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HIDIZS DH80S Review (DAC & Amp)

amirm

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the HIDIZS DH80S portable stereo USB DAC and balanced headphone amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $140 on Amazon including Prime shipping.

In person, the DH80S looks a lot more compact and beautifully made:

Hidizs DH80S DAC Review Balanced Headphone Amplifier.jpg


It comes in a number of other colors from red to blue which is nice. The other side has a leatherette finish of sorts. Here are the outputs and simple to navigate controls:

Hidizs DH80S DAC Review Battery Balanced Headphone Amplifier.jpg


HIDIZS DH80S Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard:
Hidizs DH80S DAC Measurements HP Balanced Headphone Amplifier.png


Hidizs DH80S DAC Measurements Unbalanced Headphone Amplifier.png


This is excellent performance for a portable DAC, ranking almost as good as our top tier desktop DACs:

best portable dac amp reviewed 2021.png


Dynamic range at full output is also very good but not so at 50 mv output:
Hidizs DH80S DAC Measurements DNR Balanced Headphone Amplifier.png


The 50 mv is almost too low to be right. I adjusted the levels on the unit itself to get down to 50 mv.

Jitter test is also very clean and much better than majority of "thumbdrive" sized DACs:


Hidizs DH80S DAC Measurements Jitter Balanced Headphone Amplifier.png


The filter rolls off a bit early though:

Hidizs DH80S DAC Measurements Filter Balanced Headphone Amplifier.png


Multitone shows off its very low distortion:

Hidizs DH80S DAC Measurements Multitone Balanced Headphone Amplifier.png


I can't run sweep tests like IMD due to software incompatibility of my analyzer with this class of USB audio devices. So let's move onto power tests of the headphone starting with 300 ohm load:

Hidizs DH80S DAC Measurements HP Power into 300 ohm Balanced Headphone Amplifier.png


The height of the graph is likely not correct due to the incompatibility with the device I mentioned. But maximum power is accurate and here we have a lot of it for the class:

Most powerful headphone amplifier review 300.png


Same story at 32 ohm:

Hidizs DH80S DAC Measurements HP Power into 32 ohm Balanced Headphone Amplifier.png


Most powerful headphone amplifier review 32.png


Sweeping for load we get:

Hidizs DH80S DAC Measurements HP Power vs load Balanced Headphone Amplifier.png


And unbalanced output:

Hidizs DH80S DAC Measurements HP Power vs load unbalanced Headphone Amplifier.png


Headphone Listening Tests
I started my test using Sennheiser HD650 using unbalanced output. Here there was enough power for everyday use but this headphone could definitely use more. So I switched its cable to balanced and now we were talking! Dynamic range was excellent as was detail and overall fidelity. No, it is not desktop class in that it won't make your skull resonate but for practical use, you have the power you need on the go.

I then switched to Ether Drop CX, again using balanced output. I was pleased to get enough power to get loud and enjoyable. It would get distorted though if you maxed out the volume on this tough load.

Conclusions
The DH80S is well built and featured. I like the manual tactical buttons, up down volume control, and flexibility and power of balanced output in addition to unbalanced. Distortion and noise at full output is extremely good for a portable device. The only low point was the noise level at 50 mv output. Not sure if that is an instrumentation problem or device. Assuming the latter, very sensitive IEMs may be noisy.

I am happy to recommend the HIDIZS DH80S for a portable DAC and Amplifier. With inclusion of battery it will not suck power from your source, allowing for plenty of playback time.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 
Last edited:
Ooh a valid successor to the popular Topping NX4.
 
As per Amazon.com

"HIDIZS DH80S Portable Balanced DAC & AMP, Supports MQA Audio Technology, DSD64/128 Portable Audio Decoding Amplifier, 4.4mm/3.5mm Port Output for Windows 10/Mac OS/iPad OS/Android/iOS System."
81XYSUbsQmS._AC_SL1500_.jpg

View attachment 164275
How did they calculate that +130dB SINAD? Measured is around 109dB, padding the specs?
 
Not the best for low impedance HP or IEM. There are better DAC out there.
I guess it won't be special for people who use sensitive headgear, low impedance balance armature IEMs and/or listen at very low volume levels, like myself. Apart from that the rest of the measurements are fair and power is impressive :)
 
Indeed the SNR at 50 mV is strange. There are 117.3 dB at full level of 4 V. Using the usual digital level attenuation to reach 50 mV would result in 79.24 dB. The disappointing 59.9 dB might be caused by the onboard level control, as already mentioned from @amirm :

> I adjusted the levels on the unit itself to get down to 50 mv.
 
I guess it won't be special for people who use sensitive headgear, low impedance balance armature IEMs
It would be good to know the output impedance as BA IEMs can have wild impedance swings too.
 
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Thanks @amirm , I have been eyeing this unit for a couple of months. Measurements are great, but not better than Hidisz S8/S9 (Pro or not) which share some of the internals but have no battery and feed on USB power instead...
 
How does the SE power compare to the 9038D?
 
As per Amazon.com

"HIDIZS DH80S Portable Balanced DAC & AMP, Supports MQA Audio Technology, DSD64/128 Portable Audio Decoding Amplifier, 4.4mm/3.5mm Port Output for Windows 10/Mac OS/iPad OS/Android/iOS System."
81XYSUbsQmS._AC_SL1500_.jpg

View attachment 164275
Looking at the pictures, it seems to me that some kind of update / revision occured: Yours says "DH80S BAL DAC & AMP", Amir's "DH80s Balance Dac&Amp". But maybe just a correction of minor text errors?
 
Looking at the pictures, it seems to me that some kind of update / revision occured: Yours says "DH80S BAL DAC & AMP", Amir's "DH80s Balance Dac&Amp". But probably just a correction of minor text errors?
I think it's just a typO error.
 
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