Sony Hap S1

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tonky

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Jan 2, 2008
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The sony hap s1 has received recent good reviews - it's availability seems a bit limited at the moment. Has anybody bought one and could give some insight into its sound quality/usability etc Or failing that someone has demoed one - and if so what was their impression.

Thanks for any help - tonky
 
If you are in the UK then auditioning should not be a problem if you are anywhere near a Sevenoaks dealership.

Not heard it myself but if I had the money available I might consider getting one. It has indeed been well reviewed but may be a bit restrictive for some in the way it acquires the files initially.

Sony also made a few errors in it's design in my opinion like the inability to play a USB stick full of music files or the ability to stream from a phone / inability to access files from a shared network folder / too small a hard drive to start with.
 
Thanks for that - it's a quite a way to a sevenoaks for me. The fact that i would have to transfer music files off my laptop through an internet connection (and that after installing software on my laptop) makes a dealer listening session a bit of a chore. It doesn't seem the sort of product that would have easy availability for home demo.

So why am I interested? High quality music files (high res files) - superb dac - ease of storage on hard drive(s) (once user interface etc is all set up) - -portability - good quality internal amp and ability to output to a seperate amp..

cheers tonky
 
This product is so near and yet so far.

Its exactly what I'm looking for as far as sound quality goes but is missing a few key functions to make me shell out the huge wedge Sony are asking.
 
It would certainly be nice to see a price reduction on this product - Olive products are expensive and i read about reports of unreliability.

cheers - tonky
 
It is not my intention to bash sony but everything i bought from sony came out crap and broke very soon from classic walkman,mini disc,portable cd-player over hifi equipment,telephone to television.I was a huge fan and had a lot of stuff from them when I was a teenager (my first hifi was sony) but i will probably never buy sony products again.I have only a BR-Player from Sony now and it´s ok so far since two years.Bad karma?I don´t know...
 
I have found quite the opposite. Having had old tape decks (admittedly ES versions), amps, etc I found most to be built like tanks and long-lasting.

I still have my Walkman Professional portable tape deck as still use it to record interviews / play back the odd cassette or two. It has been serviced only the once.

I can see the HAP S1 as a 'nearly there' device much like Sony's attempt at a hi-res portable, which, all said and done, was pretty poor for the money they were asking compared to the likes of an Astell & Kern.

It seems to me that Sony rush out these devices with a view to trying to get you to buy the 'uprated' version (read one more added function) the following year. Consumerism at it's worst.

The Hap S1 is not a 'stand alone' device and needs a computer at some point in the equation. If you already have music files on a computer or better still a NAS why not just invest in a decent streamer?
 
Esra said:
It is not my intention to bash sony but everything i bought from sony came out crap and broke very soon from classic walkman,mini disc,portable cd-player over hifi equipment,telephone to television.I was a huge fan and had a lot of stuff from them when I was a teenager (my first hifi was sony) but i will probably never buy sony products again.I have only a BR-Player from Sony now and it´s ok so far since two years.Bad karma?I don´t know...
Click to expand...

How many of the Sony products that you have mentioned had model numbers ending with the letters ES?

only reason I ask is ES product is actually made by Sony. Majority of their product is built to spec by third parties nowadays.
 
As a teenager I didn´t know much about about good quality hifi.Probably I couldn´t afford either ES.But I also heard that ES products to be good.Never had one and never will.These times Sony was like Apple today.But sadly I was dissapointed every time.Besides I do not own a single product from Apple too.
 
Esra said:
It is not my intention to bash sony but everything i bought from sony came out crap and broke very soon from classic walkman,mini disc,portable cd-player over hifi equipment,telephone to television.I was a huge fan and had a lot of stuff from them when I was a teenager (my first hifi was sony) but i will probably never buy sony products again.I have only a BR-Player from Sony now and it´s ok so far since two years.Bad karma?I don´t know...
Click to expand...

All of the purchaes you mention broke? and yet you keep buying the same brand? I would have stopped buying Sony products after the first 2 became faulty...
 
Yes they broke time after time.Worst was the projector TV which I bought six years ago and broke after 1,5years.They mostly broke after warranty time 😉 and customer service from sony was also worst i have experienced.The blue ray player was a gift,I didn´t buy Sony (except the TV) since over ten years.Though I kept my first sony hifi out of sentimental reasons and get them fixed paying for it on my own.But the CD-Player has broken again :doh: .
 
Al ears said:
The Hap S1 is not a 'stand alone' device and needs a computer at some point in the equation. If you already have music files on a computer or better still a NAS why not just invest in a decent streamer?
Click to expand...

Wrong, you only need a computer to get your music onto the S1, otherwise it is a standalone player, it has expandable storage too. It's specifically targeted towards those who don't want to faf with ethernet/wifi streaming - because playback occurs from its built-in/expanded storage, and therefore unlike network streaming dropouts are just not an issue.

It definitely fulfills many needs, especially for those who could not be bothered with networking and NAS's etc. And it also includes a 40-watt amplifier.
 
I have a HAP-S1 high def player . I had the following problem yesterday –

I ripped a new CD to my music library and then did a transfer to HAP. I found that only 6 of the 10 tracks were displayed. I deleted the file and did the transfer a number of times and each time the same tracks were missing. I tried to transfer the missing tracks alone and still the HAP did not show the tracks.

I did find on the delete screen all the tracks were shown. The reason the tracks did not show up on the HAP was incomplete information from the Gracenote software. Updating manually the music information brought up all 10 tracks on the HAP .

Please note this information as there is nothing on the Sony help web page regarding this problem

I alsofind the HAP remote app very poor as it fails to make the connection to the player a lot of the time (using a new Sony tablet) and the only way the resolve the issue is to delete and reload the app. This app needs a lot of work on it to make the whole system reliable.
 
serlek1 said:
I have a HAP-S1 high def player . I had the following problem yesterday –

I ripped a new CD to my music library and then did a transfer to HAP. I found that only 6 of the 10 tracks were displayed. I deleted the file and did the transfer a number of times and each time the same tracks were missing. I tried to transfer the missing tracks alone and still the HAP did not show the tracks.

I did find on the delete screen all the tracks were shown. The reason the tracks did not show up on the HAP was incomplete information from the Gracenote software. Updating manually the music information brought up all 10 tracks on the HAP .

Please note this information as there is nothing on the Sony help web page regarding this problem

I alsofind the HAP remote app very poor as it fails to make the connection to the player a lot of the time (using a new Sony tablet) and the only way the resolve the issue is to delete and reload the app. This app needs a lot of work on it to make the whole system reliable.
Click to expand...

I always thought the HAP was rushed onto the market too soon, with a little more thought it could have been brilliant.

It looks like, maybe, the app was a bit rushed too. Oh well, there's always the Mark 2 to look forward to.
regular_smile.gif
 
... at a well known high-street hi-fi retailer...

"Hello, would it posiible to arrange a demo of the Sony HAPZ1-ES?"

"The what? We don't stock that"

"It's on your website"

"Oh, what is it? I've never heard of it"

......after an explanation of the Sony I was told...

"Ah, OK. Sorry, it's a special order item. A demo is not possible".

*unknw*
 
Waxy said:
... at a well known high-street hi-fi retailer...

"Hello, would it posiible to arrange a demo of the Sony HAPZ1-ES?"

"The what? We don't stock that"

"It's on your website"

"Oh, what is it? I've never heard of it"

......after an explanation of the Sony I was told...

"Ah, OK. Sorry, it's a special order item. A demo is not possible".

*unknw*
Click to expand...

A different beastie altogether to the HAP-S1.

Name the dealer, go no. Both Superfi and Sevenoaks list them for sale at £1999 (which may have something to do with reluctance to demo, I don't know, 'cos for that sort of price I would not be buying on spec.)

I wonder if Sony are selling many.
 
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