QT – Hidizs DH80s
disclaimer: the DH80s was sent by Hidizs for the purpose of this review. I have no financial interest in Hidizs or any of its distribution partners.
Dongles have made large in-roads into the market because they offer a nice combination of sound quality and practicality. Most of us carry a phone anyway so adding a dongle for a couple hundred dollars is a lot more economical than buying a DAP besides the fact that it is more convenient than carrying around two full sized devices. Opponents of the dongle will be quick to point out that dongles often have limited output power compared to DAPs and that they drain your phones battery so those who rely on a phone for business may be better off not draining their phone unnecessarily. Both arguments have merit so what we really need is a device that offers the size of a dongle with its own battery, and enough output power to drive full-sized headphones for a reasonable length of time (at least a workday) without the need to recharge. There have been a few attempts with devices like Ifi XDSD and Hip-DAC coming close but both were still larger than a deck of playing cards so fell a little short of dongle size-wise.
The Hidizs DH80s is the first device to really hit the mark in my estimation. Hidizs has hedged its bets as they offer a micro-DAP (AP80 Pro-X), a true dongle S9 Pro, and the hybrid DH80s.
Unboxing / Packaging:
Build / Internals:
The DH80s packs a ESS9281C DAC and a pair of RT6863C op-amps at its core along with a 1300mAh battery into an aluminum shell that measures roughly 2.5 inches x 2 inches x ½ inch. It ships with an adhesive backed disk that will magnetically attach the DH80s to your phone or tablet for even greater convenience.
Aside from the basics, the DH80s goes a step further than many dongles in that it offers physical volume controls, 3 gain levels, and dual USB type-C ports so it can be charged during use unlike many small dac/amps. The DH80s ships with a USB Type-C cable and a lightning OTG cable is offered as an extra cost option. I had no trouble connecting the DH80s to Android, IOS, and Windows 10/11 devices.
File formats supported include PCM up to 32/384kHz, DSD64/128 and MQA, Output is provided by a 3.5mm single-ended port and a 4.4mm balanced port with both offering enough output power to handle headphones like the Hifiman R9, Sennheiser HD58x, and Beyerdynamic Amiron Home. Even the single-ended output left plenty of headroom with all of the above for my normal listening levels. For those that listen at higher volumes, the 4.4mm balanced output nearly doubles the 3.5’s output power. On low gain, the DH80s does an equally good job with iems like Campfire’s Andromeda and Ultimate Ear’s Live both of which can be prone to hiss when over-driven.
Sound:
Sound quality is quite good with the little DAC/amp offering good detail and very little coloration of its own to the sound. If I detected any coloration it was a slight lift of the true mids which is most cases was only distinguishable if looking for it and certainly not enough to change the nature of a bright or warm headphone based on the pairing. Much like its sibling, the S9 Pro, the DH80s does a good job of presenting what it is fed without interpretation.
Battery:
Perhaps the best part of all this is the DH80s easily lasted a full work day using the 3.5mm connection and either the Cascade or R9 full sized headphones. With the UE Live I managed more like 10 hours. Even with Demanding headphones and the balanced connector (HD6xx with Dekoni balanced cable) I got roughly 5 hours of playback time before needing to recharge the little device. Charging took roughly 2.5 hours from completely discharged and a charge indicator LED is provided to keep you posted on charge progress.
Thoughts / Conclusion:
I’ve been a DAP fan because I’m still one that likes a file library and with phones moving away from micro-sd cards, they sort of force users into a streaming model, that is the one problem the little DH80s doesn’t address as it does not have its own internal storage. So there is still a case for carrying two devices if you need both a phone a DAP with its own expandable storage library (see AP-80 ProX for that). If you like the idea of a dongle DAC but want more out of it than a lot of them provide, the DH80s offers all the pluses of a dongle without a lot of the shortcomings. Sound-wise it is at least as good as dongles in the same price bracket and with better output power it offers cleaner output than a lot of the less expensive options. With $139 USD retail, the DH80s is also cheaper than most top-level dongles while offering the same DAC chip, upgraded power, and its own battery. Turns out my new favorite dongle isn’t a dongle at all. It’s a Hidizs DH80s.