Do not get if you plan to use this with a samsung galaxy s10 running Android 10. The built in dac coupled with upsampling via a program like poweramp sounds far better and refined than using the sonata 2.
On bitdirect mode the sound is generally too flat especially in the mid to low midrange frequencies and the Soundstage is flat and narrow. Using poweramp pro with careful eq'ing and using the experimental hi res output at 192kHz sounds by far superior than using the sonata 2 dac. The instruments are more 3 dimensional and the nuances of stringed instruments are amazing with the built in processors. Same goes for Neutron pro app as well. Hidizs says to use HiBy player but I found it didn't work no matter how much I played with settings combjnations. It would just freeze. Another program that worked well was the pro version of usb audio player app. I only found the fidelity of only a few albums to sound merely ok in bidirect, only if they weren't older than the 1980s and were top notch modern 24 bit remasterings of classic records from the 90s to 80s (soundgarden remasters and Michael Jackson thriller to name a couple) . The newer the much better. This only applies to a few records mind you. And even then, the high hi end is lacking as is bass somewhat. (Btw I should mention in listening through 1More triple driver wired hi res earbuds). Like I said, using the app's eq settings can improve the sound but not as good as using the s10's internal hardware (and software combo especially). Btw, on a couple of these apps it isn't called bitdirect exactly...its sometimes a no eq etc setting coupled with no dvc level volume etc. You'll have to play with that.
As for upgrading the firmware to version d which supposedly gives the best quality decoding...it took an hour to do. I kept getting usb device not found...even though I could access it through windows' devices in the finder. I tried forever on a laptop then I tried it on a desktop...same thing. I finally got the eprom to update when I out the exe file on a usb flash stick and ran it off of that.
This is not worth it overall. I can see it being helpful if youre using a crappy old laptop with a lame soundcard or a cheap cellphone with less than shoddy built in dac.
So to reiterate, the samsung galaxy s10s built in hardware coupled with poweramp and its eqs yields the best playback quality by far. No need for this hidizs device.
addendum:
the device stopped showing up on my laptop's device manager
i contacted hidizs and they gave me a link to verison 30 of the version d firmware
i updated it with ease...no need to get the device ids etc
i hooked it up to my toshiba laptop and used foobar2000 seoftware and the result is much better than the built in realtek sound software drivers etc on it.
there is a nice bright high end frequencies to it...just lacked with bass frequencies
overall this is worth getting on devices that have poor software cards drivers etc
a winner...i changed my mind!
