"The Neo S is an impressively flexible bit of kit that warrants consideration as an audio player alone, even before you take into account the video side of the performance."
- AVForums
The NEO S is Zidoo's new high-end audio-visual all-in-one device, and is simultaneously a hi-fi music digital decoder, network audio server, AV streamer, headphone amplifier, and more. NEO S inherits the NEO X's craftsmanship and sports an aluminium thickened chassis and 5-inch OLED touchscreen. Built-in is a 256G SSD, dual ES9068 DACs, dual digital/analog power supply modules and large toroidal transformers.
• New RTD1619DR ARM Cortex-A55 hexa-core 64-bit high-performance processor
• Built-in HDR10+ & Dolby Vision video decoding for incredible image quality
• Dual ESS 9068 DAC chips for high-resolution PCM 768KHz 32Bit, MQA audio decoding
• High-fidelity Stereo PCM audio decoding supports XLR full balanced and RCA analog audio preamp output
• Multichannel audio passthrough supported via the digital in / HDMI out connections
• Qualcomm CSR8675 Lossless Bluetooth Input for CD-level audio quality and beyond
• Equipped with a 256G high-speed SSD for local music playback
• Asynchronous USB DAC & high-performance headphone amplifier makes the NEO S great for PC hi-fi
• 5-inch OLED HD touch-screen display and included remote control for effortless menu navigation
• Wonderful craftsmanship and anti-vibration design
• Separate digital and analog power supplies with unique shielding treatment to eliminate interference
• HDMI 2.0a connection supports 4K@60Hz / 12Bit / HDR10+ / Dolby Vision / BT2020 / YCbCr 4:4:4 output
• Automatic frame rate and resolution switching to ensure smooth video playback
"Whether you’re using the NEO S as a 4K media source or music player and headphone amp, its success comes from the optimisation of each component element and attention to detail. It feels more high-end hi-fi than common media player, with its aluminium-alloy chassis fronted by an OLED screen, and socketry including digital inputs, unbalanced/balanced audio outputs and twin headphone sockets, including 4.4mm balanced. When networked, the Neo S is adept at adding files to its app-controlled library system, able to play via HDMI to a TV with compatibility for 4K HDR, including HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. Music playback goes to 768kHz/32-bit PCM and DSD512, plus Bluetooth in LDAC and aptX flavours, making the NEO S a true all-rounder for media playback."
"Enthusiasts . . . can have confidence in the technologies used here for high-quality playback, both video and audio. . . . Once you’re settled in and familiar, the Neo S is a multifunctional delight."
- Sound + Image Magazine, Issue 348, Nov-Dec 2022
". . . be under no illusions that the Neo S is a superb piece of digital hardware. There’s no showiness or gimmicks, it simply plays everything and sounds excellent with it. The fact that when you’re done with audio you can watch a film/TV show . . . on it too is faintly mind-blowing."
- AVForums, Feb 09, 2022
The Zidoo NEO S is equipped with a 256G high-speed SSD for storing and playing back local music files. High-quality audio files are easily stored and accessed on-demand with the NEO S' fast and stable data reading. The built-in SSD addresses the heating and noise problems that are typical with traditional mechanical hard disks.
Like the NEO X, the NEO S is equipped with a 5-inch OLED high-definition colourful touch screen on the front panel. This embedded, full-screen display is designed to be both practical and visually pleasing. The screen displays information such as what's currently playing, menus, options, and more. In collaboration with the physical controls, it's effortless to switch audio sources, adjust the volume, and access system settings and playback status.
The built-in screensaver mode, specially designed for the OLED screen, allows you to bring up a UV meter, frequency spectrum or time mode on the OLED screen during playback.
Classical design, concise layout, easy operation and multiple functions. The premium touch screen interface is the cornerstone of the NEO S' high-quality user experience.
The NEO S is equipped with the Realtek 1619 DR A55 Hexa-core 64bit high-performance processor, which has a faster response speed and more efficient computing capability when compared with previous generation Zidoo media players. With a larger bus processor capacity and more efficient response speed and calculation, the NEO S ensures excellent audio and video playback and can handle any application you throw at it.
Behind the NEO S' audio decoding are two ES9068 DACs. Two-channel audio is decoded independently to avoid interference and get better SNR (signal to noise ratio) and dynamic range. These high-quality DACs support up to DSD512, PCM 768kHz/32bit and three-layer 8 times expanded MQA encoding.
In order to achieve monitor-level audio quality with lower distortion, the NEO S implements an immersion gold circuit design and carefully selected components. Featuring 6 operational amplifiers and selected HiFi components such as NICHCON, WIMA and ELNA, every detail and component comes together to improve the quality of audio from the NEO S.
NEO S is equipped with an XMOS chip and supports asynchronous transmission. Support up to DSD512 with native DSD, DXD and 768kHz/ 32bit PCM audio. Dual high-precision clock oscillators for 44.1KHz and 48KHz multiplier sampling effectively suppresses jitter and ensures more accurate audio decoding.
Although designed for hi-fi and home AV systems, the NEO S is also an ideal monitoring solution for PC hi-fi enthusiasts. The USB DAC input supports asynchronous digital signal processing, which can be used as a sound card when connected to a PC. Also the NEO S functions as a professional USB DAC for IOS/Android phones or tablets via OTG.
Multiple digital audio ports including USB DAC, Optical, Coaxial and AES/EBU input are available to support various devices such as CD players and other digital sources. Achieve perfect sound quality in your system by making use of the dual high-performance DACs on board.
Monitor amp module is built-in NEO S, 4.4 balance and 6.35 headphone jacks are available. A fully-balanced voltage design and graded amplified current provide high current thrust. Two gain modes correspond to different impedance ranges of headphones. The ultimate sound quality is comparable to desktop headphone amplifiers.
The NEO S looks as good as it performs. The solid chassis with aluminium alloy CNC structure appears sleek on your hi-fi rack alongside amps and other source devices. The NEO S is built with an anti-vibration design and features a resonance suppressing stiffener structure and shock-absorbing footpads. This ensures that no matter how loud the music gets, footsteps or subwoofer thumps do not carry through to the sensitive AV components within.
Inside, you'll find a beautiful modular professional circuit design with a unique shielding treatment, ensuring that signals, both analogue and digital, are as clear as possible.
The NEO S features separate digital and analog power supplies to eliminate interference between the two signal paths and significantly improve sound purity. The linear power supply was designed for analog audio circuits, and is composed of multi-winding large toroidal transformers. The switching power supply with lower ripple and magnetic leakage interference
NEO S circuit 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. Buffering and amplification of multi-level operational amplifiers completely simulate signal processing path and bring natural sound quality
NEO S supports MQA audio format with full-spec hardware decoding and can obtain the highest decoding and output level.
MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) MQA is an award-winning British technology that delivers the sound of the original master recording. The master MQA file is fully authenticated and is small enough to stream or download. NEO S adopts MQA technology to receive and decode MQA audio and provide master-level sound.
As a music digital decoder, the NEO S supports super high sample-rate master tape and lossless formats. Support for CD-quality lossless formats include FLAC, WAV, APE, DTS, etc. The NEO S also supports advanced master tape audio formats including DSD512 (SACD ISO/DFF/DSF/DSD), and MQA.
The NEO S supports CD ripping and playback by connecting a CD-ROM via the USB port. Names of albums/songs can be intelligently matched by the CD's ID via special HASH. Ripped files can be collected and managed in the Zidoo Music Player.
The NEO S has a built-in 2.4G + 5G dual-band 2R2T MIMO WIFI module with a wireless transmission rate of up to 867Mbps. With its high-gain antennas, it can avoid interference and maintain a stable and high-speed connection even in a harsh network environment.
Connect and enjoy music easily by connecting to the NEO S from your smartphone via Bluetooth. The flagship Qualcomm CSR8675 module supports APTX and LDAC lossless audio compression technology, which can overcome bandwidth barriers in standard technology. Even if audio is transmitted via Bluetooth, CD-level sound quality is achieved.
The NEO S excels at managing your music library from multiple sources. Music files from network drives and local hard drives can be added to the system. Matching and generating music library databases is done automatically, so all you need to do is enjoy your music collection.
Music files are intelligently matched with artist and album info, and lyrics are brought in dynamically. Organise your tracks by genres, sampling rates, albums, artists, etc.
NEO S supports online music streaming. Music can be pushed to the NEO S from mobile devices on the same network via AirPlay, Spotify, and DLNA. Additionally, music stored on smartphones, computers and tablets can be simply pushed to the NEO S.
NEO S adopts advanced image decoding and processing technology. The Zidoo NEO S image engine and Hexa-core A55 processor can easily decode 4K HDR images encoded with HEVC/H.265 standards. Supporting Dolby Vision processing, BT.2020 wide colour range, and 3840 x 2160 60Hz output, each pixel appears natural, and images are clear and vivid even on a large screen.
The processing engine produces colour contrast that is incredibly defined, ensuring both highlights and shadows are displayed perfectly and delivering images that are much closer to the true to life scene. NEO S not only supports ordinary high dynamic range HDR10 and HLG, but also advanced technology HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. Dolby Vision metadata processing technology can provide 4000 nit peak brightness and 12Bit (around 68 billion colours) output. This technology results in stunning brightness, contrast and natural colours to your connected display.
The NEO S' image engine not only supports 10 Bit (approximately 1.07 billion colours) decoding and outputting at the resolution of 4K 60Hz, but also supports a higher colour depth of 12 bit (approximately 68 billion colours); 12 bit has much more vibrant colours and more natural colour transitions.
Like the NEO X, the Zidoo NEO S provides HDR10+ and Dolby Vision technology in a media player/streaming device. HDR10+ technology is capable of not only displaying peak brightness up to 4000 nits, but also processing metadata accurately for each frame. Namely, colours and brightness levels are obtained frame by frame and scene by scene, images could be displayed in detail with wide dynamic contrast and richer colours.
The NEO S supports BT.2020 wide colour range which can display 75% of perceivable nature colours and closer to what human eyes could see, while traditional BT.709 can only display 35% of natural colours. This results in bright and eye-catching colours, rich and full images, and a better sense of space, three dimensions and layering. RGB, YVU4:4:4, 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 and other colour ranges are supported.
With automatic resolution switching and precise frame rate (23.976) output, film playback is smooth.
Built into the NEO S' OS is a new movie poster management system. It has concise navigation, personalised categories, record viewing custom collections, etc. It makes movie collections more convenient and greatly improves the efficiency of mass movies management.
The media player supports all BD or UHD Blu-ray menus and complex MPLS structure Blu-ray seamless branching playback.
Download subtitles in a variety of most common formats. Embedded PGS and external subtitle brightness adjustments are supported. Subtitle font, colour, size and position can also be customized. Zidoo's media player system is the only one able to support both BLURAY and MKV forced subtitles.
Use the ZIDOO Controller App to control media players seamlessly on the same network. Home Theatre and Music Player can be set on your smartphone without suspending AV playback. Turn on the media player and begin playing music without needing to turn on your TV or display monitor first, all with the ZIDOO Controller App.
The NEO S supports Gigabit network transmission. It can access NAS servers on the same network via NFS, SMB v1/v2/v3, UPnP, FTP network protocols. What’s more, the SMB sharing function can share files from a hard drive connected to the NEO S with other devices.
Apart from ZIDOO Controller smartphone APP, Zidoo also supports HTTP (standard WOL are supported), RS232, HDMI CEC, Bluetooth and IR control methods for smart control system. Trigger control can be used for turning on/off the whole audio system easily by one key.
| Model Number | Neo S |
|---|---|
| RRP | 2,299.00 |
| Specs | Model Display Chassis CPU GPU Internal SSD Audio DAC Wi-Fi Ethernet HDMI Output Video Decoding Audio Decoding Bluetooth Audio Input USB Audio Input Digital Audio Input Digital Audio Output Analog Audio Output Headphone Impedance XLR (balanced) Output RCA (single-ended) Output Headphone 4.4mm Balanced Output (low-gain mode) Headphone 4.4mm Balanced Output (high-gain mode) Headphone 6.3mm Single-Ended Output (low-gain mode) Headphone 6.3mm Single-Ended Output (high-gain mode) USB Ports Control Ports Power Supply Dimensions (WxDxH) In The Box |
