
Review Summary
2021-12-05T19:00:00
HAP S1 is something that I was looking for new lossless format to keep all my CDs in one place and an easy access.
eg33433
2020-12-15T19:00:00
cant seem to find any places selling this....I'm in Ontario, Canada
huppo
2020-12-06T19:00:00
I'm a real fan to all audio from Sony, but, I'm very interested to buy this item. But, I can not see if this Audio include speakers. Is correct ?
TONY U.
2020-08-21T20:00:00
awesome storage capacity.sounds incredible.i have found using the remote on my tablet is easiest way to control it.it did take some time to transfer songs from my comp, best to download the pdf file to learn how to use it.i would buy again
nevermore1701
2020-07-20T20:00:00
I have been listening to hires music since it’s infancy. I got this to rip my cd collection which I successfully did. I also transferred my large collection of hires music files to this unit. I have been super happy with this purchase and have thoroughly enjoyed the convenience. I have connected it to some Sony bookshelf speakers, small B&W bookshelf speakers, and klipsch heresy 3 speakers. All sounded great with the little built-in amplifier. I have been very happy with the performance. I also like that it uses Spotify connect for streaming music! Recommend this unit if you are trying to minimize your old CDS and retain the sound quality. Please update the software though as a new update hasn’t been released for a while!
HiFiGeek
2020-04-26T20:00:00
Finally there is hope for those of us who still care about listening to high quality music
Hi M.
2020-03-04T19:00:00
Very convenient and easy to use storage device. Having an integrated amp makes sense for me. Pity its upgrade did not include an integrated amp. Its instructions on how to save music to external hard disk by importing from CD is unclear as it requires both the external hard disk and the CD to be plugged into same EXT USB input. Wish it could have from external CD payback devices connected to coaxial digital and optical inputs. It cannot...
AnilC
2019-12-09T19:00:00
Just purchased the HAPS1 for my home office. Is well built with very good sound quality.
Barry45
2019-09-05T20:00:00
Enjoying this great product for 3 years but as a Sony product lover i think a real update is needed... spectrum analyzer, analog level meter, digital peak meter, BLUTOOTH (LDAC)... a top Hi-Res audio player like this diserves it. And as a music lover, DSD256, DSD512 neither DXD Hi-Res audio formats are not playable in this product.... COME ON SONY!!!
gonzafed
2019-09-05T20:00:00
Enjoying this great product for 3 years but as a Sony product lover i think a real update is needed... spectrum analyzer, analog level meter, digital peak meter, BLUTOOTH (LDAC)... a top Hi-Res audio player like this diserves it. And as a music lover, DSD256, DSD512 neither DXD Hi-Res audio formats are not playable in this product.... COME ON SONY!!!
Fedg
2019-07-03T20:00:00
Excellent sound. Good software to transfer music from your computer. Nice size and well built. Expandable storage. App to control unit from phone or tablet, so no need for included remote. Digital out for more flexibility only thing that is not included.
rocket m.
2019-05-01T20:00:00
I bought it three years ago and a whole horizontal line built up after a year of use. A defect as confirmed by SONY! But no service at all!
stewart1
2018-12-08T19:00:00
I bought this to replace my 160gb ipod that was connected to my integrated amp via a dock. I was blown away by the sound and the ease of use when I paired it up with my NAD C388. The transfer of music was straightforward and the app works well. Unfortunately, which I did not realize at the time, this player will not play gapless mp3 albums, which is a huge disappointment. Competitors like the bluesound node 2 will and my 10 year old ipod will play back mp3 albums gapless with no issues. If sony can integrate gapless playback for mp3 files allowing the next song to buffer and not pause, this would easily be a 5 star player. I really hope sony will update the firmware. For $1k, I didn't realize there would be a lag between songs when a 10 year old ipod plays the same albums seamlessly and when it comes to wanting to hear an album gapless, I have to still use my ipod since the sony hap-s1 lags.
haps1
2018-08-28T20:00:00
I'm so happy with this unit, has great features !! Sony please up date and work a little bit more in the app to be more reliable so far no complaints ! one week of use. I have a huge collection of music in different formats, It will be a great idea to have them all in one place.!!!!!
JO S.
2018-08-28T20:00:00
I'm so happy with this unit, has great features !! Sony please up date and work a little bit more in the app to be more reliable so far no complaints ! one week of use. I have a huge collection of music in different formats, It will be a great idea to have them all in one place.!!!!!
TonyJersey58
2018-08-15T20:00:00
The unit itself is a fantastic product and had it been cheaper, i would have bought one for every room in my house- I love it that much. I highly recommend the product and the sound quality and features are wonderful although i wish the inbuild hard drive was 1 TB to start with, it would not have cost sony more than a few bucks to do that but it would have saved all its customers the anxiety of wanting a 1 TB but having to do with a 500 GB. The unit does allow an external hard drive and i am not sure what is the largest capacity this unit is compatible with. Now the bad news, I got one of the select serial numbers which have a white line issue on the screen. On one hand, Sony is doing a product recall to fix the issue but when i tried to do it, it was a long procedure and they wanted a receipt etc. As a matter of principle, if there is a known manufacturing defect, Sony should fix it with grace and in fact, compensate in some way the victims who ended up getting the bad product. After more than two hours with customer care, they sent me a shipping label and then said that i will hear from the service center of the costs involved and then i should get back to phone number 877-591-7669 and they will then work with the service number to provide them an accomodation number....a lengthy process involving phone calls and an opaque procedure. A graceful recall would have been a letter of apology to the victim who paid his hard earned money on the product with the manufacturing defect, a painless pick up of product, expedited repair and a painless delivery, no questions asked. Rather, some sort of gift should accompany the product to make up for all the pain and hassle of going through the recall. I would say rather, the product should be replaced with a new product, why should a customer have to accept a product that was opened and fiddled with...factory finished product as compared to repaired/fiddled with product. Having said all of the above, i am a great fan of Sony and have at some time bought every innovative/nice product they have ever produced right from their top of the line walkmans of yesteryear, their lovely DAT machine, MD players and now almost everything in their hi resolution range of products. I LOVE my HAP S1 and I am shipping it out to sony to fix the manufacturing defect problem and I pray to god and have my fingers crossed that the process is painless and i get my beloved piece back in good shape and i do not face any further issues with the unit.
samirarora
2018-06-21T20:00:00
I bought this item around a month ago and still enjoying and discovering new features. take your time and update your music on it, so you can get a great unit
Lando52
2018-05-25T20:00:00
This is my first Music Servo, I'm using it with a Woo WA6 headphone amp and Sennheiser HD660s phones, very pleased so far, a lot of great features and he included amp is a real plus.
ScottNC
2018-04-28T20:00:00
Extremely happy with the device. But it has developed horizontal line. https://esupport.sony.com/US/p/news-item.pl?news_id=501&mdl=HAPS1 Having hard time getting it repaired. Lost receipt.
PMC3
2018-01-05T19:00:00
I have a large and ever growing CD music collection. I had two Sony CD carousels, one was a 300 CD unit, the other a 400 CD. After many years of use the 300 CD unit began to fail and the CD's sounded terrible. Knowing I eventually had to change from CD's, I started several years ago to load all my music onto I-Tunes. It remains an on going process. I searched for a new product that would both store all my music and play them back. Bought the HAP-S1 unit and it has delighted me from opening the box. I took it out plugged it into my router with the supplied Ethernet cable and the HAP-S1 unit took over. It reached into my I-Tune library and began to download all my music. About 12 hours later all my music was on the HAP-S1. After disconnecting my old 300 CD player I found several older CD's that I were not on I-Tunes. I loaded them on and they were automatically loaded onto the HAP-S1. Very nice. The sound from the unit blows away my old CD units. I plug the output into my 7 channel Yamaha surround sound HD amp and I am enjoying my music like never before. This HAP-S1 is great. This is a great player for someone or a commercial establishment that has and plays large music collections. Buy one, you'll love it. I could continue on but I think you get the idea. Bye now, enjoy.
Birdman22
2018-01-03T19:00:00
I had not heard of this device when I saw it on sale an unusual occurrence by the look of things. After reading about it online I knew it was for me. I have been very generously given a huge properly tagged flac file collection made from jazz vinyl LPS and this is the perfect place for storing and playing that collection. Plus I now am working through my CD collection and burning them to flac using the HAP S1. It took me only one evening to get it running, networked, the software on my laptop and the remote app on my phablet and everything worked right away. The amp sounds gorgeous through good speakers. I bypass burning the CDs to my laptop first using a cheap simple external CD drive with a commonly available double USB power supply cable connected to the HAP S1 so that I can supply additional USB power from a USB power bank. I keep this on charge so the power bank acts as a filter between the 2 USB supplies. Its taking a while to get my collection into the unit but I am using the verification and retry option on the unit which is slower. The Gracenote app in the unit accesses the CD information with ease. I love this piece of kit ! I am a high fi vinyl fan and have moved away from digital recordings but this unt has happily returned me to my CD collection. The wide capacity of formats, the ease of the on screen menus and the overall software design of the unit is great. The unit is so solid and well built from the heavy nicely stiff volume knob to the larger diameter gold plated speaker terminals, its a joy to use. Thank you Sony my faith in you is restored !
rogeregon
2017-12-25T19:00:00
I bought the HAP-S1 about 10 months ago and I have been entirely happy with it. I have paired it with the SS-HW1 Sony speakers and the sound quality is very good. I can't say if the sound is perfect or extraordinary because I do not know what the sound would be like with a much more expensive (and better of course) pair of speakers. As is of course it is a great hi-fi system,built quality, sound, design and features are all great and is really worth every single penny.! After 10 months of usage I am still excited to use it!
Juanjito
2017-12-13T19:00:00
Should have bought a second unit, for some reason now discontinued?
Chris117
2017-07-22T20:00:00
Too many people see this product as being small, and therefore do not expect or accept that it's performance far out weighs it's small footprint. But, most importantly, if you are looking for a device to stream music from elsewhere, move on, this is not for you. So, lets get straight to the point, this device is a very high quality music playback system, with excellent DACs and an excellent amplification system that is not only dual mono in design, it utilises a different type of transistor that the designers brought back to life from the 1980s because of it's sound quality, so this is not a product thrown together from off the shelf parts, it is a very thoughtfully designed and executed product! The integration with the mobile app for playback works flawlessly and thankfully Sony have kept the app updated as well as the systems main software. I would go so far as to say there is nothing else on the market like the HAP-S1 that has this level of thoughtfulness and sound quality, period. Is it cheap? No, but in this case you truly get what you pay for, which is a very high quality music playback system built like a tank and on a rather small footprint, buy it!
SteveELees
2017-06-10T20:00:00
I pair this player up with Sony's SS-HA1 speakers and added an inline passive 40 year old PSB sub in the setup. The resulting audio quality is just jaw dropping. I have never been so much in love with music before. Almost every single old and new track I play just feels like rediscovering a ton of details for the first time. All my friend/family who come by and experience this keep on asking me to get them the same setup. Anyway, there are enough people who covered the technical side so I am going to keep this short and to the point. Money well spent. Worth every penny.
jatin0211
2017-05-13T20:00:00
I bought to replace defunct digital anaologue converter which I used for separate CD & DAB players and for connecting a PC to an existing amplifier. Unfortunately I cannot use the Sony as a pass through DAC with external sources if not using as an amplifier. This is a serious omission as I would suspect most people would be purchasing the Sony to fit in with existing kit. So in my case my it hasn't fullfilled all my requirements as I still need a separate DAC. However I like the idea of being able to store FLAC files to player and this has greatly improved access and selection of my music collection, especially using the app on a pad. Surprisingly I am using the Sense-Me feature more frequently and do enjoy it's results. So, overall it's a great product and is a joy to use but I feel limits it's appeal to those wanting to replace a system rather than add to an existing one.
db205
2016-04-16T20:00:00
After three weeks use I have nothing but praise for this amazing machine. The extraordinary sound quality does not only result from high resolution files but also from the top notch amplification which the machine provides. Operationally if it is simplicity itself. The controls are very straightforward and the phone app works brilliantly. I have already recommended the product to other friends.
broombank
2016-03-09T19:00:00
Product is one of the best I have ever bought. Brilliant quality, internet radio very good too. Could benefit from Bluetooth/network connection to play, but otherwise faultless.
Andson1
2015-07-04T20:00:00
Great design and amazing sound quality. However, this device doesn't support any of the major streaming services, what makes it rather anachronic when it was supposed to be the next big thing. Lack of streaming support is the one thing that kills its appeal to me.
ALopes
2015-06-25T20:00:00
I do really like what Sony have produced with this HDD player, however certain aspects have left me very frustrated. The file transfer software is very basic and failed a number of times. I 'phoned the helpdesk in the end who were helpful. I had over 4,000 tracks to transfer and left it running overnight, so don't expect anything too quick. It then took a good part of the following day to get the album art etc. Had to turn off and restart on a number of occassions for it too eventually work through the admittedly large number of tracks. Finally, it seemed to have done a very strange thing - the Number 1 track appeared to be missing from a great many of the albums. I eventually twigged to what had happened when I saw there were over 400 tracks the Unknown Artist subdirectory. I am now labouriously working through trying to get them back to where they belong - whether this is a weakness of Gracenote, how they were stored on my computer or the HAP-S1 who knows? But the sound is good, the interface also. The 'phone app seems to work very well.
Paul102
Cool Factor of 10
By TDAS
Easy to set up and transferred my complete iTunes catalog from my MAC via wi-fi. Unit sounds awesome and looks great. iPhone App is cool and very user friendly. Too many features to list but i am having fun trying them all out. Could not be happier.
Everything I expected - and more
By flakjacket
The HAPS-1 has released my ATRAC lossless files from their SonicStage prison on my pc and reinvigorated them with sparkling resolution and detail. This was just what I wanted and I get to control the beast from my tablet. It's well worth the cost.
The Way The Artists Truly Intended
Enjoy the subtlest nuances of studio-quality sound in higher than CD quality with High-Resolution Audio. Passion for music unites every component from signal to speaker so it feels like the artist is performing right in front of you.
Play, store and enjoy High-Resolution Audio
Play and store music and enjoy high-definition audio through the sound system HAP-S1. It has an amplifier for 2x40 W and a hard disk of 500 GB, enabling you to synchronize your music collection on your PC. Connect to your smartphone and easily control your music, so all you have to do is sit back and enjoy.
Hear your music at its best
Whether High-Resolution Audio, CDs or MP3s - listen to your music in the highest possible sound quality. The HAP-S1 supports High-Resolution Audio formats such as DSD, FLAC, WAV and ALAC, as well as formats like MP3, iTunes AAC, ATRAC and Windows WMA - restoring their quality closer to that of the original.
How High-Resolution Audio works
Listen like you're in the recording studio
High-Resolution Audio works by converting analog sound to digital at a higher and more precise rate than CDs. High-Resolution Audio can have a rate of 24bit/96Hz, capturing more of the details and subtleties in your music. Hear your tracks exactly as they were recorded with no compromise on sound.
Restore all your compressed files
The Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE) upscales your compressed digital music files (MP3, ACC, ATRAC and WMA) close to CD quality. By restoring the high-range sound lost during compression, DSEE produces your digital music files in rich, natural sound, closer to the quality of the original recording.
Designed for powerful sound
2x40W AB amplifiers with a dual-mono design
Your one-stop solution for High-Resolution Audio - Independently balanced amp channels deliver a well-rounded performance, while a rigid frame reduces distortion.
Efficient AB amplifiers
Hear natural, well-round sound with a dual-mono design.
Analog FIR filters
Working at the frequencies of DSD for accurate DA conversion.
Aluminum frame
A rigid aluminum frame reduces vibration for less distortion.
A 500 GB built-in hard drive
Store up to 25,000 songs.
Add more storage space
Hook up an external hard drive via two rear USB ports.
Your music, how you want it
Keep up to date with easy, wireless transfers
Enjoy all your music in one place. Download the HAP music transfer application to your PC to sync and copy all your tracks onto the HAP-S1 over Wi-Fi. The next time you download a new track, it will automatically be transferred. Track names, album art and more are checked against the online database, Gracenote, for accuracy.
Complete your audio experience
Build the sound system you want, with line out and two line in connections, coaxial, optical, USB and LAN, as well as left and right speaker outputs.
You control the music
Always find the track you're looking for
Take charge of your HDD player with your smartphone or tablet by downloading the control app or browse your music on the LCD screen with a supplied remote control.
Easily browsing with the app
Your music library is copied to your device for easy browsing.
See your tracks on the LCD panel
Browse your songs at speed from a front-panel jog dial.
High Resolution Audio
High-Resolution Audio takes your digital music to another level. By converting analog music to digital at a higher rate than CDs-24 bit/192 kHz, as opposed to the 16 bit/44.1 kHz rate of CDs-High-Resolution Audio delivers better-than-CD quality sound, so you get closer to the original studio master recording.
DSEE technology
DSEE technology upgrades the quality of your compressed music files. When an original music source is compressed, you lose the high frequency elements of your music. DSEE restores these elements to produce high quality sound that's closer to the original CD recording.
Front-mounted LCD display screen
You can navigate your entire collection with ease using the front-mounted LCD display screen. Alternately, you can download the dedicated smartphone app and manage your music from there.
Online database
By cross-referencing your music collection with the online database, the HDD Audio Player ensures that artist names and track titles are always up to date. The player also automatically adds song titles when you add music, so you'll never be confronted by unnamed mystery tracks.
Compatible formats
Listen to your entire collection, regardless file format. The HDD Audio Player supports a range of compressed and uncompressed file types, including FLAC, WAV, AIFF, DSD (DFF) and DSD (DSF).
Automatic file transfer
Whenever you add new music to your collection, the HDD audio player automatically copies the files from your PC to the player's on-board hard drive via LAN or Wi-Fi connection.