Experience sublime sound on Sony’s Signature Series SA-Z1 near field powered speaker system

• Make your listening aspirations a reality with ultimate resolution and spatial representation
• Transform your personal audio system to a high-end speaker sound experience in your own space
• Sound tuning function allows you to discover your own signature sound without any signal loss

Sony has announced the latest addition to its Signature Series with the SA-Z1 near field powered speaker system. This speaker system is ideal for those who pursue music with ultimate resolution and spatial representation in their own personal space. Its variety of input functions allow for easy installation with your current personal or headphone audio setup. Part of Sony’s Signature Series, the SA-Z1 achieves breath-taking sound reproduction thanks to years of audio mastery, combining the highest quality acoustic, electronic and signal processing technologies.

Signature sound

The Signature Series advances sound to an entirely new realm of audio engagement – taking the experience from listening to feeling it.

With the SA-Z1 you can experience Sony’s ultimate audio resolution and sound stage, feeling as though you can almost touch the sound with delicate resonance accurately represented.

Orchestration of Sony’s audio expertise

The acoustic design concept of SA-Z1 is an ideal point sound source. The physical layout of the driver units, along with the time alignment of soundwaves from each driver unit, is the key in realising this concept. A coaxial layout of woofers and tweeters is an ideal physical arrangement, to better integrate the sound from every driver unit. Sony pursued the accuracy of the coaxial layout in micro meter order. Time alignment of the sound waves is achieved by Sony’s unique algorithm on the FPGA processor. This precisely controls the timing of every driver unit’s output so that the leading edge of the sound waves align. Thanks to this engineering, the SA-Z1 produces a level of audio quality, resolution and sound stage like you’ve never heard from any speakers before.

The SA-Z1 speakers realistically reproduce a wide and deep acoustic field. Gone are the days of narrow and flat sound where you only feel the front side of the speaker system. Now you can feel the height and depth of the music thanks to the “Tsuzumi”[1] layout with side ducts. The horizontally opposed layout of two woofers cancel out each other’s vibrations. Sound from the assist woofer, is radiated through side ducts, re-creating a spatial acoustic field.

The I-ARRAYTM System consists of three tweeters that work together as one to ensure wide directivity and to deliver rich musical expression. The layout of tweeters is a surgical process. Careless layout easily leads to wave interference that makes peaks and dips on the frequency response. Sony’s advanced computer based physical simulation technology found a single point where interference doesn’t happen for superior sound.

The D.A. Hybrid Amplifier Circuit, inherited from the TA-ZH1ES Signature Series headphone amplifier, has evolved with a newly applied GaN (Gallium Nitride) power semiconductor. GaN significantly reduces distortion and gives 100kHz reproduction ability to the D.A. Hybrid Amplifier Circuit.

The SA-Z1 has a solid and resonance-free body structure that delivers clear and pure sound. The enclosure is made of six pieces of aluminium plate. Every plate is joined in a special way inspired by Japanese traditional construction methods.

Compatible with your current personal audio setup

You can easily install the SA-Z1 in your current personal or headphone audio setup with its variety of digital and analogue inputs. A PC, Walkman®, and other Sony Signature Series music players make for perfect pairings. The SA-Z1 is designed for use in your own personal space, like a desktop environment. Since near field speakers are relatively free from room acoustic conditions that seriously affect audio performance, the SA-Z1 effortlessly spreads out its large sound stage right in front of you.

Discover your own sound

The SA-Z1 has four unique sound tuning settings, with the default position designed to release the full musical potential of an audio track. There’s also room for you to fine tune the sound to your personal taste without any signal loss. You can change settings, including the blending ratio of the digital and analogue amplifier, control of the assist woofer motion, the cut off frequency of the assist woofer and adjust the “assist tweeter” time alignment. With these customisable functions, you can create an ideal sound tuned specifically to your ears.

The SA-Z1 will be priced at approximately €7,000 / £6,500 and available from Spring 2020.