🎶 Elevate Your Listening Experience!
The Sony HAPS1/B is a cutting-edge 500GB Hi-Res Music Player System designed for audiophiles. It supports a wide range of audio formats, features a powerful 40W amplifier, and allows for seamless app control, making it the perfect addition to any home audio setup.
MP3 player | Yes |
Specific Uses For Product | personal music listening, home audio entertainment |
Controller Type | App Control |
Color | Black |
Is Waterproof | FALSE |
Control Method | App |
Mounting Type | Tabletop Mount |
Speaker Type | Computer |
Additional Features | Hi Res Audio |
Recommended Uses For Product | music |
Item Weight | 1 Pounds |
Number of Batteries | 2 AAA batteries required. |
Power Source | Corded Electric |
Number of Audio Channels | 2.0 |
Speaker Maximum Output Power | 40 Watts |
Compatible Devices | Laptop |
Connectivity Protocol | Wi-Fi |
Wireless Technology | Wi-Fi |
Connectivity Technology | USB |
H**H
The Sony HAP-S1 is a gift from the music gods
While it can be a bit shocking to discover just how jumbled, messed up or broken the existing metadata may be in your music files, once you get that straightened out, the HAP is great. The bottom line for the HAP is this: having a thousand CDs worth of music at your fingertips is a beautiful thing. I know there are a dozen other audio file players that do essentially the same thing, but I like the way the HAP does those things, so to me it was worth the slightly higher cost.The app to control the HAP from a tablet (or phone) works perfectly, so I don't really use the dial and buttons on the unit itself. File transfer has worked well via wifi, though for the initial setup I wired the HAP into the network for a quicker transfer. It seems like some people don't like the way files are transferred, but it's really been a non-issue for me. Updates and new additions upload automatically from a folder on your computer, so you don't even have to think about it (you can also manually start the transfer if you prefer).At first I thought the 500GB storage drive was going to be kind of small, but I have about a thousand albums worth of lossless FLAC files on the HAP, and I think it will hold about 500 more. If you've got more than 1,500 albums, you can add an external hard drive to expand the storage (and if you use a smaller file format, like MP3, you can fit many times more albums, but I don't know why anyone would buy this and not use lossless files - if you only use MP3s there are cheaper network devices you can buy that don't have or require the same quality D/A conversion as the HAP).Speaking of D/A conversion, the sound quality of the HAP is excellent. Indistinguishable from my TEAC PD-H600 Reference Series CD player, and that uses Burr-Brown 24-bit/192kHz Delta-Sigma DACs. I couldn't hear any difference at all between the units when I compared them. I run the HAP direct (no EQ) through an 80w Marantz amp into ELAC Debut F6 speakers (great speakers - buy them for yourself for Christmas or your birthday or President's Day, or just because you like loud things!) and a Polk Audio sub.About that broken metadata - the HAP organizes your music based on the metadata in the files, so at first, things weren't exactly falling into the artist groups or categories I wanted. But that's not a problem inherent to the HAP, any file player would have the same issue (if you've ever uploaded files to Google music you've probably seen what a mess bad metadata can result in). If you need a program to sort out your metadata in bulk, Google "TagScanner." It's a free download, and it made the metadata organization job infinitely easier than it might have been.I don't use the built-in amplifier so I can't comment on that. I like having the amp there though, since theoretically you could unplug the HAP and take it anywhere. Just plug it into a pair of speakers and be good to go. I also never tried the basic remote that is included, so I can't say anything about that either.
D**P
Sony still haven't learned from their SACD debacle...
I so wanted to buy this item but Sony have painted themselves into a corner once again, one that other manufacturers will only profit from. In many respects, this is the ideal marriage of audio and computing that so many people seek but one that Sony have tarred with their usual proprietary navel-gazing. Simply put, there are 3 big problems with this unit (equally applicable to its standalone big-brother, the HAP-Z1) that make it a non-starter for me and possibly many of its intended purchasers:1) Navigation. While the jog-dial with separate Enter/Select/Play button on the faceplate is a bit dumb, it is at least there. However, if you want to browse through your albums from the comfort of your listening seat you won't be able to because Sony have seen fit to only equip the remote with Next and Previous Track buttons. While I expect to have to get up to interact with a record player, I do not expect to have to do so with a music server. Of course, Sony and its adherents will tell you that all you need is their remote app for your iPad or Android device and you're set. If you already possess one of these items then all well and good, but I'm not buying another computer just to be able to use the basic functions of the Sony.2) File Transfer. Not only will you need a second computer to use the Sony, you better not need to use this unit anywhere where you don't have your own wireless network because Sony have put proprietary network-only file transfer on this device. Despite the presence of a USB port on the back of this unit, there is no mass-storage option allowing the internal HDD to be filled by direct USB connection. Think it matters? Wait till your router is down, or you change ISP, or you want to use the Sony at college / your weekend house / etc. Most importantly, you better hope that Sony keep that file-transfer utility up-to-date for future OSs because it's the only way to get music into this device, and Sony have a long record of abandoning their customers with both drivers and hardware (e.g., VAIO) over time (not to mention its malfeasance with the CD 'rootkit' business).3) Digital Output. Just as with their SACD players, Sony are more interested in control than your ability to get the most out of their hardware. It may not matter to a purchaser of a self-contained system, but one day you might want to upgrade to a better DAC or amplifier -- and you will want to take advantage of 256x and 512x DSD audio downloads when they become available, and you won't be able to with either the HAP-S1 or Z1 because there's no digital output. For a spare-room mini system that's not a tremendously big deal, but for a $2K audiophile player (the HAP-Z1) it's shortsighted and foolish in the extremeAll of these 3 issues apply to both the S1 and Z1 and smack of the same corporate arrogance that consigned SACD to the dustbin. Once people figured out how to unlock their SACDs to release the DSD within, Sony decided to join them rather than try to beat them and made the DSD files available for purchase and download. Unfortunately, the hardware that they provide to play those downloads is as inscrutably dumb as many have come to expect from this company.It's too bad really, but I won't lose any sleep over it because the demise of quality analogue audio can be laid squarely at the door of this company: I have never heard a digital audio format that can hold a candle to vinyl analogue audio, and as so many analogue master tapes that have degraded were backed up to low-bit PCM I know I never will now. After foisting an inferior (16-bit) audio system on us for 30 years (using it to install malware on the computers of anyone who wanted a fair-use copy of that audio), Sony now admit that it wasn't actually good enough and offer us a higher resolution version that requires we buy our record collections all over again, for the third time.Thanks Sony.There's a reason why all this network chicanery and output blocking exists in these products, but Sony's horse has already well and truly bolted. It's no coincidence that the majority of traffic that fills the internet today is composed of people sharing digital music. What irony, eh? Sony took quality audio away from us in exchange for a cardboardy numerical pastiche of the real thing, and did so without realising that in forever fixing our audio to computers they provided the perfect mechanism for obtaining that music without charge.Home Taping never killed music. Lousy digital audio did.
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