Zidoo is one of the manufacturers of multimedia players best known by users. In its catalog we find a wide variety of devices, but most are more focused on video playback. The new model presented by the manufacturer, the Zidoo NEO Showever, it brings together in a single device practically everything that a user can look for a player that is good at both music and video.
The Zidoo NEO S is a high-fidelity digital music decoder, network audio server, AV streamer, headphone amplifier and much more.. It inherits the craftsmanship of the well-known Zidoo NEO X, with an aluminum chassis and a striking 5-inch OLED touch screen. It incorporates an SSD storage system, double DAC ES9068, dual digital/analog power modules and toroidal power supply.
Zidoo NEO S: designed for lovers of Hi-Res audio
Let’s start by taking a look at the design of the Zidoo NEO S. In addition to its aluminum construction, with a reinforcing structure that suppresses resonance and cushioning pads for the feet, the new Zidoo device stands out for including a 5-inch OLED panel touch screen on its front. This will allow us to access the content in a simple and fast way.
Inside we find a 256 Gb high speed SSD drive that will allow us to have our favorite music stored directly on the device. On the other hand, the Zidoo NEO S equips two ES9068 DACs as the core for audio decoding. Two-channel audio is independently decoded to avoid interference for better SNR and dynamic range. Supports up to DSD512, PCM768@32bit and 8 times extended three-layer MQA encoding format hardware decoding.
In addition, the NEO S has separate digital and analog power supplies to eliminate interference, which significantly improves the purity of the sound. On the one hand we have a linear power supply designed for analog audio circuits composed of large toroidal transformers with multiple windings. And on the other hand, it has a switching power supply with lower ripple and magnetic leakage interference.
Zidoo has taken music playback very seriously in the new Zidoo NEO S. The player is equipped with a XMOS chip and admit the asynchronous transmission. It also features dual high-precision clock oscillators for 44.1KHz and 48KHz multiplier sampling, which effectively suppresses jitter and ensures more accurate audio decoding.
On the other hand, the NEO S adopts a fully balanced design with better noise immunity and low distortion filtering technology. Channel separation is improved and the signal is stable by eliminating the common return circuit. Multi-level op-amps buffering and amplification fully simulate the signal processing path and provide a more natural sound quality. Also, to achieve HiFi sound quality, the Zidoo NEO S has audiophile componentssuch as an immersion gold main board, 6 op amps and selected HiFi components such as NICHCON, WIMA and ELNA.
And in terms of formats, the NEO S is capable of performing a full decoding of the MQA format and admit lossless files like FLAC, WAV, APE and DTS, among others. It is also compatible with network streaming music services such as Spotifyas well as with Airplay and dlna.
Zidoo has designed the NEO S to be an all-in-one system, so as well as playing all formats features a high-performance headphone amplifier. The amplification module is built into the NEO S, which has 4.4 and 6.35mm headphone jacks on its front. The fully balanced voltage design and graded amplified current provide a large current push. In addition, the NEO S offers two gain modes to work with all types of headphones.
And if cables aren’t your thing, don’t worry, because the Zidoo NEO S also allows you to easily enjoy music by connecting the player to your mobile phone via Bluetooth. The CSR8675 module, Qualcomm’s flagship, supports APTX and LDAC lossless audio compression technology, which can overcome the bandwidth barriers of standard technology. Thanks to this chip, even though the audio is transmitted via Bluetooth, a CD-like sound quality can be achieved.
He also has a lot to say in the video section
Although the device, as we have mentioned, has been designed to offer the highest possible audio quality, the manufacturer has not forgotten the video section. The Zidoo NEO S NEO S is equipped with the RTD1619 DR hexa-core 64-bit processor A55, equipped with 4K UHD decoding and processing technology. Supports Blu-ray UHD discs and media files, with resolution up to 3,840 x 2,160 pixels at 60Hz, HDR and BT.2020.
The NEO S is compatible with both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. In addition, it allows you to play 4K 60p content with RGB, YVU4:4:4, 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 support. It is even capable of automatic resolution switching and the frame rate output shift to play at 24p.
In addition to what has been said, the Zidoo NEO S is compatible with multiple network protocols (NFS, SMB v1/v2/v3 and UPnP), supports HD audio passthrough and has great connectivity.
More specifically, it has an HDMI output, a Gigabit LAN port, two USB 3.0 ports, a coaxial output, RCA and XLR outputs, coaxial input, optical input, USB input and AES/EBU input. On a wireless level, in addition to the aforementioned Bluetooth module, the Zidoo NEO S has WiFi connectivity 2R2T MIMO dual-band (2.4G + 5G) with a wireless transmission speed of up to 867 Mbps.
In short, this is a high-flying player that seeks to offer the highest quality in video and, especially, in audio. The Zidoo NEO S It is now available in specialized stores with an official price of €1,299.
