Pocket HiFi Hidizs AP100 player

Hidizs AP100 belongs to the class of compact Hi-Fi players for connoisseurs of high-quality portable sound. The AP100 occupies an intermediate version between compact and large-sized Hi-End players. About AP100, we can say that this is a reasonable middle ground among Hi-Fi class players.

Appearance

Player dimensions are comparable to the popular FiiO X3, iBasso DX50 and Astel & Kern AK100. The design is strict and concise. The player is presented in two colors: black and silver.
')


On the front panel are the main buttons:

• Fast forward and rewind
• Switch track forward and backward
• Confirm and Cancel Button
• Volume buttons

All buttons are logical and do not cause confusion.

On the top panel of the player there are two jacks, a headphone output and a line-out. Line output is useful when connecting an external more powerful or high-quality amplifier (portable or stationary).

On the bottom panel there is a USB input for charging and connecting to a computer, a slot for external memory and an electrical digital input and output. When using the digital output, the AP100 can be used as a transport for an external stationary DAC.

The digital input can be used with a computer by connecting the player digitally to the coaxial output of the built-in sound.



On the left sidebar there are buttons for controlling the equalizer and the SRC algorithm.



On the right panel is a slider key lock mode switch.

Equipment

The AP100 comes in two boxes - in the first player with basic equipment, in the second box is a leather case.



General equipment looks like this:

• player Hidisz AP100
• 3.5mm analog cable <=> 3.5mm
• 3.5 mm digital <=> RCA (coax)
• USB cable <=> micro USB
• protective film
• napkin for the screen
• documentation

The only thing you can buy for the AP100 is a flexible adapter with 3.5 mm <=> 6.5 mm if headphones with a 6.5 mm plug are used. It is better not to use short rigid adapters, since they usually break the nest of the player.

Control

The player control is intuitive. At first, the location of the “EQ” and “SRC” buttons is a bit confusing, since in their place is more logical to control the volume. But the fingers very quickly remember what the buttons are responsible for. In comparison with other players from the "heaven", the AP100 control logic at a high intuitive level.



Separately, I want to note that the manufacturer did not chase the minimum number of buttons. Many were faced with the fact that the buttons to switch tracks are often used as a rewind on the track and sometimes, instead of rewinding, the track switches. In the AP100, these are separate buttons, which makes life easier for the end user.

To save energy, the player stops playback when the headphone plug is unplugged from the jack.

Although the menu does not have Russian language support at the moment, everything is so standard that there are no inconveniences.

The player supports most Lossless formats: APE, FLAC, WAV, WMA and ALAC. A special plus, there is support for Cue index markup for albums represented by a single file.

Filling

Filling the player largely echoes the more expensive player Colorfly C4 Pro. In fact, in terms of functions and capabilities, the AP100 is an inexpensive equivalent of the well-known C4 Pro, an HI-End level player recognized by demanding audiophiles all over the world as one of the best portable audio sources.

The AP100 uses the CS4398 DAC as the Cirrus Logic flagship chip. This DAC is widespread in studio DACs such as ProTools, LynxStudio, etc. This DAC is known to ordinary users in the E-MU series of professional sound interfaces “m” (Mastering). In other words, this DAC is included in the category of "best DACs" to date. Do not forget, the final sound quality largely depends on the implementation of the component chain: “Power - DAC - Amplifier” in a particular device. In tying the DAC uses high-quality op amp AD823A. To ensure the minimum jitter, two separate quartz oscillators are used, multiples of the frequencies 44.1 and 48 kHz.

CS8422 is used as an alternative digital filter (SRC). A similar solution can be seen in the top-end player Colorfly C4 Pro and studio DAC-a Violectric V800. When using an external digital filter in many cases, you can squeeze a higher sound quality from the applied DAC. But there are many nuances about which we will release a separate material on the example of the AP100 and V800. Briefly from a consumer point of view, then:

• With highly compressed music material SRC is better not to include
• When recording with a high dynamic range, SRC mode must be selected by ear.

Quite a lot of attention is paid by the manufacturer to the presence of a hardware equalizer implemented through the CS48L10 DSP. This implementation, unlike the software settings like most other players - allows you to customize the sound without compromising the sound quality. With an entry-level headphone, the equalizer is definitely useful.

When using high-quality headphones, the equalizer is superfluous. This is the very first rule of the “club of high-quality sound lovers”. Most importantly, turn off the equalizer in the AP100 (Gen setting).

Sound

The player has already been compared in various publications, where the authors unanimously agreed that the player has a sound quality that corresponds to its price categories and at the same time has a high price / quality ratio.

We will not repeat and will conduct an extended comparison with top-class models (Our Lifehack is for the budget conscious!).

The crisis in Russia and the rise in prices for players makes us think about the advisability of buying players of a higher price segment. Given the fact that the AP100 has a digital and analog line-out, the purchase of the “top player” can be divided into two parts.

The first purchase is the AP100. After, after a couple of months, you can buy an external amplifier (which is now in abundance on the market). From the AP100 with an external amplifier, you get a so-called “sandwich”.


“Sandwich” from AP100 and Creative E5 in comparison with Colorfly C4 Pro.

Such bundles are very popular in China and Japan.

The dimensions of the player largely determine the sound quality, because quality element base is not miniature. The exception can be seen on the example of Astel & Kern premium players, but there the cost of the product is about 2-4 times higher than that of a player with the same sound and larger dimensions. The “sandwich” may be great, but the savings can be very substantial.



To assess the viability of the “sandwich” idea, we compared the AP100 with an external amplifier against two expensive top-level players, the Colorfly C4 Pro (on the CS4398 D / A) and HiFiMan HM901 with a balanced amplifier. Additionally, the professional interface E-MU1616m was used (on the same CS4398 DAC as the AP100).

Erzetich Bocillus was chosen as the amplifier, which was made an analog of the portable amplifier of the highest possible class. Those. if such a bundle sounds better than top players, it means you can move in the direction of sandwiches.

Hidizs AP100 + Erzetich Bocillus vs Colorfly C4 Pro vs E-MU 1616m + Erzetich Bacillus

From the headphones connected Grado SR325i , Denon D5000, Sennheiser ie 8i and M-Audio IE 40.

Comparison of linear outputs only

The sound of the AP100 line-out on the tonal balance turned out to be closer to the professional interface of the E-MU1616m than to the C4 Pro player. The C4 Pro is characterized by brighter high frequencies.

If to compare with HiFiMan HM901, then the sound of the player on the Saber ES9018 differs more than the AP100 , C4 Pro and E-MU1616m among themselves.

This allows us to conclude that the implementation of CS4398 in AP100 is done at the proper level.

Hidizs AP100 + Erzetich Bacillus vs. Colorfly C4 Pro Comparison

Without an external amplifier, the AP100 is certainly inferior to the C4 Pro, but the situation changes radically when Erzetich Bacillus is connected to the AP100. This means that the “sandwich” option is fully justified and it is quite realistic to reach the level of top players in two stages. It is possible that it is more convenient when selecting individual amplifiers for different headphones.



The volume of the amplifier output from the AP100 coincides with the volume of the Colorfly C4 Pro from the output of 6.3 mm. The AP100 can shake not only the in-ear headphones, but also many full-size models.

Unlike the C4 Pro, the AP100 has no bass attenuation when connecting low-impedance headphones.

What headphones can I recommend for the AP100 when using the built-in amplifier?

If you count on the built-in headphone amplifier, then the sound is universal and the player is equally suitable for headphones with bright and dark sound. It is not possible to single out any headphones alone. Due to the low output impedance, reinforcement and hybrid models of headphones sound the way the manufacturer intended.

Technical measurements

Technical measurements of the Hidizs AP 100 player were carried out by the Reference Audio Analyzer project.



According to the measurement results, the AP100 frequency response has no deviations (with the GEN preset), and the player’s resistance is close to zero. Due to the low output impedance, almost all headphones, when connected to the player, will not change their sound when matching impedances.



When testing for resistive loads, one can see a slightly higher level of distortion for a low-impedance load, but when the maximum value of klippig is reached, there is none of the resistances. This means that the AP100 has no current limit and you can expect a reasonably clear sound with any headphones at any possible volume.



The spectrum shows low harmonic distortion. Technically, the potential of CS4398 is well disclosed.



On the spectrum of jitter test, we see the complete absence of side lobes. This indicates the absence of any jitter.

Hidizs AP 100 Line Output Detailed Report
Hidizs AP 100 Detailed Headphone Output Report

Results

The player can be called twice successful. This is a 100% HI-FI level. The player has a high price / quality ratio in its price range and provides excellent sound quality. The player can shake not only in-ear headphones, but also most low-impedance full-size models. With the AP100, you can make a “sandwich” with a better amplifier and raise the bar to the top-level player.

The author Kuznetsov Roman romanrex