I just connected my Sony to an Auralic Vega. I can't really hear much difference initially. Need to do some more listening by switching back and forth.
New Sony HAP-Z1ES Firmware Out Today
I installed the newest firmware today and was pleasantly surprised that the player now supports an external DAC via the USB connection. It now does DSD over USB2 and there is a provision to turn it on/off. I played a couple of different artists and the player seems to work perfectly with the iPad remote. Here is the skinny, direct from Sony:
This firmware upgrade (version 18033R) provides the following improvements over version 17384R:
- Adds support for the Media Server function
- Adds support for the USB digital output function (USB hub support for connecting each of one HDD drive, one CD drive, and one USB DAC)
- Adds support for Seek operations
- Adds support for the Fade In/Out function
- Adds the Go to genre/artist/album/folder function to the Options menu
- Adds the following operations:
- Queuing the track next to the one currently playing, and queuing the track last
- Deleting the track from the play queue
- Creating a playlist with the play queue
- Deleting the playlist
- Deleting the track from the playlist
- Deleting the information of a disconnected external hard disk drive