Hidizs S9

[the_bertrum]

(bear with me, this does relate to moOde in the end)

I found myself doing a lot more listening via wired headphones attached through a dongle to the USB port on my phone.  The phone is decently high-end (Google Pixel 6), and I was using the official USB to 3.5 mm converter, but didn't feel I was being very "audiophile".  I mean where were the expensive gadget bits for improving audio in that set up (apart from the headphones, they were decent)?  With a birthday coming up, I decided to ask for one of those fancy DAC/Headphone amp dongles that claim all sorts of magic improvements in sound quality, and selected the Hidizs S9 on the back of an excellent review on ASR.  I really wasn't expecting much, maybe it would go a little louder, maybe I'd convince myself it was "crisper" or some other non quantifiable improvement.  In truth I was blown away!  There was so much more audible in the music, so many things I'd never noticed before, intakes of breath before the vocal starts, the sound of the finger pulling the bass string before letting it sound...  Truly surprising.

(here's where I get to moOde)


How much of this was down to the simple fact that I'd added a whacking great amplifier in there that wasn't there before?  The S9 provides buckets more power (and drains the phone battery significantly to provide it), and we all know how louder always sounds better.  So, since this is effectively just another USB DAC, I thought I'd run it on my main moOde system to see how it compared to listening through headphones on my "big system".  The S9 listed as compatible with Linux and needing no drivers, and sure enough, plug it into moOde, select it as the audio device, and away you go.  So now I'm comparing the S9 DAC/AMP against my I2S HAT DAC and the main system amp, headphones are the same, music source and DSP treatments etc, all the same.  Again, I didn't expect a lot of difference, but even my untrained ears perked up.  The difference wasn't so "night versus day" as the phone experience, but I'd happily bet that I'd be able to tell the S9 over the "big system" if it could somehow be put to me in a blind test.

So in summary, the Hidizs S9 makes for a very good option to add to moOde if you are after a headphone amp system.  It's really cheap (mine was less than 60 British pounds), and completely gets out of the way and lets the music rule, as all good DACs should.

p.s.  Now of course I'm unhappy with my "big system" sound even through it's speakers.  Is it my DAC, or maybe the amplifier?  Given the good experience of following Amir's measured recommendations for the S9, I think the next thing to do is get hold of an SMSL SU-1, similarly cheap and similarly recommended.

[Nutul]

(...) In truth I was blown away!  There was so much more audible in the music, so many things I'd never noticed before, intakes of breath before the vocal starts, the sound of the finger pulling the bass string before letting it sound...  Truly surprising.

Hi,

the same thing happened to me when I switched from a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (which I used mainly as a DAC) to the Eversolo Z8 pure DAC.
I got convinced to buy it after seeing the ASR review, but was already on my way...

There is so much detail just waiting to be exposed... you don't even need to go hi-res... I have listened to some CD-rips of my older stuff, clean 16/44.1 and I was literally blown away by all what I was able to hear now...

The Z8 is very surgical, where the Scarlett is more on the warm and round side, I really begun to love the ability to retrieve all those small nuances, of course without having the overall presentation becoming too sterile, which sometimes is the price to pay...

One day, maybe I'll get myself a Chord Dave, but then I'll probably need to change a lot of things all-around. That's not going to happen any soon... ;-)

[the_bertrum]

The Eversolo Z8 looks very lovely, and those measurements suggest it performs beautifully. And I'm utterly converted to trusting the measurements (so go have a look at the poor ones that the Chord gives for the money).

I think the best way to describe what the S9 does for me is to fall back on that old term "High Fidelity", meaning the most faithful reproduction of the recording possible. The S9 gets out of the way, masking nothing, and certainly not adding anything. It is the comparison between that and the way that the Google USB dongle, and even my "big system" DAC and Amp manage to hide some of the recording or worse still add "colouring" to the sound that has been the revelation. Plus it cost next to nothing. What a delight to live in these times.

[Nutul]

(...) I think the best way to describe what the S9 does for me is to fall back on that old term "High Fidelity", meaning the most faithful reproduction of the recording possible.

You literally took the words out of my mouth here. I got my first "High Fidelity" set (turntable + double cassette deck + AMP) back in 1984, then added a CD player to it about 1992.
Other levels of quality. Prices were different though... nowadays with the economic power of _that_ money I could easily buy a "Dave Pro"... :-D

[Nutul]

... (so go have a look at the poor ones that the Chord gives for the money).

You made go back and look at the review... me not craves for the D.A.V.E. any more ;-)

Now playing The Fall of Math (from 65daysofstatic, which I discovered thanks to one of the moOde's threads): one thing that can drive you nuts if looking for harmonic distortion, as it has a considerable amount of white and pink noise... :-D