Hidizs S9 Pro

disclaimer:   I was sent a kit of recent releases from Hidizs for review.  That kit included the Hidizs AP80 Pro X (review on Ecoustics.com soon),  the MS2 in ear (reviewed here), the S9 dongle dac, and the DH80S dac/amp that are still works in progress.   I own an AP200 as well that I purchased outright  as well as having reviewed the MS1, MS4, and Ap80 previously.    I have no financial interest in Hidizs or any of its partners or vendors and my review was not compensated other than the earphone itself.   If you have an interest in the MS2, more information can be found on Hidizs website.

 

Unboxing/Packaging:

Hidizs does a good job at making the packaging look more upscale than the $120 price tag of the S9 Pro.  The box front is gloss black with silver wording and a photo of the dongle and the rear has all the specs in matching metallic silver.   Those of us with aging eyes may have to look closely as they have packed a lot of information onto the rear of the box and the result is very small text.    Lifting the lid on the box reveals the dongle nestled in foam with the rest of the goodies hiding behind a panel beneath it.    The kit contains the dongles, a short type-C to type-C USB cable, a type-A to type-C adapter, a pocket clip, and various paperwork.   The only thing conspicuously absent is a USB to Lightning cable for the Apple users among us.   For me the solution is the DDHifi TC28i.   The little TC28i takes up less space than the camera connection kit (like 90% less) and has worked with everything I have thrown at it which is more than I can say about any other adapter other than the bulky camera kit from Apple.     It would be nice to see a provided solution for Apple users in the box, but until that happens know that for Apple users an extra $34.99 spend is going to be required.

 

Build:

The S9 Pro uses the same shell as the original S9 so those who have read about or handled an s9 will find this familiar.  The S9 Pro is a mid sized dongle with a metal shell and glass faces and would be a little rectangular box were it not for a small bump where the ports are to accommodate the stacked 3.5 and 2.5mm connectors.  This small raised area also serves to lock the provided pocket clip in place when used and provides another simple solution to preventing connecting two earphones at once.  The S9 Pro is designed to use either 3.5 or 2.5 but not both so by stacking the ports very tightly, it is effectively impossible and thus a non-issue.   The Hidizs name and logo on the front panel serves as the LED indicator for bit rate when in use so you can easily get feedback on bit rate and frequency (more in the internals section).   There are no physical controls which help keep the unit small and light and also makes it less susceptible to pocket lint.  the only breaks in the polished faces are the 3.5 and 2.5mm connectors on one end and the USB type C port on the other.   Its about the size of a pack a gum so disappears in a pocket when not in use.

 

Internals:

While the S9 used an AKM produced AK4493EQ chip, the S9 Pro has switched to the ESS9038Q2M chip.   This was likely a move out of necessity rather than quality improvement as the two DACs are very similar in performance but the ESS is considerably more available as AK rebuilds after a fire destroyed one of their major manufacturing plants.  I am told that AK is not back in production on some lines but the higher priced flagship chips and lower priced bulk market chips have both taken precedence over the middle-ground 4493 series  so their availability is still spotty and higher priced than in earlier times.     The up-shot to using the 9038q2m in the S9 Pro is an increase in output power over its predecessors while maintaining the same form factor as the original s9.   The S9 Pro is rated at 100mW single-ended and 200mW balanced, both at 32Ω and both with a 119+dB SNR.    Add to that 32/768 PCM support and Native DSD512 decoding.  MQA is not supported.   The LED indicator shows green for 44.1-96kHz, blue for 176.4/192kHz,  red for 352.8/384kHz, White for 705.6/768kHz PCM.  For DSD, yellow indicates 64/128 and purple is 256/512.

 

Sound:

Its hard to judge any dac/amp as so much of what is heard is dependent on source and headphones in use.   The S9 Pro when paired with my Samsung S20 phone and UE Live in-ears shows good detail resolution and a very neutral presentation.  You won’t find any big elevations or dips and extension is good on both ends.   The pluses here are there is no loss of impact in the extreme lows like I’ve heard with some dongles (Fc3), and the S9 doesn’t try to shape the sound, it just tries to deliver as much detail as possible as cleanly as possible to the headphone or earphone in use.  I found that as long as impedance and sensitivity were kept within reason (150Ω or less and 97dB/mW or so) the S9 Pro has plenty of potency to drive them to their full potential.    The noise floor is low enough to use the S9 Pro with Campfire Andromeda, while the S9 Pro is stout enough to power the HD6xx if called upon (its realistic top-end limit).

 

Power/Battery:

The downside to the power delivery of the S9 Pro is what it does to your phone battery.   With higher output power comes faster battery drain, there is just no way around that and the S9 Pro is hungrier than lower powered dongles so this is very much a trade off.     In measuring the power draw, I found my S9 Pro averaged roughly 275mA battery consumption per hour.  This is fairly high battery consumption as the Helm Bolt I recently tested was closer to 140mA over the same test.   The upside here is that power has to go somewhere and it either goes into driving a headphone or into heat.  While the S9 Pro gets warm, it doesn’t get too hot to handle during use meaning most of that power is being translated directly into the ability to drive headphones.  Just be aware that if your phone battery is near the end of its life anyway, the S9 Pro may help send it on to battery nirvana more rapidly.

 

Comparisons:

Audirect Beam 3 Plus -$199   Power wise these two are very similar with the Beam3+ offering slightly more potency but at nearly twice the size of the S9 Pro.   If you need MQA support, the Beam3+ also gets the nod, but if you don’t need MQA, the S9 Pro is smaller, lighter, and $100 less expensive which will win it points with many.

Xduoo Link 2 Balanced – $149  Here we have two similar sized dongles with the Link2B coming in slightly larger and heavier, but also offering physical controls that are lacking on the S9 Pro.  Neither supports MQA but the Xduoo is limited to 384/256 DSD vs the higher specs for the S9 Pro.  These two are my current favorites and both received my recommendation so it really comes down to whether you need physical controls or not and if you need support for high bit rate/frequency files.   The S9 Pro is slightly less expensive if you don’t need Apple support but slightly more if you have to add the after-market DDhifi Adapter for it.

Cayin Ru6 – $249  Stepping up, what does an extra $100 spend get?   The answer is a slightly larger box with a display screen,  support for lightning out of the box, and physical controls.  Both have similar detail levels and signatures despite very different DACs used internally.   Power is also similar between the two and with most headphone neither is enough more potent to be able to discern a difference based on power alone.   The S9 Pro does support higher bit rates  File support favors the S9 Pro as the Ru6 tops out at 384 PCM and 256 DSD.

 

Conclusions:

Dongles have pretty much replaced DAPs these days.  Its not even a battle anymore.   So now every manufacturer is competing to dominate this market.  This is the hottest segment of the market with everyone looking for an advantage.   Some makers are competing to see who can make the smallest dongle (a contest I’d argue DDHifi is winning) others are going for the most feature laden (Cayin Ru6?) and still others are going for the best value.  It is this last category where I think the S9 Pro makes a very strong case for Hidizs.     The S9 Pro offers both single-ended and balanced output, plenty of power when needed, a very clean, detailed signature, and solid build quality without taking up more space than one would like.

Some will find the S9 Pro drains their phone battery a bit faster than other dongles, but those trying to drive full-sized headphones with the S9 Pro will appreciate that added power.  Its hard to rate that as a plus or minus as it is so use-case dependent.   For that reason, the only real drawback to the S9 Pro for me is the lack of support for Apple products.  While workarounds exist, none are without additional cost and that puts the S9 Pro on an even footing price-wise with the Xduoo Link 2 Balanced when adding the camera kit or TC28i.    The S9 Pro earns my qualified recommendation in that if you don’t need Apple or MQA support it is likely the best value on the market.