In the area of personal audio, Sony dominated ever since the appearance of the first cassette Walkman. And today, she did not intend to give up their positions ambitious newcomers from China and South Korea!
This season, the company is taking all measures ensure that, in order to strengthen its position in the premium segment of this promising market.
SONY TA-ZH1ES: REVIEW AND TEST
This important mission assigned to the top-end line of Signature Series, which the company introduced at the recent IFA. Today we look at the most solid of the device in this series – the DAC / amplifier TA-ZH1ES. It’s time to find out why Sony holds for this model such hopes! And why such calls for her money.
SONY TA-ZH1ES: HIGH-RESOLUTION AUDIO HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER
SONY TA-ZH1ES: APPEARANCE
Metal casing, black textured finish and no decorative frills – in the guise of the new model is recognized by the same noble minimalism, which marked her next of kin of the Signature Series family. By the standards of the home, an appliance is a device that looks more like a fat encyclopedia than the usual High-End box.
But it is quite heavy: when trying to shift power from the spot immediately realizes that his body is not full of foam. And indeed, in the stuffing TA-ZH1ES contained metal, as it is enough for half a dozen simpler devices.
The solid chassis made from aluminum and thickened aimed at full vibration damping, and a metal base is made in the form of a double-layer sandwich, the center of gravity to shift down and increase the stability of the construction. Cover from TA-ZH1ES also not easy – it is based on a combination of steel and aluminum, designed to eliminate resonances.
It was on the cover taken out of the main unit controls, with the exception of the large volume knob, the rest of the front panel. All the rest of the space on the front and rear of the given multiple inputs and outputs. They are really a lot! Where more than gets from most other designers High-End amplifiers.
SONY TA-ZH1ES: SWITCHING
How headphone jacks put the ordinary amplifier? Most of it is missing one or two. TA-ZH1ES – special case: on its facade crowd of half a dozen different-sized connectors starting with “national” minijack and finishing studio XLR4.
Two of them are reserved for the standard, unbalanced connection of headphones and four others imprisoned under the balanced connection, excluding the loss in audio quality regardless of cable length.
An explicit focus on balanced connection not only brings the TA-ZH1ES with other devices in the line of Signature Series but also provides them with all the conditions for joint work.
First of all, it refers to the flagship headphones MDR-Z1R, which is included in the box additional balanced cable. On the rear panel – USB-B to work in conjunction with a computer in quality USB-DAC, optics coax to connect with other digital sources and line input and preamp output.
On the side – something more interesting: a digital interface for connection to Walkman music players and smartphones Xperia. Due to its thought-out placement of the user does not need to fumble his hand on the wrong side of DAC / amplifier connecting to it their portable gadgets.
After all, this can be done without too much fuss, just one simple movement!
SONY TA-ZH1ES: FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS
In the scheme of power and strengthening TA-ZH1ES applied a number of interesting decisions, successfully tested Sony designers on its top High-End audio components, but the biggest concern is its digital to the analog module.
It is based on Gate Array – a semiconductor device with the most flexible configuration that can reach a maximum computing power in the processing of the digital audio stream. It is at such gate arrays most advanced audiophile solutions are built today – for example, the well-known analog converters Chord.
In the scheme of TA-ZH1ES on FPGA entrusted conversion of any input in the one-bit DSD stream with an uncompromising resolution of 22.4 MHz. That’s where it has a flagship device as outstanding processability!
In addition, 22.4MGts DSD is prepared to accept the PCM ultra 32bit / 768kGts resolution unsupportable for the vast majority of today’s DAC. In addition to a powerful arsenal, attracted to the HD-audio processing, a new DAC / Sony amplifier equipped with a decent set of tools for sound compensation.
In addition to the linear phase correction with multiple operating modes in this set include proprietary processor DSEE HX, designed to correct the frequency and dynamic losses in the MP3-compression.
The availability of this function in the High-End device may not seem quite appropriate until you remember that one of the main tasks of TA-ZH1ES – work in tandem with portable devices. With the ability to DSEE HX owner of these devices will be able to squeeze the maximum sound quality from even the most pinched files!
SONY TA-ZH1ES: SOUNDING
The powerful amplifier of the Sony TA-ZH1ES allows it to handle any load in the range from 8 to 600 so that the choice of headphones to test anything you can not limit yourself.
We are given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities device in conjunction with a disparate set of planar Oppo PM-2, high impedance Sennheiser HD600, as well as the flagship Sony MDR-Z1R. From Oppo, PM-2 amplifier achieves a dense and rich sound in which the sharpness of the image detail is harmoniously combined with integrity in the supply of music.
The easy disadvantage of the lower bass is compensated by excellent speed and low-range precision by which the bass drum sound with the utmost elasticity and energy. Classic Sennheiser HD600 when connected to the TA-ZH1ES start playing as air, relaxed space and that if it were not tight pressure cups, they could be confused with the flagship 800th model of the famous German company.
Completely disappear soaring high frequencies, which some mistakenly believe stereo file congenital HD600.
In fact, these headphones do not have high-flaws, but they need quality amplification path! But the most vivid impressions of the device are a duet with his closest relatives in the family Sony Sound Signature – Headphones MDR-Z1R.
The sound of the chords struck a rare combination of scale and sophistication, thanks to which the orchestra when listening to recordings with a resolution of 24 bit / 192kHz feel dizzy about the same as when you view a movie on a screen, a fantastic giant 8K TV.
This sound is so saturated three-dimensional so that the word “realistic” it does not describe. This is a real hyperrealism! All tools are clearly divided on the scene, for each instrument part is easy to follow, and every touch bow to the violin string, or tapping his finger on piano key pops up so many details that any piece of music can be indefinite. The main thing – do not forget to arrange breaks for sleep and food. Or even just a dream.
SONY TA-ZH1ES: EVENTUALLY AND CONCLUSIONS
This DAC / amplifier Sony TA-ZH1ES is able to extract the maximum musical potential of even relatively inexpensive headphones – it is able not only to identify their strengths but also smooth out the inherent flaws. But to get a really strong impression, it is to hear how it sounds paired with top models like the Sony MDR-Z1R. This is not exactly forgotten soon!
Source: Sony
Title: New musical elite: DAC / amp Headphone Review of Sony TA-ZH1ES
Updated: 2017-01-31
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