![]() ![]() That said, he made the point that the Z1ES is not just designed for high-res, but to perform well with most formats and resolution. “A lot of people out there think CD, that’s as good as it gets, nothing better, obviously we know that’s not true,” he said. So what does Sony mean by high-res? Anything beyond CD quality, he said, confusing the issue: is it MP3 that is limiting audio quality today, or CD? ![]() “We’ve lost a lot in quality” he said, thanks to the popularity of MP3. Somerset kicked things off, explaining the battle between convenience and quality in music reproduction. One of the odd things was that little music was played, maybe 10 minutes out of a one and a half hour presentation. In this respect it was a curious event as you will see. I was also interested to see if it would broach the tricky subject of DSD vs PCM and whether there is any audible difference. High resolution audio is controversial, in that there is evidence that even CD quality (16-bit/44.1 kHz) is good enough to capture everything we can hear in normal music played at normal levels – see Monty Montgomery’s excellent technical explanation and accompanying videos for why – and I was interested to see how Sony is pitching high-res to its potential customers. The talk and demonstration took place in the basement listening room. Ruth Phypers at the Audio Lounge gave us a warm welcome and conveyed nothing other than enthusiasm for audio no high-pressure sales here. This was a small event for customers and there were around 20 attending. It was demonstrated with the Sony TA-A1E amplifier (also £1999) and the Crystal Cable Arabesque Mini loudspeakers which costs €12,999 (not sure of £ price) including the stands. ![]() PCM is up to 24-bit/192kHz and DSD up to double DSD (DSD 128). The HAP-Z1ES costs £1,999 and plays both DSD (the format of SACD) and PCM formats, including DSDIFF,DSF,WAV,FLAC,ALAC,MP3 and ATRAC. I went along to the Audio Lounge in London to hear Sony’s Eric Kingdon (Senior European Technical Marketing Manager) and Mike Somerset (Product Marketing Manager) talk about high resolution audio and demonstrate the HAP-Z1ES player. ![]()
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January 2023
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