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Sony’s new $7,900 player (DMP-Z1)

maverickronin

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Putting the crazy price aside, does anyone else think the form-factor on this thing is weird?
 

maverickronin

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Yes it is kind of an awkward size. It’s more like a desktop unit.

I'm pretty sure it's meant to be more 'transportable' than 'mobile' based on the size, but the ergonomics are awkward. It's not pocketable, the screen is oriented the wrong way for it to sit in you lap while you're on a plane, train, or bus, and the screen won't be easily readable while sitting on a desk either.
 

restorer-john

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It's sort of strange alright. Looks like something from a sci-fi movie set.
 

andreasmaaan

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The front handles and big gilt volume control make it look like an odd little parody of a bit of rack gear.
 

maxxevv

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That's huge if its considered " transportable" !

The Hugo II (though only a DAC Amp and not a player) is considered pretty small by comparison and I consider is barely portable !
 

maverickronin

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That's huge if its considered " transportable" !

They're probably going with the old definition of transportable, neither chained to the wall nor bolted to the floor.

oWshOSj.jpg
 

cjfrbw

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The headphone amp output is a pair of $2.50 TI op amp? Not saying it can't sound good, but the supporting circuitry, couldn't be THAT expensive.
 

JJB70

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I'd expect it to be manufactured to a decent standard at least. Which puts it in a different class to a lot of audio jewellery.
 

FrantzM

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Hi

They are taking notice of a bunch of people buying selling $15,000 USB cables :rolleyes:US fu$%&*ng B !!!??!!... Why not them? They're SONY after all.

I wonder why we haven't seen some Japanese Audio company take the Toyota approach: Lexus is Toyota Luxury division and is likely more valuable than Toyota itself. Pioneer has (had?) TAD . Panasonic has Technics which they let wittle for a while .. Time to resurrect these. with crazy produrs and crazy pricing.
back in the days VFET had a great reputation. Why not use them again in some amps?
Interesting that the Japanese have not been able to surpass American and European High End outfits in term of recognition and sales.
 

amirm

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They have been very slow to wake up. It might partly be that the explosion is more in western countries than Japan. And their US sales companies have no influence on product development. It was their game to lose and they lost it. And still have feeble attempts to get it back.
 

maxxevv

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They have been very slow to wake up. It might partly be that the explosion is more in western countries than Japan. And their US sales companies have no influence on product development. It was their game to lose and they lost it. And still have feeble attempts to get it back.

Agree. But it has a lot to do with their own internal corporate culture too.

A friend used to work in the local Sony office over a decade ago. He got so frustrated with how things were that he left after about 4 years as he wasn't given his due rewards for his efforts.

Back then, the top post was always reserved for a Japanese delegated from Japan head office. And this guy typically would do little but whittle his time away while his term was being served, usually 2~3 years. It was a lot like "I do less so that its less likely I would cock-up big time over any decisions made ... " He would just strictly follow corporate directives and practically nothing else.

Probably a similar thing in the US office.
 

amirm

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Back then, the top post was always reserved for a Japanese delegated from Japan head office. And this guy typically would do little but whittle his time away while his term was being served, usually 2~3 years. It was a lot like "I do less so that its less likely I would cock-up big time over any decisions made ... " He would just strictly follow corporate directives and practically nothing else.

Probably a similar thing in the US office.
Yup. Standard routine at all Japanese companies. The exception was my team when I was at Sony. We were the only foreigners to rise up to special status as to not have this kind of structure. As a result, I (we) had a very rewarding career there (best of any job I ever had).

Sony America is just a "sales" company with zero input into Japan. They would get products to sell. That was basically it. As a result, they could not attract good talent to come work for them. Breaking into Japanese culture and being treated the same or higher than Japanese team was next to impossible but we managed to pull it off. And with it, gave them a ton of competitive data on state of computer technology. Other groups were in the dark leading to their failure to see any of the trends in modern media consumption.
 
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