Hidizs S9 Review (Headphone Adapter)

[Steve81]

The USB-C cables that come with the S9 are supposedly one-directional. Have you tried plugging them in the other way?

Yes. The light on the S9 doesn’t even come on if the cable is the wrong way.

 

[ScofieldKid]

OK. This seems to work on the Samsung phone. If you have Battery power set to Optimized, and in Sound Settings : Advanced you have UHQ Upscaler turned on... you will get the BLUE light. (Zappa!) So if you see 192KHz i.e. the BLUE light, and not 44.1 the RED light... it appears that it will prevent the stutter. I did got back and forth to verify. Tested with VLC and with PowerAmp.

Awww dang. Still not 100%. I'm getting some stuttering now, even with the BLUE light...

 

[gazzington78]

Does anybody know of a phone or even dap that has long lasting battery power for me to use dongles like this with?

 

[ZolaIII]

Does anybody know of a phone or even dap that has long lasting battery power for me to use dongles like this with?

https://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3?idPhone=10715

 

[Tiago P]

@amirm do you by any chance have the HiBy FC3 Dongle?

eard about those also. They're slightly cheaper than Hidizs S9. Wonder if @amirm can measure them.

cheers

 

[gazzington78]

https://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3?idPhone=10715

Thanks, this is very helpful

 

[vext01]

Mine also came with two (directional) USB C cables.

I can also report that it works fine on everything I've tested it on (Android, Linux and OpenBSD if you are that way inclined).

I got mine on Ali Express on sale at $60. Price seems to fluctuate a lot though.

Happy that it did well in testing!

 

[vext01]

Does anybody know of a phone or even dap that has long lasting battery power for me to use dongles like this with?

I've been using the S9 with my Nokia 7.3. It doesn't seem to impact the battery life much, but it could be that I've not noticed because the phone (and thus the battery) are almost brand new.

 

[jannek]

Hi, have had the 9038D for a few days and since yesterday I have the S9. With the 9038 I had problems with clicks when playing audio with my PC (MS Surface Pro 7, Win10). An older driver (2018 version) of the comtrue chipset fixed that.
With the S9 I have permanent stuttering when playing audio from pc. With stock Win10 driver (as said in the manual) and also with the ASIO driver provided at the Hidizs page.

It seems that the E1DA 9038 and the S9 are using the same Comtrue USB Audio Bridge chipset... but using the E1DA installation routine of the 2018 driver fails for the S9.

By the way, on any Android device both DACs run fine.

 

[seamon]

Hi, have had the 9038D for a few days and since yesterday I have the S9. With the 9038 I had problems with clicks when playing audio with my PC (MS Surface Pro 7, Win10). An older driver (2018 version) of the comtrue chipset fixed that.
With the S9 I have permanent stuttering when playing audio from pc. With stock Win10 driver (as said in the manual) and also with the ASIO driver provided at the Hidizs page.

It seems that the E1DA 9038 and the S9 are using the same Comtrue USB Audio Bridge chipset... but using the E1DA installation routine of the 2018 driver fails for the S9.

By the way, on any Android device both DACs run fine.

Yep. This issue happens to me with both S9 and 9038D. Every other dongle or DAC works fine

 

[jannek]

Yep. This issue happens to me with both S9 and 9038D. Every other dongle or DAC works fine

For 9038D try this driver, that solved it for me:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uGMGM_9aC4LG_ggWSxGxQTriKDud2EgU?usp=sharing
(Borrowed from @staticV3 on 9038 discord channel)

 

[Veri]

Hi, have had the 9038D for a few days and since yesterday I have the S9. With the 9038 I had problems with clicks when playing audio with my PC (MS Surface Pro 7, Win10). An older driver (2018 version) of the comtrue chipset fixed that.
With the S9 I have permanent stuttering when playing audio from pc. With stock Win10 driver (as said in the manual) and also with the ASIO driver provided at the Hidizs page.

It seems that the E1DA 9038 and the S9 are using the same Comtrue USB Audio Bridge chipset... but using the E1DA installation routine of the 2018 driver fails for the S9.

By the way, on any Android device both DACs run fine.

Seems like Comtrue chipset + your mobo conflict/issue? unlucky

 

[Rottmannash]

OK. This seems to work on the Samsung phone. If you have Battery power set to Optimized, and in Sound Settings : Advanced you have UHQ Upscaler turned on... you will get the BLUE light. (Zappa!) So if you see 192KHz i.e. the BLUE light, and not 44.1 the RED light... it appears that it will prevent the stutter. I did got back and forth to verify. Tested with VLC and with PowerAmp.

Awww dang. Still not 100%. I'm getting some stuttering now, even with the BLUE light...

Have u tried using UAPP? And disabling and sound tweaks in the phone?

 

[ScofieldKid]

Have u tried using UAPP? And disabling and sound tweaks in the phone?

Wowzers! That seems to work! Thanks for that. (I am curious why PowerAmp and VLC both barf at this.)

 

[Aliberti]

Great review, but I’ve encountered problems with it. Purchased one based on review, but cannot get the LED light to glow beyond “green” even though I’ve confirmed streaming 24/192 streaming files and playing high resolution flac files. Failed from windows laptop, MacBook and iPhone. Any thoughts or solutions?

 

[staticV3]

Great review, but I’ve encountered problems with it. Purchased one based on review, but cannot get the LED light to glow beyond “green” even though I’ve confirmed streaming 24/192 streaming files and playing high resolution flac files. Failed from windows laptop, MacBook and iPhone. Any thoughts or solutions?

That probably just means your OS is resampling your Hi res files to a lower, uniform sample rate to accommodate multiple sound sources. Probably 44.1 or 48KHz.
On Windows, you can use a player like foobar with either Wasapi or Asio output to assure your tracks are reaching the DAC unaltered.
Android can do the same using UAPP or Hiby as your music player.
There should be some players on macOS that can do the same, but I can't point you to any, sorry.

 

[ShiZo]

So would I have to be careful what headphones I plugged into the balanced 2.5mm connector?

 

[staticV3]

So would I have to be careful what headphones I plugged into the balanced 2.5mm connector?

You should only ever plug balanced headphones into a balanced Amp. Adapting one balanced connection to another balanced one is not a problem, so long as the adapter is configured correctly.
Plugging a single ended headphone that has a 3.5mm or 6.35mm plug into a balanced Amp using an adapter however is not recommended.

 

[Steve81]

Yeah, I do wonder if you use the OTG cables, if that produces a bit of confusion to an OS. I would advise people to try their own cables if they find that the Hidizs OTG cables give them any problems...

Fwiw, I just tried an Amazon basics USB-C cable, no change. Not the end of the world for me since the S9 runs off a regular USB 3 port without any apparent issue.

 

[seamon]

Okay. I updated my laptop's BIOS. The stuttering issues in windows persist.