SONY TA-ZH1ES Premium Headphone Amplifier

Description:

Key features

• D.A. Hybrid Amplifier Circuit
• New DSEE HX featuring 5 modes
• Supports PCM 32bit/768 kHz and DSD 22.4 MHz sound formats
• New DSD Remastering Engine
• Supports balanced (0.17″, 3‐pole mini plug x2, XLR4) and unbalanced (standard plug, stereo mini plug) connections

What is it?

The TA-ZH1ES features a rigid FBW Chassis, which has been designed to isolate the circuit board from vibration. By minimizing vibration and preventing lateral movement, noise is reduced for a cleaner, purer sound. The TA-ZH1ES has been precision-crafted from the outside in to maximize audio quality.

Unleash the full potential of your headphones and experience the emotional impact of every song as the artist intended. Combining the best of digital and analog sound technology, this one’s for the serious listeners. Our non-feedback S-Master technology maintains the purity of digital sound. Our new D.A. Hybrid Amplifier Circuit takes this one step further, enhancing its precision and sound quality with an analog feed-forward amp. The analog amplifier corrects the conversion error caused by switching amplification.

The headphone amplifier’s top panel is made from a combination of steel and aluminum. These materials each have their own resonance frequency, and when used in combination, they suppress each other. The result is the effective elimination of unnecessary resonance.

The TA-ZH1ES features an innovative chassis design. The structure of the baseplate supporting the FBW chassis has two layers for enhanced rigidity and a low center of gravity. This added protection and durability enhances sound quality.

Experience your music as the artist intended, in near High-Resolution Audio quality. Our new DSEE HX™ upscaling technology features four additional modes to the standard: female vocal, male vocal, percussion and strings, for optimal sound reproduction.

The amp features several terminals to support a variety of input devices, including Walkman®, TVs and PlayStation™ consoles. The amp uses a variety of headphone output connections, including both balanced (0.17″, 3-pole mini plug x2 & XLR4) and unbalanced (stereo standard plug, stereo mini plug).

How does it work?

To achieve ultimate sound reproduction, S-Master HX digitally amplifies the music signal without any resulting transmission loss. However, at the final stage of amplification, the physical limits of the semiconductor unavoidably cause distortion: there has to be a trade-off between the high power and high speed response. We have developed the D.A. Hybrid Amplifier Circuit to overcome these physical limits. The analog amplifier compares the true signal with the digital amplifier output signal, identifying the error caused by the slow MOS FET switching speed. Then it produces an error correction signal to restore the headphone output signal, preserving the purity of the original sound, and reproducing the signal with absolute precision.

Personalizing sound with the new DSD Remastering Engine: Offering double the conversion accuracy of previous models, the new DSD Remastering Engine let you convert all PCM music sources into DSD 11.2 MHz. The technology uses FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) to convert any signal into the DSD sound format.

Uncompromised music reproduction: To maximize the potential of the new D.A. Hybrid Amplifier Circuit, our engineers developed the amplifier using an advanced FPGA processor. This let them fully customize the technology and develop something truly unique.

Our DC Phase Linearizer works to effectively replicate the phase character of a typical analog amplifier. It matches the phase characteristics of the analog amplifier to deliver a more analog-like sound.

ø0.17″ single balanced jack is new standard for headphone balance connection. Its clear channel separation offers accurate reproduction and wide sound space.

What’s in the box?

• SONY TA-ZH1ES Premium Headphone Amplifier with D.A. Hybrid Amplifier Circuit
• Remote control
• AC power cord (mains lead)
• Digital cable for Walkman®
• USB cable (USB-A/USB-B)
• R03 (size AAA) batteries