HiBy R6 2020

About HiBy.​

Established in 2011 and based out of China, HiBy has extensive history of R&D, developing software and UI for other manufacturers, their own music player HiBy Music (which is a killer music player capable of doing things the average Android player can’t) and are now a major player in the hardware world too with a big vast DAP lineup as well as earphones, IEMs, TWS, Bluetooth DAC/AMPs, etc.

Links - HiBy R6 2020 ($799) | HiBy R6 2020 Leather Case ($39)

Disclaimer.​

I would like to thank HiBy for sending me R6 2020 to test and review. I am not affiliated with the company or any of its sellers and write this review with an unbiased opinion regardless of how the review turns out.

Included in the box.​

• HiBy R6 2020
• USB Type-C Cable
• USB Type-C to Coax digital cable
• Protective screen guards
• Manuals

Technology Inside.​

Quick Summary - HiBy R6 2020 has dual ES9038Q2M, Snapdragon 660 SoC, 5.0'' 1080P 443 PPI large Hi-Res display, Android 9, MQA 16x unfolding, DSD512, 4GB RAM + 64GB storage with microSD card slot that is expandable to 2TB, QC3.0 charging and USB 3.1 support.

- Snapdragon 660 SoC - It has class-leading 8-core Kryo 260 architecture, 4nm LPP process, speeds up to 2.2GHz and Adreno 512 GPU.

- Japanese Alps Rotary Encoder for volume adjustment.

- Dual ES9038Q2M - It has native support for DSD512, PCM32bit / 768kHz with both DACs in operation for both SE and balanced output. It utilises current-mode output for even better noise rejection and cleanest background.

- Dual crystal oscillators - High-accuracy, low-phase-noise crystal oscillators dedicated to 45.1584 and 49.152MHz for flawless low-jitter performance for music at any sample rate.

- All new power supply circuit design - Line and amplification stages are driven by two independent isolated power supplies for cleaner and more powerful dynamics.



- Audio circuit design - OPA 1612 as the line stages coupled with low-ESR Panasonic POSCAPs and pro-audio grade Elna caps.



- Multiple audio outputs - Both 3.5mm SE and 4.4mm Balanced ports can act both as line out and headphone outputs.

- HiBy OS updated to Android 9 - HiBy OS is HiBy’s in-house developed rebuild of the Android system architecture optimised for bit-perfect audio unlike stock Android. Now updated to Android 9, supports the R6 in all desired audio I/O roles such as USB audio in / out, Bluetooth audio in / out simultaneously for unlimited flexibility.

- Full support for most Hi-Res formats including HD Bluetooth Formats - HiBy R6 2020 supports most Hi-Res lossless formats such as FLAC, WMA, WAV, Apple, LOSSLESS, DSF and DSDIFF along with native support for DSD512 and PCM 32bit / 768kHz playback. R6 2020 supports two-way Bluetooth. Bluetooth input - SBC, AAC, LDAC, UAT. Bluetooth output - SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC, UAT.

- MQA 16x - R6 2020 offers MQA 16x unfolding capability whereas some much more expensive DAPs can only do upto 8x.

- Wireless Support - R6 2020 supports DLNA and AirPlay remote playback and music file transfer via WiFi but you need to install a third-party Airplay receiver app that can receive Airplay from Apple devices.

Hardware Testing.​

AnTuTu Benchmark - R6 2020 scored BIG in AnTuTu Benchmark test with a score of 212042, which makes it one of the fastest DAPs in the market and definitely the fastest DAP at its price point. For your reference, both R6 2020 and R6 Pro were tested with v9.0.4-OB.



Battery Life (4500 mAh) – HiBy claims 10 hours of battery life with SE and 8.5 hours with balanced under test conditions. In my tests, I came close to their claim, averaging 9-9.5 hours with SE and 7.5-8.2 hours with balanced using my MP3 320 kbps playlist and a bit of screen time in between.

Qualcomm Quick Charge QC3.0 Support - R6 Pro supports QC3.0 charge. It generally took me 2 hours to charge R6 2020 from 15% to 100% with a QC3.0 charger.

Design and Build Quality.​

I’ve generally found HiBy’s designs very attractive and classy. R6 2020 now takes the R6 Pro design to another level. It's looks like a baby R8 to be honest. Compared to its predecessor, it's now sharper with bold straight lines, weighs lighter and looks even more premium. It comes in two colour options, Black and Silver. Both have a nice brushed aluminium alloy body which I absolutely dig. The edges are bevelled and feel nice and smooth while holding the DAP. The 5.0" screen is not bezel-less like how recent smartphones have gotten, yet fills up almost 95% of the space with a very small bezel at the bottom which hosts the 'HIBY' logo. It is covered by Corning Gorilla Glass on both sides, which is a great add-on for clumsy people and gives the R6 2020 a cool glossy look at the back too.

• On the top is the Rotary Encoder for volume adjustment.
• At the bottom are the outputs and charging port in the order below,
  4.4mm BAL LO | 3.5mm LO | USB Type-C charging port | 3.5mm PO | 4.4mm BAL PO
• On the right are buttons for Power, an LED indicator and buttons for Previous, Play and Next.
• On the left we have a micro-SD card slot.

The LED light indicator -

• Blue - 48kHz and under
• Green - 64k-192kHz
• Orange - Over 192kHz
• White - DSD files
• Red - Charging (faster blinks with quick charging, slower with normal charging)

User Experience - I've always felt that DAPs were a bit behind current generation smartphones in terms of speed and large attractive high resolution screens but not anymore! Even though the primary objective of DAPs existing is high quality sound, which is where most of the money goes into manufacturing the device but with R6 2020's AnTuTu score and that 5.0'' 1080P 443 PPI hi-res display, it just shows that manufacturers have been listening and trying their best to put in those nice smartphone bling in there too.

R6 2020 is a significant upgrade over its predecessor R6 Pro as it is 3 times as fast, which just blows my mind! R6 2020 is the fastest DAP in the market at its price point as far as I know and the OS is extremely smooth, fast and a joy to use. It is fairly light and has a very good form factor which makes it a DAP I don't mind using on the go all the time, where my cool blingy Oneplus 7 Pro takes a back seat and becomes a phone that I just use for calls.

R6 2020 doesn't have a card tray for the SD card and instead uses the push in and lock style mechanism. All buttons are ergonomically placed, have a minor triangular head and feel very nice to use. The rotary encoder on top is gold in colour and adds on to R6 2020's classy look. The encoder is fairly easy to reach and use. It works seamlessly most of the times but sometimes becomes unresponsive for a few seconds until you tap your finger on the screen to adjust the volume manually from the touchscreen. It starts behaving normally right after but it's a downer at times when you accidentally click on the top part of the screen to adjust the volume when it has hung and end up boosting the volume and blasting your ears like crazy. But well, I'm quite careful about it now having blasted my ears several times. Jokes apart, I do prefer older R6 Pro's buttons for volume adjustment over the rotary encoder but I guess that's a personal preference and I haven't come across anyone else having this problem. So, it just could be my unit.

Here's a comparison view of R6 2020 and R6 Pro side by side.

Some cool features of HiBy Music player.​

Import music via Wifi – If you have a Mac, you know what a pain in the *** transferring files using Android File Transfer (AFT) can be. That is why I love this feature! You simple need to enter the URL mentioned by HiBy on this page in your laptop's browser which loads a page where you can create folders and transfer the files to those folders on the DAP. It is fast and saves the hassle of connecting the R6 2020 to the laptop every time you want to transfer a new album from your laptop.



MSEB – Whoever has tried the HiBy Music player has probably come across the MSEB EQ and knows how cool an EQ it is. It has layman terms as the options to tweak, which takes the guess work in a graphic equaliser away.



10-Band Graphic Equalizer – Nothing out of the ordinary here but I’d like to mention that being an audio engineer, I use such EQs on a daily basis and HiBy’s EQ works and reacts to gain increments and decrements very well. It’s a very musical sounding EQ!



HiBy Link – Here is how HiBy describes this feature and it is quite self-explanatory.

Control and manage your music files wirelessly with your mobile phone. With the HiBy Link, you can also play the Hi-Res music stored on the R6 wirelessly right on your smartphone.

I linked it to my OnePlus 7 Pro with 7 Pro acting as the controller. It's very cool!

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Sound Analysis.​

The sound analysis is based on my tests and experience with R6 2020 in comparison to other similar DAPs and multiple pair-ups of IEMs and headphones in my collection. All the IEMs and headphones that were used are listed at the end of the article in the 'Gear used for testing and review' section.

R6 2020 has a very natural, slightly warm-ish sound signature and steps it up even more in richness and detail retrieval compared to its predecessor, R6 Pro. It's not bright as iBasso DX160 and neither clinical and dry as the Fiio M11. What impressed me right off the bat is its musicality with every IEM and headphone I paired with it. It has a very nice clean, wide and involving soundstage. It clearly outperforms the R6 Pro, DX160 and M11 in engagement and enjoyment factor as well as sound refinement.

Noise levels - Waterfall hissing is very faint with Campfire Andromeda v2 plugged into 3.5mm SE in Low Gain and almost non-existent with other low impedance multi-BA IEMs from my collection like Custom Art Fibae7, TSMR-3Pro, BGVP VG4, Craft Six, Craft Four, etc. With Andromeda plugged into 3.5mm SE in Low Gain, I can only hear it very faintly for a second or so when I pause the song before the DAC goes on standby or in the rare song where only one instrument is playing (not all songs), but you got to focus hard to hear it. I definitely don't hear it in busy sections of songs. It is ever so slightly more prominent with Andromeda plugged into 4.4mm balanced output but it's not substantial enough for me personally and I don't use the balanced outputs for sensitive IEMs anyway. In general with most IEMs and headphones I have, R6 2020 presents a very nice clean black background which I quite dig and like!

There is however a noticeable loud pop/click every time I change the track when listening to MQA tracks on TIDAL. Having noticed the LED light switching from green to orange every time the track changes, I'm guessing R6 first switches to TIDAL HiFi (Green light indication) while it unfolds MQA and then switches to MQA (Orange light) once it's done and that switch to MQA after complete unfolding is what triggers that loud pop/click sound. I highly appreciate R6 2020 having 16x MQA unfolding capability but I hope they can find a fix for this since it is prominently audible.

Driving Power - R6 2020 is a fairly powerful DAP with 245mW power available from the 3.5mm SE and 750mW available from the 4.4mm BAL output. It can drive most IEMs with absolute ease, be it dynamic drivers, multi-BAs or hybrids/tri-brids. As for headphones, R6 2020 easily drives the 300Ω Sennheiser HD 6XX to good levels with the SE in High Gain (vol around 85) but drives it even more easily with the 4.4mm BAL out in High Gain (vol around 72). I generally switch to High Gain when using headphones for more headroom and ease of drivability.

Select quick pairing impressions.​

Sennheiser HD 6XX - I primarily used R6 2020's 4.4mm BAL in High Gain since HD 6XX is a 300Ω headphones and it allows easy drivability with a bit more headroom. Paired with the R6 2020, HD 6XX has nice warmth in the mids, very clean bass character and a rich but always smooth treble presentation. Soundstage width is wider than the Fiio M11.

HifiMan Sundara - R6 2020 is easily able to drive Sundara even from the SE output. Right off the bat, Sundara's upper-treble sounds more refined and lower-midrange has a nicer, warmer character when paired with R6 2020. The sound signature sounds a bit more musical than clinical in this pairing. Soundstage width and depth boundaries are more noticeable than other DAPs I've tried it with.

64 Audio U12t - I particularly like how clean and precise U12t's bass sounds with R6 2020. U12t's tia driver upper-treble peak too sounds more refined compared to both DX160 and Fiio M11. Soundstage is holographic, has a very nice black background with clean reverb trail depth picturisation.

Craft Ears Six - Paired with R6 2020, CE6's signature upper-treble peak sounds more refined, sub-bass has good resolution, lower midrange sounds more musical and soundstage is holographic, both nice wide and deep.

Moondrop S8 - I quickly perceive the soundstage very nicely holographic, clean and resolving in this pairing. Again, sub-bass is more precise and has cleaner impact whereas midrange is presented very musically.

Moondrop KXXS - Most prominently, I perceive KXXS' bass cleaner, more resolving and having better rumble in this pairing. Soundstage sounds cleaner with good instrument imaging and treble being rich and resolving.

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Quick comparisons with other DAPs.​

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HiBy R6 Pro​

While R6 2020's output power specs of both 3.5mm SE and 4.4mm BAL are the same as R6 Pro, R6 2020 improves on almost everything else and seems like a completely new DAP. To list a few, R6 2020 runs newer Android 9.0, has a much faster Snapdragon 660 SoC, has more RAM & ROM (4GB RAM + 64GB ROM), a higher resolution and bigger 5.0" 1080p screen, newer dual ES9038Q2M DAC, newer quad OPA1612 Op amps, supports higher DSD512 and PCM768kHz/32Bit, has independent isolated power supplies, supports USB3.1 and Bluetooth 5.0, has a bigger 4500mAh battery, etc. HiBy have an R6 2020 vs R6 Pro vs R6 table at the bottom of their R6 2020 product page for people who are interested in comparing all the specs (link).

IMO, R6 2020 looks even better with its all black brushed aluminium finish, is way faster and has a better overall user experience and engagement factor. R6 2020's has a very low noise floor (almost close to non-existent) with most of the sensitive multi-BA IEMs in my collection, except for mild hissing with the infamous hiss monster Andromeda. It is much better than R6 Pro in this regard, nor has the WiFi interference noise problem that the R6 Pro had. Sound wise, R6 2020 and R6 Pro are similar in the broader picture but I perceive R6 2020's sound signature being richer, more vivid and musical, having a slightly wider soundstage, with clearer bass precision, slightly more micro-detail retrieval and more refined treble presentation compared to R6 Pro. I feel R6 2020 is even more versatile as I feel it is a bit more refined and pairs better and more easily with most IEMs and headphones in my collection. Overall, I think R6 2020 is a worthy successor and upgrade over the previous R6 Pro in all departments.

iBasso DX160​

Quickly, DX160 has a Rockchip Octa-core SoC, 2GB RAM/32GB ROM, dual CS43198 DAC and a 3200mAh battery. Specs wise, there is no competition, barring the screens. DX160 too has a very nice 5.0" 1080p screen but besides that R6 2020 is better in all departments as it a much faster DAP and has better and more high end technology inside. DX160's UI is sluggish in comparison to R6 2020. Sound wise, DX160 is no slouch but is slightly brighter as well as has a tiny bit more mid-bass compared to R6 2020. R6 2020 has a smoother, more musical tonality, is richer in its presentation, has more precise bass presentation, a wider soundstage and better micro-detail retrieval while keeping everything sounding neutrally smooth.

Fiio M11​

M11 has a Samsung Exynos 7872 SoC, dual AK4493EQ DAC, dual OPA1642 Op amps, dual OPA926 Amp, 5.15" 720p screen, 3GB RAM & 32GB ROM, dual micro-SD slots, 3800 mAh battery, USB2.0 and Bluetooth 4.2 support. It does have better battery life averaging 13 hours with SE and 9 hours with BAL use but besides that, R6 2020 does everything better specs, speed and technology wise. As per AnTuTu benchmark test, R6 2020 is twice as fast as M11. Looks wise too, R6 2020 is a much more premium and classier looking DAP with better ergonomics, bevelled edges and better looking higher resolution screen. Sound wise, R6 2020 is simply a much better DAP. It sounds more musical, richer, engaging, has a more involving and bigger soundstage, cleaner and better bass impact, smoother but richer treble presentation and better micro-detail retrieval without ever sounding clinical or dry which the M11 has the tendency to come off as to a lot of people.

Conclusion. ​

R6 2020 is a DAP that's come closest to perfect out of all the DAPs I've had the pleasure of owning or trying. It is fairly light, has a very nice form factor, is one of the fastest Android DAPs available in the market (almost as fast as the flagship R8 as per our tests), has great overall build quality, a nice big 5.0" 1080p screen, class leading technology inside, good output power figures and a very musical and engaging sound signature which I like most amongst all the other DAPs I have in my collection. Except for the rotary encoder's volume response of my unit hanging occasionally, I can't really list any cons. All in all, HiBy hit it out of the park with this one and I highly recommend the R6 2020 if you're looking for a DAP around its price point.

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Gear used for testing and review.​

• IEMs - 64 Audio U12t, BGVP EST12, Lime Ears Pneuma, Custom Art Fibae7, Campfire Andromeda v2, ItsFit Fusion, Craft Ears Six & Four, Moondrop S8 & KXXS, BGVP VG4, Tansio Mirai TSMR-3 Pro, etc.
• Headphones - Sennheiser HD 6XX, Ollo Audio S4X, HifiMan Sundara, SIVGA P-II, SIVGA Phoenix, Sennheiser HD380 Pro and AKG K371.

Reference Songs list.​

• Foo Fighters – The Pretender, Best of you, Everlong & Sonic Highway album
• Coldplay – Paradise, Up in flames & Everglow + Everyday Life Album
• Biffy Clyro – A Celebration of Endings & Ellipsis albums
• Ed Sheeran – Thinking out loud, Bloodstream & Galway Girl
• Dave Matthews Band – Come Tomorrow album
• Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia album
• Chainsmokers – Somebody, Sickboy, This Feeling & Closer
• John Mayer – Slow dancing in a burning room, Stop this Train, Say & A Face to Call Home
• Gavin James – Always & Hearts on fire
• Switchfoot – Meant to live & Dare you to move
• Porcupine Tree – Sound of Muzak, Blackest Eyes & .3
• Our Lady Peace – Do You Like It & Innocent
• Linkin Park – Papercut, Somewhere I belong & Talking to myself
• Maroon 5 – She will be loved, Payphone & Lost stars
• Lifehouse – All in all & Come back down
• Breaking Benjamin – Diary of Jane
• Karnivool – Simple boy & Goliath
• Dead Letter Circus – Real you
• I Am Giant – Purple heart, City limits & Transmission
• Muse – Panic station
• James Bay – Hold back the river
• Zedd - Clarity album

Hiby contacted me and asked me if I would like to review the New R6 2020 and I agreed. They sent it to me with zero prerequisites for reviewing.

A couple of years ago, Hiby came out with the original R6, at the time the most powerful DAP available, at least in hardware specs, if not audio output. With a higher resolution screen and more CPU power, unlike other Android-based DAPs that would stutter if you tried to multi-task with them, the R6 was speedy to use.

Since then, other makers have caught up — many of them Hiby's customers, as Hiby is the OEM providing music players to other brands. So, it was with interest that I have had the chance to review the new version. The question on my mind was: Is this another revolution?



Features

Externally, the R6 is fairly conventional, with the requisite power, play, forward and back buttons on one side, a micro-SD card slot on the other, a volume control on top and ports on the bottom. Some nuances abound, with the volume control neatly recessed so that, while it is easy to turn, it is unlikely to do so accidentally if put in a pocket.

However, the sharp edge near the volume control is a bit uncomfortable, and wouldn't do well to not do a bit of damage put case-less into a pocket or bag. Investing in the original leather case, or a suitable alternative if one exists, will be worth considering here.



The standard leather case, incidentally, won points with me for having a velcro opening, making it far more easy to manage installation and removal, and allows plenty of room for accessing everything except the micro SD card.



Of that, the single micro-SD card slot will not be enduring to those who wish to take a huge quantity of music with them. However, Sandisk makes up to 1TB cards, and Samsung up to 512MB. There are a couple of other reputable companies out there when it comes to micro SD cards, but beware of an ongoing scam on Amazon whereby obscure or no-name brands flash low-capacity cards to indicate more capacity than they actually have, and are selling them off cheap. See my video about this.

The more significant features of the R6 are the ports. As well as the standard 3.5mm and (new) standard 4.4mm Pentaconn balanced port (my recommended combination of headphones sockets for audio gear going forward), a duplicate set of ports are present for the line out.

While Pentaconn 4.4mm to XLR cables are not quite as ubiquitous as 3.5mm to RCA cables are, it does allow for the R6 to be used as a balanced source for an amp or active speakers. This iterates the trend for Chinese DAPs to be useful as both portable and home system components. Combine this with the Hiby Music app remote-control function and you have what amounts to a portable streamer, at least to some degree.



The coax digital output at first seems to be absent, until you look in the box and find the USB to coax digital cable. That, along with app-managed bit-perfect audio output allows the R6 to function as a USB or coax digital transport. However, as a portable digital transport, USB is going to be preferable, unless you can find a compatible USB to coax cable that is much more compact.

Interestingly, the USB-C port is USB 3.1 compatible, unlike other DAPs which are only USB 2. While the usefulness of this is fairly limited, it may possibly be useful to people who wish to sync and update a high-capacity micro SD card while in the DAP.

Software

Unlike the FiiO players, which have Android 7, the R6 2020 has Android 9, and includes screen auto-rotate, which can be switched on and off easily via the pull-down menu.

For interest, I benchmarked the R6 and M11 Pro using Geekbench. The newer hardware in the R6 shows it to be more powerful, though for music playback usage there would be no effective difference. However, the more powerful hardware, albeit equivalent to an old phone, would be beneficial for showing content on the 1080-capable screen.



As much of the software is standard Android 9, and anyone can download the Hiby Music program onto their phone to check out (if it does have a couple of features vs. the version included in the R6). I'll just mention a couple of useful features in the software.

For starters, the R6 has a 1080 screen (compared to the 720 screen on the M11 Pro) and two-way Bluetooth 5, which was good timing for me as I could use it with the Drop Panda headphones which just arrived.

As well as the remote-control system available, the Hiby Music app is feature rich and can stream over a local network easily, such as from DLNA servers. My IOS version even showed Dropbox and OneDrive, the R6 version didn't show either. This may require that you have those apps already installed for them to show up.

The Hiby Music app is designed to bypass the Android audio stack and output bit-perfect to external devices, and to this end has settings to ensure reliable behaviour with a variety of equipment.



For example, while not as comprehensive in options as UAPP, there are a few settings for USB digital audio output, such as limiting the bit rate, useful if you have a device that doesn't like 32-bit digital input, which I've sometimes encountered.

The app is also known for not only its EQ, but the MSEB settings, which act as a kind of "EQ for Dummies". With settings to make the sound darker, lighter, thicker and thinner and the like, it's good for people who want a simple solution. That being said, some of the options are rather amusing, like the "Female Vocals" setting, which allows one to "Detox" them or make them "Intoxicating".

Usefully, the MSEB, DSD gain compensation, channel balance, max volume, gain and digital filter settings are global, accessible via the Android system audio settings, allowing them to affect other apps. Unfortunately, the EQ is not.

If using UAPP, or other apps such as Spotify, TIDAL, Qobuz, Roon etc. is desired, getting the version of the R6 with the Google Play Store is best. I initially wondered why the R6 is available in two different versions, one without the Play Store, but I guess this is for selling to people who can't or don't want to use it, and would rather use another store or side-load apps.



Listening

I primarily compared the R6 to FiiO's M11 Pro, which is in a similar price bracket. As a quick overview, the M11 Pro uses an AKM4497 DAC and THX-based amp, while the R6 is ES9038Q2M-based with a custom amp set-up.

First, I did a hiss test, using the most sensitive IEMs I have here, the Campfire Audio Andromedas. Playing a track of pure silence (as the amp module turns off after the music stops) I found that the hiss level was lower than the sound of the blood flowing through the veins in my head, so that's well-and-truly a "pass" there.

In recent times, while there was a push for amps to have a low output impedance as possible, this resulted in higher hiss levels from some players, reducing their capability somewhat as portable devices. Having an output impedance of a couple of Ohms fixes this, while unlikely to affect the frequency response of even multiple balanced-armature IEMs that often have a wildly varying impedance-vs-frequency response.

In short, the R6 provided about the same level of performance as the M11 Pro — in line with the kind of performance you'd expect from a DAP at this price level. It had no trouble driving any IEMs I have here, from the multiple-BA Campfire IEMs through to single-dynamic driver models from DITA, HiFiMan, DUNU, Campfire or Final, all of which it delivered an enjoyable musical experience admirably well.

It was not as capable of retrieving detail as the more expensive Cayin N6ii I reviewed recently, with fewer fine nuances of the music coming through. In comparison, the R6 sounded a very slight bit more aggressive than the AKM/THX-based M11 Pro. Typical of Sabre-based designs, the New R6 sounded like it had a touch more presence in the bass and treble.

When it came to full-sized headphones, as with all DAPs, performance was fairly typical. If you're like me and don't listen that loud, the R6 had enough capability to drive planar headphones at least basically well.

It was only when pushing up the volume towards maximum that it started to become shouty and lacking composure, a bit grating on music such as the Palladin Ensemble's The Devil's Trill, which is violin-based and very much not something you want to sound even the slightest bit harsh. It did slightly better in this regard with high-impedance headphones like the Drop Sennheiser HD6XX.

The M11 Pro faired slightly better in this regard, losing composure a bit later, but neither were as good as using the line out to a Headamp Pico Power, which with 18V of power dedicated purely to headphone drive, brought out more nuances in the music at both moderate and higher volumes using headphones.



Conclusion

Like the original R6, the new R6 breaks ground with faster hardware, a better screen and a dedicated balanced line out, and performs sonically very well. As always, I recommend selecting a DAP based on feature set as much sonics, so if the better hardware, USB 3 and dedicated balanced line out suit you, and you're after a mid-range high-end Android DAP, then then Hiby's New R6 may well be a good choice.