Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Limited Edition Review

 

 

 

Introduction:

Hidizs Technology Co. Ltd. was founded early in 2009 and is specialized in portable audio equipments such like Digital to Analog Converters (DAC), Digital Audio Players (DAP), Amplifiers and In-Ear Monitors (IEM).

The AP80 Pro-X Red Copper is a Limited Edition of the original AP80 Pro-X that will be limited with 499 units worldwide and will have a certain collection value. The main difference with the original AP80 Pro-X is its solid pure copper chassis, which is a relative expensive material. The device is equipped with a Dual ES9219C DAC configuration, HBC3000 FPGA chip, 2.45 inch 480×360 IPS HD Touch Screen, both 3.5mm SE & 2.5mm Balanced outputs and features Bi-Direction Lossless Bluetooth Connectivity, MQA 8x encoding, a Step Counter, E- Book Reader and many more.

 

 

 

Disclaimer:

I would like to thank Hidizs for providing me the AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Limited Edition as review sample. I am not affiliated with Hidizs beyond this review and these words reflect my true and unaltered, opinions about the product.

 

 

Price & Availability:

The pre-order price of the Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Limited Edition is 249.00 US$ (original price is 269.00 US$). More information’s can be found under the link below;

• Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Limited Edition

 

 

 

Package and Accessories:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Limited Edition came in a relative small and compact box in black color that sports the illustration and some product related brandings on the top and some product specific information’s at the bottom.

 

This box contains the following items;

• 1 x Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Limited Edition Digital Audio Player
• 1 x USB mini to USB Type-C cable for file Transfer and Charging
• 1 x USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable Low Profile Cable
• 1 x Set of Screen Protector (Back and Front)
• 1 x User Manual, etc.
• 1 x Warranty card

 

 

 

Design & Build Quality:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Limited Edition is a beautiful looking Ultra Compact DAP (Digital Audio Player) that shows a decent build quality. The device is easy to hold and fits perfectly in to a small pocket thanks to its compact dimensions with just 61.2×54.5×13.8mm. The device comes has a 5-axis CNC machined metal body that has been made from one block of solid copper material which has a fantastic looking brushed surface. The only downside of copper material is that it is more prone to oxidation compared to other material.

On the front of the device is a 2.45 Inch Samsung IPS HD Touch Screen with a pixel density of 480×360 that is maybe pretty small but quite responsive.

On the right surface of the device is a multifunctional volume/power wheel of the Japanese company ALPS that offer a pretty precise volume adjustment. Next to the volume/power wheel are the next/fast forward, play/pause and back/fast back buttons that are small but quite responsive.

On the opposite surface of the AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition is a Micro SD card slot and the letter “Designed for HIDIZS” that is nicely engraved to the surface.

At the bottom of the device is the USB Type-C interface that acts as a digital out for USB DAC/USB Audio functionalities, charging port/data transmission. Here are also the 2.5mm Balanced (TRRS) Output and the 3.5mm Single Ended (TRS) headphone jack that shares also the LO (Line Out) output that you can select from the settings.

On the rear surface of the Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition is a glass panel that has a nice pattern behind it.

Here is the Hidizs brand logo and some product related brandings and some industrial certifications.

 

 

 

Technical Specifications:

Hardware Configuration	Master Chip	Ingenic X1000
	DAC Chip	ES9219C X2
	MQA processing chip	ES9219C
	Pedometer Sensor	KX126
	Display Screen	Samsung 2.45″ (480×360)IPS HD touchscreen
	Body material	Aluminum alloy CNC integration（Color: black, gray, blue)
	Rear Cover Material	Stereoscopic glass
	Volume Knob	Japanese ALPS
	Play Buttons	3 physical buttons: play/pause, previous track, next track
	FPGA hardware decodes DSD	HBC3000
	Maximum Storage Expansion	512G
Operating System	HiBy Music	HiBy OS 3.0
Transmission     Function	Bluetooth	Bidirectional Bluetooth 4.2, CSR APT-X, and Sony LDAC
	USB Port	Type-C port, support two-way USB DAC
	mobile phone USB decode	Support
	Remote control	HiBy Link (Hiby Music App should be installed)
USB Audio (DAC)	Hardware decodes DSD Support	DSD64/128/256
	PCM Support	384kHz/32Bit
	Supported systems	MAC OS, iPad OS, Windows XP, Windows, Android
Output Options	Single-ended/LO/balanced headphone output	3.5mm/LO output port、2.5 balanced port
	Headphones with Mic	Compatible
Power System	Charging port	Type C
	Power Adapter	DC 5V/2A is recommended
	Battery capacity	800mAh 3.7V Li-polymer battery
Playback function	Gain	High/Low
	Antialiasing Filters	8
	MSEB tuning console function	10
	S/Pdif DoP	(USB Audio+Native) support
	Present Equalizer	8EQ effect + customized EQ setting
	Play Mode	Sequential Play / Shuffle Play / Single Loop / List Loop
System Functions	Factory Reset	Long press the Power Button to reset
	Firmware Upgrade	Via TF card(FAT32 file system TF only)
	Storage Expansion Slot	1 × TF card socket(Micro SD card)
	Data Transmission	Type-C-USB2.0

 

 

 

 

Supported File Formats & MQA Encodeding:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Limited Edition supports most Hi-Res lossless formats including FLAC, APE, WMA, WAV, ALAC, DSF, DFF, and SACD-ISO. Native support for DSD 64/128/256, PCM of up to 384Khz/32bit.

Another highlight of the Hidizs AP-80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition is MQA encoding. MQA is an award-winning British technology that delivers the sound of the original master recording. The master MQA file is fully authenticated and is small enough to stream or download. Hidizs AP80 Pro-X portable music player uses MQA technology for final unfold (8X) of an MQA file.

 

 

 

Hardware and Software Features:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Limited Edition is an ultra portable device with that comes with some decent hardware and software features that I will now share with you.

 

DAC/Amplification:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Limited Edition comes with the same Dual ES9219C SoC from ESS Sabre that that was found inside the AP80 Pro-X. The DAC SoC feature ESS Sabre’s patented 32-bit “HyperStream” architecture, which supports up to 32-bit 384kHz PCM and DSD256. The ES9219C offers a SNR value of 130dB, THD+N of 0.0015% and Dynamic Range of +121dB.

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition is also quite powerful for an ultra portable device that is able to deliver 70mW per channel @ 32Ω over the PO and up to 190mW per channel @ 32Ω over the 2.5mm Balanced output. The recommended headphone impedance range is between 8-200Ω.

 

CPU:

Under the hood of the Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition comes is equipped with the X1000 CPU of the company Ingenic Semiconductor with a processor speed of 1.0 GHz. It has an energy efficient MIPS32 XBurst RISC core with double precision hardware float point unit for low power consumption.

 

FPGA Chip:

With the dedicated FPGA chip HBC3000, the accuracy of digital music reproduction can be increased by master clock and the clock jitter can be perfectly controlled. Meanwhile, it can hardware decode native DSD 64/128/256.

 

Connectivity:

A. Wired:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition features a 3.5mm Single Ended (TRS) and a 2.5mm Balanced (TRRS) headphone outputs. The 3.5mm Phone Out that works also as Line Output (LO), which can easily adjusted over the shortcut menu.

The device can also be used as an asynchronous USB DAC with both Mac’s and Windows PC’s. With Mac computers, you can just plug-and-play the AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition without the need of a driver installation. With Windows PC’s you need to install the driver, which you can find on Hidizs website.

 

B. Bluetooth & Bi-Directional USB Connectivity:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition offers the 4.2 Bluetooth standard and supports “Bi-Direction Lossless Bluetooth Connectivity” which can be used to transmit or to receive/stream your music from any compatible device. This is a nice feature if you want to listen songs from streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, etc. The actually supported codec’s are LDAC/aptX/aptX HD and SBC.

The connection between the AP80 Pro-X and my Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ was pretty stabile during my tests, without to show drops and noise issue from a distance up to 9-10 meters.

 

C. UAT (Ultra Audio Transmission) Support:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition supports the UAT codec (Ultra Audio Transmission), an audio coding technology that was self-developed by HiBy that supports up to 192 kHz sampling frequencies or up to 1.2Mbps bit rates which is a pretty interesting feature.

 

Battery Life:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition is a small device with relative good battery life that is powered by the 800mAh 3.7V Li-polymer battery that offers up to 10 – 10.5 hours over the Single Ended output. Testing conditions are listed below;

• IEM: Kinera Hodur / Volume: 50 / Low Gain / Screen Off
• Flac 16bit/44kHz: approx 10 – 10.5 hours (3.5mm Single Ended) / 7.5 hours (2.5mm Balanced)

 

Pedometer & E-Book Reader:

The Hidisz AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition has a built-in step counter sensor, while the program will run in the Background after activate it under the step counter APP. You can view your steps in real time and it supports also the viewing of historical actions. The device comes also with a E-Book reader application, which is a nice addition.

 

Software:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition comes with HiBy OS 3.0 which is Linux based software that was developed by the company HiBy. The GUI is pretty fluid with minimal/low lags and should satisfy most of its users. The Main Menu shows you some icons/shortcuts like Player, FM, Step, Bluetooth and System Settings. The Player shortcut links you to the player interface which is minimalistic but clean. Here are a number of swipe gestures you can do to open some new windows.

If you swipe from left to right, it will appear the player fine tuning menus where you can see the Hidizs logo and some settings like Update Database, MSEB (Mage Sound 8-Ball DSP Tuning), Equalizer and Play Settings. You can set your EQ settings manually or can use some presets like Rock, Pop, Dance Metal, etc. Other options like the E-Book, Step Counter and System Settings can be activated and adjusted under the main menu.

 

 

 

 

Equipment’s used for this review:

• DAP’s                        : Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition, FiiO M6
• IEM’s                         : Kinera Hodur, Hidizs MM2

 

 

 

 

Albums & tracks used for this review:

• Adele – My Little Love (Spotify)
• Randy Crawford – On Day I Will Fly Away (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Hayley Westenra – Odyssey Album (Dezzer HiFi)
• Dionne Warwick – Walk On By (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Sarah McLachlan – Angel (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
• Sertap Erener – Aşk (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Edith Piaf – Non Je Ne Regrette Rien (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Diana Krall – So Wonderful (DSF)
• Aretha Franklin – I Say A Little Payer (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
• Sonya Yoncheva – (Giuseppe Verdi) II Trovatore, ActI (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
• George Michael – Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
• David Bowie – Heroes (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
• Elton John – Rocket Man ((Flac 24bit/96kHz)
• Barry White – Just The Way You Are (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
• Isaac Hayes – Walk On By (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Sting – Englishman in New York – (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
• Eric Clapton – Wonderful Tonight (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
• B. King – Riding With The King (Tidal Hi-Fi)
• Dave Gahan – Kingdom (Tidal Hi-Fi)
• U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Bro Safari, UFO! – Drama (Deezer HiFi)
• Armin Van Buuren – Vini Vici (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Daft Punk – Doin’ it Right (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
• Jo Blankenburg – Meraki (Spotify)
• Lorde – Royals (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
• Massive Attack – Angel (Flac 24bit/48kHz)
• Toutant – Rebirth (Deezer HiFi)
• Gogo Penguin – Raven (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
• Gogo Penguin – Murmuration (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
• Portishead – It Could Be Sweet (Spotify)
• Max Richter – On the Nature of Daylight (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
• Charly Antolini – Duwadjuwandadu (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
• Ferit Odman – Look, Stop & Listen (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
• Chopin – Nocturn No. 20 In C-Sharp Minor (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Fazıl Say – Nazım Oratoryosu (Live) (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Vivaldi – Le QuarttroStagioni “The Four Season” (Deezer HiFi)
• Otto Liebert & Luna Negra – The River (Flac 24bit/192kHz)
• Lunatic Soul – The Passage (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Deftones – My Own Summer (Shove it) (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Metallica – Sad but True (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
• Metallica – Master of Puppets (Flac 24bit/96kHz)
• Opeth – Windowpane (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Megadeth – Sweating Bullets (Tidal Hi-Fi)
• Rush’s – Leave That Thing Alone (Flac 16bit/44.1kHz)
• Slayer – Angel of Death (Spotify)
• Liquid Tension Experiment 2 – Acid Rain (Spotify)
• Yosi Horikawa – Bubbles (Spotify)

 

 

 

 

The Sound:

The AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition continues the Hidizs AP80 Series sound signature, which shows a mildly warm tonality along with a lively and musical presentation. The bass of the AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition offers is pretty control, fairly detailed and offers a good level of extension. The midrange stands out with its decent sense of clarity and resolution for a device at this price level, while the treble area balanced, moderately bright and has a good grade of extension with all IEM’s I have tested the device.

This review has been written after a burn-in period of approx 80 hours and is mainly based on my sound experiences over the 2.5mm balanced (TRRS) output that offers better dynamics and slightly higher level of resolution.

 

Bass / Midrange / Treble / Soundstage:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition, shows a slightly grade of coloration in the lower frequency (bass and lower midrange) register, which adds the overall presentation a mildly warm tonality. The subbass areas of the device is reproduced with a moderate level of depth and rumble, while the performance of increases after some burn-in (50 hour mark) in terms of extension and decay. The midbass region stands out with its pretty natural and controlled presentation, which shows a good synergy with all earphones / IEM’s that I have paired with the device. The resolution is decent for a device at this price level, and doesn’t a show any remarkable negative conditions such like midbass hump or mixings, when I have listen to fast and complex bass passages.

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Edition is one of the DAP’s I have listen to that do offer a pretty musical and dynamic midrange presentation with good sense of transparency and airiness, which meets my expectation from a device at this price range. The midrange shows a mildly tonality, which is a common character of all AP80 Series DAP’s of the company.

The lower midrange sounds pretty lush, mildly emphasized and has a sufficient grade of clarity and resolution, when I listen to both female and male voices or to instruments such like a viola, trumpet or cello. The reproduction of male voices is clear, detailed and doesn’t show any annoying situations like muddiness.

The upper midrange region shows in general a good grade of clarity and resolution, which is another common character of all AP80 Series devices. Female voices such like Adel or Sertap Erener are reproduced with a decent level of liveliness and emotion especially when I have paired the device with IEM’s like the Kinera Hodur. The treble range on the other hand sounds pretty detailed, crisp and natural. The resolution of both the lower and the upper treble register is on an efficient level. The upper lower treble range is shown with good sense of clarity and definition, while the extension is slightly short. The upper treble register sounds pretty airy and is able to create a decent level of sparkle and detail retrieval that fulfils my expectation from a device at this price range.

The AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition shows a good pretty performance in terms of separation and positioning of instruments and vocals. The soundstage shows a suficent sense of depth and wideness, while the hight of the stage is on an an average level.

 

 

 

Comparison:

Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition versus FiiO M6:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition shows a slightly warmer tonality and fuller overall presentation compared to the FiiO M6 that sounds a bit more neutral.

The bass character of the FiiO M6 is more linear compared to the AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition, which has the upper hand when it comes to the depth, especially in the midbass register. The FiiO M6 has the slightly edge when it comes to the overall control of the midbass and subbass area.

The midrange of the Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition has a tad warmer tonality compared to the FiiO M6, which sounds a bit more neutral and but dry in this area. Both male and female vocals do sound slightly more successful with the AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition that offers a fuller male and more detailed female vocal presentation.

Both DAP’s are successful in terms of treble performance, while the AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition is more pronounced and controlled in this area. The treble range of the FiiO M6 is more neutral and harsh than those of the Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition.

The soundstage of both devices is pretty close in terms of wideness and separation, while the Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition is slightly better in terms of soundstage depth.

 

 

Conclusion:

The Hidizs AP80 Pro-X Red Copper Edition is an excellent sounding Ultra Compact Digital Audio Player that fits in every pocket. It has a very solid appearance with its all-metal housing, which is made from a solid piece of copper material. Another highlight is the collection value, since it is limited with only 499 units worldwide. Features like the 2.5mm balanced output, Dual DAC’s, Bi-Directional Bluetooth Connectivity, MESB PEQ, Pedometer and even an E-Book reader are other remarkable additions. All-in all another good device from Hidizs!

 

 

 

Pros & Cons:

• + Decent Overall Sound Performance for such a Compact Device
• + Solid looking Copper Housing
• + Rich Features (MESB PEQ, Pedometer, E-Book Reader)
• + Lots of Wired & Wireless Connection Options (2.5mm Balanced, Bluetooth & USB DAC)
• + Collection Value (Limited to 499 Units Worldwide)

 

• – The Solid looking Cooper Housing is a Material that is Prone to Oxidation
• – No Protective Case included inside the Box
• – The FM Radio that was found on previous AP80 models is missing