HIDIZS S8 USB-C Headphone Adapter Review

[phrwn]

go to device manager -> update driver -> choose driver (c program files tempotec), wait to update. Then you have latest drivers.

I did all that, and tried again just now - it always tells me Papa Windows has determined the best drivers are already installed.

 

[phrwn]

On my desktop, I have Sonata HD Pro connected with a micro USB to USB-A cable. No issues.

Maybe it will work for you.

Trying this now. I switched headphones (Elegia's to ER4XR's) and still got dropouts. If this USB-A doesn't work I'm done I think. Shame - this S8 actually does sound like the night and day difference the Dragonfly Cobalt was supposed to be.

 

[raistlin65]

Trying this now. I switched headphones (Elegia's to ER4XR's) and still got dropouts. If this USB-A doesn't work I'm done I think. Shame - this S8 actually does sound like the night and day difference the Dragonfly Cobalt was supposed to be.

You might try asking here, as there are some pretty techie people in the subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/audio/

 

[phrwn]

Well the USB-A seems to have fixed it - on dropouts with maybe 90 minutes of listening. So it's a USB-C issue.

The next thing I've discovered is the night and day difference that the S8 made with the Elegia's is not present at all with the ER4XR. I can detect no difference between the S8 and the phono jack on the laptop. This is quite surprising - the Elegia's aren't exactly hard to drive, so that's not the differential.

Anyway, since the dropout issue is resolved I'll likely keep the S8 to drive subsequent headphones, if I can be bothered... these ER4's might be all I need, and I say that having previously owned U12t's.

 

[raistlin65]

Well the USB-A seems to have fixed it - on dropouts with maybe 90 minutes of listening. So it's a USB-C issue.

Not surprising. I had a Core i7 4700 series board that was slightly flaky with USB 3.0. Most of the time it was not a problem. I eventually found out after a couple of years it was the implementation of the particular USB controller chipset.

 

[octaviansan1]

Ok, so 2 more (tempotecs hd pro) arrived today (for my friends), im going to test them aswell (with stock firwmare).

Let's see if they have the same problem.
I will leave the stock firmware and just install the latest driver.

Be right back

 

[octaviansan1]

im back:
its the same on 3 units (2 pc's and 2 laptops). oh well

tested everything...

 

[raistlin65]

im back:
its the same on 3 units (2 pc's and 2 laptops). oh well

tested everything...

Did you buy them all at one place? Maybe there's a bad batch at one source that people are getting them from.

 

[octaviansan1]

Did you buy them all at one place? Maybe there's a bad batch at one source that people are getting them from.

2 from amazon.com
1 from aliexpress.com

The only thing i have not tested. I have a topping a30, maybe its the amplifier ?
But i have others dacs and it works with them.
I don't have other amplifiers around

Maybe it doesn't work as well with topping. I don't know man
Either way. I tried.

 

[raistlin65]

2 from amazon.com
1 from aliexpress.com

The only thing i have not tested. I have a topping a30, maybe its the amplifier ?
But i have others dacs and it works with them.
I don't have other amplifiers around

Maybe it doesn't work as well with topping. I don't know man
Either way. I tried.

By chance, did you try it with a micro USB to USB-A cable instead of the included USB-C OTB cable?

 

[octaviansan1]

By chance, did you try it with a micro USB to USB-A cable instead of the included USB-C OTB cable?

Yes, of course. Multiple cables (micro usb to usb-a)

 

[Malis]

Here is a quick overview of the Hidizs S8:

 

[ZolaIII]

@Malis I don't think this is place for such "promotions".

 

[Malis]

If this is not ok for this forum, then I will not post more of these videos.

But I think it is more relevant to the review than most of the posts in this thread. You can see in the video how the device works and looks. I think it is a good addition to the review made by @amirm. Also spreading the ASR forum info to the channels viewers on Youtube.

 

[raistlin65]

Yes, of course. Multiple cables (micro usb to usb-a)

This seems like this is a problem for which there ought to be a solution. I know historically, some sound cards and USB pro interfaces have had issues with either CPU usage affecting the audio buffer or a DPC latency issue. Many DACs and soundcards ago, I had a setup which give me pops and noises when full virus scan would run. Took me a while to figure out that's what it was.

So I would suspect that someone very knowledge about PC hardware interaction audio might be able to solve this problem since it doesn't affect many of us.

Here's my setup in case it helps:
JDS Labs Atom with Sonata HD Pro
Windows 10
AMD Ryzen 3700X with 16GB RAM

And I'm never doing anything to push my CPU or RAM usage when listening to audio.

 

[octaviansan1]

This seems like this is a problem for which there ought to be a solution. I know historically, some sound cards and USB pro interfaces have had issues with either CPU usage affecting the audio buffer or a DPC latency issue. Many DACs and soundcards ago, I had a setup which give me pops and noises when full virus scan would run. Took me a while to figure out that's what it was.

So I would suspect that someone very knowledge about PC hardware interaction audio might be able to solve this problem since it doesn't affect many of us.

Here's my setup in case it helps:
JDS Labs Atom with Sonata HD Pro
Windows 10
AMD Ryzen 3700X with 16GB RAM

And I'm never doing anything to push my CPU or RAM usage when listening to audio.

thanks. i got a ifi zen dac for black friday.
i'll use the sonata at work(pc) and on the smartphone

 

[L5730]

Like a child who can't help but touch things, I saw "Eject SONATA Audio" under safely remove devices. I clicked it.
The Tempotec DAC disappeared from Windows, even though it was still connected.

I unplugged it and plugged it back into the USB port and Windows didn't recognise it!
Every time I plug it into the USB port, I have to go to Device Manager and "Scan for hardware changes". It then shows up and shows up in Windows Sound.

Any clue how to solve this, other than reinstalling the driver?

 

[charleski]

Like a child who can't help but touch things, I saw "Eject SONATA Audio" under safely remove devices. I clicked it.
The Tempotec DAC disappeared from Windows, even though it was still connected.

I unplugged it and plugged it back into the USB port and Windows didn't recognise it!
Every time I plug it into the USB port, I have to go to Device Manager and "Scan for hardware changes". It then shows up and shows up in Windows Sound.

Any clue how to solve this, other than reinstalling the driver?

You can try this:
Scan for hardware changes so the DAC shows up in device manager. R-click the entry and click on properties, then on the driver tab and then click on Uninstall Device. Unplug the DAC and reboot. Then reinstall the driver and plug it in again.
There really is no option other than to reinstall the driver, as you’ve managed to disable it partially.

 

[L5730]

You can try this:
Scan for hardware changes so the DAC shows up in device manager. R-click the entry and click on properties, then on the driver tab and then click on Uninstall Device. Unplug the DAC and reboot. Then reinstall the driver and plug it in again.

Well, I tried all sorts and haven't found anything obvious in registry, but did find 4 entries related to e203. I just tried repairing the driver using the installer and that had no effect. So I'll give what you just said a try - remove driver, reboot, install driver.

...and nope. Uninstalled the driver from devices manager. Removed the driver using the Sonata installer. Rebooted. Installed Sonata driver. Nah, I've screwed something up. That funny odd API or something it was called, I think that has gotten removed and that was the thing that made it auto detect I think. I doubt it's something done to the actual DAC itself, more of a Windows registry entry written somewhere. Bugger.
Now to download devcon and use that to execute rescan on demand.

 

[L5730]

Well, maybe it was also a Windows update that caused it. I recall the two things happened at a similar time, but I'm not gonna jinx it and eject the device again!

I just turned off USB selective suspend in advanced power settings and this is not a problem.
Also disabling "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" on the USB Root Hub has the same effect.
It's always recognised. Now to see if it gets warm when in use or when not in use.