Hidizs AP80 PRO-X Portable Balanced Lossless MQA Bluetooth Music Player with Dual ESS9219C DAC Chips and Supports MQA 8X/LDAC/apt-X/AAC/USB DAC/DSD256/HiBy Link Hi-Res Audio Wireless DAP (Grey)

Product Information

It’s fast and precise, at any level of volume, and the layering feels natural, with clean lows and voices that sound sweet. Even at low listening volume, the AP80 Pro-X clearly renders the micro-details without much effort.

As is to be expected the DAP is equipped with a smallish Samsung 2.45” IPS 480×360 touchscreen which is quite responsive but people with larger fingers should have a hard time getting used to it while I found that the upper left corner wasn't that responsive. In this case, the R3 Pro uses a Dual CS43131 DAC from Cirrus Logic. And that is something that changes the sound in an obvious way. Second: obviously, people who have a balanced portable headphone (with compatible 2.5mm connection).

Both all-in-one DAC/amp chips have effectively the same specs, but the ES2919C features hardware-level MQA decoding and it has a lower battery consumption at standby/no load.

Improvements from sources are primarily minor and nuanced, despite my textual descriptions. If you are beginning your head-fi journey, getting different IEMs or earphones would yield more benefits. If you know your gears very well, improvements from sources can be delightful.Due to the extra power of this model, the entire bass experience feels more solid and dense. A noticeably different low-end texture and presentation, although I feel the fidelity to be the same as the previous model. Male and Female vocals are well-textured, with a slight warmth added on the lower mids. Harmonization of multiple vocals comes more alive thanks to the articulate details presented in the midrange.

The only thing to be aware of when driving headphones with the AP80 PRO-X is that its limited power output will indeed influence the sound of high-impedance headphones, as it may not have enough power to drive them properly. Still, in most cases it should provide you with a clean listening experience at moderate volume levels. To give you a practical reference, the HD 6XX (whose impedance swings between 300 Ω and 500 Ω) are driven to a level which I find plenty loud even on low gain. Final Thoughts Unfortunately, no DH80 copper edition has been announced yet, and combining the new DAP with the amp doesn’t look pretty, at all. Still, for the price, this remains a solid piece of work, and knowing that’s a limited run, I’m quite happy to get one for myself! Screen I’m quite familiar with the Hidizs line of AP80 mini-DAPs and have reviewed and compared many of their variants (per chassis material) in the past. Introduction of AP80 Pro, which I also reviewed 2yrs ago, was a noticeable step forward with the addition of balanced output and even a dedicated FPGA for a higher rate of DSD decoding. The crazy thing was they keep a similar palm-size footprint while adding more functionality to the Pro model. Then, early this year when the AP80 Pro-X model was announced, I thought to myself it was probably going to be a minor cosmetic refresh. After all, it looked similar, still had 3.5mm SE and 2.5mm BAL outputs, output spec didn’t change, and the main difference was going from dual ES9218P to dual ES9219C. Minor changes, right? Nope, I was wrong. Unboxing and Accessories. As you can see, the number of controls is very large and I think the system does not miss any option. This device also supports HiBy UAT, Sony LDAC, and aptX CSR to reduce latency and deliver CD-quality sound wirelessly over Bluetooth connections. These are really good considerations from Hidizs, as more and more audiophiles want the flexibility of listening to HiFi in both wireless and wired modes.The media library on the AP80 Pro-X music player follows the same pattern as Hiby OS devices. For those new to this format, the player allows users to sort files by storage, albums, artists, genres, and format. I feel exactly the same about this model as I did the last two. I feel like I’ve reviewed this DAP three times. Treble and Imaging The SE bass is a bit dry, even unexciting. Switching to the BAL output improves the texture, but I would never say that this is a specialised bass DAP. Its development is neutral, as well as its representation has a good definition, with a clean, distinguishable and marked layering. Depth is a little limited and its end is perceived, which is good in terms of control, but also duller. The good level of resolution detracts from the analogue feel and a point of naturalness is lost. Thus, the LFOs feel more audible than perceptible, with a certain cool colour that detracts from a more powerful physical sensation, but adds a more marked and profiled sound, with a roughness that is also more noticeable, but less realistic. In addition to physical controls, the AP80PX uses touch screen controls to access many of the functions of the Hiby Linux OS. Hiby Link is also enabled so the AP80PX can be effectively remote controlled from another Android or IOS device. On screen controls are large and easy to use. Powering on takes roughly 40 seconds to reach a usable state and then displays four options player, FM, step (pedometer), and Bluetooth settings. Swiping left reveals three additional options eBooks, system settings and about.

The AP80 Pro-X is the update of the AP80 Pro. The main tech difference between the two is the chipset. The AP80 deploys two ESS ES9218P SoCs (introduced in late 2016; “System on Chip”), and the AP80 Pro-X features two ESS ES9219C SoCs (introduced in late 2019). If I have to describe the overall characteristic of the AP80 PRO-X, its lean, analytical, but gentle. I was a bit puzzled why Hidizs no longer includes a silicone protective case for AP80 Pro-X. I was able to use Pro-X with an AP80 Pro silicone case, so there is no need to design a new one. I know, the silicone case hides the beauty of this DAP, but I think it would have been a great idea to include one, especially when handling Pro-X outdoors to enhance the grip.

Sound

What I like the most is that AP80 sounds neutral with slight tendency towards bright/cold tonality. Lows, mids and highs are in good balance making this DAP universal to feed it with any kind of music genre. I would call it a precise source for connecting any further audio equipment like headphones, large power amps, active speakers, etc.