Any way to incorporate Sony hapZ1Es?

So after looking at roon a few times over the years, I decided to take the plunge. And I love it.

So here’s the thing I have a Sony Hap Z1zes that I really like. Its been collecting dust since I got Roon. I have a few Lumin streamers now and other than it being a great plan b if the world ends and my internet is down, I don’t see a point in keeping it.

So I know the Sony is not Roon ready, does anyone have a way around this? Would something like a rasberry pi work via its usb?

Thanks

If I’m not mistaken, HAP-Z1ES can do USB output to another DAC, but not USB input to be used as a USB DAC. So it won’t work.

(Hypothetically, if it were a USB DAC - but it is not, you could set your Lumin T2 output to USB and use it.)

Yup. Closed system. Too bad.

Yeah I thought I ask here before I list it. Thanks anyways

According to the spec the only USB is for an external drive , so it’s Analogue out only

Just plug into your amp and enjoy, but no connections

The question was how to use Roon with it.

Yes I realized that, just looked at the spec for interested :shushing_face:

If the machine is DNLA then it can potentially become a dumb end point. However it looks like it syncs with drives it is pointed to so it duplicates them, not plays from them. It may not be possible to integrate it.

The spec doesn’t mention DLNA, the Ethernet appears to be to sync music between PC and the device

Truly a closed system then. :frowning:

Does your Roon streaming through the Lumin ( I presume) sound better than the Sony? I have the same Sony, curious.

So I’ve had the Sony in my main rig for years, while using bluesound for whole house streaming. I really like the Sony. I never tried very hard to compare the Lumin D2 to it. One was connected via XLR and the other single ended, maybe if I had a amp with 2 balanced inputs, I would have tried harder.

The Sony is a hidden gem. Its a sleeper. But Roon changed the game for me.Now I have a Lumin T2/D2/node 2i and a few chromecast around the house under the roon umbrella.

Too bad, I would like to utilize it with Roon, but it can’t be done. Hate to get rid of it, but can’t seem to justify it just collecting dust…its way too good.

@hudson did this comparison:

An older comparison is here, but the user has since upgraded to S1, then X1:

If the Sony has UPnP then you could have two choices to use it with Roon. Sonore do a UPnP bridge that will make it appear as a Squeezebox and work or there is a free UPnP software bridge that can’t be run on a computer to do the same.

Edit. Lol it doesn’t even support UPnP by the looks of it. Never heard of a streamer with no network playback before.

When it was launched in 2013/14, you could say that streaming via DNLA was probably in its infancy.
So you can understand why Sony produced this.

You sure about that, I have been network streaming a lot longer than that.

Much further back than that, I recall messing with it over 15 years ago:

Did not take many return visits to realise how awfully useless it was as a ‘standard’. Somewhat inexplicable as to why Sony ignored it on such a top end product (in favour of their own standard no doubt).

Despite having a network connection, I think the Sony is designed to consume some internet services and stream from Sony media player software running on a PC your own network. Adverts show it being used with a Sony laptop.

Sony have always had a thing about being able to stream their formats across networks in raw form. CD pre-dated networked audio but DVD, SACD and Blu-Ray will not normally play properly across networks unless transcoded into something more network friendly. They have always wanted you to have had the media in your hands immediately prior to pressing play.

The Sony sounds as good as the Lumin D2 on hi rez tracks in balanced output. On single ended output, I think the Lumin sounds a bit warmer, which my ears prefer. I have the SBooster power supply upgrade which very much improved the D2 but it sounded nice in stock form too.

The Sony is well built and I’ve not been tempted to add a USB DAC. If it supported Roon or Tidal, I may not have been tempted to look at the Lumin. A really dumb decision on Sony’s part to close their ecosystem and lock in their users - they’re not Apple and don’t have the market share or leverage so I can’t understand why they would leave their users in the lurch. Because of this, I won’t ever buy another Sony digital product.

But…a Roon Nucleus can do everything a Sony HAPZ1ES can do to store and play music. And combined with a Lumin (or other DAC of choice) it is a much more useful digital source.

My HAPZ1ES is now in my son’s headphone system and it gathers dust. Every so often I’ll listen to it and it sounds great but then I remember that Sony has locked me into their closed ecosystem and made this pricey player somewhat useless. That’s why I went with Lumin over Aurender and others that did not support Roon.

I’m completely bowled over by Lumin’s responsive customer service. They put their customer’s interest first and it shows in their regular updates and fast responses online.

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I agree. If the Sony supported Roon, I would have stayed with it. With no reservations…that being said, I’m listening to Macy Gray on my T2 and it sounds absolutely exceptional. So it is what it is. Still a shame, as it looks the part, sounds the part and the user interface performs the part. Only like others have eluded to better than I could, Sony dropped the ball.

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