[nc8000]

This is a question you have to ask your wallet.

My wallet has answered resoundingly that no way is the DMP needed. Now my heart and curiosity has a different answer but that will not happen

 

[Gamerlingual]

This is a question you have to ask your wallet.

Money isn’t an issue. It’s the practicality aspect of it

 

[Kiats]

Money isn’t an issue. It’s the practicality aspect of it

I think it's also a question of whether you will get sufficiently different a sound signature for this. As well as whether it suits your use case.

 

[Gamerlingual]

I think it's also a question of whether you will get sufficiently different a sound signature for this. As well as whether it suits your use case.

I hardly heard any differences and this was after over 20 hours of testing. And all I could tell, it makes headphones louder. That’s all

 

[davidmthekidd]

This is one of the reasons I decided to go all-in on the S-Master Signature Series players. I can now sit back and enjoy them for a good few years without ever having to worry about redundancy creeping in. If someone can figure out how to enable LDAC input during USB out for the WM1Z, it's be a virtually flawless system for my use case and sound preferences (paired with the Z1R twins).

Don't sleep on APTX-HD, it is very good sounding Plus you can find countless APTX-HD transmitters online.

 

[covgyw]

I am looking to upgrade my DAC/AMP (currently running Centrance Dacmini CX) setup and I'm looking at the TA-ZH1ES as a prospect. My headphones are pretty drivable so I am not too worried on the AMP side, so I am focusing on convenience and build quality of the DAC/Amp. I like how the tazzy have multiple outputs and you have to manually choose your output. Build quality of Sony is superb, especially their high end lines so I am not too worried about it. A few questions I have:
1. Any other DAC/AMP combo I with multiple outputs like the Tazzy that I should be looking into (~$1500 price range +/- 500)? Any new development/tech since the Sony came out?
2. Have any one uses Iphone / Apple music lossless as an input? Does it run correctly? The lossless apple music was just released last year. I dont know if the Tazzy is too old?
3. Does it play nice with Mac? Sony was infamous before Apple took over about their walled garden approach, not sure if they are still doing it. Does it have any issues with Intel or M1 Macs?

Thanks!

 

[Tsiklon]

I am looking to upgrade my DAC/AMP (currently running Centrance Dacmini CX) setup and I'm looking at the TA-ZH1ES as a prospect. My headphones are pretty drivable so I am not too worried on the AMP side, so I am focusing on convenience and build quality of the DAC/Amp. I like how the tazzy have multiple outputs and you have to manually choose your output. Build quality of Sony is superb, especially their high end lines so I am not too worried about it. A few questions I have:
1. Any other DAC/AMP combo I with multiple outputs like the Tazzy that I should be looking into (~$1500 price range +/- 500)? Any new development/tech since the Sony came out?
2. Have any one uses Iphone / Apple music lossless as an input? Does it run correctly? The lossless apple music was just released last year. I dont know if the Tazzy is too old?
3. Does it play nice with Mac? Sony was infamous before Apple took over about their walled garden approach, not sure if they are still doing it. Does it have any issues with Intel or M1 Macs?

Thanks!

I can’t answer question 1, but I can answer the other two - you can plug an iPhone or an iPad directly into the TAZ and it will work properly with Apple Music Hi-Rez Lossless.

I also use a Mac Studio, and it works without issue, but you have to manually set the sample rate globally in MacOS if you want to use the high res features in music.app.

 

[Hinomotocho]

Which iFi one is this? The iFi Zen Blue?

I just checked, yes the Zen Blue.
In a year I had given myself the green light on going for the Signature Series (secondhand) MDR-Z1R, IER-Z1R and TA so was looking for the best low priced option which was the BTA30, but possibly the Blue is rated above it? (Also the BTA30 is quite small which works well for my limited space).

Thank, just so we're on the same page, if I connect the BTA30 to the Taz via optical/coax, and send music to the BTA30 via LDAC, it will pass that through 'bitperfect' to the Taz via digital input, and the music will output from the Taz? The BTA30 won't do any digital processing itself? If so, that's a very workable solution...

I recommend that you ask on the thread to confirm this. As my use is only with heavily compressed Youtube, Netflix and movie rips I wasn't going to stress too much about quality.
The BTA30 has an upscaling feature available through the app so I might assume it does bitperfect?
This was a while ago so I can't remember exactly, and possibly I asked several months ago on this thread, when I was watching an uncompressed rip of my blu-ray concert discs the TA was showing a different bitrate, also with a couple of hi-res test tracks. I could never work out if it was to do with the android of my Nvidia Shield interfering with the output signal, the BTA30 or the TA just misinterpreting the file data - I don't think it was the BTA.

 

[Woodlands]

2. Have any one uses Iphone / Apple music lossless as an input? Does it run correctly? The lossless apple music was just released last year. I dont know if the Tazzy is too old?
3. Does it play nice with Mac? Sony was infamous before Apple took over about their walled garden approach, not sure if they are still doing it. Does it have any issues with Intel or M1 Macs?

2. All my music is ripped in ALAC, Apple’s lossless equivalent to FLAC, and the TAZ plays it fine. If Apple Music streams lossless in ALAC then you’re good. According to an Apple support page this might be the case “In addition to AAC, the entire Apple Music catalog is now also encoded using ALAC in resolutions ranging from 16-bit/44.1 kHz (CD Quality) up to 24-bit/192 kHz.”

3. My TAZ is connected via the USB input to a 2015 MacBook Pro. Again, works flawlessly. I just make sure to restart the Mac with the TAZ connected if I disconnected them for some reason.

 

[Kiats]

2. All my music is ripped in ALAC, Apple’s lossless equivalent to FLAC, and the TAZ plays it fine. If Apple Music streams lossless in ALAC then you’re good. According to an Apple support page this might be the case “In addition to AAC, the entire Apple Music catalog is now also encoded using ALAC in resolutions ranging from 16-bit/44.1 kHz (CD Quality) up to 24-bit/192 kHz.”

3. My TAZ is connected via the USB input to a 2015 MacBook Pro. Again, works flawlessly. I just make sure to restart the Mac with the TAZ connected if I disconnected them for some reason.

Thanks for the insights @Woodlands . For (2), then you'd be using the USB DAC input for the TAZ then? Good to know. Then I can use my MacMini (which I use as a Roon core) to be connected to the TAZ.

 

[Woodlands]

For (2), then you'd be using the USB DAC input for the TAZ then?

You bet. I also use the optical input from a CD player when I feel like playing physical media but I was delighted with the ease of use with the Mac and the USB input.

 

[covgyw]

Thanks all!

 

[Vamp898]

I felt minor regret thinking I should have gotten the DMP-Z1. Then I see a bunch of people sell it off and I’m not active in the thread or the site for a couple of weeks and realized, I didn’t think about getting the DMP. From a practical standpoint, I just use mostly the 1Z/1A with my TA and wireless music is for my iPhone and A55. The damping factor in the TA is legit with the MDR-Z1R

I really like the DMP-Z1 (even though some people here think different), but I tested it again today (mostly with the IER-M9)

And I still stand behind my opinion, that the TA-ZH1ES sounds better.

There is one song called プラトー from サカナクション



And the drums just sound so much more realistic and authentic on the Tazzy. And the bass after the first refrain just sounds too soft on the DMP-Z1

That is one song where you can really hear and that shows that Sony tried everything to make the DMP-Z1 sound as fast as possible, but the TA-ZH1ES just beats it

 

[davidmthekidd]

I really like the DMP-Z1 (even though some people here think different), but I tested it again today (mostly with the IER-M9)

And I still stand behind my opinion, that the TA-ZH1ES sounds better.

There is one song called プラトー from サカナクション



And the drums just sound so much more realistic and authentic on the Tazzy. And the bass after the first refrain just sounds too soft on the DMP-Z1

That is one song where you can really hear and that shows that Sony tried everything to make the DMP-Z1 sound as fast as possible, but the TA-ZH1ES just beats it

The question is, how can sony improve from Taz? Computational Audio (Ai DSEE)?? Anyways, I connected mine straight to the wall and man, I was missing almost all my low end, I had it connect it to a surge protector before, I cant go back regardless of safety lol.

 

[Vamp898]

The question is, how can sony improve from Taz? Computational Audio (Ai DSEE)?? Anyways, I connected mine straight to the wall and man, I was missing almost all my low end, I had it connect it to a surge protector before, I cant go back regardless of safety lol.

They can only improve the output power and maybe fine tune the capacitors.

But don't fix what's not broken. I assume there won't be an successor to the TA-ZH1ES in the near future and mine still works and sounds perfect, so I don't need one