This is a review and detailed measurements of the Hidizs S9 USB-C DAC and headphone amplifier. It was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me. The S9 costs US $112 on Amazon including Prime shipping. There is a 5% discount there as of this writing.
The S9 comes a in stout thumbnail sizes package:
There are no controls on it unlike S8. A multicolor LED indicates the sample rate of the music being played. It is quite bright.
The predecessor to S9, the S8 had up down volume control which I miss here.
You now have a choice of balanced and unbalanced outputs:
No USB-C cable came with it which was surprising as they almost always include such.
In use, the S9 got a bit warm indicating it is rather power hungry.
Hidizs S9 Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard of 1 kHz tone, testing both outputs (2.5mm balanced and 3.5mm unbalanced):
Hidizs delivers once again with desktop class performance. Distortion is well below threshold of audibility and we have 4 volts output which should produce lots of power for high impedance headphones.
Signal to noise ratio is excellent for a dongle and even desktop class:
Not so much at 50 millivolt though so you may get some hiss with very sensitive IEMs.
Jitter shows the typical interference we see in these types of devices but levels are quite low:
Multitone performance is desktop class:
Due to the way these DACs announce themselves to Windows, I can't use my analyzer to run sweeps properly. So no IMD vs level test. I will show power sweeps but note that the noise floor shown (sloping down part of the curve) is wrong and artificially elevated. Just look at the graphs for maximum power and distortion:
This is a powerful dongle:
Power is everything in this class product and the S9 delivers so strongly.
Hidizs S9 Listening Tests
I started testing with my Sennheiser HD-650 high impedance headphone using unbalanced output. There was enough power to generate good volume. Everything was right with the sound with great fidelity, detail, and overall performance.
I then switched to my tough to drive, Ether CX 25 ohm using balanced connection and the S9 drove it as it it was a desktop class amplifier! I had to actually turned down the volume for comfortable listening. The sound was a delight with excellent bass, detail, etc. It was so good I did not want to stop and take pictures of S9 to publish this review!
Conclusions
The Hidizs S8 was a ground breaking adapter delivering stunning good performance. The S9 takes that performance and adds balanced output to deliver even more power at the same cost as the S8. The result is a tiny device that delivers desktop class performance. You pay more than $9 that throw-away dongles cost but in exchange you get a serious player which delivers great fidelity in wide range of headphones.
It is my pleasure to highly recommend the Hidizs S9.
Edit: video review available now:
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The S9 comes a in stout thumbnail sizes package:
There are no controls on it unlike S8. A multicolor LED indicates the sample rate of the music being played. It is quite bright.
The predecessor to S9, the S8 had up down volume control which I miss here.
You now have a choice of balanced and unbalanced outputs:
No USB-C cable came with it which was surprising as they almost always include such.
In use, the S9 got a bit warm indicating it is rather power hungry.
Hidizs S9 Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard of 1 kHz tone, testing both outputs (2.5mm balanced and 3.5mm unbalanced):
Hidizs delivers once again with desktop class performance. Distortion is well below threshold of audibility and we have 4 volts output which should produce lots of power for high impedance headphones.
Signal to noise ratio is excellent for a dongle and even desktop class:
Not so much at 50 millivolt though so you may get some hiss with very sensitive IEMs.
Jitter shows the typical interference we see in these types of devices but levels are quite low:
Multitone performance is desktop class:
Due to the way these DACs announce themselves to Windows, I can't use my analyzer to run sweeps properly. So no IMD vs level test. I will show power sweeps but note that the noise floor shown (sloping down part of the curve) is wrong and artificially elevated. Just look at the graphs for maximum power and distortion:
This is a powerful dongle:
Power is everything in this class product and the S9 delivers so strongly.
Hidizs S9 Listening Tests
I started testing with my Sennheiser HD-650 high impedance headphone using unbalanced output. There was enough power to generate good volume. Everything was right with the sound with great fidelity, detail, and overall performance.
I then switched to my tough to drive, Ether CX 25 ohm using balanced connection and the S9 drove it as it it was a desktop class amplifier! I had to actually turned down the volume for comfortable listening. The sound was a delight with excellent bass, detail, etc. It was so good I did not want to stop and take pictures of S9 to publish this review!
Conclusions
The Hidizs S8 was a ground breaking adapter delivering stunning good performance. The S9 takes that performance and adds balanced output to deliver even more power at the same cost as the S8. The result is a tiny device that delivers desktop class performance. You pay more than $9 that throw-away dongles cost but in exchange you get a serious player which delivers great fidelity in wide range of headphones.
It is my pleasure to highly recommend the Hidizs S9.
Edit: video review available now:
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Last edited:
probably comfortably low?
