Dongle DACs - Hidizs s30 and E1DA 9038 Gen 1

Before I got my Hidzs DAP (see here for my usage review of their AP80 Pro X) I used dongle DACs attached to my Android smartphone to listen to music from streaming platforms like Spotify (RM15 per month for subscription).

The one on the left is the new Hidizs S30 Pro DAC which has a 3.5mm single ended connection for headphones and IEMs. On the right is a 2+ year old EIDA DAC which has a 2.5mm balanced connection for headphones or IEMs with balanced termination.

Despite its small size, the S30 Pro has a lot of features, Eg MQA compatibility. If you are a Tidal Masters subscriber you can listen to tracks that are of higher quality than say Spotify's 320 kbs quality. But to my 60+ year old ears I probably cannot hear anything above 10 k In fact, I cannot hear any difference between lossy 320 kbs tracks and MQA tracks.

The E1DA DAC Gen 2 is an early version that only has a balanced 2.5mm jack for use with balanced IEMs or headphones. Later models sported a 3.5mm single ended jack for use with most IEMS and headphones.

But in its 2.5mm balanced configuration, the tiny DAC is surprisingly able to drive planar headphones from Audeze to very high volumes with low distortion. I have tested it with Oppo 2 planar magnetic headphones and Audeze LCD 2 planar headphones playing loud rock tracks without any problems. I think that's the advantage it has over the S30 Pro which is for mainly low power IEMs and low impedance headphones.