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HIDIZS S8 USB-C Headphone Adapter Review

obwohl

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Jul 12, 2020
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Yes, it's ridicolous cheap but I am willing to pay 100€ more to get a) a proper driver and b) a balanced output for two Geithains. Going for the Schiit Modius most likely.
 

Zarniwoop

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Yes, it's ridicolous cheap but I am willing to pay 100€ more to get a) a proper driver and b) a balanced output for two Geithains. Going for the Schiit Modius most likely.

What's a "proper driver"? None are needed with USB DACs, except maybe for ASIO or DSD (like the one kindly provided for the Tempotech/S8). There isn't one you can download for the Schiit Modius.

From the product page on the Schiit website:

"Modius can be used with virtually any computer with no drivers: Windows, Mac, or Linux distros that support UAC 2.0."

  • Windows. Windows 10 is plug and play with our DACs. We do not provide drivers for earlier versions of Windows.
  • Mac OSX. From 10.7 on up, Macs have been plug and play with our DACs.
  • iOS. From iOS7 on up, iOS devices work with our DACs using a USB Camera Connection Kit, Lightning to USB Camera Adapter, or Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter.
  • Android. Most Android devices that shipped with Android M or above work with our DACs using a USB OTG cable. Some may require separate player software, like USB Audio Player Pro.
  • Linux. Most Linux distros that support UAC2 natively will be plug and play with our DACs. Please note that we cannot provide detailed technical support for Linux.
  • Roon. Roon recognizes our products and is plug and play.
  • Most streamers. Most streamers are Linux-based, so they have no problem with our USB input.
 
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obwohl

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Hm ok. So I would hope that the Schiit does not produce those stupid clicks of the hidizs s8 - which even my 3-dollar-worth noname headset-dac manages to not do.
 

DosThou

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Oct 25, 2018
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not experiencing any click sounds playing with usb audio player pro bit perfect mode. will probably never try it on windows since I use it exclusively for iem anyway.
 

MiloTheFirst

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Jul 11, 2020
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So, my Sonata HD pro finally arrived today. my first impression is that it really is the clearest sounding DAC I have ever experienced (not that I have never tried anything 300€+, but still), the volume button certainly have big jumps but I originally planned on leaving it at max and control it with my PC/phone. It comfortably drives my HD660s with plenty of power to spare, so that was nice. regarding usability:

On a W10 PC it sounds perfectly fine with the plug and play experience, once I installed the driver it allowed to select ASIO but in foobar it is completely broken (only with ASIO the other methods still work perfectly fine), has buffering issues, plays at slightly lower speed and the Tempotec ASIO Control panel is really clunky, with AIMP, ASIO worked normally as far as I can tell. now here is where it gets interesting, I went to the device manager and noticed that the SONATA USB Audio controller still was using a seemingly generic USB Audio 2.0 driver, so I manually selected the Tempotec folder created by the installer of the driver from the hidizd website and ask it to look for another one... which it did. however in order for it to work properly I had to enable authorization for unsigned drivers before selecting the driver update. after this, it enabled me to select Kernel stream, which woks perfectly on foobar
Untitled.pngUntitled2.png

On Android, USBAPP prompted me to open as soon as i connected it (as per usual) but completely crashed, tried to open it a couple times with the same result, I concluded that it might be conflicting with android since I was connecting it for the first time, so I unplugged it, plugged it back but didn't launch USBAPP when prompted, waited a couple minutes just to be safe and launched it again, it worked fine and has been ever since. on USBAPP it has plenty of power to spare and the configurable hardware volume control makes it very comfortable to adjust from the phone. on any other app the volume is severely capped as per usual, android surely is fun, am i right?

As of yet I haven't experience any of those "clicks" neither in windows nor android.

Overall I am highly satisfied, thanks to everyone who helped me make the purchase decision a while back
 

charleski

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Dec 15, 2019
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I'm still waiting for my HD Pro to arrive, but I received an email from TempoTec today about a new firmware that seems to improve compatibility on Android:
Dear friend, Our Sonata HD PRO (Android version) has the latest firmware. If your product cannot work with Android phones, please update the firmware. When upgrading the firmware, please enter these two strings: 22E1 and E203 . In addition, we have a large-scale promotional event from August 24 to 28, 2020, looking forward to your attention. have a nice day ! TempoTec team.

Their page at http://www.tempotec.com.cn/en/3-Support/index.htm now shows a new firmware v3.0 for the HD Pro dated 30/7.
 

MiloTheFirst

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Jul 11, 2020
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... once I installed the driver it allowed to select ASIO but in foobar it is completely broken (only with ASIO the other methods still work perfectly fine), has buffering issues, plays at slightly lower speed and the Tempotec ASIO Control panel is really clunky, ...

I need to correct myself here, upon further testing I realized that ASIO was only causing troubles on foobar while being configured on any combination of either 32 bit and/or 100ms buffer. also the Tempotec ASIO control panel works fine, the issue was that it came without any instructions and doesn't make it clear that you should relaunch the audio player upon changing any configuration (I was used to others that instead encouraged us to launch the control panel from within the player)
Untitled3.png
 

Zarniwoop

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Apr 8, 2020
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I need to correct myself here, upon further testing I realized that ASIO was only causing troubles on foobar while being configured on any combination of either 32 bit and/or 100ms buffer. also the Tempotec ASIO control panel works fine, the issue was that it came without any instructions and doesn't make it clear that you should relaunch the audio player upon changing any configuration (I was used to others that instead encouraged us to launch the control panel from within the player)
View attachment 75989

Strange, I'm having no issues with ASIO playback at 32bit or 100ms buffer, or any other settings. And I can change anything in the Tempotech control panel on the fly and the changes are instantly reflected in the Windows sound control panel.
 

MiloTheFirst

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Strange, I'm having no issues with ASIO playback at 32bit or 100ms buffer, or any other settings. And I can change anything in the Tempotech control panel on the fly and the changes are instantly reflected in the Windows sound control panel.
the upper half of the Tempotec control panel is the one that control the settings of the device when used by the windows mixer that one is real time, the bottom half is the one that control the ASIO settings, you are right in that it is also real time, sort of, if you change a setting there it won't affect the currently playing file but one doesn't need to close and open the program as I previously stated, it is enough to stop the song (not pause) and play again or just play a different file. that been said I still have the issue on foobar where setting up the panel at 32bit and/or 100ms seems to slow down playback slightly but that could just be something wrong with my system, maybe sometime in the past I messed something up while playing with plug ins
 
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Zerohour

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Jul 5, 2018
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On a W10 PC here is where it gets interesting, I went to the device manager and noticed that the SONATA USB Audio controller still was using a seemingly generic USB Audio 2.0 driver, so I manually selected the Tempotec folder created by the installer of the driver from the hidizd website and ask it to look for another one... which it did. however in order for it to work properly I had to enable authorization for unsigned drivers before selecting the driver update. after this, it enabled me to select Kernel stream, which woks perfectly on foobar
View attachment 75853View attachment 75854
damn, have never even thought to go this far. Nice find to fix the issue, now I've gotten my popping gone too somewhat.

Though now I have the small matter of the PC crashing every time I touch the Windows volume bar (which isn't an issue with speakers and headphones, but makes IEMs a pain). BSOD says SHDUAC.sys or such, so it should the the driver.

Maybe its because I updated the firmware to V3.0 before doing this fix. I'll try a bit more to see where it gone wrong. (update: I reflashed to the V1.0 firmware and used the driver fix above, no more BSOD when adjusting the Windows volume)
 
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Zarniwoop

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damn, have never even thought to go this far. Nice find to fix the issue, now I've gotten my popping gone too somewhat.

Though now I have the small matter of the PC crashing every time I touch the Windows volume bar (which isn't an issue with speakers and headphones, but makes IEMs a pain). BSOD says SHDUAC.sys or such, so it should the the driver.

Maybe its because I updated the firmware to V3.0 before doing this fix. I'll try a bit more to see where it gone wrong.

I just had the same, constant BSODs after updating firmare to V3.0 and changing the driver to the one in the Tempotec folder. This driver does not work with the new firmware, and causes even more dropouts/clicks and BSODs on top. I reverted back to the default Microsoft USB Audio 2.0 driver and the BSODs have stopped but the occasional clicks/dropouts have returned. I wish I hadn't updated the firmware now as I had everything running perfectly before. I even went back and flashed firmware V1.0 to the device but it still won't work with the Tempotec driver. Oh well.
 
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yamada

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Jul 24, 2020
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tempotec(the manufacture of both HIDIZS S8 and Sonata HD Pro) just released a firmware v3.0 for "Sonata HD Pro" on 30th, Jul at their support page linked here.
It does't mention anything about what the update does for but aliexpress seller implies it's to fix some issues occurs when used with Android phones.
I don't confirm if it does anything by myself.

seller's message to me:
Dear friend, Our Sonata HD PRO (Android version) has the latest firmware. If your product cannot work with Android phones, please update the firmware. When upgrading the firmware, please enter these two strings: 22E1 and E203 .

Note that I bought Android version of Sonata HD Pro and that might be why they mentioned Android explicitly.
I will ask them for more information and get back to here.
 

Zarniwoop

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(update: I reflashed to the V1.0 firmware and used the driver fix above, no more BSOD when adjusting the Windows volume)

So reverting to V1.0 firmware and using the Tempotec driver works for you? I'm getting constant dropouts, and need to go back to the Windows USB driver. This leads me to believe the firmware shipped with the device was not the same as the downloaded V1.0, as everything was working well before I flashed any firmware.
 

RedCometZero

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Apr 13, 2018
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Interesting behavior I've discovered in my Tempotec HD Pro in Foobar2000. When running WASAPI (push) mode, when you play a new track it takes about three seconds for the music to start playing in all samplerates except 96k and 192k. This includes 44.1k, 48k, 88.2k, and 176.4k.

This makes me think that the device is resampling everything to either 96k or 192k in WASAPI (push) mode, which is odd behavior. As one would expect, this behavior persists no matter what I set the device to in Windows or in the Tempotec control software.

WASAPI (event) mode is very glitchy. Any 24bit track comes out garbled.

No apparent problems in ASIO mode. I also cannot reproduce the behavior on my Jriver on Windows.
 

Zarniwoop

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Apr 8, 2020
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Interesting behavior I've discovered in my Tempotec HD Pro in Foobar2000. When running WASAPI (push) mode, when you play a new track it takes about three seconds for the music to start playing in all samplerates except 96k and 192k. This includes 44.1k, 48k, 88.2k, and 176.4k.

This makes me think that the device is resampling everything to either 96k or 192k in WASAPI (push) mode, which is odd behavior. As one would expect, this behavior persists no matter what I set the device to in Windows or in the Tempotec control software.

WASAPI (event) mode is very glitchy. Any 24bit track comes out garbled.

No apparent problems in ASIO mode. I also cannot reproduce the behavior on my Jriver on Windows.

I'm not getting any playback delay for different sample rates with WASAPI push. 24bit WASAPI event is garbled.
 

SamehSpiky

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Jun 29, 2020
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i confirmed that the ver 3 driver solved the android connecting problems that i had with the dac
the problem was that while connecting the dac it works normally at first time , but when i remove it from the type c socket or the headphone socket from the dac , the phone completely freeze / or it enter in a no sound state , and the headphone mark stuck on the notification bar , and it was require a restart to be back to normal
the 2nd problem when i lock the phone or the screen turned off , it enter in the no sound state too
the new update fixed both of them

"am using xi mi 9 mobile with android 10"
now its works in a normal behavior.
-------

the only remaining problem now that when i use the usbapp the sound works good but when i exit the app or switching to another sound app like youtube or whatsapp or any game .. there is no sound "the sound works only in usbaap"
before the update it require a restart to restore the sound to the other apps
after the update i just replug the headphone socket or the type c socket after exiting the app and the sound back normally

with neutron there is no problem when exiting the app / switching to another app .. before or after the update
 
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Zarniwoop

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Just to say, after several attempts at reinstalling I've (randomly) managed to get V.1.0 of the firmware to play well with the Tempotec USB driver. Everything playing nicely now: pristine sound, zero dropouts or glitches. Has anyone managed to get firmware V3.0 to work on Windows 10, with the Tempotec driver, without getting BSODs?
 
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urfaust

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Sep 25, 2018
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I ve tried a lot and couldn't get rid of the relay clicks, which is so annoying, thus gone back to the apple dongle. Shame because i think the sonata sounds fantastic with just enough power output for me. I feel i can spot the difference between the two at level matched, which i cannot explain rationally.
 

lystor

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