[omega1990]

Finally had a chance to hear the sony qualia 010 with my other amps, and the craziest thing is the best synergy was with the sony ta-zh1es. The ta-zh1es makes the qualia sound like a fantastic take on neutrality. Bass is strong and tight, sibilance is gone, treble is crystal clear and crisp, and mids have a little added bit of fullness to prevent it from sounding hollow. It's quite remarkable how well this amp/dac combo plays with sonys own headphones. Even crappy recorded mp3 music sounds great on the qualia.

 

[GXAlan]

Just picked one up. I also put it under the microscope with the E1DA Cosmos ADC.

I agree with
1) not neutral
2) sounds great with my HD820 via XLR4.

I am thinking about putting together the measurements and posting it here and ASR as it clearly shows tube-levels of *silly high* levels of harmonic distortion and the same time showcases “signature” level engineering like a super clean power supply and super well matched channel imbalance.

In other words, really bad SINAD but there’s no way they have the PSU and channel balance so perfect and would leave the THD as bad as it is, unless they intentionally wanted the THD at tube amp levels.

I think the TA-ZH1ES is best described as a tube amp with solid state reliability.

 

[davidmthekidd]

Just picked one up. I also put it under the microscope with the E1DA Cosmos ADC.

I agree with
1) not neutral
2) sounds great with my HD820 via XLR4.

I am thinking about putting together the measurements and posting it here and ASR as it clearly shows tube-levels of *silly high* levels of harmonic distortion and the same time showcases “signature” level engineering like a super clean power supply and super well matched channel imbalance.

In other words, really bad SINAD but there’s no way they have the PSU and channel balance so perfect and would leave the THD as bad as it is, unless they intentionally wanted the THD at tube amp levels.

I think the TA-ZH1ES is best described as a tube amp with solid state reliability.

I cant wait to add a streamer to my Taz, waiting on my Nirvana Plan to expire this June, then I will switch to Roon and enjoy my library via Roon. Did you plug the taz directly to Wall?

 

[GXAlan]

I cant wait to add a streamer to my Taz, waiting on my Nirvana Plan to expire this June, then I will switch to Roon and enjoy my library via Roon. Did you plug the taz directly to Wall?

I tried it in two locations one with and without a line conditioner, in both cases, there is basically zero power supply noise. Super impressive.

Just a ton of harmonics, doesn’t matter if you use the Walkman usb or the rear usb. I did use a WireWorld chroma8 cable.

DSD remastering gives you better measurements.

It is actually very similar to the WM1A. On Amir’s test, that unit also has very impressive channel level matching.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ny-nw-wm1a-review-digital-audio-player.18099/

What is interesting is that when Amir listened to the HPA-1 he wrote “The highs were grungy and bass not clear and impactful.” And when he listened to the WM1A, “The sound was very clean and detailed with good bass.” Different headphones, etc.

I measured voltage at 8V out of the balanced outputs. Higher voltage gives me better measurements although my numbers are worse than Amir’s due to test setup.

 

[Hinomotocho]

I tried it in two locations one with and without a line conditioner, in both cases, there is basically zero power supply noise. Super impressive.

Just a ton of harmonics, doesn’t matter if you use the Walkman usb or the rear usb. I did use a WireWorld chroma8 cable.

DSD remastering gives you better measurements.

It is actually very similar to the WM1A. On Amir’s test, that unit also has very impressive channel level matching.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ny-nw-wm1a-review-digital-audio-player.18099/

What is interesting is that when Amir listened to the HPA-1 he wrote “The highs were grungy and bass not clear and impactful.” And when he listened to the WM1A, “The sound was very clean and detailed with good bass.” Different headphones, etc.

I measured voltage at 8V out of the balanced outputs. Higher voltage gives me better measurements although my numbers are worse than Amir’s due to test setup.

I thought the WM1A measured poorly according to their tests? @Redcarmoose

 

[GXAlan]

I thought the WM1A measured poorly according to their tests? @Redcarmoose

Yes, the TA-ZH1ES also measures as poorly as the WM1A for harmonics.

But look at Pass Labs HPA-1 and the power supply noise at ASR. The TA-ZH1ES power supply off basic Tripp Lite surge protector and basic Furman power strip are both as clean as the battery powered WM1A which is super impressive.

So if you did want intentional harmonics, there is no way you would have power supply harmonics in it…. Sony follows intentional harmonics with clean PSU as opposed to Pass Labs…

Channel volume matching on the Sony is *better* than channel matching of the E1DA Cosmos ADC which is full fledged measurement instrument! Not audible, but a showcase of engineering.

 

[Hinomotocho]

Yes, the TA-ZH1ES also measures as poorly as the WM1A for harmonics.

But look at Pass Labs HPA-1 and the power supply noise at ASR. The TA-ZH1ES power supply off basic Tripp Lite surge protector and basic Furman power strip are both as clean as the battery powered WM1A which is super impressive.

So if you did want intentional harmonics, there is no way you would have power supply harmonics in it…. Sony follows intentional harmonics with clean PSU as opposed to Pass Labs…

Channel volume matching on the Sony is *better* than channel matching of the E1DA Cosmos ADC which is full fledged measurement instrument! Not audible, but a showcase of engineering.

I don't get too technical with my gear, but it is good to hear about their positive aspects. Whitigir a while back on the thread shared some in depth positive info on it's various components.

 

[Tsiklon]

I’ll not delve too deep into the measurements aspect of things but the Taz is all I’ve wanted in an amp. I’ve not run out of headroom with it or found it wanting at all on any headphone. All I want from it is a pair of USB-C‘s one for my DAP and another for my computer. But those are minor wants

 

[nc8000]

I’ll not delve too deep into the measurements aspect of things but the Taz is all I’ve wanted in an amp. I’ve not run out of headroom with it or found it wanting at all on any headphone. All I want from it is a pair of USB-C‘s one for my DAP and another for my computer. But those are minor wants

The TAZ could not drive HE-6 properly when I had them but I never expected it to.

 

[obzilla]

I’ll not delve too deep into the measurements aspect of things but the Taz is all I’ve wanted in an amp. I’ve not run out of headroom with it or found it wanting at all on any headphone. All I want from it is a pair of USB-C‘s one for my DAP and another for my computer. But those are minor wants

I run a usb type c to type b cable to it just fine, from windows, Linux, Mac OS, and idevices just fine. I haven’t tried the Walkman port on the side, but you can similarly connect there too with the right cable.

 

[kefs]

Yes i use a micro usb- usb-c into walkman port

 

[Sanlitun]

Just picked one up. I also put it under the microscope with the E1DA Cosmos ADC.

I agree with
1) not neutral
2) sounds great with my HD820 via XLR4.

I am thinking about putting together the measurements and posting it here and ASR as it clearly shows tube-levels of *silly high* levels of harmonic distortion and the same time showcases “signature” level engineering like a super clean power supply and super well matched channel imbalance.

In other words, really bad SINAD but there’s no way they have the PSU and channel balance so perfect and would leave the THD as bad as it is, unless they intentionally wanted the THD at tube amp levels.

I think the TA-ZH1ES is best described as a tube amp with solid state reliability.

I have yet to see measurements of the TA-ZH1ES. The DSP is pretty heavy so I would imagine the measurements would reflect that.

 

[GXAlan]

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...c-headphone-amp-with-a-sonic-signature.42102/

I just posted my results. Bad by SINAD measurement but the paradox in my conclusion makes me think this is truly the masterpiece of engineering the balance between subjective and objective standards.

Summary
Channel level matching is essentially perfect and better than the channel matching of the Grade A, E1DA Cosmos ADC.

It measures good enough to be transparent to a theoretically impossible perfect music reproduction chain using null testing with the PK Metric.

It measures poorly enough to have distortion levels as high as zero negative feedback tube products like the $15,000 Western Electric 91E for things like 19/20kHz IMD.

 

[endless402]

Shameless plug, my Taz is up for sale https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/sony-ta-zh1es-220v-240v-mint.40965/

whyyyyyyyyyy

 

[The1Signature]

whyyyyyyyyyy

I asked him already