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As measured by? Or is this your personal experience/ view?
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HIDIZS S8 USB-C Headphone Adapter Review
- Thread starter amirm
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As measured by? Or is this your personal experience/ view?
Measured by my ears
ZolaIII
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Try enabling USB debugging in developer options & restart the phone afterwards... Regarding player try HiBy Music, it dose support local streaming and DLNA. It also has "HiBy link" with which you can control playback on one device with second one (phone to phone or supported DAP) via BT. MSEB is a story for it self, probably best DSP currently available once you get a hand of it.
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Thanks for clarifying.
In what way(s) is it 'very mediocre'?
Mostly micro detail and transparency, the DAC is just not very detailed. Also midrange is a bit dry. Imaging is pretty mediocre too.
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"Midrange is a bit dry"? Midrange means what, middle frequencies? What frequencies constitute this "midrange"? Dry as in lacking amplitude? Lacking clarity? The graphs clearly show a flat frequency response and distortion that's about even at all frequencies, with a bit of rise at the top.
"Micro detail and transparency" and "the DAC is just not very detailed? It performs pretty well in a variety of metrics.
"Imaging"? In digital audio, imagining is a phenomenon that occurs when an oversampled signal has errors, producing an "image" of the original signal at integer multiples of the original sampling frequency. I don't think imaging is really a problem on any modern DAC with a competent digital filter, and that includes this one.
Seriously, what does any of this even mean? You can't say you evaluated the gear with your ears because your ears aren't electronics. If you're not trying to troll us, you hold beliefs contrary to mathematics and basic scientific principles.
Not trying to troll. If you don't understand what all this means, you must not be very well acquainted with audiophile gear.
I got this DAC based on measurements but I was disappointed by it when I heard it.
I suppose this confirms measurements are good and all but at the end of the day one should audition with their own ears.
PS: If you are in the crowd that believes all DACs sound alike, we will never reach a common ground.
ZolaIII
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@seamon I hate to brake it up to you but what you described earlier is what it is & how it should be, transparent sounding. Sure thing you get more crosstalk when you use balanced & bottom and can be a bit tighter with better isolation but that's about it. Rest should just be flat as you described it & if it isn't then the DAC is broken.
With all due respect, you better post these comments in another forum, here in ASR is all about measurements or blind listening tests.
Yes I can confidently AB E1DA 9038S vs Hidizs S8. They sound way too different
elnan14
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Hearing back and forth between my tempotec and my topping A90 I cannot detect any sonic difference whatsoever between them when using IEMs and easy to drive headphones. But I believe you, you’re blessed with ears more capable than SOTA AudioPrecision analyzers, there are well documented cases on head-fi and SBAF
Of course they'll sound different. The E1DA puts out way more power than the S8 and they have different output impedances as well. Unless you level match their outputs and feed them to a transparent amp in order to get constant output impedance, you can't reliably compare them with your ears. Not all DACs sound the same, agreed, because they can measure audibly different and/or the listening conditions might not be controlled.
For me, most DACs sounds pretty much the same, same for the Bluetooth codec on the same device/headphones pairing. If any, to me, the Amplifier makes the most difference in the source. Anyway, even if the E1DA is the most "musical" and "rich" sounding DAC, with great "imaging" and "great" soundstage and all the other nonsense that people on head-fi and other forums like to come up about when describing a electric devices, the E1DA 9038s is balanced only, which renders most of my headphones useless with it, even if I could afford to buy balanced cables for all of them, some (like my AKG712) doesn't support balanced aftermarket cables without modding. I am very interested in the single ended version, thought.
Most of modern DACs (specially IC based ones) perform pretty well and are almost indistinguishable by ear, only an audio analyzer, like Amir's can tell which is which. If a DAC sounds much different to the other, probably one of those has distortion and other non desirable characteristics, like aliases and ringing.
Also, to notice, the Sonata HD Pro support iOS devices (specific model with MFi chip). I actually bought it on Amazon since shipping it's cheaper and faster than even premium shipping on Aliexpress, unfortunately, the version sold in Amazon is not iOS compatible, so I had to cancel it.
Most of modern DACs (specially IC based ones) perform pretty well and are almost indistinguishable by ear, only an audio analyzer, like Amir's can tell which is which. If a DAC sounds much different to the other, probably one of those has distortion and other non desirable characteristics, like aliases and ringing.
Also, to notice, the Sonata HD Pro support iOS devices (specific model with MFi chip). I actually bought it on Amazon since shipping it's cheaper and faster than even premium shipping on Aliexpress, unfortunately, the version sold in Amazon is not iOS compatible, so I had to cancel it.
It's not. E1DA sounds very bright and analytical. It has amazing soundstage and Imaging but not musical or rich in the slightest.
Anyways, I think I will try some other DAC on Amir's list.
I enjoy my RME ADI 2-FS a lot and pretty much looking for a portable alternative to that.
Define "soundstage" and "imaging".
Soundstage is how big around your head the notes can be casted by the transducers.
Imaging is the ability to pinpoint the precise location of each note within the soundstage and how definite the note sounds, i.e, how 'not hazy/distorted' it sounds within the stage.
Those are subjective perceptions that are highly dependent on the transducers and perhaps DSP. The amp and DAC don't really contribute to that the way they operate.
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