[R_burke]

Has anyone compared the Sony HAP Z1ES, Marantz NA8005 and Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6 V2 units? 

Are there other units that i should consider?

[mfig]

While I love Bryston and have had their equipment in one form or another for 30 years, their BDP-1 might have sounded great but drove me crazy with buggy, unconquerable software beyond Looney Loon (their earlier software). I finally had to sadly quit and have now gotten the HapZ1. The DSD decoding intrigues me and I have yet to fully process its sound but will make some comments here later. I can at least listen without much angst as the loading of my AIFF/flac files (28,000) went magically with all cover art etc done perfectly. Whatever you might think about Sony, aside from their pathetic manuals, the software is brilliant!

[Phil A]

There's also streamers (e.g. Auralic, Salk) but I'd only recommend that route if you have wired ethernet available in the main.  I may end up that route.  For now I have a music server (HAL - Hollis Audio Labs) and use JRiver which is very user friendly and love the sound I get and the ease of use.  Unfortunately when a relatively small company does proprietary software, it could be buggier than most things.

[sfox7076]

MacMini with a good LPS is a great alternative as well. 

[Gzerro]

Whatever you might think about Sony, aside from their pathetic manuals, the software is brilliant!

I would have to strongly disagree with this statement about the software. The Sony software is very substandard. There is something seriously wrong with their transfer software - it literally took days to process my 250GB library and the results were terrible in terms of accuracy. I have spent a substantial amount of time fixing the errors, especially in the way it breaks single albums into multiple albums and or combines multi-disc sets into a single incorrectly ordered mess. Album art did come across pretty accurately at least, but no better than any other software I have used.

In addition, many users have experienced data corruptions issues during the process forcing multiple attempts to get it right.

The iPad and PC apps are terrible in comparison to other apps such as Sonos and Spotify. Guests are baffled as I explain to them how to manage the play queue.

By contrast my $399 Sonos system accomplished the same transfer and indexing in about 30 minutes with much more accurate results. The interface is much more intuitive and full features. Guests can easily figure out how to use it with minimal explanation. Too bad is doesn't sound as good.

The Sony software is a major failure of an otherwise pretty decent product.

[BobC]

Thought about the Bluesound Node?

[jarcher]

Has anyone compared the Sony HAP Z1ES, Marantz NA8005 and Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6 V2 units? 

Are there other units that i should consider?

In that price range, without a doubt the Auralic Aries and a NAS such as one of the cheap and very good Western Digital My Cloud units. These days it's really about the software - ie ability to reliably play the major formats and a user-friendly graphical interface. Auralic has a very good app for iPads, continually updates their firmware, and the Aries is a simple and audiophile grade unit at a very reasonable cost.

Buying a streamer that has a DAC unit built-in is a recipe for eventual obsolescence.  Better to keep the streamer / renderer separate from the DAC.

Hope that helps!

P.s.  The Aries also works very reliably with Wi-Fi even with DSD files - even when those DSD files need to be converted to PCM for the DAC.  I tested it and it could do that operation in under four seconds. Very impressive.

P.s.s. Very soon the Aries will also support an external drive connected to the USB port, so even a NAS will not be necessary. 

PS+ Have I mentioned how impressed I am with the Auralic Aries?

[notany]

Streaming can be nice, if your network is robust.  The beauty of the Sony is that all your music is already there.  The transfer problem has been solved, just format a USB hard drive to fat32, drag and drop.  Plug into the Sony's USB and you are done.  At $2,000 the Sony is a complete solution and it sounds better than most $2,000 DACS. I love the PCM to DSD especially on 16/44.1 tracks.

[JLM]

jarcher:

Can the Aries receive EQ'd music from my iMac (many players/renderers can't and I need to do that).

How does SQ of Aries (via ethernet or wireless) compare to just using a (cheaper) mini?

[werd]

While I love Bryston and have had their equipment in one form or another for 30 years, their BDP-1 might have sounded great but drove me crazy with buggy, unconquerable software beyond Looney Loon (their earlier software). I finally had to sadly quit and have now gotten the HapZ1. The DSD decoding intrigues me and I have yet to fully process its sound but will make some comments here later. I can at least listen without much angst as the loading of my AIFF/flac files (28,000) went magically with all cover art etc done perfectly. Whatever you might think about Sony, aside from their pathetic manuals, the software is brilliant!

There was a time when I would agree. It's improved and quite reliable. It sees loaded usb sticks and HD's quite fast and ready to play. starts up fast after a turn on.  The MM sounds better too. You should have stuck with it. I gotta an early bdp 1 too.

[Phil A]

PS+ Have I mentioned how impressed I am with the Auralic Aries?

Good to hear that Jon.  I may be going that route early next year.

[jarcher]

jarcher:

Can the Aries receive EQ'd music from my iMac (many players/renderers can't and I need to do that).

How does SQ of Aries (via ethernet or wireless) compare to just using a (cheaper) mini?

The Aries uses the openhome or upnp protocol to access music files on a NAS or networked computer, but can not otherwise control or stream from music player software such as pure music, audiovarna, ammara or even iTunes. So the basic answer is no. If you like the flavor of your current iMac player / eq software, you should stick with that.

I have not yet a-B ed a stock Mac Mini vs an Aries (either the entry level or upgrade version with the linear power supply). I would be stunned if a stock Mac mini sounded better, particularly against the upgrade version with the femto clocks and linear power supply. To remove the switching power supply, put a direct dc cabling with filtration, and a decent linear power supply to bring jt up to the upgraded version of the Aries is going to cost you more than an Aries - between the cost of the Mac and the aforementioned. I know because I've done it and didn't even pay someone to do the labor. And in the end you still won't have a purpose built audio player hardware with continuous software and technical support for that purpose. Just a lot of time and money in custom hardware that will still require continuous debugging and really poor resaleability (look at AC Trader for proof).

Anyway - didn't mean this to turn into an Aries vs Mac Mini threadjack. Just that the Aries solves a lot of problems conveniently and cost effectively. Been down the hyper modded Mac mini route and love the sound out of Pure Music, but ready to move on and spend more time enjoying my tunes and less time messing with IT troubleshooting.