[tradyblix]

I have an NW-A105. It's android powered. It supports MQA for Tidal. That is why I mentioned it. I am sure Sony has some other portables that are non android powered that support it. They have one walkman that is 3,000 dollars (!)

I had this same discussion over a year ago in this same thread. Since then sony hasn't supported it.

I've owned my amp since late 2016 or early 2017... I dont' think they'll suddenly support it 4 years in. last update we got was in march 2017 for it. since then nothing. is the team that designed it even still together ? etc.

When I said in hardware I was talking about a firmware update to the FPGA. The FPGA could easily be updated to support MQA through firmware, one assumes.

What do you think the reason Sony hasn't and seemingly isn't going to support it on this device is then, if it's not that they don't want to pay another company royalties ? Sony has historically been the one to come out with proprietary tech. We might still be using ATRAC right now if some of those had succeeded

Anyway. I recommend Audirvana in the interim or however long it takes sony to do this, if they ever do. Then you can get the higher bit rate and sampling rate sent out to the TA from MQA. It also has a modern interface, works on both windows and mac, and supports Qobuz and a local music library as well as HDtracks as well. It's a one time purchase of 80 bucks. I think Roon can also do something similar.

 

[nc8000]

I have an NW-A105. It's android powered. It supports MQA for Tidal. That is why I mentioned it. I am sure Sony has some other portables that are non android powered that support it. They have one walkman that is 3,000 dollars (!)

I had this same discussion over a year ago in this same thread. Since then sony hasn't supported it.

I've owned my amp since late 2016 or early 2017... I dont' think they'll suddenly support it 4 years in. last update we got was in march 2017 for it. since then nothing. is the team that designed it even still together ? etc.

When I said in hardware I was talking about a firmware update to the FPGA. The FPGA could easily be updated to support MQA through firmware, one assumes.

What do you think the reason Sony hasn't and seemingly isn't going to support it on this device is then, if it's not that they don't want to pay another company royalties ? Sony has historically been the one to come out with proprietary tech. We might still be using ATRAC right now if some of those had succeeded

Anyway. I recommend Audirvana in the interim or however long it takes sony to do this, if they ever do. Then you can get the higher bit rate and sampling rate sent out to the TA from MQA. It also has a modern interface, works on both windows and mac, and supports Qobuz and a local music library as well as HDtracks as well. It's a one time purchase of 80 bucks. I think Roon can also do something similar.

I have absolutely no idea why they have not come out with a fw update for the TA to support mqa when they did it for the Sony OS WM daps. If the TA is capable of supporting mqa and they have paid the license for the Sony OS I can only speculate that they think it is not relevant for the owners the TA which would be true for me

 

[Frank Mantek]

Curious: I currently drive my Sony Z1R with an AK SE100, and they sound great. If you have a "mobile" setup like that, how much better (if at all) is the sound coming out of your laptop plus the TA? Is the headphone amp part of the TA noticable better than let's say the headphone part of the SONY NW-WM1Z?

 

[rosci]

Yeah I can set the DSD like that by enabling the DSD REMASTERING. But PCM is always PCM352.8kHz/32 bit... Looks like it upscales, right?
Yeah, and also ASIO playback locks the bitrate to 32 bit, even if the source and windows audio are set to 16 bit...

i believe this is normal behavior for the tazzy.

remember: it's an actual digital amp.

means it pushes a digital bitstream into a class d amp stage.

it's essentially class d with a quantized time domain. (unlike conventional class d which consumes an analog signal with non-quantized time domain.)

in order for it to generate good quality output it has to upscale to ridiculous digital resolution (moves the quantization noise into a frequency range well outside human hearing) and then pass things through a low pass filter in the end. --> s-master hq

and they run a low-power class a in parallel and combine the signals for error correction in the end. a tazzy idiosyncrasy... one that works very well, at that

 

[tradyblix]

Curious: I currently drive my Sony Z1R with an AK SE100, and they sound great. If you have a "mobile" setup like that, how much better (if at all) is the sound coming out of your laptop plus the TA? Is the headphone amp part of the TA noticable better than let's say the headphone part of the SONY NW-WM1Z?

I can't speak for the WM1Z. Maybe someone here has both or had a chance to compare ?

Generally tho, my experience is that portables can't provide the same power characteristics as a dedicated amp. weight, size and battery considerations all come into play. That is a flagship device that is very expensive tho so I don't know if it's the best comparision to all DAPs.

My Sony A105 can't reach the same levels of power that the Tazzy can tho. In fact it can't even drive my big headphones. And the Tazzy can't reach the same levels of power as the SE Hugo2, although I think it's by design. I can find enjoyable listening levels with all of these as long as I'm using appropriate headphones but they all sound different.

Different use cases, listening situations, equipment. But all great

 

[Rurouni]

Could I ask if there's any sound sync lag on the earphone outputs when using the usb input from a computer on content such as YouTube etc?

 

[kingy]

Could I ask if there's any sound sync lag on the earphone outputs when using the usb input from a computer on content such as YouTube etc?

Absolutely zero lag in games and youtube via USB connection. Acts like a very fast PCIe sound card.

 

[Frank Mantek]

So i got myself the TA ZH1ES as an early XMas present. And i am comparing the sound with the Z1R coming out from the AKSE100 vs the TA. No comparison. The AK is a great portable player, and i will continue to use it (of course) when i am on the road. But for everyone considering the same kind of "upgrade" for their home listening station, the TA offers so much more detail and music, it's a very satisfying step up.

Frank

 

[Soundizer]

Is there a Sony MDR-Z1R discussion thread still going? The main one was closed.

 

[nc8000]

Is there a Sony MDR-Z1R discussion thread still going? The main one was closed.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sony-z1r-listening-impressions-only.853330/

 

[Rurouni]

May have an opportunity to purchase the TA-ZH1ES to pair with an IER-Z1R, does the amp do well with IEMs as I couldn't find info on the amp's output impedance online. Would primarily be using the TA to drive the IER-Z1R, and very occasionally a HD580.

Also, even though the amp is approx 3 years old now, how do you guys as current owners feel about its performance, has it matured well over the years versus some of the new market offerings? Thanks!

 

[Damz87]

May have an opportunity to purchase the TA-ZH1ES to pair with an IER-Z1R, does the amp do well with IEMs as I couldn't find info on the amp's output impedance online. Would primarily be using the TA to drive the IER-Z1R, and very occasionally a HD580.

Also, even though the amp is approx 3 years old now, how do you guys as current owners feel about its performance, has it matured well over the years versus some of the new market offerings? Thanks!

No idea how it compares to other desktop amps in its class, but I really love my TA matched with IER-Z1R. They sound fantastic together.

 

[nc8000]

May have an opportunity to purchase the TA-ZH1ES to pair with an IER-Z1R, does the amp do well with IEMs as I couldn't find info on the amp's output impedance online. Would primarily be using the TA to drive the IER-Z1R, and very occasionally a HD580.

Also, even though the amp is approx 3 years old now, how do you guys as current owners feel about its performance, has it matured well over the years versus some of the new market offerings? Thanks!

It goes very well with both Z1R and it is so good that I have had no desire to explore anything else since I got it 3 years ago

 

[marvin3003]

Here it is also upsampling from 44.1khz 16 bit to 352khz 32 bit.

 

[Rurouni]

Have a few questions for the OS X users on this thread:
1. Could I check if the TA-ZH1ES works on OS X Catalina 10.15 with no issues?
2. Is it also plug and play through selecting of the TA-ZH1ES as one of the sound outputs?
3. Specifically for video and YouTube played via browsers such as Safari/Firefox, is there any video / audio sync lag?

My main setup will be from an iMac (iTunes, Spotify etc) -> TA-ZH1ES -> IEM/Headphones

Thanks!