Introduction –

The dedicated DAP, or digital audio player market has always been one of confliction between smart features and the pure audio experience. And one could argue that, with the mass genocide of the 3.5mm headphone jack, dedicated DAPs are now more relevant than ever. But in the more affordable market, hyper-portable DAPs such as Sony’s Walkmans and Apple’s iPods have always held an important role as secondary or backup devices to be used during activity, driving or general commute.

In that sense, I really enjoy my iPod Nano; it’s small, lightweight, has a fast GUI and sounds fine enough when out and about. However, iPods also come with a steep entrance price, the 7th generation model costing over $200 AUD. Combine the high price with limited file support and a reliance on proprietary software and it becomes easier to see why cheaper players from Fiio, Hidizs and Shanling are so appealing. And that’s just what we’ll be looking at today; the Hidizs AP60 is an incredibly compact and feature-rich player with a meagre asking price of just $90 USD. With the vast majority of these Chinese DAPs being significantly impaired by an average interface and plagued with software bugs, let’s see if the AP60 can best other portable budget players such as Apple’s iPod Nano and the similarly priced Fiio M3.

 

Disclaimer –

I would like to thank Nick from Hidizs for reaching out to me and providing me with the AP60 for the purpose of review. There is no monetary incentive for a positive review and despite receiving the product free of cost, I will attempt to be as objective as possible in my evaluation.

 

Unboxing –

The AP60 comes packaged within a nicely presenting box featuring renders up front and specs and features on the rear. A leather textured inlet snugly holds the player with the accessories in a separate compartment just below.

In addition to the player, Hidizs provide the buyer with a faux leather pouch that comfortable fits the player and a cable/earphone, micro usb data+power cable, a pair of earbuds and a screen protector.

The earbuds were quite unremarkable to my ears with quite a dark sound and minimal low-end though I see them as more of an extra inclusion. Hidizs also include a few papers for warranty, service and some instruction.

Overall, a nice setup, perhaps Hidizs could include a TPU case instead of the earbuds, but it’s a surprisingly premium accessory suite.

 

Design –

This positive experience continues onto the player’s build and design. The AP60 immediately has one of the more catching designs amongst the compact budget players I’ve tested. Its sculpted bottom corner and gold headphone port are reminiscent of Sony’s flagship Walkman devices, making it the more sophisticated player compared to the Fiio M3. While the body is entirely plastic, the device feels quite solid without creeks or joining issue like the much pricier Sony NW-A25. The AP60 has a matte finish that feels a little nicer than satin Fiio M3, though the M3 feels a little denser, commanding a greater quality feel in the hand. The all-aluminium Nano feels more premium still and incredibly solid in the hand, though that device is also double the cost.

*Of note, the AP60 is available in a wide array of colours (black, gold, red, blue and pink) great for households with multiple AP60 users or simply a tinge of personalisation.

The AP60 is also a great size, compact and easily pocketable even within gym shorts; for reference, it’s the same size as the Fiio M3 and iPod Nano but thicker than both in terms of depth (and about 2.5x thicker than the Nano and just slightly thicker than the M3). Despite being a bit chunky, the AP60 is very lightweight and was no more cumbersome than my Nano during running and other physical activities.

From the front, the AP60 and M3 both employ the same 2” screen size with the same 320×240 resolution and similarly cramped front-facing controls. The display on the AP60 is of pleasing quality with enough brightness to be visible outdoors and adequate saturation and contrast. It’s a bit cooler than the displays on the M3 and Nano, but provides better sunlight legibility closer to the Nano than the dimmer Fiio player. While the capacitive buttons on the AP60 do look more integrated into the front face than the physical controls on the M3, they have no feedback and were quite inaccurate. The d-pad and centre button were generally responsive though the touch sensor for the back and menu buttons seemed to be slightly above the printed icons, leading me to frequently press the forward and backwards buttons instead. Since the player has no fast-forward function, I found this to be quite aggravating in daily use, something I didn’t experience with the M3 nor the even more intuitive touch-based Nano. The buttons are backlit with brightness changing with screen brightness, they illuminate when the device is powered on and turn off when the player is put into sleep. When the screen is off, the touch buttons become unresponsive to prevent accidental presses. This does make pocket usage difficult though Hidizs do allow users to remap the volume buttons for convenience (more detail in usability section).

Onto the physical features, the left side houses the hardware buttons within a slightly recessed facet. Placement is thoughtful and the two volume buttons are well delineated through sculpting that puts the volume up button higher and the volume down button a little lower.

The bottom of the player houses the 3.5mm headphone jack in addition to the micro-usb port. On the bottom right, the AP60 as a micro sd card slot, which comfortably read my 128GB card formatted via EXFAT.
Usage –

My past experiences with Hidizs were with their first player, the AP100. While it was a nice sounding player, the user interface was sub-par at best. So it was great to see that the AP60 came with a completely refreshed and redesigned interface that actually proved to be one of the more intuitive I’ve come across. I should note that Hidizs did receive some software complaints during early versions however, my player came pre-loaded with a much later firmware (v1.01) that was stable with all features fully-functional.

The AP60 is easily navigated via the front facing 4-way d-pad in addition to a menu and back button. Due to the similar control scheme, the AP60’s interface naturally functions quite similar to that on the M3 though it is immediately the more feature rich experience. The GUI is aesthetically pleasing with clear labels under every icon and well-judged font size, whereas the M3 had only icons that look clean but aren’t as immediately intuitive.

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From the main menu screen, Hidizs present the user with 4 basic menus; a folder based music browser, a category music based browser, music settings and general settings menus. Within the settings menu, the user can change various options such as language, screen brightness, Bluetooth and sleep timer. There is also a handy option to remap the volume button to skip tracks only when the screen is off (still changes volume when screen is on), which is a great way to maintain pocket usability with those capacitive buttons. There are also some basic settings to format the inserted sd card, check available storage and update firmware.

The music settings are probably more pertinent to this review. At the very top is a music scan feature allowing users to rescan their music library in case of missing albums. The AP60 also has a low/high gain switch and DSD output options.

Beneath is a basic 10-band equalizer with 6dB of adjustment in either direction. It’s not a hardware based eQ like that on the Fiio X3 and E17K, but it is at least as effective as those included on iPods and Fiio’s M3 with several presets and 1 custom eQ profile. The AP60 supports gapless play and breakpoint resume which I found to work well.

All of these menus are outfit with a dark grey/orange colour scheme that is well presenting and was without any visual glitches or misplaced elements during my month of testing. Though the UI does lack the fluidity and animations present in Sony’s Walkman players and Apple’s iPods, navigation was quick and zippy with minimal loading even when loaded with a 128gb card full of songs. I experience no significant lag, stuttering or freezes even with some of the more bizarre file types out there. While some users have complained that it can be quite difficult to return to the now-playing screen, a long-press of the back button briskly brings the player back to its home screen with another press bringing the user to the now-playing screen (so you don’t have to individually press the back button to cycle through each screen).

Transferring music to the device was just as easy as with any other player, mounting on Windows like a flash drive enabling basic drag and drop. Unfortunately, the player has no internal storage like the M3, but the option of micro SD expansion allows for far greater flexibility than the fixed 16GB of storage found on the iPod Nano; which for many will vastly limit its usage, especially with lossless files. Within the settings menu, Hidizs enable the user to decide between mass storage and USB DAC mode though USB DAC mode does require the installation of a driver, at least on my Windows 10 laptop. Being an unsigned driver, the installation process to get everything working was quite convoluted though Hidizs have a relatively straight forward video outlining the process (see video here).

Upon inserting a card or ejecting the device from your computer, the player immediately scans removable storage for new files and builds a library. It’s mildly frustrating that the device needs to fully rescan your entire library on every transfer, especially since the device is inoperable during scanning, though luckily the process is quite fast. With my 128GB Sandisk Ultra mounted on the device (loaded with 111GB of music), the player took just 2 minutes to build a full library. The player also supports USB OTG and USB output for use with an external DAC/AMP; the AP60 worked fine with my Oppo HA-2 and had no difficulty reading my 128GB Samsung flash drive using the appropriate adaptor.

Once loaded, the music library is easily navigated either via the basic inbuilt file manager that allows for folder by folder browsing or by a category based browser enabling users to navigate via artist, genre, album, favourites and playlist. File tags were accurately read in several languages and I didn’t experience any album segmentation that is quite common on iPods. The player only supports embedded album art, but will not display art over 1000×1000 pixels. I would like some sort of album art based browsing for my very multi-lingual music collection (the iPod Nano shows a small thumbnail next to each album for instance), but those who are attuned to a text-based browser will have no issue. The player also supports replay-gain like the Nano, a feature the Sony NW-A25 strangely omitted.

Hidizs claim 10-12 hours of usage from the players’ inbuilt 1000mah battery. Playing some pink noise through the player at 40/80 volume on low gain until the player reached critical battery gave a very pleasing result of 13:20. And though this figure was achieved with minimal screen on, the quoted 10-12 hours is easily attainable in normal usage. On the note of battery life, the player does pause music when headphones are removed.

A notable feature of the AP60 includes Bluetooth 4.0 with apt-x support, something that the M3 lacks entirely. This makes the AP60 one of the most cost-effective options for buyers looking for a Bluetooth enabled player with only the considerably more expensive Shanling M1, iPod Nano and NW-A25/35 supporting this feature. Apt-x is also a really great addition that enables lower latency transmission and higher quality audio so long as your headphones/speakers support it. In usage, pairing was simple and reliable through the settings menu and connection was stable without interference through my Edifier S1000DB’s and Archeer AH07’s. Range was also above average, easily superior to my Laptop and more reliable than my iPod Nano whose small antenna cutout is easily blocked.

On a side note, the player does not accept commands through wired or BT remotes like the M3 and Nano, a feature that I really appreciate during runs, it would be good to see remote support in future products.

 

Sound –

The AP60 is internally identical to the Shanling M1 (though I can’t personally vouch for any similarities in their sound) promising high-fidelity audio through the adoption of imported Japanese components and the implementation of the AK4452VN DAC and MAX97220A Amp chip. The player support files up to 192kHz at 24bits in a plethora of codecs: FLAC, APE, WMA, WAV, ALAC, AAC, OGG, MP3, AIFF, DSF, DIFF, very diverse given the cost of the device. It also has a very low quoted output impedance of 0.1 ohms, theoretically making it perfect for sensitive, multi-armature iems.

In real world usage, the player isn’t quite so flawless. Users of higher quality sources will notice a prevalent hiss and some issues with sub-bass extension though the player does compare well to similarly priced sources in both regards. The overall tonality of the AP60 is what I would describe as balanced but slightly full-bodied. It is one of the more neutral budget players I have heard, sitting in-between the warmer Fiio M3 and brighter iPod Nano 7G. This makes it the most natural sounding player of the bunch, especially noticeable with transparent iems such as the Hifiman RE-600. I can also confirm that the player has a low output impedance, sounding tonally similar to my Oppo HA-2 when paired with hybrid/multi-driver earphones. Listening through the very source sensitive Sony XBA-40’s (8-ohm impedance, 4BA with no electronic crossover), my HTC 10 tended to roll off the extremities of the sound and lean out the bass response while the AP60, Oppo HA-2 and iPod Nano all provided a fuller low-end and more even midrange and treble responses.

In my experiences and, as previously stated in a few of my other source reviews, I delineate great sources from good sources through their presentation of space. The AP60 definitely falls into the good category with both a nice sense of space and accurate if not pinpoint imaging. Starting with some more conventional comparison, I utilised the newly enabled USB-DAC feature to play some lossless files in Foobar through the AP60 and compare with the integrated Realtek sound card. Immediately, the AP60 was miles ahead, the vast majority of Windows laptops just don’t sound good even through sensitive earphones and portable headphones. The AP60 sounded far more dynamic and vastly more separated, making my laptop sound quite muddy by comparison. High-end details, in particular, were much better illuminated by the AP60 and general resolution was increased throughout the frequency range. Sub-bass roll-off and hiss were also experienced to a lesser extent than on my laptop’s stock setup. In addition, the AP60 was clearly superior sounding to the more sonically mediocre phones I had on hand at the time of review, the Nexus 5X and 6P. The 6P was immediately quite noisy and a little more compressed while the 5X sounded clean but with slight compression and notably lower driving power.

On the flipside, my more proficient sources had no difficulty edging out the AP60 in overall performance. My HTC 10 for instance, was more spacious with similar imaging performance and a more dynamic sound overall while my Oppo HA-2 expanded the soundstage even further in addition to adding more hyper-realistic instrument placement. My Sennheiser ie800’s did most notably pick up the sub-bass roll-off and though I didn’t find it to be immediately noticeable, the lack of thump was apparent in stark comparison to these higher-priced sources. Sub-bass still has plenty of rumble and definition and most buyers interested in a compact $90 player probably won’t have gear capable of clearly resolving these shortcomings. That being said, and when not using a source sensitive earphone, my HTC 10 did produce better sub-bass extension with noticeably more slam and rumble in addition to a generally smoother sound. By comparison, the AP60 sounded a little more aggressive, especially in the high-end, but avoided sounding granular throughout its midrange, something that the brighter Nano is particularly susceptible to. The 10 also had a little more resolution and texture though the AP60 is still very good in this regard.

Finally, moving along to more even comparison, I found the AP60 to be very competitive with the other hyper-portable sources I had on hand. The iPod Nano 7G, in particular, is one of the most popular in its class, providing a very clean sound, but also one that is overall inferior to the AP60. Listening to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” though the Fiio EX1 Gen2 revealed slightly more soundstage space on the AP60 in addition to more accurate placement, especially noticeable during the song’s intro. The AP60 was also the more realistic sounding player when compared to the slightly warmer and less transparent M3. The AP60 was perceptibly more separated and detailed than the Nano throughout its midrange, especially upper midrange and treble. Micro-details were more noticeable on the AP60 and details were generally clearer with improved resolution, no doubt helped by its superior sound-staging performance.  I also found the AP60 to sound more composed than the Nano, which tends to falter with more complex passages.

The actual output power of the player is also quite impressive for its size and price, with enough volume in high-gain to amply drive my 150ohm Sennheiser HD700’s (though loss of dynamics and space were clearly evident). It provided a considerably higher maximum volume than my Nano and subjectively more current in addition to a cleaner output than the Fiio M3. The AP60 is best suited towards portable headphones and less sensitive iems due to an ever-present background hiss though it is of the less obtrusive kind. In high-gain, hiss does slightly increase but I experience no coil whine or other interference when charging or listening with Bluetooth-enabled (as experienced with the Sony NW-A25). The Nano does have the upper hand here with an essentially silent background though this does come at the cost of driving power and the M3 is similarly noisy if not slightly worse.

Of course, these widely varied comparisons simply provide some perspective of the AP60’s performance and, once again, I found it to be one of the better performers amongst similarly priced gear. So while dedicated sources and audio-focussed smartphones will best the AP60, the average smartphone or iPod user will likely find more quality in the AP60’s sound than their current source.

 

Verdict –

Despite having the makings of a great device, the AP60 didn’t have the greatest reception with many mixed reviews and opinions. But later into its life, and with numerous vital firmware updates, the AP60 has finally realised its potential as a stable, zippy and balanced sounding hyper-portable player. The design is pragmatic with hints of flare and customizability and the build quality is nice for the asking price. The physical controls and software are well thought out and I know many users will appreciate the player’s wide file and apt-x BT support. Of course, the AP60 is not without its shortcomings, but I would argue that the extent of the problems should dictate any rejection of purchase rather than the sheer number of issues and the AP60 is afflicted with mainly minor quibbles.

Off the bat, the capacitive controls do need some work and I would appreciate a slightly slimmer design closer to that of the M3, in addition to support for remote commands. Sonically, the sub-bass roll-off and background hiss are both noticeable but certainly no worse than the average budget player or smartphone. I do feel that the majority of complaints have been overstated and most would be unlikely to detect the roll-off if not for preliminary reports from experienced listeners. Otherwise, the AP60 is sonically competitive with the best budget players and is easily the most feature-rich within its price class. In my usage, the AP60 has provided a user experience that is just as pleasing as that of the M3 and just slightly behind the more expensive iPod Nano while retaining significantly more convenience and flexibility.

Verdict – 8/10, The AP60 isn’t the perfect budget player, but it does balance its compromises with incredibly useful features such as Bluetooth support, OTG and Host mode. I’m almost inclined to say that the player is at its best when paired with an external DAC/AMP through OTG or Bluetooth headphone, both of which negate its sonic shortcomings, making the AP60 a great flexible, inexpensive GUI for your favourite gear. The addition of expandable storage, wide file support and simple drag/drop file transfers does make it the endlessly more liveable device when compared to the iPod Nano, though I can still see the benefits of the iPod’s interface and slimmer profile. It is also a great alternative to the Fiio M3 for those in need of the extra features and a more capable interface. Ultimately, the AP60 provides a great feature set augmented by a pleasing software and audio experience.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this review, please have a look at my website for more just like it:

https://everydaylisteningblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/hidizs-ap60-review-feature-rich-hyper-portable/​

Hidizs AP60 DAP

SOUND AND BUILD QUALITY

7.5/10​

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SPECIFICATIONS/FEATURES

7.4/10​

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VALUE FOR MONEY

8.5/10​

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Thanks go to http://earphonia.com who kindly lent me the AP60 for review
 
We are in the budget end of the Digital Audio Player market. They don’t get much cheaper than the Hidizs AP60, at the bargain price of $89 and less through various aliexpress.com outlets.
The AP60 sports an awful lot for your money – 24 192, DSD 64 and 128  playback , Aptx bluetooth , 5 stunning finishes, an entry level earphone, a leather carry bag, a decent DAC chip, low and high gain, USB DAC functionality, USB OTG functionality, digital out functionality, 10-12 hours of battery life.

All wrapped up in a 50g package the size of a matchbox. But before you abandon these pages and head for the nearest outlet I must encourage you to read further and together let us judge whether this is a product worthy of our hard earned cash.

Specifications are always worth research, for instance, if you have a huge collection of hi res DSD playback it might be useful to know an Altmann Tera Plus DAP plays only WAV files.

For less money the Audio Opus#2  will play back anything you throw at it, we shall explore the features of the Hidizs AP60 with our own purchased model.

Let us delve into the AP60 and investigate whether this  diminutive DAP warrants your further attention.

The package

The glossy box the AP60 arrives in belies it’s price and puts many far more expensive products to shame. The front an attractive full scale picture of the DAP, the rear of the box gives plenty of insight into the attributes of the player.

Lifting the lid off reveals an exquisitely finished hard felt case holding the DAP securely in place. A black cardboard box takes up the rest of the space.



There is a hollow space underneath the front half of the felt and that contains warranty card, health and safety advice, screen protectors and a user manual.



Opening up the cardboard box and a lovely looking leather bag is crammed inside. drivers.



I was surprised to find within a set of earbuds, solidly built, with large coin shaped shells.



The Easy Earphones website describes the buds as being custom made for the AP60. The earbuds were packed away for thorough testing later.

Please note; the Hidizs has no internal storage. It needs a micro SD card. It can handle all sizes up to 200 Gb. No micro SD card is supplied so factor this into your purchase. It’s possible you will need to spend the same amount of money on a card if you want the top storage available out there. Of course Micro SD cards of a much smaller size can be found for $20 or less.
 

The DAP

The finish is of a high gloss resin. A variety of colours is on offer and we have the dark blue displayed here. The screen is 2” and displays the album art clearly enough.

The shape of the AP60 is not your standard small brick shape. Here again Hidizs has sculpted angles subtly into the form and we have some small cutaways around the sides and bottom of the device.

It is now time to switch on, plug in a decent set of IEMs and a decent sized micro SD card. We shall see whether this thing works and put it through it’s paces.

Operating the AP60

Switching on is the long press of a round button on the top left hand side of the player. A logo instantly appears and within seconds a simple looking menu appears. I had loaded a 64Gb micro SD card with 1 hi res album , Legend by Bob Marley, purchased through HDTracks. I was impressed at the scanning speed but this was for 1 album only. I put in another full 64Gb card and it too scanned that at a rate of knots.

The UI is no doubt contributing to this speed. It is very basic and is accessed by the buttons at the bottom of the AP60. The files all worked that I threw at the Hidizs. There is a low and high gain function, for the IEMs I put through them only low gain was needed. Equaliser functions are another option within the menu; so too are USB options that will have much interest in the audio community.

USB functions

The AK4452VN Dac chip has enough sophistication not only to handle hi res and DSD. It can be developed into an OTG and USB Dac to play from your laptop or smartphone. This aspect is colourfully claimed throughout the literature of the Hidizs AP60 and may already have prompted an impulse purchase by many. They will currently be disappointed. The firmware from the manufacturer is in it’s infancy. USB out did not work on my MacBook. USB OTG the same story. The menu functions have this function ready to roll. The USB device is recognised through iOS but no sound comes from the unit. This we are led to understand will come in future firmware upgrades. The 2nd USB element may be even more useful if the claims are true.

The company has told it’s followers the AP60 will be able to act as a digital out transport giving fans of the Chord Mojo and Hugo and many other excellent Dacamps the ability to strap up a tiny companion for hires on the move. If it worked this would make the HiDizs DAP the cheapest digital transport on the market. It does not currently work. As of early December 2016 we must exercise faith and patience that the technological capabilities of this little marvel can be fulfilled and this won’t become obsolete before it’s time. Believe, brothers!

Bluetooth

Currently the only means of seeing what the AP60 can do as an outboard device. The bluetooth works with the usual distance limitations and is surprisingly good quality with the Aptx on the Hidizs. Your smartphone with your Tidal or Deezer or Spotify is unlikely to outlast the excellent battery life of this little marvel whilst you are out and about. And it takes up no space in your pocket.
 

Sound quality

The chapter you should all have been waiting for, we have turned the DAP over, weighed it in our hands, plugged everything in and fired it up and shuffled through some of the more important menu options.

But what’s going on between our ears? I am aware of other reviews warning of a dip in the lower frequency range of the Hidizs AP60. I put on reggae. Legend by Bob Marley, in all the grittiness of the permanent Jamaican Summer. I am currently putting the Westone W60 IEMs through a review. They have 6 drivers in each shell. They are very special. The W60s give lots of bass weight  to what they are presented with.

There is no shyness with these IEMs. ‘No Woman No Cry’ live at the Marquee puts me right in the crowd. The impression is not of any failings in the DAP itself but more in the performance of the IEM.



As a vessel for it’s audio companions, the music and the earphones, the AP60 is doing a grand job. Stereo separation and depth are what they should be. I see not much to criticise here in the soundstakes but of course an A/B comparison is necessary to see what we might be missing.

I have a Colorfly C3 as a similarly priced product at hand I purchased a few years ago. It is a beautiful machined metal DAP and is almost as tiny in it’s square shape. But it won’t handle hi res so it fails straight away to hold with the competition. I have an Ibasso DX100 I can compare the sound with. Let’s see what the DAP that started this craze has to offer against it’s tiny cousin.

The DX100 has more refinement in the sound and reveals a slight strain to the sound of the AP60 and a trace of distortion in the treble region. There is an effortlessness to the signature of the DX100 that you would expect in a DAP that was Ibasso’s flagship when it was introduced and got every other manufacturer back to the drawing boards to see what they were capable of doing with a budget that size.

The signature of the AP60 you can expect is of a detailed reasonably extended range. Bass is there if you have topflight IEMs to bring this out. The bass may not have the linearity of a flagship DAP but there is plenty enough warmth there to keep you cosy.

The earphones

Given the overall cost of $89 how much must these earphones be worth? The stretching of the thin fabric covers over the sizeable drivers was a task. Care must be taken here. There is only 1 set so they cannot be split. The buds are worn down from the ear but don’t any huge microphonics. They don’t isolate particularly well. The cable is reasonable enough quality and the terminals are all finished adequately.

There is some reasonable presence in the mids although these are bass shy in my ears. The avoidance of harshness has been considered with these earbuds and they are well rolled off in the treble area. Soundstage is tight and squashed because we are mainly dealing with mids. There are no reasons at this stage to recommend selling your IEM and stay with the HidiZs. They are of the standard smartphone quality and you may feel they could stay in the box and perhaps the leather pouch could nestle your Hidizs DAP in relative luxury.

Conclusion

I was disappointed some of the claims; made by every website I went to that sold this device, for want of a better word were false. I hope this changes in the future but for $89 we must work with what we are given and look at it now. Firmware changes are commonplace and can transform what  a digital device can achieve. In this we have hope and the prospect of some pleasant surprises to come. For now I give you the AP60 as is; a tiny, light, fast, efficient, hi res capable DAP that can do bluetooth with a decent sound quality and an unreasonably elegant finish for one so cheap as this fellow.

There are many elements in the Audio Chain. My opinions as to what matter most are arguable. The hobby we have remains a contentious one from the outside. You have something you believe in but to a stranger ; well they wouldn’t understand. Those within the hobby have their own ideas as to what makes good music.

If everything is right we don’t have to worry, if there is a potential weakness in the chain could we get away with it?

Could a decent IEM overcome some, or all, of the shortcomings in a cheap digital player?

To answer this, let me tell you what I think is needed to make my music sound great.



The music is first, without that we are listening to hiss. No one likes hiss. Well recorded subjectively enjoyable music is a must.

The next is what happens between your ears, the setting, ambience, duration; all these things change.

The constant is the headphones, they come after the music. I think they are the next in the chain. A poor set of IEMs will sound poor whatever you plug them into.

But a world class IEM will shine in pretty much anything. Provided we have something which can store what we want to listen to and play it at a volume reasonably loud enough for every setting do we tick the boxes?

In this aspect the Hidizs AP60 cannot be dismissed as an alternative to getting some decent sound quality, in fact a league up from your smartphone. It does what it says on the back of the matchbox. A fraction of the size. A fraction of the price.
 
 

Important Amendment ​

The Hidizs is now outputting digitally to a dacamp. Firmware 1.01 has finally made this DAP into all it could be. We now have USB DAC functionality and digital out functionality. What was promised has been delivered. All of you headfiers running your AP60 with out of date firmware get onto the Net now! Thanks go out to @kreangsakkan and @Jerome Dussart 

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Preamble:

Hidizs Technology (http://www.hidizs.com/) is a Chinese audio manufacturer (mainly digital audio players) that established in early 2014 and is based in Dongguan, China. In the past year, they have expanded their market to other Asian, European and American countries.
And as the market for digital audio players evolves, Hidizs has just introduced an inexpensive audio player with a touch button control interface that doesn’t only cost just $89.00 (http://penonaudio.com/Hidizs-AP60), but also promises to be packed full of features such as an AKM DAC chip, DSD playback capability, a really low output impedance, Bluetooth with aptX, two gain modes, a micro SD slot and probably even the ability to connect an external DAC to the USB socket.

Does this sound too good to be true or odes the AP60 indeed offer all of these features? In the course of this review, I hope to find everything out.


Before I continue, I want to take the time to personally and heartily thank Penon Audio for sending me a sample of the Hidizs AP60 free of charge for the purpose of an honest, unbiased review. As always, I am not affiliated with Penon or Hidizs and this review contains nothing but my honest opinion.


Technical Specifications:

Price: $89.00 (http://penonaudio.com/Hidizs-AP60)
Colours: 5 (black, red, pink, yellow, blue)

(Image source specs: https://www.facebook.com/hidizs/photos/pcb.642292095948977/642290442615809/?type=3&theater)


Delivery Content:

Despite its reasonable price tag, the AP60 arrives in a nicely designed cardboard box that contains the player with already installed screen protector. Also, one will find some paper stuff, a spare screen protector, a charging cable and even some earbuds plus foam covers and a small carrying pouch.
That is pretty nice for a sub $100 audio player.
 

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Looks, Feels, Build Quality:

The player looks quite good and the screen, while not having the best viewing angle, has got a good pixel density.
On the bottom, there are a 3.5 mm headphone output and a micro USB charging and DAC port (the AP60 is supposed to output and receive digital signals through this port).
On the right hand side, there is a micro SD card slot (the AP60 by the way doesn’t have any problems reading 200 GB exFAT-formatted cards and the reading speed is really good, too).
On the left side, there are the volume buttons as well as the power on/off button.
The front also contains 7 illuminated touch-sensor buttons (up/down/left/right/select/quick settings/back).
 

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The build quality appears solid, though the player feels a little plasticky.


Operation, User Interface:

Firmware Version 0.03beta:

The player has got a rather basic but intuitive interface with a file browser, media database (that doesn’t support the “Album Artist” tag, but only very few players do), music settings and general settings. Strangely though, operation is mainly done with the up/down buttons and also fast-forwarding/rewinding only works with them which is a little illogical (resolved with 0.05beta).
 

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In the settings, there are a few nice options not to be expected for a player at this price, such as a pretty nice and adjustable equalizer.
 

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The playing screen displays the album cover art with the track info being shown below, along with a track counter and a progress bar. Unfortunately, the album cover is not fully show but scaled to cover the entire screen.
In the status bar, information about the battery status, the menu one is currently in and the playback information are shown, with the volume info (120 steps in total) being right next to them.
An overlaid quick settings ring can be opened by pressing the “menu” button on the playing screen.
 

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I got used to the navigation quite quickly, however the navigation by using the up/down buttons is not the most logical one (resolved with 0.05beta). However, I really have to say that I am not a fan of the touch-button d-pad of the AP60 as it is not the most precise one and it happens rather often that I tap the wrong button, especially on the go. Also, there is a software bug that all of the buttons freeze when the “volume down” button is held down when the screen is black (only a reboot makes the buttons accessible again – resolved with 0.04beta).
Besides that though, the user interface is responsive and also gapless playback with FLAC files works perfectly.

The UI design and structure is good, the operation however isn’t (you really get used to it over time but the touch button control just isn’t as precise – at least for me).

Firmware Version 0.04beta:

The battery indicator was visually updated. An optional power-saving mode (deep sleep standby) was also introduced, but the DAC feature didn’t work yet. However, the bug that caused the buttons to freeze when the screen is off and the volume buttons are pressed for a longer lime has been fortunately resolved.

Firmware Version 0.05beta:

The D-Pad became fully usable in the main menu (the left and right buttons became functional) and on the playing screen, the left and right buttons finally also became usable as skip buttons. These are logical improvements and I have now nothing to criticise about the firmware and menu navigation anymore.
In addition, the USB DAC input was enabled (along with Windows drivers), so the AP60 could finally be used as USB DAC on Windows computers and Android tablets. However, the USB DAC output still remained deactivated and trying to connect an external DAC such as the Chord Mojo to the AP60 didn’t lead to any success yet.
Another change was that the amount of volume steps was reduced from 120 to 80. While the volume control still remained fine-grained, I however preferred the prior 120 steps and hope that Hidizs goes back to the more fine-grained 120 steps again with the next firmware.

Firmware Version 0.06beta:

I assume that this was a stability update as I couldn’t detect any difference to the previous firmware.

Firmware Version 1.01beta:
 
Apart from that Hidizs is still calling each firmware release "beta" since the very first day, 1.01 finally gave us what was promised long ago: the USB DAC out feature was finally working! Connecting my Chord Mojo to the AP60 works just fine without any problems now. This makes the AP60 the cheapest USB transport available to my knowledge (not counting some low budget Android smartphones).
DSD128 playback was enabled as well, according to the change log.


Battery Life:

To test the battery life, I connected the inexpensive Superlux HD668B, set the volume to 60 (low gain) and played a 44.1 kHz/16 Bit FLAC file in repeat. From time to time, I unlocked the screen and navigated through the menus.
Under these circumstances, the player was able to reach a battery life of around 11 hours.


Sound:

The in-ears I used were my Shure SE846, Ultimate Ears Triple.Fi 10, Sennheiser IE 800, Etymotic ER-4S and the Ostry KC06A.

Frequency Response, Output Impedance:

Giving the AP60 an easy load, this is its frequency response output:


 

As one can see, there is a roll-off in the lower frequencies that can also be heard when listening to low-extending in-ears that one knows well. This is rather sad because this roll-off doesn’t seem to be load-related as it remains identical even with a higher-impedance in-ear or headphone.

The output impedance is stated to be 0.1 Ohms, so let’s see how the AP60 behaves with a very critical multi-driver in-ear like the Ultimate Ears Triple.Fi 10:


 

Calculated output impedance seems to be rather at ≤ 1.5 Ohms, which is higher than stated but still good though.

Hiss:

The Hidizs AP60 has got a pretty weak headphone output that is clearly better suited for in-ears and low-level listeners, nonetheless (regardless of gain setting in the menu) if you are sensitive to hiss yourself, it puts out a quite high amount of hiss into super sensitive in-ears like the Shure SE846 or Ostry KC06A and also some into less sensitive in-ears (it is still slightly audible with my Sennheiser IE 800).
I can understand if some really powerful audio players have some (high) amount of hiss, however it is a little surprising for a quite weak audio player.

Transparency, Precision, Soundstage:

Now to the very subjective part of my review. My opinion and experience regarding the sound signature of source devices and amplifiers goes like this: there is an existing audible difference between various devices, but it shouldn’t be overrated – simply because the basic character of a headphone won’t be completely changed (if the circuit follows a clean design philosophy), but sometimes rather “shaped” a little and is extremely subtle in many cases and is (in most cases) just slightly present (if even) and not huge like totally different classes.
So let’s continue with my subjective impressions and observations:

Due to the hiss and its noise floor modulation, the player sounds a little warm.
The soundstage appears normal with normal separation and the bass is fast and not soft. However, the treble appears to lack some definition and just seems to be there, but without the last bit of refinement.

What is quite nice though is that the volume control is quite fine-grained (120 steps, later only 80) and that it is also possible to listen very quietly with the player.

I would say the sound is okay, however the hiss should be lower for the power the player puts out and the treble could also be a bit more differentiated. Also, the roll-off in the lows that can be noticed with low extending music and in-ears if you know the headphones well shouldn’t be there either.
Except for the fine-grained volume control, I don’t really see an advantage over an average, rather low-impedance, inexpensive smartphone on the sound side.

Bluetooth, USB-DAC:

Turning on the Bluetooth, it worked extremely well using the MEE audio Air-Fi Matrix² and Mass Fidelity Relay. As the MEE and Mass Fidelity support aptX streaming, just like the Hidizs, the signal was transparent, clear and clean and noticeably better than from some non-aptX sources (my laptop for example) and a little better than with the AGPTek C05 that does not support aptX but already streams a very clean signal already without the aptX-technology (such as the AP60 and the BlackBerry Q10).

The AP60 is said to be working as digital source to feed an external USB DAC, however even with the “0.05beta” firmware, I couldn’t get it to work with my Chord Mojo or Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII and other DACs (Shozy Lancea, StarTech.com interface).

It finally happened with firmware "1.01beta" - the AP60's long promised USB DAC output feature was enabled. Connecting my Chord Electronics Mojo to the AP60 works flawlessly now, making the AP60 an inexpensive and small USB transport device.

With the “0.03beta” firmware, it wasn’t detected as a DAC either (the AP60 showed “DAC” on its screen but didn’t play any sound) (Windows 7 laptop, Nexus 7 (2^nd generation) tablet). I assume that the DAC input and output first need to be activated with a future firmware release, however what was quite nice is that the sampling rate and bit depth are displayed on its screen, along with the set volume.
After the release of the “0.05beta” firmware, the AP60 became usable as a portable USB DAC with many portable Android devices (such as my Asus Google Nexus 7 2^nd generation) and also with Windows computers (after manually installing the drivers that came in the folder with the software update). The connection stability is really good and what I really love is that the AP60’s screen will display information such as bit depth, sampling rate and the volume setting.

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Comparisons:
 

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SanDisk Sansa Clip Plus (RockBox Firmware installed):
With RockBox, the Sansa has got the superior navigation and user interface, however the Hidizs is not too far off. The navigation and operation is quite a bit better with the Sansa’s physical buttons though.
Regarding features, the Hidizs has got the advantage of having a DAC in- and output (that is not activated with the initial 0.03beta firmware though) and Bluetooth with aptX whereas the Sansa has got an FM radio and microphone for voice recordings, along with additional built-in memory.
The Hidizs has got the audibly higher amount of hiss while both players have got a fine-grained volume control (120/80 vs. 87 steps) and it is possible with both players to listen very quietly.
The Sansa has got the even lower output impedance but both are good in this regard. The Clip Plus has got no roll-off in the low bass.
Volume-matched and using highly resolving in-ears like the SE846, the AP60 has got the tighter bass whereas the Sansa’s appears somewhat mushy, soft and unrefined in direct comparison. The Sansa sounds also a little darker in comparison. In the treble though, the Sansa appears to be more refined and better differentiated player although there are also some that are somewhat better.
Regarding soundstage, I wouldn’t be able to tell both apart.

AGPTek C05:
Both have got a somewhat quirky operation and navigation (resolved with 0.05beta), however the C05 is better to navigate due to its hardware buttons. Regarding software/database, the AP60 is superior as it sorts folders in the correct alphabetical order whereas the AGPTek sorts them in the order they were copied onto the device.
The AP60 has got a DAC in- and output (that is not activated yet with the 0.03beta firmware though) whereas the AGPtek has got an FM radio and microphone for voice memos, along with an additional built-in memory. Both have got Bluetooth however the Hidizs supports aptX and outputs the slightly more transparent wireless stream.
The Hidizs has got the audibly higher noise floor but the more fine-grained volume control (120/80 vs. 30 steps) and one can listen very quietly with the AP60.
Both have got a comparable output impedance (the C05’s is minimally lower) but the AGPTek has got no roll-off in the low bass.
Volume-matched and using highly resolving in-ears like the SE846, both show a similarly tight bass whereas the C05 appears overall to be clearer and cleaner sounding, with the higher transparency due to the much quieter noise floor. The C05 also sounds neutral whereas the Hidizs is a little dark sounding because of its noise floor modulation. In the treble, the AGPTek sounds more refined and better differentiated.
Regarding soundstage, I would say that the C05’s is somewhat larger and also a bit better separated.
So the sound goes to the AGPTek whereas the UI/features go to the Hidizs player.


Conclusion:

The Hidizs AP60 has got many features for its price point, such as the (potential finally working) USB DAC in- and output, great card support and reading speeds, really high Bluetooth quality and perfect gapless playback with FLAC files, a fine-grained volume control with low possible listening levels, a quite low output impedance, an overall quite well-structured and nice user interface, a flawless folder browser support and a nice pack of accessories.

However, there are also some things that are not so good: the DAC feature is not activated (yet), the player has got a permanent moderate roll-off in the low bass, has got a noise floor that should be definitely lower for the comparatively weak headphone output, lacks some definition in the highs, has got some firmware bugs yet to be resolved (buttons and d-pad freeze when holding the volume down button while the screen is off, occasional crashing) and doesn’t support the “Album Artist” tag (however only very few players do). Also, its navigation is not very precise due to the d-pad with the touch buttons, especially on the go (you will either love or hate this type of navigation – for me, it is clearly more of the latter).

The negative points are somewhat in the majority for me and at this point, I really cannot give the player more than 2.5 out of 5 possible stars at max. If some of the software-related issues could get sorted out in the future through a firmware update, I could see the player as being in the ~ 3 star (but not more) range and being potentially interesting for people who are looking for a quite inexpensive source for their portable DAC (as soon as it is unlocked via an update), as I really see its strengths in being a pure transport device (both Bluetooth and/or micro USB).
 
Over (long) time, the promised software features (USB DAC Input and especially the USB DAC Output) were finally added, making the AP60 the transport device that Hidizs promised prior to the release. Now the DAC output is finally working and connecting an external DAC such as the Chord Mojo finally leads to sound output through the digital to analogue converter.
While the AP60 is really well usable as a transport device now and really inexpensive for this purpose, the fiddly navigation with the touch buttons is still annoying and the internal audio path is still not the best (as both are hardware-related, only a big facelift of the player could resolve these issues).
With the finally added USB DAC output, I now can finally give the AP60 the 3 stars that I said would be the maximum amount it could get as an overall package if the promised software features were ever delivered.

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]

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[/color]

 

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Hidizs AP60 Review: A Tiny Little Fighter[/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Hidizs is a Chinese company that’s been building DAPs for number of years now, starting with their current flagship, the AP100, a device I’ve really enjoyed using in the past. Building on it’s big brother’s legacy, the AP60 has come around to change our thoughts on what it means for a truly portable Hi-Fi audio player, even at low price-points. But is it worth getting the AP60?[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]You can find the AP60 here, for $89 on Penon Audio.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Disclaimer: This review is based upon a sample unit provided to me by a manufacturer or distributor in exchange for my honest opinion and un-edited words. I do not profit in any way from the writing of the review. I would like to thank Hidizs and Penon Audio for sending me this review unit.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Preference and Bias: Before reading a review, it is worth mentioning that there is no way for a reviewer to objectively pass judgment on the enjoy-ability of a product: such a thing is inherently subjective. Therefore, I find it necessary for you to read and understand what I take a natural liking to and how that might affect my rating of a product.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]My ideal sound signature would be an extended sub-bass with a leveled, but textured, bass. The mids should be slightly less pronounced than the treble, but still ahead of the bass. I prefer a more bright upper range.[/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Build[/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Tech Specs[/color]

1. Size: 75mm x 42mm x 14mm
2. Net weight: About 50g
3. Screen: 2.0inch TFTHD screen (320X240)
4. -DSD decoding: Support 64、128
5. USB DAC/OTG DAC: Windows, OSX, partial support for mobile operating systems
6. Bluetooth: 4.0 support APTX
7. CPU: X1000
8. D/A exchange chip: AK4452VN
9. AMP chip: MAX97220A
10. Output impedance: 0.1 ohms
11. Sampling rate: 44.1kHz-192kHz/24bit
12. Supported formats: FLAC, APE, WMA, WAV, ALAC, AAC, OGG, MP3, AIFF, DSF, DIFF
13. Output power: 35mW@32 ohm
14. Frequency response: 20Hz~20000Hz(-0.5dB)
15. Distortion:0.005% | SNR: > 109dB
16. Expandable Storage: Up to 256G
17. Battery: 1000mAH Lithium polymer battery |Battery life: 10–12 hours

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Please note that the above specs were taken from the Penon Audio page for the AP60. I’ve edited them for clarity and readability.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Connectivity[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]The AP60 accepts storage via a single microSD slot. You can use cards up to 256GB in size, ensuring that even the most passionate of lossless-audio enthusiasts should have no concerns regarding storage space.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]The AP60 charges and connects to computers over micro-USB on a 2.0 implementation. Charging is reasonably fast. After updating to the 0.05 beta firmware, I also noticed an increase in transfer speed.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]You can also use the AP60 with Bluetooth speakers and devices. It’s pretty handy and has little-to-no stutter.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Construction[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]The AP60 is built very well. It’s tiny! I love using it with my AAW Q for a uber-minimalist set-up. Seriously though, its small and light enough to go into a shirt-pocket with no issues. It’s discreet enough to not draw any attention, but when it does, it looks good. I got my AP60 in black, as I do most of my electronics when given a choice. The chassis material of the AP60 feels like something in between plastic and aluminum. It’s solid and comfortable in the hand despite its many angles.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][/color]
 
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]On the right side you’ll find the microSD slot. On the left, the power and volume buttons. On the front there are seven capacative buttons: menu, back, left, right, up, down, and select, all back-lit for your convenience. It’s a nice touch. The bottom of the device has the microUSB port and the 3.5mm out.[/color]
 
 
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]The screen is a 2.0 inch TFT display. This means that you’ll get decent color reproduction and visibility in sunlight. I find the display to be sharp and decently accurate; about what I would expect from a $90 DAP.[/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]User Interface[/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]When starting up the AP60 you’ll be greeted with four circular menus to select: Music Browse (file explorer), Music Category, Music setting, and System setting. Pressing the middle button once takes you into the sub-menu.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]The Music Browse sub-menu is a bona-fide file explorer that works quite well.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]The Music Category sub-menu contains more sub-menues with your traditional music groupings: Songs, Album, Artist, Genre, My favorite, M3Ulist, and Recently played songs. All-in-all, pretty comprehensive.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]The next menu is the Music settings. Inside you’ll find an option to scan for new music, switch between low gain and high gain, manage the equalizer, switch shuffle on and off, enable gapless playback, set the max volume, set the startup volume (my personal favorite setting), and alter the channel balance.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Inside the System setting menu you can find the language options, enable USB OTG DAC mode, change the brightness, backlight time, configure auto-power-off mode, enable Bluetooth, run system updates, and more.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Hidizs did a good job in general adapting the UI to work on such a small screen. Even the UI on the now-playing is clean while still managing to display the album art in the background. Pressing the menu button opens up a circular menu on top of the screen and allows you to quickly toggle various settings like gain, shuffle, add to my favorites, and some other nifty functions.[/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Sound Signature[/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]I will be conducting all of my critical listening on low gain. I do have anyearphones that need to be driver in high gain mode, so testing it on sensitive IEMs would be a waste anyways.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]The AP60 is quite like the AP100 in many ways. The sound signature is overall quite neutral, with there being some exceptions in the upper-treble with slightly higher emphasis. There’s a good sense of clarity, but sound staging and “cleaneness” of sound are still lagging behind the AP100, something I’d definitely expect from a product that costs less than half the price.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]However, for on $30 more than my desktop DAC, the AP60 handily beats it, proving itself to be a great value. While I can’t speak as to how it will do against some other competitors’ products, it definitely does a number of my Hifime 9018 SPDIF DAC.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]One thing to note, is that the AP60 does seem to emit some hiss. While I have a hard time noticing it, it is audible to me, even on IEMs that aren't particularly sensitive, hinting at a more notable hiss on more sensitive IEMs. [/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Accessories[/color]

1. USB cable
2. Earbuds
3. Screen protector
4. Earphone carrying bag

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]I’ve tested the earbuds out, and they are decent. Nothing worth writing home about, but they’ll get the job done if you need some beater earphones or something to hold you over till you replace a broken IEM.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]The carry bag is pretty nice though. It’s intended to be used to house the earphones, but I use it to hold the AP60 since it’s so small.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][/color]
 

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]Summary[/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)]The AP60 is a tiny little DAC with a good amount of power and clarity. Its relatively low cost makes it a compelling value, especially when you take into account the very comprehensive suite of features it boasts. Whether you are looking for an entry-level DAC or something a little-more powerful and compact than your smartphone, the AP60 is sure to satisfy.[/color]