This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the Zidoo EverSolo Z8 stereo balanced DAC and headphone amplifier. It was sent to me by the company.

available By Hifistudio79

As you can tell this is not “yet another desktop DAC.” A beautiful and responsive 3 inch LCD display can provide different levels of information including three types of VU meters! The menus are so rich that on first use you are prompted to choose your language. SO many things are configurable down to level of brightness of the ring around the volume control! (I set it to highest for this picture.) More useful settings include being able to set the steps from for the volume control starting from 0.5 dB going to 2 dB. Company clearly has extensive software development experience (as evidenced by their media/video players) which they have brought to bear here.

The back panel holds another bonus feature in the form of both USB-B and USB-C inputs:

You can select the independently so you can use them for two hosts. A reassuring relay click accompanies every input selection.

Nicely done!

The only wish I have is for larger volume control display. It shows such when adjusting the volume but then you are left with the small font. You can replace the VU meters with “audio info” but that doesn’t include the volume level.

Zidoo EverSolo Z8 Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard with USB In/XLR Out at full volume:

I must say, I was not ready for the unit to top the charts right out of the box. But that is what it did, finishing easily in our top 20 best DACs ever tested (out of now 400 units!!!):

RCA output drops a bit more than usual but still fully transparent to everyone’s ear:

If you need less drive capability, here is the output relative to voltage level:

Dynamic range is superb as you can already predict from SINAD above:

Multitone intermodulation distortion is great as well:

Linearity and jitter are nailed:

 

IMD distortion shows a hint of increased intermodulation distortion which ESS DACs are known for:

You have your usual smorgasbord of filters that comes with ESS DACs:

 

Best to stay with the default Fast Linear and not complicate your life. That choice gives you this excellent wideband THD+N versus frequency:

Zidoo Z8 Headphone Amplifier Measurements
Company had told me that the headphone amplifier was a “bonus” feature and that it is as far as power, but not clarity/distortion:

 

Lack of clipping with any load means that you can use the full volume range that is there:

Noise level is good but not state of the art:

 

Zidoo Z8 Listening Tests
I started listening using Sennheiser HD650 headphone. I was pleasantly surprised that there was enough volume for average to somewhat above average listening levels. For kicks, I switched to my tough to drive, everyday headphone, the Dan Clark Stealth. Yet again I was surprised that in high gain, the output was usable. I am thinking burst level of power is more than the average I measure above. Clarity was superb as was absolute fidelity. I wanted to sit there and listen and keep looking at the VU meters!

Conclusions
Wish you could see my face smiling as I type this, reflecting my experience with the Z8. Not only does it have superb performance but it is a delight to see and use. Zidoo jumps into a very crowded and competitive market and easily makes room for itself with state of the art performance and delightful user interface.

The only wishes are larger volume level indicator and more headphone output. OK, one more wish: a spectrum analyzer in addition to VU meters! 

Overall, this is a job well done indicating company has significant engineering and design experience.

I am happy to recommend the Zidoo EverSolo Z8 DAC and stereo headphone amplifier.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/eversolo-z8-dac-amp-review.41512/