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HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X – Review

HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X

| Music Player | USB DAC | Headphone Amp | Bluetooth | DSD256 | MQA |

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HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X, the newest high resolution portable music player from HIDIZS.

The Hidizs AP80 PRO-X is the latest generation of the AP80 DAP series, a product line that has been gaining constant popularity.

HIDIZS is a brand specialized in audio products such as earphones, amplifiers, music players and Bluetooth receivers.

Recently we reviewed the new Hidizs Mermaid MM2, which proved to be an interesting product at it’s asking price; with a crazy specs listing offered by the AP-80 PRO-X, this tiny music player could be another bang for buck product from the brand.

This music player sports a HiBy OS that supports HiBy Link, remote control, MSEB tuning, HiBy UAT among other features.

You can buy the HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X in 3 colors:
HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X blue
HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X silver
HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X black

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HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X Review

Tests & Scores

AF

Advanced Features

The HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X include advanced features such as:

  • USB DAC
  • Bidirectional Bluetooth
  • aptx/LDAC
  • PCM 384kHz / 32bit
  • DSD256 decoding
  • USB-C connection
  • MQA 8X

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A

Accessories & Packaging

The Hidizs AP80 PRO-X comes inside a small but sturdy packaging with some inner padding to protect the unit through shipping and handling.

The packaging has an all-black design with silver writings, with an elegant and premium design feel.

The unit comes bundled with: 1x OTG cable, 1x USB-C cable and 1x screen protector.

gramophone-25660 4/5

D

Design

The Hidizs AP80 PRO-X has a rectangular, thin and compact design.

Size-wise this device is much smaller than most high-quality portable music players on the market.

It is fair to highlight that despite the small size, the AP80 PRO-X has some weight to it; not something that should worry users but, instead, a weight that gives the sensation of quality build and a premium product.

With a remarkably tiny foot print and an aesthetically pleasing metallic pearled finish, this Hidizs DAP looks quite nice.

The DAP incorporates a design with a modern feel that uses sharper forms and edges, staying away from rounded edges.

On the left edge, users will find the MicroSD slot for memory cards as the unit does not sport any internal memory.

gramophone-25660 5/5

 

OC

Operation & Control

The Hidizs AP80 PRO-X has a simple control system based on 4 physical buttons placed on the right edge of the device, combined with a touch sensitive screen.

The 4 physical buttons are mainly dedicated playback buttons that include: 1x volume knob, 1x play/pause, 1x skip track, 1x previous track.

The knob is also a button that can be pressed and used as a power on/off and screen on/off button. This knob has infinite rotation on both directions and a slight clicky feedback.

Moreover, the touch screen enables all navigation and full operation of the device with either single touches or gestures and a snappy response.

Overall, the unit is easy to operate but having the Back function restricted only to touch gestures might be a limitation at times.

gramophone-256604/5

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CB

Construction & Build

The DAP is solidly built thanks to an all-aluminum alloy construction that extends even to it’s buttons and knob.

In addition to this, the bottom and front of the unit carries a glass pane – the front one corresponding to the screen and the back one as an aesthetic detail to highlight the nice pattern design.

In general, the buttons of the unit do not wobble too much, with the exception of the knob that shows a some movement.

gramophone-256604.5/5

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CM

Compatibility

The Hidizs AP80 PRO-X is a true multipurpose DAP/DAC being compatible with Windows, Mac, iOS, Android smartphones, Android tablets or as a standalone device.

Additionally, a headphones out, line out, USB-C and Bluetooth connections it can turn it into an universally compatible device with wider range of products.

gramophone-256605/5

SC

Screen

The screen of the Hidizs AP80 PRO-X is a Samsung IPS HD panel with a diameter of 2.45″.

The resolution of the screen reaches 480×360 but it is fair to note that the screen is not fully center nor completely uses the area of the front panel – a black “stripe” of 0.5cm is seen on the right side.

On top of that, the colors look nicely saturated with good contrast while the definition of the screen is clear easy to read without any noticeable pixels.

The screen size and resolution offer a good PPI ratio and a smart usage of it’s space with just some UI font elements being a bit too small (most of them can be enlarged through the settings)

Both brightness levels and backlight time can be manually set. Brightness can be set from 1% to 100% in limitless steps while time can be set from always on or any interval between 10s to 120s.

gramophone-256603.75/5

C

Connectivity

The Hidizs AP80 PRO-X is equipped with several inputs and outputs.

The bottom edge has:

  • 3.5mm headphone output connector (can be set to line out)
  • Balanced output connector
  • USB Type-C bidirectional (USB DAC compatible)

In addition to this, the AP80 PRO-X offer bidirectional Wireless Bluetooth connection

Connections Technical Specifications

  • USB: up to 384kHz / 32bit
  • Bluetooth 4.2: up to 192kHz / 24bit, LDAC /AAC /SBC /APTX /UAT

gramophone-256604/5

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S

Sound

The Hidizs AP80 PRO-X hides beneath the tiny footprint some performance audiophile components, including:

  • Dual ESS SABRE ES9219C DAC
  • HBC3000 FPGA
  • Ingenic x 1000 CPU

With a very small size, users might fear of weak output issues and restrictions to their headphones drive-ability; instead, the HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X with it’s 2.0Vrms packs more than plenty output power to drive nearly any popular in-ear monitor and even over-ear headphones (closed and/or open)

Throughout our tests, the DAP had no single problem driving headphones such as the Audio-Technica ATH-M50X, Bowers and Wilkins P3 and even the open-back Audio-Technica ATX-AD700X.

In all cases, the Hidizs had plenty of volume room space, even while using with it’s gain set to Low.

Furthermore, our team proceeded to measure and fine test the device searching for SQ issues or problems. The measurement done to all modes (3.5mm, balanced, BT, USB DAC) showed a pristine flat response with no oscillations nor noticeable dips nor spikes.

On top of that that, there were no channel imbalance issues nor noise artifacts.

Analyzing the coloration and/or any other possible sound alternation introduced by the DAP/DAC; the results showed no traces of these problems while confirming the true nature of the headphones being preserved on all modes.

Regarding EQ, the unit comes with 8 EQ presets and a custom EQ option with a 10-band EQ that can be manually modified at 3Hz, 62Hz, 125Hz, 250Hz, 500Hz, 1000Hz, 2000Hz, 4000Hz, 8000Hz and 16000Hz.
Making use of the EQ, showed substantial and efficient response to the configured EQ input.

Additionally, the DAP includes MSEB, from which users can handle through sliders the following options:
• Temperature
• Bass extension
• Bass texture
• Note thickness
• Vocals
• Female overtones
• Sibilance LF
• Sibilance HF
• Impulse response
• Air

A 10-band manual EQ and MSEB into such a tiny device is a very respectable feature, even more for the asking price.

Extra audio-related options includes: gapless playback, DSD mode, DSD gain, crossfade, replay gain, antialiasing filters and balance.

A full battery charge is rated to provide up to 11 hours of playback time with PO and 8 with it’s balanced output – both maximum battery duration are specified for an output setting of 90dB

Sound Technical Specifications

Some of main sound-related tech specs of the Hidizs AP80 PRO-X are:
• SNR: 130dB
• THD+N: -114dB
• DNR: 121dB
• Output: 2.0Vrms
• MQA 8X
• Native DSD256

Users used to output in mW, W and ohm resistance, might not get their doubt cleared up for the HIDIZS output.

gramophone-256605/5

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Scores Scores

HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X Scores

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Frequency Response (raw)

HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X Frequency Response Curve

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Specifications

HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X Technical Specifications

TypeDAP/Amp/DAC
USB DACYes
Max output2.0Vrms
BluetoothYes, 4.2
aptX/LDACYes
ScreenYes
Speaker ampNo
DSD256
Sampling384kHz, 32bit
IR remoteNo

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HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X

HIDIZS AP80 PRO-X
8

SCORE

 8.0/10
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