Headphone DAC Shoot-out: Hidizs S9 Pro / AudioQuest DragonFlys / Chord Mojo / Cyrus Soundkey

#Hidizs #Hidizstechnology #headphonedac
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Headphones Used to test products
1) MAS Audio Science X5i - www.maslisten.com/x5i-inear
2) HIFIMAN RE6000S - store.hifiman.com/index.php/r...
3) HIFIMAN Arya headphones - hifiman.com/products/detail/297
Time Stamps:
0:00 3D Advert for Hidizs
1:17 Introduction / I'm not a hifi snob
2:58 Cyrus Soundkey
3:53 AudioQuest DragonFly Black
4:52 AudioQuest DragonFly Red
5:23 Music Recommendations
6:54 Chord Mojo
7:29 AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt
8:24 Hidizs S9 Pro
10:56 Thanks for watching
Notes:
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[@Ian-bl2xo]

Good to see you back. Nice review and informative.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Thanks Ian.

[@stephenwest673]

Ive had the s9 pro for a year plus…apart from battery drain it is a fantastic sounding dac and 24 bit 192 hz Apple Lossless sounds beautiful. Grest review 😃👍

[@mdrumt]

I'm trying to find out, does it support inline mic with your phone?

Thank you for your video. I allow myself to advise you to test the Earmen Sparrow, in my opinion a fairly good product. Very surprising.

[@rmzidann]

I have had the Audioquest Black and Red as well as the HiDiz S9 Pro. The HiDiz is a much better DAC than the Audioquest DACs.

[@oliver4005]

I have a Audioquest Nightowl and use it with a Dragonfly Cobalt. When 90% of the Cobalt would be enough, I also could buy a Beyerdynamik DT770 or something in this range. The last percent until hundred are always much more expensive. At the moment I want to compare my Dragonfly with some other dongles. Until now I dont find any product (even DAPs ore much more expensive, big dac/amp kombos) which sounds so clear, open and neutral, but even very natural and stirring. Most products are neutral but even boring and flat or they are warm and muffled. For me it was more interesting to see the Cobalt in comparsion to other upper class products and not compared to some cheaper "90%" products. What is with an Ifi Go Bar, a Questyle M15, Cayin RU 6 or as a less expensive product the violectric chronos?

[@sheerkhanful]

I had a cobalt as well that was loose inside the metal housing. My dealer replaced it even though they thought the issue was insignificant. Three hundred dollars is plenty significant to me. The replacement I received has been fine ever since.

[@TheJmsbrown]

I had two dragonfly reds and one cobalt. These people sell the most dainty crap. Sounded good back then but they are now second rate. Serve them right audioquest are bunch of cunts when it comes to returns nowadays....

[@samidanger3666]

@@TheJmsbrown bunch a' cuhnts...!!

[@oliver4005]

The tip of my cable broken and stuck inside my Cobalt after years. I contact Audioquest Europe and they send me a new cable and get the tip out of the Cobalt. I have no warranty, nothing. Thats perfect Service and one reason more for Audioquest!

[@ap0005]

Is there a split android dongle that allows to charge the phone while listening to the s9 pro.?

[@AK-xu5sj]

Where would you put the Mojo2 is this lineup?

[@s7pluswong95]

I purchased a Red copper colour S9 Pro DAC yesterday at DMA shop in Hong Kong for my Samsung S7+ Tab pad , satisfied it at the moment ent. paid US$ 168 retail.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

I think they look like classy cigarette lighters, not that I smoke..

[@jasonharley8230]

Excellent video, I bought a S9 Pro yesterday as it was only £75. I have ordered a Helm Bolt from the US. Have you tried this or the THX Onyx ?

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Thanks very much. I haven’t to be honest. It looks interesting and particularly MQA. Astell and Kern look like they do a good one.

[@audioreviews]

You will love the Helm Bolt.

[@BrentLeVasseur]

You need to try the THX Onyx. That’s my favorite dongle DAC. Nice work on the 3D animation. What app are you using? I am a Modo user, and dabbled in Blender.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Will try and try that one, thanks for suggesting 😀

[@BrentLeVasseur]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 Nice work on the 3D animations. What app are you using?

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Thanks Brent for your comments which give me motivation and support. I used blender as I showed at the end. It’s free open source. It’s a big learning curve but considering this is my second go I’m proud of my efforts 😀

[@BrentLeVasseur]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 Yeah Blender is great. And its free! On the renders you might want to try the GPU cycles renderer as it will give you photo realistic results. And if you have a powerful GPU it will render very fast.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Brent LeVasseur I used eevee Brent but know cycles is better but thanks for saying. My pc not up to cycles atm. That render took about 10hrs. Upgrading to new pc soon. Did you do any 3D video? ie not still shots. It’s the modelling which is learning curve for me .

[@shamelessplace11]

Been using Hidizs S3pro. And zero issues. I just want to upgrade to one with a volume and a gain control built on it but still portable you can't beat the S3 pro for portability

[@vintageprinciples]

Thanks for the great review! I have the Dragonfly Red, and wondered if you thought the S9 is worth switching to? Ie how much % better sound quality is the S9 would you say?

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Thank you too. Assuming the headphones are easy to drive it might be a difference to you of tone and soundstage of the red versus resolution and preciseness of the s9 pro. It depends which suit the headphones and your tastes

[@vintageprinciples]

@@audioreviews fantastic info thank you! I will keep the Red then. It gives me enough power for the cans I use. I need something very portable as I move around the house a bit and not a huge fan of battery powered ones so it’s still looking like a good option 👍🏼

[@handlemonium]

There's 2 more "Cobalt competitors" on the market now: the *Fiio KA3* (cheaper S9 Pro?) and the *Canyin RU6* (custom R2R DAC circuitry for $250). Mind checking these out?

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

I could try and bare them in mind for the next one. Hoping to do some sub reviews first. Also some table top DACs as a shoot out…

[@handlemonium]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 That would be interesting to see. My biggest wonder is how a $200-$350 dongle DAC-AMP like the Cobalt or RU6 would stack up against fist and book-sized desktop setups. *P.S.* I would like to let you know that @amirm on the AudioScienceReview forums measured distortion and sharp clipping on the Dragonfly Cobalt when driving 32ohm headphones.

[@pistopit7142]

Thanks this was a great comparison especially that you have mentioned power consumption. I like to keep my pocket light so rather than carrying battery pack with me I would be in favour of Cobalt. However the fact that Cobalt is likely the most expensive protable mini DAC, it is absolutelly unacceptable that it's insights rattle as you ahve shown. My own Cobalt has broke down under normal use. Jack socket came of the main circuit board. I am waiting for soldering Iron to fix this since it's out of warranty. I will never buy anything from Audioquest again.

[@colingarner6175]

What’s firty percent ?😮

[@ap0005]

Is there a split android dongle (USB c male to two USB c female) that allows charging the phone while listening to the s9 pro.?

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Not sure as I’m mainly an apple user tbh.

[@DJR5280]

I just bought the S9 Pro. Coming from the Mojo I'm astounded at the difference in sound. The Mojo blows the S9 out of the water. Headphones used included the Focal Clear, Audeze LCDi4, AQ Nighthawk Carbon, HD 6xx.

[@mauricegold9377]

I guess you'd expect that at the relative prices. I can't afford a Mojo, but have just bought an Sp pro. I'm now hampered by the S9 pro not having an OTG cable for my ancient iPhone 6 plus. And the iPhone 6 Plus won't support later ios which caters for high-res digital. My 2012 mac mini is running MacOS 10.15.7 which also doesn't support hi-res digital. Grr. I can force the mac mini to run MacOS Sonoma which will help with that.

[@ggproductions7078]

As you might expect for something that is 6 times the price. Its the old value comparison v outright quality.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Not always is pricier better……

[@ggproductions7078]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 that is true f course, but in this case the Mojo will be a major step up in quality of features and performance and would justify a price hike. It is an excellent bit of kit, I guess my question is if you have a £300 portable DAC, how expensive are your headphones? and if you have a phone that is around £1000 and headphone/DAC pairing that is likely getting on to the same level of price, blimey you want to stay away from any dodgy areas!

[@paulf.5261]

Hi. Interesting that you have the S9 Pro in this list. I bought one in November because I thought the sound out of my Galaxy Tab A8 headphone to RCA into my amp was really lacking. The S9 Pro seemed like a good option. 🤔 But although I got the Green light with the USB C from the Tab A8 there was never any sound out 🤨🤷‍♂️ I thought it was broken till I connected it to old LG phone in the same way and it worked fine! I haven’t been able to get a good answer from Hidizs beyond maybe the Tab A8 is incomparable 🤯 I find this hard to believe as I think they are about the same age?? Any sage advice?? Thanks Paul😁🙏

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

I don’t use android phones so sorry I can’t really say. I would ask the phone manufacturer

[@paulf.5261]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 Thanks for replying 😁🙏

[@calaf_725]

I give one like on behalf of the squirrel.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Donno how to take that one. Lol.

[@iDTecKt]

Is the S9PRO worth it over the S3 just for a phone on the 7hz Timeless, im not liking the fact its a battery killer, i cant have that if listening to music all day while out

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Just get a portable phone battery pack is my advice.

[@iDTecKt]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 My phone is the Xcover 5, it has a removable battery, i dont want to be carrying around lots of stuff hence the reason i went with the S3PRO, who does this? carrying cases in their pockets etc, heck i dont even have a wallet anymore just card clip 😆

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

@@iDTecKt I carry a battery always as I do lots of hiking and gps uses battery on the mini iPhones.

[@18yearsoldnot]

I am a massive Chord fan (I own a hugo TT and a Mojo) but I insist you've made everyone miss out by not reviewing the Violectric Chronos. It doesn't need the camera adapter, which in itself, if you're an Iphone user makes it so much better any other dongle dac by a mile. That camera adapter actually makes me feel sick when I'm fumbling around in my pocket to change volume or song... I find it also to sound significantly better than my mojo 1 or cyrus for soundstage - it is rated at 130db dynamic range - cobalt is 129db and mojo 1 is 125db for reference. It's also made in Germany. Support the EU :D

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Unfortunately no reviewer has an ability to click their fingers and get any product they want, also there are too many products out there and we can never review everything.

[@petehelme7714]

I think the S9 Pro is great for the money. Works for me on Windows, Android and iOS. BUT, it still stutters and skips on a Mac (Monterey OS, MacBook Pro 14"). Hidizs gave me v1.1 firmware a while ago, but that didn't fix it. :/ Maybe there is a newer version out there and I should check with them again.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

It might be Monterey as I’ve been having issues with a chord mojo 2 connecting. I Recommend persisting as after a while the mojo works faultlessly.

[@QuangNguyen-md8ky]

hi, for the S9 Pro with iPhone, can you use type C - lightning cable directly without an adapter in between? Thanks

[@goodmythicalmukbang3757]

@@QuangNguyen-md8ky yes

[@stephanpaier9887]

Hi! Based on your conclusion I ordered the Hidizs + the LT03 adapter for my iPhone and iPad! But no matter, what I try - the only color the led is showing is the green for 44kHz… Could anyone please help me to be able to listen to the full resolution of the stated 192kHz? Thank you all sooo much!!!! Stephan

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

What app are you using. I don’t think tidal or Qobuz have settings to turn on hi res etc. might be wrong ?

[@stephanpaier9887]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 Hi and thank you for the reply. I Trier qobuz, where I enabled hires, as well as apple music, where I did the same. And although the Apps state, I listen to 24/192 or at least 24/96, the DAC only detects 44kHz. And drains the battery of the phone quickly as hell :-( Greetings, Stephan

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

What connections ? Apple to lightning usb camera adapter ?

[@stephanpaier9887]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 It is an iPhone Xs as well as an iPad Air 2 (both not the latest stuff) and I ordered an adapter for usb-c to lightning with the Hidizs, that is also made from Hidizs…

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

That doesn’t help as you said you ordered an adapter. With you atm? I’m wondering what you are using atm. (At the moment).

[@colingordon0986]

Didn’t include the dh80s in this comparison! Which I think is way better then the s9

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

You can only compare what you have

[@javtimestwo]

Thanks for the video. I am not an audiophile and am barely a novice when it comes to the DAC. I have the iPhone 13 and use my Apple EarPods. I have been told and read these EarPods include a DAC. Anyway, I recently purchased the $9 Apple Lightning to 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter and am using that as my protable DAC. Thoughts? Comments?

[@rickardtuvehagen1919]

Apple's dongle sounds good, but is super weak. S9 Pro is way more powerful, and sounds good with both high and low sensitivity earphones etc. However, Apple's lightning port doesn't deliver enough juice to feed the S9 Pro properly, so you need to connect it to something more powerful, like a newer phone with USB-C port, or a laptop with a modern USB-A port. It's a waste of money if you only connect it to lightning ports, since it won't sound much different than the dongle you already own.

[@ajitvetha]

It’s a 10$ DAC but cannot go beyond 24/48. If you want better quality, pls look for better options

[@peerloo6931]

Just sold the cobalt for the S9 Pro. I felt the Cobalt had a bit of bloated sound and overdoing things. The S9 sounds to me more honest, detailed and gives a balanced stage. Put everything more in place.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

A bargain too.

[@MrJabinho]

You can order lightning adapter with S9 Pro

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

I saw that. It’s not expensive in any event. For U.K. buyers it’s about £10

[@MrJabinho]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 I have all 3 Hidizs sticks S8, S9 and S9 Pro. My favourite one is S9 (non pro version)

[@mauricegold9377]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 I live in Bali Indonesia, and I did order my S9 Pro online from Tokopedia. But they screwed up by using a courier who couldn't be bothered finding my house, and by the time I went to the courier's office and picked it up, then opened it to find a USBc to USBc cable. Well, it was just too much trouble to send it all back, so I will bite the bullet and order one of the fancy Silver-Copper OTG cables for about £20 equivalent. In the meantime I am running the S9 pro on my Mac Mini. I did had the supplied cable the wrong way round till tonight, so I will test it out with the cable properly seated. Many thanks for your great review and I'm envious of your 3d animated renders. I use 3DS Max 2018 and V-ray on my Mac Mini using bootcamp so I can run Max on a Windows 7 volume on my boot drive. But although I have been using these on and off for a while, I am not so good at using them. Your stuff is quite amazing. Congrats and thank you again.

[@richardlynneweisgerber2552]

during titles; Hidizs says, "Balanced out", which require TRRRS plugs, which exactly zero folks manufacture. How can they claim "Balanced Headphone Output"??? I am reminded of a recent play on a TRRRRRRRRRS plug or ?

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

I think it was my titles. But it’s of a type that is balanced and if there is a need for adapters these can surely be sourced, no?

[@richardlynneweisgerber2552]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 I have not dug any deeper yet. Balanced stereo needs five minimum conductors, though. 🙃

[@nattobaby]

does anybody else have a problem with s9pro with their iphones? cant seem to get it to work

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

I don’t mine works fine

[@nattobaby]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 what otg do you use? i cant get it to power on with my iphone 13, it works on my other usb-c devices but not with my iphone

[@mauricegold9377]

Are you using an OTG USBC to lightning cable, not a standard USBC to lightning cable, that for sure doesn't work. Guess how I know! Check your iPhone audio settings to see if you need to activate some different resolutions. That will depend on your iPhone model and version of ios. I can't help you for sure because I have a rather old iPhone 6 plus which has no provision for hi-res audio on ios 12.5.7 unless it starts to recognise a DAC with the correct cable. Good luck with that anyway.

[@audioreviews]

I have all DragonFlys and the S9 Pro. The S9 Pro is the best value of the lot...but Cobalt and S9 Pro don't have the same dac as claimed. They have the same dac chip...the S9 does not have the software tweaks, the USB filtering, output stage etc. The dac chip alone tells us nothing about the sound. Another huge difference is - and this was touched upon - power consumption. The DragonFlys have been designed to minimize current draw, which makes them problematic with low-impedance iems. In terms of sound, the S9 Pro sounds thin in the midrange and much flatter than the more immersive sounding Cobalt. The Cobalt also is more organic sounding. The difference between these is in the quality of the dac implementation, not the amplification power. Just as you pay more for a better desktop dac... I have all of them, and mostly use the Cobalt...and this also goes into "value" (in my evaluation).

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Thanks for your thoughts. Choice of words. Dac or dac chip = the same . I was thinking about Dac chips and am aware analogue stage has a big bearing and is part of a dac. I don’t think the midrange is flatter. The soundstage is relatively compressed but it’s a cheaper unit. I agree the difference would be dac implementation which is prob stating the obvious from both our points of view because of price change and what dacs do, but also power supply filtering is a big part of the cobalt sound apparently. That might account why the s9 sounds different but with the same dac too (wtf…….dac CHIP…..😀) But interesting you think it’s value too, as this should give viewers more confidence of my similar personal thoughts, in this, my video.

[@felixfranzen7318]

How can the S9 Pro sound thinner and the Dragonfly more immersive? Both have a flat frequency respone? The Dragonfly has more distortion and cleary inferior SNR + SINAD performance compared to the S9 (although I doubt you can hear that in most circumstances). The filter in the Dragonfly is a slow one so it's down by several db by 20kHz. The S9 is objectively better in every respect when it comes to SQ.

[@audioreviews]

@@felixfranzen7318 I have both and my ears prefer the DF by far. Sorry! There is a difference between a steady-state sine wave and actual music.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Except sq is not objective but subjective. Whoops…..

[@audioreviews]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 The Cobalt's dac is actually very good, even when plugged into a pricey Burson Funk amp. It is the Cobalt's amp stage - because of the low battery drain - that is not much different in quality compared to the cheaper dongles. As to the budget dongles, I also prefer the Shanling UA2 over the Hidizs. And in this price class, I'd go for the EarMen Eagle. I have all of these.

[@PartySpock]

The difference between the red and the cobalt is not as big Maybe the cobalt is a lttle tiny bit more polished. But only a little. The red is also much, much better then the black.If you have already the Red, i recommend stay with the red and don,t buy the cobalt It,s not worth to make such a big price jump to the cobalt. They are both about the same quality with a tiny bit advantage to the cobalt,but it is almost unmentionable. I have them both. So for me the Red is the best value dragonfly. of the three.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

I’ve seen the price of the cobalt come down a lot so any considerations like that might not be there any more.

[@antoniomarsicola8608]

Hidizs beats all competitors according to measurements in Audiosciencereciew

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

It’s a subjective pursuit with consensus groups.

[@antoniomarsicola8608]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 at least is it double-blinded?

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

No

[@mauricegold9377]

Measurements won't tell you much about how something really sounds. If there are engineers listening as they promised perfect sound forever from Red Book CD and they said that 'bits is bits'. Lazy. I used to read Hi-fi News and Record Review where the chief reviewer and editor was also a studio-trained engineer. Engineers rubbish analogue turntables citing all manner of signal to noise ratios, wow and flutter, rumble, speed variations, RIAA inaccuracies, and hosts of other stuff. And they refuse to listen to a hi-end analogue turntable. If they only had a bit humility and common sense, they might learn stuff. I know how reasonable to pretty good analogue sound can be, as I used to own a not bad system, but too boring to mention here. I would trade insults online with engineers occasionally about this, why exactly I bothered I don't recall, but it annoyed me, at the time I guess.

[@antoniomarsicola8608]

@@mauricegold9377 "Measurements won't tell you much about how something really sounds". Could you demonstrate it? Could you demonstrate it in a scientific way, therefore with... ehm... measurements? You would then contraddict well established researches that measure how well-measuring gears appeals to all sorts of listeners. If we measure how many rigorous researches are in conflict with such evidences the number is... zero

[@roni801129]

Apogee Groove kills all of these ... in my opinion.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

Interesting, did you do a test and or review ?

[@roni801129]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 I haven't just had most of these dongles and Apogee Groove is my favorite ...try it. But it is more about Pc ...

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

It looks a beast with all those DACs in it.

[@audioreviews]

Apogee Groove is a totally different kettle of fish. It has 6 times the Cobalt's power consumption [and does not work with most phones] and an output impedance of 20 ohm. In theory, you need a headphone with an impedance of 160 ohm or higher to work with the Groove. But because of the steady current supply, you can use dynamic driver earphones of lower impedance. You cannot use any BAs with the Groove. But nothing beats the Groove with a Sennheiser HD 600 series can. So apples and oranges. I love My Groove and also my DragonFlys. They are complementary,

[@grassblade2]

Holy shit! HOW much for the Cobalt...and it's baggier than a baggy thing that's got baggy? I'm out.

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

I don’t agree. It’s a good product

[@mauricegold9377]

You need a cunning plan to buy something less expensive then.

[@villageroma]

Parachute falling here from Brazil and wanna leave my 2 cents. The best phone’s battery life is an iPhone. The Dragonfly Cobalt is far to be the best portable dac in general. There are many other sounding better all of them costing less. The Cobalt has a kind of digital artefacts to its sound that meh 😑. The best Sigma Delta chip are From AKM and Cirrus Logic. Bye ✌️

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

The cobalt is the least digitally artefactey sound of all the ones I’ve tried. It’s not just about the chip but the analogue output and power filtering and stages and AudioQuest put a lot of effort into that.

[@villageroma]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 well we have different opinions on the topic. Later on I will make a list of what I find the best ones so we can discuss it further. I was having a look at your channel and agree on most opinions of you. Perhaps on the Hegel I don’t, but here in 🇧🇷 we like facts over opinions

[@13thnotehifireviews7]

I don’t tend to think facts exist in hifi. Opinions tend to be preferenced on sound quality. Strong consensus groups maybe are the best way of looking at it. But I only talk about what I compare and try, I can’t know everything just like you, so I can’t then discuss what you say are preferred. Properly implemented any dac can sound good, and I fell down that rabbit hole on FPGA thinking it was the best, but then you here an ess sabre in an awesome product and I change my mind. To a good degree, the worst thinking in hifi can be to equate a technical reason as to why something should sound good, because you then find that thinking is thrown out, in the next review. So you have to be very careful doing that.

[@villageroma]

@@13thnotehifireviews7 have a look at these: Luxury & Precision W2 the new one with dual Cirrus L. Lotoo Pau 2 last one out Shanling UA2 budget one. Ah.. and the one from Cayin the R2R one.