SA-Z1 Hi-Res Near Field Powered Speaker System Signature Series

Well-designed multi-way speakers have a flat and broad frequency response, but disengaging the impulse response (time-coherence) risks a compromised soundstage. Conversely, single driver units offer excellent impulse response but sacrifice frequency response. The SA-Z1’s custom digital processing and coaxial layout delivers both – the sonic realism of a precise impulse response, along with a wide soundstage and frequency presentation.

For reference-quality near field listening, the SA-Z1 features a coaxial speaker layout. Combined with the FPGA for time coherence, this design offers ideal acoustic centring across the frequency range. The result is phase coherence – essential for clear stereo imaging.

Sony’s acclaimed I-ARRAY™ high-resolution tweeters combine a main tweeter with two smaller assist tweeters, for both impressive frequency extension and wider directivity. The large balanced dome main tweeter ensures excellent high-frequency realism, while the smaller assist tweeters expand the off-axis response, delivering the high frequency harmonic overtones up to 100kHz for acoustic realism only possible with High-Resolution Audio.

The surface of the tweeter dome is coated with titanium sputtering for lightweight rigidity and a high-velocity rise. The high internal loss reduces resonance and results in a tightly defined transient response, even at high frequencies, for natural sound all the way up to 100kHz.

Our original S-Master digital amplifier was a revolution with its non-feedback design for pure digital sound. The D.A. Hybrid Amplifier took this one step further, enhancing precision with an analogue feed-forward amp to correct digital switching errors. Now, the introduction of a Gallium Nitride (GaN) power device evolves digital amplification to a whole new level.

MOSFET transistors are typically used for digital amplifier switching, however they can produce ringing distortion due to slow switching speed. By using Gallium Nitride (GaN), we can suppress the ringing through high-speed switching. This means that amplification errors are significantly reduced, even before the signal is error-corrected by the feed-forward analogue amplifier.

You can choose to lock the assist woofer in place, rather than using it to complement the sound of the main woofer. This adjusts the sound stage to suit your tastes, music, and listening environment.

You can intentionally change the time alignment between tweeters and woofers. ‘Sync’ offers you perfectly time-aligned sound. ‘Advance’ describes a clear-cut sound image by advancing sound from the tweeters ahead of the woofer. Conversely, ‘Delay’ offers a soft and silky sound by delaying the sound from the tweeters in relation to the sound from the woofer.