Sony HAP-Z1ES Hi-Res Music Player RMAF 2013

at minimum, there's certainly no degradation of the redbook spec. At it's best it's excellent, especially with regard to the bottom (at least on my system)

There's no front volume control. There are Sony amps(surround I guess)that can be controlled from the software you download from itunes

I will have mods that optionally can include a remote control volume. Looks like this: discrete I-V converter for each phase (no op amps) then a shunt volume control between phases and then zero feedback jfet buffers on all 4 phases (for full balanced or unbalanced use).

Tks for the valuable info.

I'm curious and don't have additional HDD, and the info may help others.

Quote from Computer Audio:

"I don't think Z1ES boots from internal hard drive, it boots from some SSD inside.
Because after I install the new drive(indeed new drive, blank, NTFS formatted), booted properly but Z1ES no longer sees it, and I can't format it. I have to do factory reset from the settings, and after that, it formats the disk, and guess what? All sample music is copied to the new drive! So there is a separate storage on board with OS and sample data. The original 1TB drive is only for music and database."

that's what happens when you put in an empty formatted drive rather than cloning the drive that came with the unit