Zidoo NEO S - full review
The Zidoo NEO S is that one device that satisfies all my audiophile needs. Basically, the player contains two separate units, each independently performing playback of two large groups of files:
(a) the HDMI-out video unit that plays back everything from pictures to video, sending the content to a dedicated receiver capable of decoding the impressive 16-channel Dolby Atmos format (already in development with the addition of extra channels), and
b) the audio unit with a DAC (Digital Audio Converter), which plays all possible audio file formats, with very high quality XLR stereo outputs (which eliminates all ground loops and any other noises that may occur when connecting to other devices).
These two units, denoted a) and b) do not operate simultaneously, (a fact also noted on the Zappiti Signature, which I bought this year in July), but the user has to decide whether to watch a movie or listen to music, at their discretion.
The choice is made from the general settings, i.e. from the player's own screen, go to SOURCE IN (i.e. connected signal sources) and by tapping the screen, select either DIGITAL OUTPUT (the first one on the top left, with an HDMI jack symbol) or DAC (the second one on the right), and when tapped a green bubble appears indicating that this source has been selected. After this, it's back to the main menu and pressing MEDIA CENTER, and (this is how I prefer to work) pressing FILE MANAGER, then selecting from the list, one of the USB connected hard drives or the internal SSD.
You will see ZD SSD with 238,45 GB available and one or more USB drives connected and to which I have given names so I can recognize them more easily. From here on, all navigation through folders and files is done just like in Windows Explorer on any PC. If I want to watch movies, then I repeat the steps described above but select DIGITAL OUTPUT, then everything is identical and I select my movies from FILE MANAGER.
Of course, there is another way and that is to add a kind of local IMDB database with pictures, trailers, soundtracks, description, etc ... as if you were searching for movie data directly on IMDB on a PC. It's a system originally adopted by Zappiti, but then used by all other major player manufacturers, including Zidoo.
An important note: on DIGITAL OUTPUT you can also listen to music that has multichannel (4.0, 5.1, 7.1 or Atmos), and that is archived in iso, audio_ts with video_ts, mkv, but also flac Mch, wav Mch, followed now (more recently), DSD Mch, DSF Mch etc.
Audio experience part 1
As is well known, most of the entire music collection, currently representing tens of millions of albums, is in stereo format, i.e. 2.0 channels.
But new standards of sound processing and conversion have evolved to meet all the needs of the most hardened audiophiles. Thus, the traditional wav 2.0, (44.1 khz / 16 or 32 bit) extracted from regular CDs followed by other, less performing formats (at first, suc as mp3) has been overtaken by the new sampling rates: 48 khz (also used for less performing video files), followed then by 196 khz, 392, ... and it has reached 5.6 Mhz and is still expanding).
This means that instead of sampling a 20 khz sinusoidal audio signal with only 2 rectangular samples (which has annoyed fans), now at 5.6 Mhz the sampling rate of the same 20 khz signal (which extremely few people could even say they hear) is made up of 100 digitized approximations (on each half-sine), and although extremely few could make any difference, this player comes to satisfy their expectations. By the way, the membrane of tweeters and of any other loudspeakers, not being able to play a rectangular characteristic, they naturally enhance the play by smoothing the "corners" of the signals, so they offer kind of sinusoidal like signal.
But since the problem of sampling audio frequencies above 10 khz has been solved, I can only be delighted that in the not too distant future, all existing analogue archives could be re-encoded into DSD or DFS formats, in those so-called SACDs (super audio CDs) that will "sound" exactly analogue, 100% analogue, but at performance far superior to LPs (still for sale to fans who can't accept that the DAC conversion problem is solved).
The Zidoo NEO S offers all possible options, but one that I would say is unique in performance is called GAPLESS playback, i.e. playing back from the first tenth of a second of the tracks without pauses when moving from one track to another (when they were not naturally provided by the artist with pauses), example: Jean Michel Jarre (Oxygene, Equinoxe,...), Isao Tomita (Pictures at an exhibition, etc), Klaus Schulze etc.
The Oppo 203 (also bought from the AV Store in Romania) had this feature, but unfortunately at that time it didn't offer signal on XLR outputs. Other models, I won't name them, (I don't want to criticize the competition), failed to do this playback well enough. In addition, the Zidoo NEO S pauses and plays from pause with a tenth of a second fade in or fade out, so as not to abrupt the hearing. The sound quality is absolutely fabulous and there are no words to express it.
You have to hear it to understand what words cannot describe. Again, the AV Store in Romania has these facilities, accessible to those living in Bucharest, namely trial auditions. But for everyone else who may not have access, I write here in all my sincerity that the Zidoo NEO S is a formidable choice and its price is exceptionally good, given its performance.
Why are other models double the price? Well, that's because they have motherboards with SATA III connectors (typically two) plus 4 USBs. However, the Zidoo NEO S hasn't really left things completely "unresolved" as it offers a ready-installed 256GB internal SSD, but that can be upgraded up to 1TB but only if it's M.2 SATA 3.0 type 2280 for 3.3V x 1.5A = 5W power and encouragingly, exactly this type of SSD is also available for sale in Romania at exceptionally good prices.
Zidoo NEO S display
Note that this display, beyond the "touch screen" facility also has an extremely cleverly thought out screen saver, a formidable idea namely to show after 30 s (or more) two VU meters (simulating those with needle indicators) on a white background, or on a black background (for night), or a spectrometer. This allows me to quickly look at the levels, when and where, to see if the music has certain peaks that might introduce distortion. The spectrometer helps me observe the frequency balance from 20Hz to 20kHz. So, instead of a silly image serving as a boring screen saver (and which I used to deactivate on other players), here it gets really interesting.
Audio Experience Part 2
For the first time I was able to listen to a particular work by Tangerine Dream, (Zeit, track two), which until I had this absolutely terrific player, I was almost convinced that music dating back to 1972 was somehow recorded with harmonic distortions that seemed to be present on all the edits and reissues of this album, remasters, etc. I listened to it for the first time from the LP, 45 years ago, ... there was distortion on the bass, ... I thought that's what the record was like, my friends said, that's what the record was like, that's definitely what it was recorded like.
After the '90s, CDs came out. I was expecting something new, ... I bought the original CD but the result was the same: distortions on the bass and on sounds that had a certain structure of oscillations (being electronic music). I searched for remastered, enhanced, revised editions,... the latest one had only (this was a surprise) 1 extra minute on the 4th track but the result was always the same: distortions on bass and sounds with very abrupt tremolo, modulated with infrasound frequencies.
I won't go into other details,... but today october 26th 2022, on my 3rd day of listening to audio day and night (for the endurance test of using it without interruption for dozens of hours), the Zidoo NEO S exhibits a new level of quality, never heard before. Of course, the newest sound processor seems to work wonders, miracles of the sound.
For the first time, a recording (mp3, by the way!) processed directly from the original Tangerine Dream Zeit 1972 remaster discs, (which I tested hearing distortion on all possible players: Archos, Dune, Zappiti Audiocom, Oppo ... ) well on the Zidoo NEO S it was heard without any distortion, on the dedicated XLR stereo output, amplified to two power speakers (amplifiers built by me).
What does this mean? This is proof that the manufacturers of the new sound processors have managed to solve the processing, encoding, but especially decoding from digital to analogue, of very complex signals containing very sharp variations on infrasound frequencies, specific to tremolo modulation and other sound effects, which could not be solved so far in a way that would satisfy the fans' requirements.
In such processing, the sampling rate does not play an essential role, and if I recall that low frequencies are best sampled (as opposed to high frequencies), this means that there was another problem that has not been solved until now. So, it wasn't the LP, nor the CD remastering, nor even the mp3 or flac compression made from the original album, it wasn't my power amplification system (made by me), it wasn't the components but ... the only culprit was the sound processor which couldn't cope with such complex signals.
Out of curiosity, you can "sample" your system at home if you search on YouTube for the album Tangerine Dream Zeit, track 2 and after a few minutes a series of signals on bass very intense and abrupt tremolos appear. The almost guaranteed result is that you'll hear them distorting, shrill, disturbing. The music isn't exactly to everyone's taste, but the point is that this example demonstrates the ability or inability of sound cards to faithfully reproduce such complex signals.
I was very pleased with this finding in the Zidoo NEO S, and that's all the more reason for me to recommend it as the highest fidelity audio player possible.
Warning: The unit defaults to -20 dB power on volume, which is quite loud for what I have built. Adjust from the DAC settings to -35 dB or the lowest value in the list!
Zidoo NEO S - Power on in stand by mode and EMI filter
Note that unlike all 2018-2022 players, with the exception of the Oppo 203, the Zidoo NEO S does power on directly in standby, which is an exceptionally useful feature to have the security of no-jump switching. The toroidal transformers exhibit a shock on power up, and draw high current until all the capacitors are charged. The Zidoo NEO S has a dedicated, built-in, very high performance EMI filter, which ensures both the reduction of the electric shock at start-up and above all the filtering of all the parasites on the highly polluted 220Vac network.
Zidoo NEO S - Internal temperature
With prolonged use, the device heats up but, the heat does not exceed 39 degrees Celsius on the motherboard, except for one transistor in the voltage stabilization block and that heats up to about 60 degrees, but not dangerous. Although it doesn't have a cooler and it doesn't have any cooling windows, the Zidoo NEO S doesn't overheat more than 39 degrees Celsius on any component I measure on the motherboard, which is phenomenal. Other players either had to be used with a cooler, or the external HDD rack door had to be left open to let in cold air (and dust, unfortunately).
The Zidoo NEO S is perfectly sealed, which means that no dust particles will ever get into it, through accumulation, by not having open slots. I remember my first Dune HD Base, which at the time was phenomenal, but although it had a mini-cooler, it failed to ventilate the motherboard and the player simply stopped after two hours due to very high temperatures. I used it for 10 years with the case removed and so the heat from the motherboard dissipated into the air and the unit ran for 8-10 hours continuously without any problems (despite the dust accumulating in significant quantities).
On some ICs, which burned me while touching them, I fitted mini sticky radiators and this solved one problem. The Zidoo NEO S seems to have no such problems and this is the first time I have tested dozens of hours of uninterrupted operation of a device mounted in a perfectly sealed box without any ventilation slots. However there is a logical explanation why this is so ... if you read on the presentation page, it says: Zidoo NEO S aviation aluminium box. This type of alloy has exceptionally good heat dispersion, as if the whole case (although hermetically sealed), would work as a supercooler and this is in addition to the self-economical electrical system that manages unnecessary consumption but also the latest components and processors that nowadays have increasingly low consumption power.
The Zidoo NEO S video experience
I watched a movie, in Dolby Atmos 16 channel, 4k, and had some unpleasant but fixable surprises. As I said earlier, switching from audio to video is not a straightforward push of a button.
Before anything else, disconnect all external hard drives from the Zidoo NEO S.
Here are the steps, starting from the initial preset on music:
- a) turn on the TV, preferably the latest generation 65-inch Oled with 4k enhanced, IMAX enhanced and Dolby Vision.
- b) Turn on the Dolby Atmos decoder, provided by a receiver, such as Emotiva RMC-1, and select the source (which I have named Zidoo on input 4).
- c) Turn on the 220V power to the Zidoo NEO S player and wait until it goes to standby and the panel LED turns red, then wait another 10 seconds.
- d) Switch on manually by pressing the button on the panel, and wait another 10 seconds. You will see the image on both the large and small screen at first.
- e) Go to settings and select the input source OUTPUT DIGITAL (with the HDMI symbol). Go to general settings and select "remote control operates only on external display". It should not be left on automatic as it will perform functions randomly, some on the small screen, some on the large screen and some not at all so it should be pressed on the small touch screen.
- f) Leave all picture settings on 4k auto, as I gave too many functions at first, trying to force all features to the max and that's not the case. The movie picture froze on the screen or I simply had no sound and had to Factory Reset. Best, until you get used to the machine, change just one feature in the menu with the movie off, then restart and restart the movie and see if you like how it looks. Then change one more setting, restart again and watch. Only Zappiti Signature can do them all at once, some even while watching but the cost is high.
- g) Connect the hard drive for 4k, Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision movies ONLY ON USB 3.0 INPUTS. On USB 2.0 it does not have enough speed and will not work well, but jerky. Use the two USB 2.0 only for audio files (mp3, wav, flac, etc).
- h) Wait 10 seconds until the hard drive is detected and then go to Media Center and search for it in the list, then browse through folders and subfolders as on a PC. I didn't want to add that interface with posters, trailer, description, etc ... which looks gorgeous and is very tempting because I've been doing my own organization for years and simply search it directly in folders. Pretty much all the latest generation players have this archiving system with links saved from IMDB ... but, I still prefer the "old fashion way" method, ... that is, ... to each his own.
I compared the Zappiti Signature Edition 2022 playback with the Zidoo NEO S playback in succession. The Zappiti gets a 10 for both music and picture but the Zidoo NEO S gets a 9 for picture and a 10+ for music.
-In short, on picture, the Zidoo NEO S has some instability, sometimes it froze the movie on the screen and had to be restarted, but I haven't done hundreds of viewings to be able to say how often this would happen. On music the Zidoo NEO S I tested it day and night and it ran without any lockups, no dropouts and sounded at world No.1 quality.
-The second detail is that when running some image elements vertically, even at low speed, every 8 seconds there is a very small "clipping" of those elements, while the rest of the image is seen well. The quality is comparable in both Zappiti and Zidoo as they use the same processor, but Zappiti has a few more controllers on the motherboard, which Zidoo NEO S does not and because of this there are some small problems with stability.
-The manufacturers know these details and that's why they have advanced the next Zidoo Neo Alpha Signature model, and guess what that model does? It's a quasi-identical copy after the Zappiti Signature, but at a terrifyingly high price, even more expensive than the Zappiti, and it doesn't have two SATA inputs for 16TB HDD but only one, and the second one is internal and is ready occupied by a 512GB SSD, upgradable only up to 1TB.
I was extremely happy to be able to buy the Zappiti Signature, which I'll use exclusively for 4k and Dolby Atmos/Vision movie playback, which is impeccable, at maximum discount, and the Zidoo NEO S, which I'll use extensively as a music player.
I also have the Oppo 203 (thanks AV Store!), which is sufficient for playing HD movies, SD, or other formats without too much quality demand, such as old un-remastered movies, but which are worth seeing for entirely different reasons than picture quality.
-For subtitles you need to turn on the movie and then from the remote select a thing with 4 horizontal lines and you'll see a menu and up on the first one the letter A and from there select, and change font, color, position, border effect, style, etc.
After enjoying a 4k movie (the sound is fabulous on Dolby Atmos - but that's to the Emotive's credit, see my review), I switched back to music and I think I'll keep it as my definitive music player, and the rest as a back-up.
-On music, set the settings to "native sampling" so it chooses according to the file being played ... gapless doesn't need to be set as it's the default.
Important note: both the Zappiti Signature and the Zidoo NEO S NEED NO FOOBAR or whatever other apps, and it's not worth installing anything, even if you'll find them in the icons in the APPS or Applications section. For the money, the Zidoo NEO S is an absolutely amazing model, so if you're not a hardcore, BIG FAN, of music and movies, then take the opportunity to buy the Zidoo NEO S NOW. Maybe sometime in 2023 the Neo Alfa Signature will come out (because at the current price it's unaffordable), but I hope, I think, that they adjust that price somehow, otherwise it's going to be pretty unpleasant for fans who have been waiting for a year already. The Zidoo NEO S also has a Black Friday offer, so I highly recommend it.
Remote control on the Zidoo NEO S compared to the Zappiti
By comparison, the Zappiti's is too big and has buttons that repeat the same functions but I've modified the lighting to turn on at night on a simple shake, after which all the keys are visible. The light would only come on from a dedicated button, no point pressing other keys because no lighting appeared.
On the Zidoo NEO S, there's the red circle button on the bottom left, which for music has no function, but once set for movies, it doesn't activate the light but simultaneously activates the light plus a menu that appears on the screen and prompts you to customize a function of your choice.
On the Zidoo NEO S any key press also turns on the lighting but simultaneously executes the specific command, so if it's dark, you need to find a neutral key, like the two volume buttons, which when playing back with OUTPUT HDMI does not change the volume because this is done from the dedicated receiver.
I'll try to add a gravity sensor to bring the lighting to the remote, but it's ff difficult to make the internal connection so I don't destroy the button. At Zappiti Signature I managed it and showed them exactly how I did it but they can't seem to duplicate the factory operation. It has to be worked under high magnification magnifier otherwise it can't be done.
Another idea would be to buy a phosphorescent cover that indirectly illuminates the contours of the buttons and if I memorize each one exactly what it does then I can easily press it. Another matter of a grade 10 is the very simple and easy to understand, easy to learn interfaces on both the Zappiti Signature and the Zidoo NEO S. It didn't take me more than 10 minutes. Lastly, I'm also going to upgrade the internal SSD after I get the disk I ordered. I hope everything is ok.
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