Sony RSX G9 Hires Head Unit Review

Courtesy of Sony

In my humble opinion hires is the ideal format to listen to the music. The versatility, high quality and ability to play them in car audio or home audio make the format getting more and more popular in music lover. Also thank to the large memory card or usb, as reliable storage for Hires format.

Sony as one of most company which is really serious into hires format in 2015 released their first head unit named Sony RSX G9. Now after a year waiting for my unit. Finally I can have it on my personal sound labs.

The specification are as follow:

General DAC (Digital Audio Converter) device: ES9018S by ESS Technology, Inc. Outputs: Audio outputs terminal (FRONT, REAR, SUB) Power antenna (aerial)/Power amplifier control terminal (REM OUT) Optical output terminal Inputs: High level input terminal (3 V – 12 V) Remote controller input terminal Antenna (aerial) input terminal MIC input terminal AUX input jack (stereo mini jack) USB type-A port (front, rear) USB micro-B port

MP3 (.mp3): 16/22.05/24/32/44.1/48 kHz, 16 – 320 kbps (CBR/VBR) AAC (.m4a, .mp4, .3gp): 16/22.05/24/32/44.1/48/88.2/96 kHz, 16 – 320 kbps (CBR/VBR) WMA (.wma): 32/44.1/48 kHz, 16 – 320 kbps (CBR/VBR) WAV (.wav): 16/22.05/24/32/44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/ 192 kHz (16/24 bit) AIFF (.aiff, .aif): 32/44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz (16/24 bit) FLAC (.flac): 16/22.05/24/32/44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/ 192 kHz (16/24 bit) ALAC (.m4a): 16/22.05/24/32/44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/ 192 kHz (16/24 bit) DSD (DSF/DSDIFF)* (.dsf, .dff): 2.8 MHz (1 bit)  

Power requirements: 12 V DC car battery (negative ground (earth)) 

Rated current consumption: 10 A 

Dimensions: Approx. 178 mm × 50 mm × 167 mm (7 1/8 in × 2 in × 6 5/8 in) (w/h/d)

Note:

It has Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE) to improve sound compressed music files

The Sound Quality of ESS Sabre DAC can improve the internal DAC from iPhone or android (with proper connection)

The Package

The Hires

   

Full Spec

The Black Beauty

The Beast Installed
Courtesy of  Gatra and Audioworkshop

The Hires Album

1. Three Blind Mice - Tatsuyoshi Yamashita Misty 24 Bit PCM 192Khz

    This Japanese recording is one of the best in term of dynamic and ambience.

2. Beethoven Monlight Sonata DSD 1 Bit 5.6 Mhz

    An example how the good music on the good recording can make goosebumps!

3. Lucky Sing Broery WAV 16 Bit 44.1 Khz

    Indonesian singer that really has great voice and great interpretation of the music

I must tell you that in order to play the music properly you must make folder named music and put all the Hires files into it.

The Review

1. Misty feels like...ah that song with clean and detailed presentation, very dynamic and palpable imaging.

2. The Moonlight Sonata track is one of the best classical composition from Beethoven to make our soul energizing. On the Hires format this song is closer to perfection.

3. Warm and tender sound of Lucky make me want to listen to his voice more and more. Liquid, sweet and soulful. What a sound! 

Courtesy of Google

The Result

Pro:

1. Clean and detailed sound

2. Somehow the high is very extended 

3. Smooth tonal balance and great imaging

Cons:

1. Relatively high price tag (but worth the money)

2. Can not play DSD higher than 5.6 Mhz sampling

Now I can enjoy listening to the Hires music in my car. I'm so happy to have this as part of my audio gears. Thumbs up to Sony!

Asawendo, December 2016

High Quality Digital to Analog Converter (DAC)

Digital to Analog Converter, also known as DAC is the heart and soul of any exquisite digital music player such as Compact Disc (CD) Player, Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) Player, Blu Ray Disc (BD) Player and the Digital Audio Player (DAP).

There are some manufacturer which consistently makes excellent DAC Chip. From the legendary great sound of Texas Instrument BurrBrown 1704U-K, the grand images of Asahi Kasei Microdevices AK 4497EQ, the smoothness of Wolfson WM8741, the sweet sound Cirrus Logic 4398,  the lush sound of Analog Devices 1955, and the ultra detail  of 32 Bit ESS Sabre Reference 9018.

ESS Sabre in Sennheiser Orpheus

The implementation of high quality DAC Chip in any highend digital player is very important. Beside DAC chip we  need to pay attention to build better power supply and better analog preamp stage.

Lampizator Design

So we can summary in order to make decent DAC we need:

1. High quality DAC Chip 

(they must have high signal to noise ratio, very low jitter and accurate clock)

2. High quality Power Supply 

(they must have reliability and stability to power)

3. High quality Analog Preamp Output 

(they must have good design and good implementation) 

Audio GD DAC

Theta DAC

Many highend manufacturer (in alphabetical order) such as Apogee, Antelope, Audio GD, DCS, Esoteric, Gryphon, Lampizator, Linn, McIntosh, Naim, Meridien, Synaestec, Theta, Wadia, etc have their own proprietary design for their line up.  Some are using specific DAC chip, the others using specific tubes or specific transistor for analog preamp section. The sound quality result from the great DAC sometimes gave us goosebumps about the feeling of being right there at the concert!

 

Asawendo 

May, 2016 All rights reserved