decide to keep it I'll need to get a nice balanced cable for my ADX5000. Wish it came with one like my MDR and IER Z1Rs.

I do notice some latency while watching netflix