Resonessence Mirrus vs Sony HAPZ-1ES


Both of these units would allow me to eliminate a computer in my living room. I just heard both at The Show 2014 in Newport.

The Sony was played in many rooms with top notch gear and speakers. So that was a good endorsement for the Sony. I think the convenience factor of the Sony also played a role in why it was used in many rooms. All the systems sounded very good. I spent close to an hour in the Sony room listening to their top of the line speakers with he HAPZ. I could not get the demo person to turn off the DSD up-sampling. So the up-sampling must have been considered the way to go.

The Resonessence Mirrus DAC was played directly to a new 108 watt class A Resonessence stereo amp that has not been released yet. The DAC has a digital volume control that is supposed to be very good. The speakers that were used were 15 year old B&W, purchased by Resonessence from eBay for $400. I was quite blown away by how good the sound was and the fact that they did not purposely use top notch speakers. I was thinking wow what would this system sound like with some top notch speakers. The SD-Card feature of the Mirrus is maybe a better solution than the fan based eSata hard drive of the Sony. The theoretical limit of the cards the Mirrus supports is 2 tera-bytes. I think today you can buy 256 giga-byte cards.

I cannot directly compare the Sony and Mirrus since I have not heard them in the same system, but if I had to bet money, I would place it on the Mirrus based on my cursor listen. Has anybody compared the 2 DAC's in their systems? If so, I would appreciate any feedback.

If I go with something like the Mirrus I can eliminate by very good pre-amp and go directly to my amps. Has anybody with a Mirrus done this? Did you prefer it direct vs a analog pre-amp?

The Sony is very good sounding unit, 50%+ cheaper, extremely convenient, and I would keep my pre-amp. Which I am happy with (BAT VK-42SE).
yyzsantabarbara
After much consideration, my Sony HAPZ-1ES is at MW for the mod. I'm intrigued by Dan's transformer coupling design and simplicity of the HAPZ-1ES.

It replaced 3 boxes/2 pcs/computer/digital cable with 1 box/1 pc and HOPEFULLY much much superior sound.
Keep me updated. I'm moving away from my CD player the parasound cd1. It's a great player on of the best CD players I have ever heard. However I'm going towards the dac route more with my Mirus
10-11-14: Calvinj
Keep me updated. I'm moving away from my CD player the parasound cd1. It's a great player on of the best CD players I have ever heard. However I'm going towards the dac route more with my Mirus
Sure, I will. Got my Synergistic Research RED Quantum Fuse, 5U4GBs and e88cc/6922s warming up in the bullpen.
calvinj, Sorry for the slow response, I didn't see this post.

My ModWright HAPZ1 is doing fine. Over the last couple months, I have added an Audio Magic Illusion umbilical, which in my opinion is a must have for the ModWright Sony. Going from the ModWright truth umbilical to the AM Illusion umbilical was a very substantial improvement. As substantial as the ModWright modification over the stock Sony (and for a lot less money). Also, I picked up a pair of NOS Telefunken 6922 output tubes from Upscale audio. They are as good as Upscale claims.

I have about 1000 albums loaded to the hard drive now. One of the things I find surprising is how good some music sounds that was ripped from awful sounding CDs. Almost everything sounds really good through the HAPZ1, and there is a lot that is just ravishingly beautiful.

I love the convenience. While my CD collection is well organized, you just can't beat the convenience of having it all right there on my tablet.

No regrets. This has been a great way to go for me.