Sony's game changer

[haraldo]

Recently I was getting under the belief that Sony is about to change their position and provide more user-oriented products. As far as I believe, one of the things Sony really is looking to do is to keep the digital stream inaccessible to the end user, reasoning being simple, and.... then the end-user's best is not what they think of first and foremost.....

So when Sony is targeting a series of new hi-rez media streamers I was getting interested believing that this may be something good. That was until I with great interest started reading first page of a review of Sony HAP-Z1ES HDD audio player in the absolute sound, Steven Stone call it a game changer.... I never got to page two
https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/sony-hap-z1es-hdd-audio-player/
Guess what, there's only analog outputs

When I see a $2000 media player with no means of getting direct access to the digital stream, it's a total 5000% showstopper to me. So what if you want to employ digital crossover, digital room correction, or if you happen to have a digital direct amplifier, or simply you want to use one specific DAC?

Geeez Sony

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

C'mon haraldo really? Are you really surprised that Sony delivers yet another consumer un-friendly device? This is what happens then consumer products company is also content company

 

[Adam]

Harald, a digital media streamer with very good DACs and analog outputs isn't necessarily a stupid product - people here pay a lot more for an Oppo to get analog outputs. A digital media streamer with digital outputs...heck, my Sony blu-ray player fits into that category, and they were selling for ~$60 over Christmas. Sony already offers very affordable streamers with digital outputs, and this is a new class of products. I'm not saying that I'd ever buy one...but I'd definitely be pretty excited to try one for free.

 

[haraldo]

I am not saying it's a stupid product.....
I am implying that Sony's strategy is stupid and not consumer oriented....

Linn's top of the line climax DS streamer is likewise, it may have a DAC that will forever be state of the art, but it imposes a strategy onto you that doesn't fit everyone
Linn's lower and streamers all contain digital out's, but if you buy their top of the line product it probably doesn't make sens to use an external DAC.....

When it comes to Sony, it's just another proof of their strategy, I've been on a personal Sony boycot for many years, seems like I do have to continue along the same lines

 

[slipperybidness]

C'mon haraldo really? Are you really surprised that Sony delivers yet another consumer un-friendly device? This is what happens then consumer products company is also content company

+1

What else do you really expect from Sony.

I'm with you on the Sony boycott.

 

[JMJVK]

The "content" side of Sony's management has too much pull, and top dogs at Sony don't see how they're letting this destroy the hardware side of the business... They are trying to market a high-end streamer, while they are doing their utmost to prevent the very same customers from digitizing legal and paid-for CD content to their Hard-drives and SMB storage...


Rootkits on music CDs, "walkman" software that can't "see" WAV music on local storage, TVs that can't read anything using USB ports and bad file format support on networked devices are just a few of the big big mistakes they've made. But this one is hilarious. They would sue everyone using the DMCA if they could, because ripping to FLAC/extracting the WAVs is supposed to be impossible due to their copy-protection schemes, yet the want to use those same ripped files to feed one of their devices.


Sony's phones are nice, but I won't ever touch the rest.

 

[j_garcia]

Parts of Sony as a company don't seem to realize the game already changed and they missed the boat. They're stuck in the 90s and are trying to stay relevant, yet they haven't progressed much since then. The only group that seems to have gotten with the program is SCEA with the PS3 and PS4 and they still aren't doing a perfect job either.

 

[darien87]

Sony does a lot of things that don't make sense. The only product I buy with the Sony name is the Playstation and I returned my PS4 because it didn't do things that my PS3 does yet. Stupid.

 

[j_garcia]

I think Sony's last game changer was about 13 years ago.

 

[3db]

Is climax achieved before or after you listen to it? I'm just curious!!! Do I need to light up a Marlboro afterwards?