Sony UDA-1 review

The Sony UDA-1 is designed for people who just need a high-quality amplifier to which they can connect their PC and smartphone as well as other devices such as CD players. Not only is the UDA-1 an exquisitely produced piece of equipment with a heavy, metal chassis, it’s also designed for the playback of high-resolution audio.

High-resolution audio is any track recorded at a 24-bit bit-depth with a sample rate of 96KHz and higher. Compared to the 16-bit bit depth and 44.1KHz sample rate of CD-quality audio, high-resolution audio should deliver more information about a track so that instruments sound more natural and less harsh, with greater detail. To get the best out of the UDA-1 you’ll need to connect it to speakers designed for high-resolution audio, such as the Sony SS-HA1 speakers (£499, www.hificonfidential.co.uk) that we used. There’s no reason why you can’t use other speakers with the UDA-1, but it’s a little pointless paying £500 for a system capable of handling high-resolution audio if you then attach it to speakers which aren’t up to the task.

WE LOVE DAC SOUND
When connected to your PC, the UDA-1 works as a digital-to-analogue convertor (DAC), which means it takes the digital audio sent to it from your PC and it converts it into sound you can hear using its high-quality components. The benefit is better-sounding audio.

To use your computer with the UDA-1 you must download a driver from the Sony website, install it on your PC and then connect your PC to the UDA-1’s rear USB port. Setup is as simple and straightforward as that, although you must remember to select the UDA-1 as the output device in Windows. From there, you can play music using your favourite media player, whether it’s Windows Media Player, iTunes or something else.

If you want to play music stored on your mobile phone or tablet you must connect it to the UDA-1’s front USB port. You can then select the track on your mobile device that you want to play and it’ll play through the UDA-1. Annoyingly, we couldn’t use our iPhone with the UDA-1 without putting it in Airplane mode. If we didn’t, we’d hear intermittent buzzing and clicking because of the phone’s radio transmitter. Although putting the iPhone into Airplane mode solved the problem, it also meant we ran the risk of missing calls so it isn’t an ideal solution.

AUDIO UNLOCKED
The sound quality of the UDA-1 when connected to the SS-HA1 speakers and playing high-resolution audio tracks was almost entirely excellent. The low-end, mid-range and part of the high-end possessed great clarity with lots of detail. We noticed things in our tracks that we don’t normally, and there seemed to be a lot more space in the sound mix.

The only problem was that the very high-end sounded a little harsh, and this took the shine off the excellent impression made by sounds in other frequency ranges. This harshness was more noticeable when we played CD-quality MP3s and AAC files played from our iPhone. We’re unsure if the harshness is due to the unit itself or the SS-HA1 speakers.

We also found that low-frequency sounds were more prominent in the mix, so that we got a booming earful of bass and not enough mid-range. Mostly, though, the sound quality was great whether we played high-res or CD-quality audio, and we think the majority of listeners will be happy with it.

DSEE RASCAL
Even if you don’t have any high-resolution tracks, just compressed, CD-quality files such as MP3s, the UDA-1 has a feature that helps you make the most of them. That feature is the digital sound enhancement engine (DSEE). Essentially, DSEE aims to restore audio data lost in the compression process so that audio sounds richer and more natural. In practice, DSEE’s effect is slight, but our compressed tracks did sound warmer with DSEE enabled and if you’re playing tracks from your iPod or iPhone it’s worth keeping DSEE switched on all the time.

The UDA-1 has all the inputs you could want, including a stereo pair of RCA inputs, coaxial and optical S/PDIF inputs and the aforementioned USB ports. Sadly, there’s no built-in Wi-Fi, and you can’t stream music from your mobile device via Bluetooth. This is a major problem for us, as we expect a modern audio system such as the UDA-1 to have such features. People value the convenience of wireless streaming, because it means they can change tracks wherever they’re standing and quickly answer their phone when a call comes through.

When you look at the clear, well laid out controls of the UDA-1’s front panel, touch its smooth metal chassis and see it’s motorised volume control in action, it’s impossible not to love the UDA-1. Other than slight harshness at the very high-end, the UDA-1’s sound quality is excellent and the two USB ports make it easy to connect devices. If we could stream music to the UDA-1 wirelessly it’d have five stars and probably a Best Buy award. As it is, it’s a four-star product. That means it’s a great product but not as perfect as we’d like it to be.