HiBy R6 Pro Portable Music Player Review

[SpeleoFool]

Just stumbled upon this review. I own an R6 Pro (stainless), which I bought to compare with an Opus #2; both were well-regarded and at similar price points.

I'm a little surprised to see such terrible measurements since, subjectively, I found this to be quite a decent player. Granted, there are many angles to what makes a DAP "good," including convenience features that might not be the best in terms of sound quality, but nevertheless add value by expanding upon the basic capabilities of a player.

As a rule, I've always considered USB input / DAC mode as a secondary (convenience) feature for DAPs like this that have a screen + touch mode. If a portable USB DAC+Amp was the most important use case for me, I'd look more toward something like the Topping NX4, which does that and only that. On a device like the Hiby (with a touch screen + dedicated software and settings), I expect the primary use case will be one of two things:

1. Some models lean more toward offline play, offering plenty of storage for large libraries of FLAC / DSD / other hi-res music files
2. Some models are geared more towards online streaming, with support for services like Tidal, Qobuz, etc.

The R6 Pro is actually good for both cases. Native Google Store support makes it trivially easy to install a variety of popular music apps, and the Hiby manages audio settings across any apps you might wish to use. The native music app is decently fast, capable and easy to navigate.

In any case, it's not unusual (in my experience) for a USB connection to screw with sound quality out of a DAP like this. Mostly this is a concern when trying to charge and play music at the same time, but I really wouldn't be too surprised if that might be a factor for some DAPs being used as a DAC/Amp as well. While it's disappointing to see poor measurements here, that's not a make or break use case, at least for me.

One other data point: the R6 Pro is sensitive to RF noise; if my cell phone is too close, I'll get audible artifacts out of the balanced output. Keep interference sources away and it's got a pretty black background. Not sure if that could have been a factor during measurements, but it is a flaw in this player. Personally, I find it a minor annoyance that's not a total dealbreaker, but it's something to consider when you've got players like the Fiio M11 Pro at the same price point.

 

[Feljor]

Por favor medir Fiio M11 pro. Certificado por THX

 

[John_M]

I read this immediately after I ordered the R6 (not the pro version). Just great...! Hiby report lower distortion for the basic R6 than for the pro version on their website... I'm hoping these issues are just with the pro version, although now I don't trust the brand at all.

 

[tential]

I read this immediately after I ordered the R6 (not the pro version). Just great...! Hiby report lower distortion for the basic R6 than for the pro version on their website... I'm hoping these issues are just with the pro version, although now I don't trust the brand at all.

No dap tests very well.

They all test pretty poorly.

This is pretty much par for the course. You're better off using subjective. Lol, weird to say on a science forum, but essentially, if you can't notice the difference between this and a jds atom setup, you're good to go.

Without a test from an independent source like amir, any comment made by the manufacturer or random YouTube (who probably got it for free) is useless.

 

[John_M]

Showing my ignorance but why do DAPs test so poorly? Let's suppose I'm using the line out which takes the internal amp out of the equation - I thought DACs were very difficult to distinguish from each other? Or is it more difficult to make a DAC work properly in a portable system?

 

[Drakonas]

Hiby report lower distortion for the basic R6 than for the pro version on their website... I'm hoping these issues are just with the pro version, although now I don't trust the brand at all.

Just stumbled upon this review. I own an R6 Pro (stainless)... [...] It's disappointing to see poor measurements here, that's not a make or break use case, at least for me.

One other data point: the R6 Pro is sensitive to RF noise; if my cell phone is too close, I'll get audible artifacts out of the balanced output.

These issues mainly plagued early releases of the R6 Pro. I got a replacement for mine a year later (warranty deemed non-repairable) and, holy cow, the issues are gone. DAP output is considerably better, the noise floor (which I ALSO had on the unbalanced output I might add) is practically gone. You can hear other people mentioning this on the R6 Pro thread on the head-Fi forums too.

It's why I asked earlier in the thread for @amirm to reassess this. It's clearly different between early releases and newer ones. I think when they fixed the issues internally for the R6 non stainless steel model, they put those fixes in the stainless steel models going forward. I'm willing to send mine in for review. Perhaps I should put a submission in. I'm just not sure if he's taking equipment right now.

 

[JohnYang1997]

No dap tests very well.

They all test pretty poorly.

This is pretty much par for the course. You're better off using subjective. Lol, weird to say on a science forum, but essentially, if you can't notice the difference between this and a jds atom setup, you're good to go.

Without a test from an independent source like amir, any comment made by the manufacturer or random YouTube (who probably got it for free) is useless.

Did you mean all DAPs measure poorly or just the ones measured on this site? I'm sure there are a few measure quite well.

 

[John_M]

These issues mainly plagued early releases of the R6 Pro. I got a replacement for mine a year later (warranty deemed non-repairable) and, holy cow, the issues are gone. DAP output is considerably better, the noise floor (which I ALSO had on the unbalanced output I might add) is practically gone. You can hear other people mentioning this on the R6 Pro thread on the head-Fi forums too.

It's why I asked earlier in the thread for @amirm to reassess this. It's clearly different between early releases and newer ones. I think when they fixed the issues internally for the R6 non stainless steel model, they put those fixes in the stainless steel models going forward. I'm willing to send mine in for review. Perhaps I should put a submission in. I'm just not sure if he's taking equipment right now.

Thanks... so am I right in saying that these issues were limited to the 'Pro' model and that nobody was aware of any issues with the basic R6?

 

[jaynyc]

@SpeleoFool per your comment in April about USB output potentially being compromised.... here is a post from the US rep for Hiby supporting your view:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hiby-r6-pro-serious-upgrade-to-popular-dap.895449/post-15634532

 

[tential]

I'm sure there are a few measure quite well.

There could be. Sadly, we'll never know which ones do since daps aren't really measured regularly.

However, we've had a decent sampling here and they all follow the same exact path. We know from desktop audio dac/amp, it's not until measurements start getting pushed everywhere that the companies then actually do something.

Look at schiit. From meh, to actually decent products.

Jds released the atom dac/amp.
The game has drastically improved, and amir has made more of an impact than I think people might realize. He is quoted throughout the community of people who buy niche amps and dacs so when enough people care, then they decide to fix it so it measures well.

Otherwise, why should they? Sony dap got a TON of love despite the weaker than cellphone amp just because of the brand. That's it.
I'm not expecting any dap to measure well for now, until the dap community starts caring about measurements and that's a community that seems more adverse to measurements than the desktop side.

Edit:

Actually, given that I'm only interested in the newer Android daps the list of those that haven't been tested isn't that long. The rest all measured meh. So really, I understand you'd like to be optimistic, but really no good data to back that anything is getting better currently, until more testing and care about dap measurements is put out there.

 

[AudioStudies]

Still here wondering how DAPs can remotely fail at the singular purpose they were bred for.. And no more excuses about how the rest of tech (in smartphones for example) supersedes them.. They're using the same hardware and software paradigm as phones.

I wonder if the entire product class of DAP just doesn't offer value for the money. Amir doesn't seem to be fond of these products and he is usually spot on. Because of dismal reviews of DAPs, the fact that they are over-priced, and have features I don't need (like DSD), I decided to go a different route. I bought a Tascam DR-05X portable recorder. Street price is only $90 and it records as well, from mics that are incorporated into the unit. Using it primarily for playback though, and paired with my Audeze Sine headphones it sounds quite good. Lightweight, and very portable, just the right size for my hand. No internal memory, records to MicroSD. It would be great if we could see products of this type reviewed here at ASR. I even have my eye on the Tascam DR-100mkIII for when I get the upgrade bug . . .

 

[Tks]

I wonder if the entire product class of DAP just doesn't offer value for the money. Amir doesn't seem to be fond of these products and he is usually spot on. Because of dismal reviews of DAPs, the fact that they are over-priced, and have features I don't need (like DSD), I decided to go a different route. I bought a Tascam DR-05X portable recorder. Street price is only $90 and it records as well, from mics that are incorporated into the unit. Using it primarily for playback though, and paired with my Audeze Sine headphones it sounds quite good. Lightweight, and very portable, just the right size for my hand. No internal memory, records to MicroSD. It would be great if we could see products of this type reviewed here at ASR. I even have my eye on the Tascam DR-100mkIII for when I get the upgrade bug . . .

You should see what a value something like an LG V50 offers. Makes the idea of a DAP complete lunacy.

 

[AudioStudies]

You should see what a value something like an LG V50 offers. Makes the idea of a DAP complete lunacy.

Thanks. I use a Tracfone now, not a real high end one. I am thinking of trying out a high end Tracfone as a DAP, and started a thread to that effect. Drop in there if you are up for it.

 

[Ogdens-Sliced]

Stupid question time.....
On Android DAP such as the R6 Pro that have Qobuz / Spotify apps installed, can you download the music to use as offline mode in the apps? I.E just like on my phone apps. Or is it only for streaming on wifi?
Like I say, stupid question but I've seen this raised a few places but never actually answered......
Cheers.

 

[norcalscott]

Stupid question time.....
On Android DAP such as the R6 Pro that have Qobuz / Spotify apps installed, can you download the music to use as offline mode in the apps? I.E just like on my phone apps. Or is it only for streaming on wifi?
Like I say, stupid question but I've seen this raised a few places but never actually answered......
Cheers.

I have the R5 Saber and Tidal allows you to download tracks for offline listening, only when using the Tidal app however. I believe this also true for Qobuz and Spotify as well.

 

[Ogdens-Sliced]

I have the R5 Saber and Tidal allows you to download tracks for offline listening, only when using the Tidal app however. I believe this also true for Qobuz and Spotify as well.

Thanks for fast & concise answer.
Much appreciated.

How do you find the R5 sabre? Is the 2GB RAM enough for general music functionality without any freezing going on?

The R5 sabre is one I'm considering. Either that or the R6 2020, but the price jump is significant.

 

[norcalscott]

Thanks for fast & concise answer.
Much appreciated.

How do you find the R5 sabre? Is the 2GB RAM enough for general music functionality without any freezing going on?

The R5 sabre is one I'm considering. Either that or the R6 2020, but the price jump is significant.

I have been happy with the R5 Saber. I also looked at the R6 but couldn't justify it from a price or size perspective.

For me, the pros of the R5 are: compact size, ability to run the Google play store so I can install USB Audio Player Pro, Neutron Player, Bubble UPNP, and the Tidal app. Output is good to run most any headphones, and the built in MSEB is producing some interesting results - running USB APP in bitperfect mode but adjusting system wide output with MSEB EQ. Still playing around with that, but I've been able to get some phenomenal results so far in sound quality.

Build quality and battery life are excellent.

The biggest downside of the R5 in my opinion comes along with the compact size - the screen is very small and it is sometimes hard to use tiny controls in some apps, and reading the text is difficult for me occasionally. None of this is that much of a problem, however.

All in all, I recommend the R5 - it is a great value for the price and HiBy has been consistent in pushing out firmware updates so far.

 

[Ogdens-Sliced]

I have been happy with the R5 Saber. I also looked at the R6 but couldn't justify it from a price or size perspective.

For me, the pros of the R5 are: compact size, ability to run the Google play store so I can install USB Audio Player Pro, Neutron Player, Bubble UPNP, and the Tidal app. Output is good to run most any headphones, and the built in MSEB is producing some interesting results - running USB APP in bitperfect mode but adjusting system wide output with MSEB EQ. Still playing around with that, but I've been able to get some phenomenal results so far in sound quality.

Build quality and battery life are excellent.

The biggest downside of the R5 in my opinion comes along with the compact size - the screen is very small and it is sometimes hard to use tiny controls in some apps, and reading the text is difficult for me occasionally. None of this is that much of a problem, however.

All in all, I recommend the R5 - it is a great value for the price and HiBy has been consistent in pushing out firmware updates so far.

Thanks for that. Think I'll probably end up going for the R5.

R6 looks tempting but price aside I think the smaller size of the R5 when mobile will be a big plus for me.

I also undertsand that the Roon app does not accept the system wide android bypass that is deployed on the devices either so home use of the android based devices for me would be very limited.

Cheers.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

This is a review and detailed measurement of the Android basaed HiBy R6 Pro Portable Digital Audio Player (DAP). It was kindly loaned to me from an overseas member. The R6 Pro costs US $549 from Hiby's own store.

Any resemblance to a modern mobile phone ends with the Android OS. The R6 Pro is very heavy, thick and chunky compared to any mobile phone:

View attachment 39024​

One advantage over any mobile phone is hard switches for standard transport control (play, pause, etc.). Another advantage is ability to act like a DAC over its USB-C port and a Coax digital input.

Personally I think Android brings way too much software for just a music player. Changing the language from Chinese to English for example required digging deep in settings to do (thanks to members who helped me do this).

While I did not play with the unit much, the touchscreen was quite responsive. The display looks dull but this could be due to settings for it.

For my testing, I connected a USB-C cable to the R6, selected the option to act like a DAC somewhere in the menus. The unit was detected nicely as a DAC by Windows 10, allowing me to run the full suite of tests I run on DAC+headphone products.

DAC Audio Measurements
As usual, we start with our dashboard. Here is the output at full volume:

View attachment 39025

We see a spray of harmonic distortion reducing performance. Thinking this may go away at lower levels, I reduced the volume to 2.0 volts which desktop DACs typically produce but that did not help:

View attachment 39026

Overall ranking is not good as a result:
View attachment 39037

We can see why distortion did not improve at lower level we sweep that while measuring intermodulation distortion:
View attachment 39027

We see that distortion takes over noise at -25 dB and stays there. Very disappointing.

Speaking of noise, that performance is good:

View attachment 39028

Frequency response is flat enough:
View attachment 39029

Jitter test shows some bad bits here and there but overall, not an issue:

View attachment 39030

The real head-scratcher was linearity:
View attachment 39031

As you see, it has a mind of its own, resulting in 1 dB error. Due to its time-dependent variability I could not replicate it in static measurements to see what is going on.

32-tone test resembling music shows a mess of intermodulation products, increasing with frequency:

View attachment 39032

So in some sense the dashboard is doing the R6 Pro a favor by using a low, 1 kHz tone. Then again our threshold of hearing increases in higher frequencies so the distortions tend to be less audible there. Yeh, I am trying hard to put a positive spin on this.

Headphone Output Measurements
Let's see how much power we get with 300 ohm load:
View attachment 39033

That is disappointing. What is all that weight going to if it is not a beefy power source and plenty of room for a powerful, higher voltage headphone amplifier?

Since the DAC portion is used in these tests, it serves to raise distortion just the same, making for a sour soup.

Here is what we get at the other extreme with 33 ohm load:
View attachment 39034

As with 300 ohm load, distortion starts to increase at such a low power level (again due to the DAC failing). Here, we get hard clipping due to running out of current at 190 milliwatts.

To test the effectiveness of 4.4mm "balanced" headphone output, here is the performance using that, versus 3.5mm jack:

View attachment 39035

So we get about three times more power which should come in handy with low impedance headphones.

Output impedance was comfortably low:
View attachment 39036

Listening Tests
I started with my Drop Ether CX 25 ohm headphones powered by the 4.4mm balanced output. Performance here was good although I could get the output to distorted if I went above normally comfortable power levels.

I continued with my Sennheiser HD-650 using the 3.5 mm jack. Here, I was pleasantly surprised that there was decent amount of power available without much hint of distortion. Balanced output would have provided some headroom (I did not test this).

So overall, the subjective performance is better than objective data, likely due to ability to provide more instantaneous power than continuous.

Conclusions
The objective performance of HiBy R6 Pro is low with strange anomalies in linearity test. Nothing stands out as exceptional which is disappointing given the fact that one invests in these devices to get much more performance than a mobile phone. My recommendation is to get a LG phone and use it as a dedicated player. It will be much lighter, come with better software support for the OS (as far as security fixes and such). But I understand people valuing the hard buttons and such on R6 Pro.

--------
As always, questions, comments, corrections, etc. are welcome.

Have to run out and fix our greenhouse which has become a crooked mess due to winds working on its flimsy build. Being very big, I had to hire help to clean it up and help with the reconstruction. The bill will come later today so I appreciate any monetary help so I don't feel poor after that. Please donate using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

A bit late to the party, but it looks like this may have been measured with the player in tube amp sim mode. I can try to sort things out on my old copy and confirm readings before sending it to you for a retest, if you're interested.

 

[rarewolf]

Is the R6’s DAC the same that is used in the “Darwin” architecture used in the HiBy RS6 and new RS2? Personally, I’m somewhat concerned with reviews that describe the output from these R2R DACs as “warm” or “analog” (even “natural”). I want to see the measurements…