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Question about Hidizs S9 Pro

madgasser

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Not sure if this is the right subforum to post, but I figured there's likely someone here that is familiar with the Hidizs and can help me with this.

I just got a Hidizs S9 Pro and it works when I connect it to my laptop but when playing Amazon HD music it still has device capability at 24bit/48khz, same as my laptop, instead of the track quality of 24bit/96khz capability. Does anyone know why this is or how to change it to allow for 96khz? Since the S9 pro should easily handle this as it says up to 768khz/32bit.

I'm also having trouble connecting it to my phone and getting it to work (tried it both on an Pixel XL 2 and S9+, both have debugging mode turned on) but the LED didn't light up at all and Spotify, Amazon music or the default music player just plays the tracks via the phone's speakers. Anyone know what the issue is here and how to get it to connect to my phone?

Also, does anyone know of places that have any available tracks for download in the 32bit/96+ range (192/384/764khz)? Was just curious to see if the color coding thing works on the S9 Pro and whether there's any kind of difference heard.
 
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madgasser

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I figured out the first part, you need to change the settings of the device. If anyone runs into the same issue in the future, since I couldn't find info about it online. Sound > Device properties > additional device properties > advanced > choose the quality you want.

Interestingly it only goes up to 32bit/384khz in the settings, there is no 768khz option. Not that it matters much I guess, since even if t there was 384/768 type stuff they'd be nearing a gb in sizing lol.

Afterwards the color changes and remains the same no matter what I use to play the track or whether it's actually that size or not (e.g. choosing 32bit/192khz turns it blue and it stays that way, and the highest setting of 32/384 turns it red). The color remains like that regardless of whether I play an HD track on foobar, Ultra HD setting on Amazon, or Spotify on the lowest res setting.

Edit:

I now tried putting in an USB to USB-c adaptor on the phone end (for both the pixel 2xl and S9+), and then connecting it to the Hidizs and it works now. But if I just use the USB-c cable that came with it, and connect both ends, phone to Hidizs via usb-c to usb-c, it doesn't work that way. I'm thinking this might be some setting issue that I'm not aware of? Any ideas on what I can change to make it work and not need a USB to USB-c adaptor?

The color also changes between Spotify (green) and UHD on amazon music (blue), and manages to go to 96khz output without needing to change anything.

Edit 2: I just turned debug mode off and it worked (and then on again). Weird it didn't work before since I leave it enabled by default; you'd think the issue would be the other way around, if it was turned off not on.
 
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staticV3

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Normal applications like Spotify, Chrome, and Amazon Music use the Wasapi API in shared more to play music. That means that the audio is first sent to the Windows resampler and mixer, then transmitted to your DAC. Ergo, all audio is resampled to the rate that you selected in the Sound Control Panel.
If you want your music to be sent to your DAC without being resampled, so always at the native sample rate of your files, then you need to use an application which uses either ASIO, or Wasapi in exclusive mode.
Foobar can do both, given that you install the respective plugins first.

On Android, use USB Audio Player Pro or Hiby Music to bypass the resampler/mixer.
 
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madgasser

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I see, so then all the stuff from streaming services like Amazon Music, and Spotify is going to going through the Windows mixer. You can only bypass this and play the native if you are playing your own files via a dedicated player?

And is there any downside to it getting resampled to a higher rate? Like say you selected the 32bit/384khz in the sound control panel and are playing from an Amazon HD track at its native 24/96 or 24/192, would there be any issue with it going to the mixer and then getting "upscaled" at the higher rate selected?
 

staticV3

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Here are some measurements of Windows' resampler made by Archimago:

On Android you can use USB Audio Player Pro to stream Tidal and Qobuz directly to to the DAC. With Spotify you may be able to do something like that using nePlayer, but I haven't tested it yet.

Perhaps there are similar workarounds available for Windows, perhaps the streaming providers will implement native solutions with the advent of lossless streaming. I don't know.
 

Procoholic

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I have just received S9PRO. Using Audirvana and MacBook Air (2021)
When I connect DAC to computer only the GREEN power light is showing, is there settings to enable the DAC to select correct Khz files and show on the coloured LED on the S9
Im actually not convinced the DAC is operating correctly ..maybe there are some settings I am not aware of

Looed at Midi setting for DAC ..does not do anything

Any suggestions Much appreciated for e newbie

Cheers
 

staticV3

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I have just received S9PRO. Using Audirvana and MacBook Air (2021)
When I connect DAC to computer only the GREEN power light is showing, is there settings to enable the DAC to select correct Khz files and show on the coloured LED on the S9
Im actually not convinced the DAC is operating correctly ..maybe there are some settings I am not aware of

Looed at Midi setting for DAC ..does not do anything

Any suggestions Much appreciated for e newbie

Cheers
The DAC does not select sample rate. Your OS/music player does.

On Windows you can use a variety of players with either Wasapi exclusive or ASIO to ensure all music is sent to the DAC at the native sample rate.

On Android, you can use USB Audio Player Pro or Hiby Music to do the same thing.

I don't know if something similar exists on macOS unfortunately. The Midi control panel should, however, change the sample rate which all content is resampled to. Does this not work for you?
macos-sierra-audio-midi-setup-add-aggregate-device.jpg
 

JCM800

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I have just received S9PRO. Using Audirvana and MacBook Air (2021)
When I connect DAC to computer only the GREEN power light is showing, is there settings to enable the DAC to select correct Khz files and show on the coloured LED on the S9
Im actually not convinced the DAC is operating correctly ..maybe there are some settings I am not aware of

Looed at Midi setting for DAC ..does not do anything

Any suggestions Much appreciated for e newbie

Cheers
This may not help, but I found your post because I was having the exact same issue: macOS > Audirvana > S9 > "Where are my colors?" I wasn't seeing them because the S9 shows green for everything up to 192. I was expecting it to change for 44.1 / 48 / 96 etc. Played a 192 track and it lit up blue.
 

shumi

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I am planning to connect the S9 Pro to my Android Galaxy S9+. I will use 3.5 mm MoonDrop Blessin Dusk2 for monitors. I plan to stream music from Qobuz. Also, and this is critical, I am using the built-in Samsung Android Adapt Sound feature to correct a left to right ear difference at mostly mid frequencies. Will I be able to deliver the digital stream, corrected with Adapt sound, directly to the dongle DAC via USB? Do I need an app for doing that?
 

djwkyoto

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Hi everyone,

first time poster here after being a silent reader for quite a while. Very informative and fun place to be, I got to say. :)
Already learned a lot (and bought few items based on reviews and user experience here...).

Here's my issue: I recently purchased the Hidizs S9 Pro and I am having mixed experiences with it.

When I use it on my Android phone via the USB Audio Player Pro it works well and the volume is significantly louder compared to the phone's internal 3.5 mm output. I have to connect the cable first to the phone and then to the DAC, but after that it works not only with USB Audio Player Pro, but also with other sources from inside the phone, like stored music and even the Qobuz App. So far so good.

On my linux computer the S9 Pro connects easily via USB and gets recognized in the audio preferences menu as "Hidizs S9 Pro", which seems like a good sign. BUT, contrary to my expectations the volume when listening through the S9 is greatly reduced in comparison to both the performance of the S9 through the phone AND using the standard internal headphone jack on my computer (ThinkPad T530 with - I think - a Realtek ALC269 sound card). I'd say the S9 reaches only about 60% of the volume that the headphone jack on the ThinkPad reaches.

Was I mistaken in thinking that the Hidizs will have more juice and be better able to drive my headphones (currently Beyerdynamic Amiron Home) than the internal sound card of my computer? And why is the volume so different between the phone and the computer, even though I use the same DAC/headphone amp via a USB connection?

Thanks for taking the time. :)

Edit: questions solved, see post below.
 
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staticV3

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@djwkyoto check the volume levels in Alsamixer. There's probably one Master and one L/R. Master must be set to 100 to get full volume. L/R is the one you control with the OS slider.
To store your config use sudo alsactl store
2021-06-15_15-38.png
More info here and here
 

Call me Ali

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@djwkyoto check the volume levels in Alsamixer. There's probably one Master and one L/R. Master must be set to 100 to get full volume. L/R is the one you control with the OS slider.
To store your config use sudo alsactl store
View attachment 233167
More info here and here
Thank you for the information about alsamixer. I had a couple of DACs and both had low volume on Linux and now they work great.

Does your S9 Pro skip the first few milliseconds of an audio file? When I run the audio setting applications on both Window and Linux and test the left and right speakers, the words left and right keep getting cut off. I have also noticed it when using it with my phone.
 
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