HiBy R6 Pro Portable Music Player Review

[maxxevv]

There is nothing wrong with the hiby. It's stock android. If you dont like hiby app that's one thing, but this is stock android so let's not misinform people.

As for this vs your phone, we are specifically looking at the dta advantage here. You will NOT get the tested E1DA SINAD if you use an app that isn't bit perfect on your phone (Spotify, tidal etc.) you need to use apps like uapp. I can't use uapp.
If you can use uapp it's better to use your phone.

Otherwise, you need a dap to bypass android resampling. It's all about getting around android os so you can actually use the dongle.

This is why I said I want to see the e1da tested in portable mode ie connected to a smartphone. Of course amir uses uapp or another bit perfect app (which doesn't help me personally but I understand. Wish we could see comparison to other apps though).

But otherwise, my whole point is that using your phone may not give you the actual expected performance if you aren't using the right app, and well this is stock android with Google play so ui really isn't a problem..... With old daps yes... With new ones.... It's just people parroting old mantra when you need to evaluate everything as something new instead of using a mental shortcut of old experiences.

You can try the Hiby or Onkyo player apps. They have free versions.

 

[tential]

You can try the Hiby or Onkyo player apps. They have free versions.

If those apps work for you, you should use a phone. That's the best device for you.

If not you need this device(or another like it since you really wouldn't want to use this one since it's expensive and the dac/amp doesn't seem to be that great).

Because I want to sync my meta data to desktop, I need rocket player or media monkey.

I'm just clarifying they due to them making the whole os bit perfect, it does serve a purpose for people who aren't using normally bit perfect native apps.
So if you want to use mediamonkey with flacs you probably want a hiby r5 with an e1da dongle. Or if you want a mobile tested bluetooth dongle, a Shanling m0 + e1da. So far it seems like just getting an e1da to you is your best bet lol.

I have a radstone es100, and I don't think it is better than a Shanling m0 + e1da dongle if it works the way it looks like it does. It looks like the best solution so far.

LG quad dac phone
A Bluetooth receiver that outputs to the e1da.
A dap that uses the e1da
A phone that uses the e1da

Those look like the best portable solutions. Id like to see the e1da actually benched in a mobile setup for peace of mind, but that's of course not my decision, but otherwise, I think I'm going to get:
A Bluetooth receiver that outputs to the e1da.
A dap that uses the e1da

I probably don't even need a desktop amp.

Although when you read the subjective portion of the review, the dap does have the power to drive hard to drive cans to good levels without any impact on bearable quality it seems. Only when pushed to limits does distortion set in. So I guess that's one small bright spot.

 

[BillG]

Otherwise, you need a dap to bypass android resampling.

Certain marketing material would have one believe that Android's resampling algorithms are sub-par when they're not:

https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/audio/sampling-audio

Any Android media player app with DSP, such as a simple EQ, is going to do resampling regardless as it's neccessary then for internal processing.

Also, an Android based DAP or special app isn't required to bypass the OS resampling, especially if one is using USB Audio:

https://source.android.com/devices/audio/usb

Android resampling? Yeah, I'm not going to obsess over it...

 

[pwjazz]

IMO it is well worth it to test cell phones/tablets. Some, like the LG G7 and older V20/30 (used about $100) have excellent DACs. https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...o-measurement-of-lg-g7-thinq-smartphone.4468/

I got a V20 a while ago to use as a DAP. Shortly thereafter my iPhone died and I ended up using the V20 as both phone and music player. Just this week I got another V20 to use as dedicated DAP and went through the trouble of rooting it and getting Viper4Android to work on it. It was a pain in the butt (I'll try to write up some documentation to help others), but for a little under $140 including an add-on case I've now got a new (in sealed box) network-connected "DAP" with beautiful display, great DAC and amp able to put out 2 Vrms, system-wide audio effects including parametric EQ, fast processor, able to install Android apps from the play store and a replaceable battery for good measure. It's got 64 GB of RAM built in and can be expanded with cheaply available MicroSD cards. Thanks to rooting, I'm also able to force high impedance mode for all headphones, which fixes the one major annoyance with LG's Quad DACs, namely the impedance detection.

Sure, my "DAP" is actually a phone, but I won't use it as such since I already have a phone. With permanent do not disturb to avoid distractions and keeping it low power mode to go easy on the battery, I'm golden.

At the end of the day, a boutique DAP maker just can't compete with the economies of scale that an LG or Samsung gets when selling smartphones.

 

[maxxevv]

If those apps work for you, you should use a phone. That's the best device for you.

I do. I use a LG V40 ThinQ after moving from a G6 Quad DAC.

 

[pwjazz]

Certain marketing material would have one believe that Android's resampling algorithms are sub-par when they're not:

https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/audio/sampling-audio

Any Android media player app with DSP, such as a simple EQ, is going to do resampling regardless as it's neccessary then for internal processing.

Also, an Android based DAP or special app isn't required to bypass the OS resampling, especially if one is using USB Audio:

https://source.android.com/devices/audio/usb

Android resampling? Yeah, I'm not going to obsess over it...

Me neither. For those who do, if you're willing to root your phone, you can force everything to bypass Android's mixer and go straight to the DAC.

 

[tential]

Certain marketing material would have one believe that Android's resampling algorithms are sub-par when they're not:

https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/audio/sampling-audio

Any Android media player app with DSP, such as a simple EQ, is going to do resampling regardless as it's neccessary then for internal processing.

Also, an Android based DAP or special app isn't required to bypass the OS resampling, especially if one is using USB Audio:

https://source.android.com/devices/audio/usb

Android resampling? Yeah, I'm not going to obsess over it...

I feel I've touched on the uapp part many times.

As I said before the android resampling also means you are NOT getting the performance measured here.
Also its not a special app, as you said uapp does this. But hiby has specifically worked on getting around the android resampling by recoding how Android works with audio to do this system wide instead of needing uapp.

But if you don't care about android resampling there also isn't a need for uapp.... So I am not sure what you're point is.

Me neither. For those who do, if you're willing to root your phone, you can force everything to bypass Android's mixer and go straight to the DAC.

I've never seen 100% proof that this method works. Otherwise, it's something I am interested in. Since hiby already did it for me, and keeps it updated, it seems like a meh premium to pay for a hiby r5 to use as a transport to ensure it works.

If we can get amir to test it though I'm game. It's one of the things I'm most interested in. If I can just root an lgv30, then I'll do that as a stop gap.

 

[pwjazz]

I've never seen 100% proof that this method works

It's doing what UAPP does. By default, 16 bit audio goes to the mixer but 24 bit is offloaded to the DAC. Apps like UAPP and Neutron change the bit depth of everything to 24 bit to bypass the mixer. The above hack simply enables offloading of 16 bit content to the DAC so that you don't need that trick.

 

[pwjazz]

I got a V20 a while ago to use as a DAP. Shortly thereafter my iPhone died and I ended up using the V20 as both phone and music player. Just this week I got another V20 to use as dedicated DAP and went through the trouble of rooting it and getting Viper4Android to work on it. It was a pain in the butt (I'll try to write up some documentation to help others), but for a little under $140 including an add-on case I've now got a new (in sealed box) network-connected "DAP" with beautiful display, great DAC and amp able to put out 2 Vrms, system-wide audio effects including parametric EQ, fast processor, able to install Android apps from the play store and a replaceable battery for good measure. It's got 64 GB of RAM built in and can be expanded with cheaply available MicroSD cards. Thanks to rooting, I'm also able to force high impedance mode for all headphones, which fixes the one major annoyance with LG's Quad DACs, namely the impedance detection.

Sure, my "DAP" is actually a phone, but I won't use it as such since I already have a phone. With permanent do not disturb to avoid distractions and keeping it low power mode to go easy on the battery, I'm golden.

At the end of the day, a boutique DAP maker just can't compete with the economies of scale that an LG or Samsung gets when selling smartphones.

Okay, I typed up some notes on how to do this.

 

[Jimster480]

Another advantage is ability to act like a DAC over its USB-C port and a Coax digital input.

The LG G7 and other LG phones can also do this. You tested it yourself!

 

[Jimster480]

@amirm, I really admire your willingness to test high quality analog and digital devices (and that's why I love your website) but I wonder .... why bother test Low-Fi devices such as cellphones and other low fidelity devices? It seems a waste of time and money, imho. What do we hope to learn from these mass market devices, shipped in the tens if million per year?

Because with todays tech we can make tiny mobile products with more performance than giant desktop products of the yesteryear. Today the world is always moving and many people are on the go.... therefore it makes sense to measure devices that apply to many people of the world. Not just us who have jobs like mine where we can work from home!

 

[jaynyc]

@amirm did you have the unit set to Reference sound signature? That’s not the mode it ships in (out of the box). The device offers 4 global sound signature modes, only 1 of which is Reference.

Also, would you be willing to copy your test tones (as WAV files) to the internal storage and playback from the stock Hiby music app? Using the unit as a USB DAC is obviously supported but it’s not the primary use case...

 

[amirm]

@amirm did you have the unit set to Reference sound signature? That’s not the mode it ships in (out of the box). The device offers 4 global sound signature modes, only 1 of which is Reference.

Yes, I set it to that from what I recall. Time to ask is right after I do the review.

 

[jaynyc]

k. Using Roon could be another way. USB DAC is a convenience feature on these devices...

 

[loplop]

Yes, I set it to that from what I recall. Time to ask is right after I do the review.

This was interesting to me, thank you! I had an R6 Pro for awhile, and I did enjoy it but always felt the background was a bit noisy. I see some confirmation of that in the measurements

I have a similar question: I've always wondered what those tonality filters did, from a technical perspective. I wonder if they change the even/odd harmonic balance. Do you still have the unit, and could test with the various filters?

To me, it went like this:
Default: full and somewhat rich sound, a bit rolled off up top
Reference: a bit more extension but honestly I had trouble hearing a lot of difference.
Warm: rolled off highs, dull sound
Tube amp: sounded more vibrant; I'm not sure if it was boosted, but the highs were definitely more present vs Default. Didn't sound like any tube amp I've ever had, but sounded better than Default on some headphones that needed a little assistance in the highs.

I used the tonality settings like a global EQ.

As an aside, my feeling is that my main DAP now (DX220) would measure a lot better than the R6 Pro. That's what my ears tell me, at least, although it's really hard to separate those from my fallible grey matter

 

[headwhacker]

This was interesting to me, thank you! I had an R6 Pro for awhile, and I did enjoy it but always felt the background was a bit noisy. I see some confirmation of that in the measurements

I have a similar question: I've always wondered what those tonality filters did, from a technical perspective. I wonder if they change the even/odd harmonic balance. Do you still have the unit, and could test with the various filters?

To me, it went like this:
Default: full and somewhat rich sound, a bit rolled off up top
Reference: a bit more extension but honestly I had trouble hearing a lot of difference.
Warm: rolled off highs, dull sound
Tube amp: sounded more vibrant; I'm not sure if it was boosted, but the highs were definitely more present vs Default. Didn't sound like any tube amp I've ever had, but sounded better than Default on some headphones that needed a little assistance in the highs.

I used the tonality settings like a global EQ.

As an aside, my feeling is that my main DAP now (DX220) would measure a lot better than the R6 Pro. That's what my ears tell me, at least, although it's really hard to separate those from my fallible grey matter

Ibasso sure knows how to make a good hardware. They measure their products after all. But their software usually is buggy. @amir got frustrated on DX200 that he could not run the full suite of tests.

I dont expect this to change much. They only take whatever software/firmware the RK chip maker gives them. It is usually bloated and not optimised for the device.

 

[David_M]

How is audio 'quality' determined if not by measuring important specs.?

The only time we get to use the DACs and other analog circuitry, is through the analog headphone interface. Everything else is through DLNA for streaming audio/video content over wifi , an all digital process. With analog SINADs specs well under 90dB, the headphone user of these devices must be to compromise or adjust expectations of the analog SQ these devices would be able to offer. OTOH, I've seen multichannel mid-fi AVRs with similar specs.

 

[JJB70]

I have loaded a 128GB card of music into my Galaxy S10 (well, more accurately, my employers S10) and am very happy with the quality. Sound is transparent to my ears and the headphone output is sufficient to drive most of my headphones loudly enough for me. On the other hand, contrary to most opinions on the subject I actually prefer the UI of the Shanling which uses a scroll wheel control rather than a touch screen.

If comparing it to my DAP I would say that there is no significant difference in sound quality, both devices go loud enough with most of my headphones but battery life of the S10 is in a different league to the Shanling M3s.

 

[Jean-Francois]

How is audio 'quality' determined if not by measuring important specs.?

Mesures and specs have nothing to do with quality, but with purity.

 

[tential]

@amirm next time when you get one of these devices can you test them as a transport, aka connected to a portable like the e1da or the topping nx4?

Considering the poor performance, it'd be interesting to see if they can be at least used to store the music and output to the dac.

I think especially the e1da considering how pint sized it is.

Also, a firmware update is interesting on this device because hiby just added global equalizer, and many people like the mseb equalizer.
It's actually be interesting to see those settings tested as they at literally things like "warm" or whatever (sliders).

Just a thought