HiBy R6 III (Gen 3)

Disclaimer: I purchased the Hiby R6 Gen III DAP with my own funds, and this is not a review unit. I did not receive any discounts for writing this review. If you decide to buy this DAP based on my review and find that you disagree with my assessment, that responsibility lies with you. I strongly discourage relying solely on a single review for purchasing decisions in the realm of audio gears, as preferences vary. You should conduct thorough research by exploring platforms such as YouTube, head-fi forums, and various Facebook audiophile groups before making a purchase decision.

I will not dive too much into product specifications in this review, so before proceeding any further those who are unaware of the Hiby R6 Gen III specifications should check them out here:

https://store.hiby.com/products/hiby-r6-gen-iii



Gear used: While testing this DAP I have paired it with Kinera Imperial URD, Simgot EA1000 “EA1000, 7Hertz Timeless, iKKO Obsidian OH10, Tri i3 Pro.


Build Quality (4.5/5): During my used I have observed that the Hiby R6 Gen III DAP feels quite sturdy and well-made thanks to the aluminum chassis. Although a bit on the chunky side its still very ergonomic and easy to use with a single hand. Buttons are responsive and clicky, although a better-quality volume knob could have been used with better feedback to the user while adjusting the volume of the device. Hiby should have included a dust plug for the Micro SD card slot so that it would feel less exposed. Design wise the R6 Gen III follows the same design language of its predecessor Hiby R6 2020.

Accessories (3/5): The box and bundled accessories are as usual, a clear TPU case, USB-C cable, x3 screen protector’s (1 already pre-applied on to the device), instruction manuals etc. The included TPU case is very flimsy and doesn’t fit the device properly, there isn’t even a cut out present to access the volume wheel. In fact, there are no cut-outs altogether for any of the buttons. The included TPU case is just horrible, and Hiby has made it mandatory to buy the official leather cases, a green and a brown one can be bought separately for $15 & $30 respectively. Only good thing I can say about the included TPU case is that its dark smoke color as it can avoid yellowing over long-term use. Hiby has included plenty of screen protector’s which is good as these screen protectors are not good quality and get scratched pretty easily.

Software (5/5): This is definitely Hiby’s best and out-standing feature and why can many people buy Hiby DAP’s over the competition. Android 12 at this price was unheard of when the Hiby R6 Gen III released back in February 2023, and yet still in April 2024 brands like Shanling, Fiio and iBasso are struggling to provide Android 12 with their mid-tier to flagship DAP’s. Hiby R6 Gen III feels pretty smooth and fluid to use I haven’t noticed any UI lags or crashes. With Android 12 you get the latest bells and whistles such as Dark Mode and system-wide gestures. Hiby has provided DTA Systemwide bitperfect audio support, MQA 16X and DSD512, PCM768 support with the OS. They are continuing to provide updates for the device regularly even after a year of release. And the updates, for me, at least have been very stable. Very recently, they have added a 10-band PEQ support for the R6 Gen III DAP along with their existing proprietary solutions like system-wide MSEB and plugins.

Connectivity (4.5/5): The Hiby R6 gen III DAP supports 2.4G / 5GHz dual band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0 and USB 3.1 (type-C port). The Wi-Fi support is very good, I didn’t face any issues while streaming from the tidal app like buffering or connection drops. Previously I have used a Hiby R5 Saber DAP and it had some very significant Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues when compared to the R6 Gen III. Although compared to latest flagship phones the Bluetooth speeds is a bit on the slower side, its not totally unusable. The device can be used to stream from your phone using Bluetooth and it performs similarly to any Bluetooth dongle like Fiio BTR 7 or ifi Go Blu. R6 also supports Bluetooth audio codecs including UAT, LDAC, aptX, aptX HD, AAC, SBC.

Sound (3.5/5): The Hiby R6 Gen III stock sound is pretty neutral, transparent, airy, with an average soundstage and very good resolution. It won’t affect the natural curve of your IEM’s/headphones by introducing too much coloration. Class A sounds 99% similar to class A/B now whether that’s due to an excellent class A/B implementation or a poor Class A implementation, I will leave that to your interpretation. The best part about Hiby’s sound is how versatile it is, you feel the sound stage is too congested? Make it wide and airier by using the Soundfield plugin. Think the mids and low end needs more meat and extension? You can simply use MSEB or PEQ filters to modify the sound to your liking. MSEB will be more easily accessible for the beginners whereas PEQ is targeted more towards the advanced users. But here is the catch, software can only take you so far, and that’s where the ES9038Q2M DAC’s and amp section of the DAP comes into play. Unfortunately, Hiby cheaped out here and the competition does indeed sound better, I will explain more in the comparison section.

Battery (3.5/5): The R6 Gen III offers acceptable battery life with the class A/B mode, lasting anywhere between 10/12 hours of playback. Do note I like to listen to my music at loud volumes usually 70% using 4.4 mm balanced mode, so my reported numbers are based on this usage. With class A mode I got between 7 to 8 hours of playback time more than the 6 hours advertised on Hiby’s website. Luckily, Class A/B mode sound very similar to class A mode which maybe a saving grace for R6 Gen III when it comes to battery life.

Comparisons:

iBasso DX170


The ibasso DX170 has a much sharper and better resolution display (1080p) than the hiby R6 Gen III, its more bright and vivid as well. R6 has much better performance on the other hand with Snapdragon 665, 4 GB RAM (more than double of iBasso) and Android 12. If streaming is your main priority and using 3rd party apps like USB player, then clearly R6 Gen III should be your go to device, as iBasso struggles with these apps with its Rockchip SOC (equivalent to snapdragon 425) and only 2 GB of RAM. DX170 is more ergonomic for 1 hand use, its less chunky and the volume knob used on the DX170 feels much more responsive compared to the one used in Hiby R6 Gen III, which feels cheap.

DX170 has the upper hand when it comes to output power and sound quality. It outputs 6.4Vrms (4.4 balanced) and 3.2Vrms (Single-Ended) respectively, this means, that the balanced output should be rated at about 800-1000mW. Hiby R6 Gen III on the other hand outputs 2Vrms (Single-Ended) & 3.6 Vrms from the balanced port, leading to a maximum output of 405mW from form the 4.4mm balanced port. So, as you can guess listening to the same volume, DX170 sounds punchier and more dynamic in comparison. If we avoid power and talk solely about sound quality, in low frequencies the DX 170 have a lot of punch and depth, adds rumble and great dynamics, Hiby R6 Gen III being neutral in character doesn’t add any additional punch or bass quantity. Mids sound emotional, very texturized, thick with just a hit of warmth on the DX170, R6 again goes for neutrality and transparency in the mids lacking any emotion or depth to the vocals. R6 has better extension in the highs and sounds more detailed, it offers slightly better technicalities with better resolution and more airy and transparent sound overall, soundstage I felt was wider of the DX 170 while deeper with the R6 Gen III. A lot of the superiority with the DX 170 sound I think comes down to the better DAC chips, dual CS43131 DAC’s and of course the different philosophy in tuning. The issue with bass and mids can be rectified to a degree with MSEB/PEQ but software can truly never replicate the performance of good DAC chips and superior tuning.

Now whether you want a more dynamic, thicker and colored sound or a more technical, dry and neutral sound I will leave that for you to decide. I know which one sounds more fun to me. Overall, I feel the DX170 offer the better sound quality but poor performance so it should be more ideal for those looking for an offline playback DAP. Those who want superior streaming & OS performance should obviously pic the R6 Gen III dap.

Cayin RU7

These are two different class of devices so I won’t got into too much details except for the sound differences. Cayin RU7 has a much more natural timbre compared to the R6 Gen III which sounds very digital in comparison. Even at its most neutral setting (DSD oversampling set to 256) the RU7 has much warmer sound compared to the R6 DAP. It has wetter, thicker more texturized mids and forward vocals, the low end is significantly punchier with a focus on the mid-bass elevation. High’s sound similar on both, technicalities wise R6 Gen III offers slightly better resolution but RU7 has a much more airer and wider soundstage. Simply put the performance of the RU7 is significantly better and you can’t replicate this level of performance with EQ or MSEB.


Conclusion: The Hiby R6 Gen III DAP is an excellent bang for buck mid-range DAP and its going strong even in 2024. For those who want the complete package and are willing to sacrifice a bit of sound quality in exchange for flagship DAP like level UI performance need not look any further. My only note to Hiby’s team would be to maybe focus on implementing a better DAC & AMP section and maybe cut corners in some other department in the next release of the R6 Lineup. I have always been a fan of Hiby’s excellent software support and how they focus on value compared to the rest of the competition. It makes me want to pick them over other brands. I hope this review and comparison will help future buyers to make up their minds easily. Till next time.

I bought a Hiby R6 2020 when it launched but I had a lot of gripes with the heat it produced as well as a bunch of broken features within the Android OS it used. I ended up liking the size and feel of the R6 2020 but I wished it had been refined just a bit more given its initial $799 price when it launched. Since then we’ve had a few entry level and upper end DAPs in and out of our home. When I saw the announcement for the R6 III, I was in shock since it had a more current Android OS, a good mid grade SOC spec’d like a $800-$1k DAP but came in at $499. It even had new features like the option to switch between Class A or A/B. All seemed too good to be true given its price. So with my love-hate relationship with the R6 2020, I was super excited to see if the new R6 III was what I was hoping the R6 2020 could have been. The spoiler alert here is that I love the R6 III and if you want to simply skip all of this review, just buy it and give it a shot. For those who’re interested in a little read, let's get into it! The Hiby R6 is a DAP that is running a Snapdragon 665 SOC with 4GB or RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It is also running Android 12 and makes use of the ES9038Q2M DAC as well. It comes in at $499.00

Quick shoutout to my friends at MusicTeck for setting me up with a review unit at a discounted price. While I always appreciate stuff being sent in to test and review, It never affects the rating of my review.

The Hiby R6 can be picked up from MusicTeck below!
https://shop.musicteck.com/products/hiby-r6-gen-iii-portable-digital-audio-player

Gear used​

Topping G5, Shanling M6 Ultra, Moondrop Variations, THIEAUDIO Clairvoyance, Letshuoer Cadenza 12

Looks and Feel​

If you’ve seen the R6 2020 in person and held one, this will be the exact same experience. The R6 III has a really well designed body, if not a little on the thicker side. I do really like the placement of the volume knob on top as well as the button layout on the right side of the unit. The bottom of the unit houses all the output jacks as well as the charging port. I don’t quite like the placement nor having line outs next to headphone out but I personally stuff rubber plugs into the line outs so if someone needed to use my DAP, there isn’t any worries about sending max volume to their ears. The memory card slot is exposed to the elements and I would like to see a dust plug integrated. I don’t really take my DAPs out into any extreme conditions though. All in all, I liked the design of the R6 2020 and nothing has changed here with the R6 III.

Android performance​

I’m happy to say that a mid range DAP finally has a modern OS with very snappy performance. The R6 III is running Android 12 and is using 4gb of RAM as well as a Snapdragon 665 SOC which really makes this feel like a speed demon compared to even some high end DAPs like the Shanling M6U but at a much cheaper price. I had no real issues with Android outside of some normal here and there OS quirks that show up on custom Android setups. Nothing immersion breaking at all though. This continues to be a very reliable and great experience for my daily use.

Accessories and unboxing​

The R6 III doesn’t come with a whole bunch of stuff in the box but I do like the smaller box that holds the DAP, manuals, transparent harder silicone case, extra screen protectors(with some pre installed) and the charging cable. I would have liked to maybe see some AUX cables in either 3.5mm or 4.4mm for the line out jacks included with the R6 III. I think this is a good starting set of accessories and while a cheap small charging block would be nice to have in the box, it's an industry standard to not include it in DAP packaging I feel like. Plus, most people will probably have a USB-C power block. I would have preferred glass screen protectors as well but I believe with the slight bend at the end of the glass corners, it would need to be cut shorter to avoid the curves which probably costs too much to mass produce and that’s fine given the price.

Sound(overall)​

These final impressions were done via Poweramp. This will be what the Hiby R6 III sounded like with all the headphones I used. These impressions are also all based on the standard Class AB mode unless otherwise stated. Things like headphone pairings will produce different results and impressions vs what my ears hear on my specific gear.

I found the R6 III sound signature to be bright-neutral. I was somewhat surprised as I’ve always considered all of Hiby’s DAPs to sound somewhat warm overall. I found the R6 III does show a little “Sabre Glare'' and I’ll get into the effects of this shortly. The bass on the R6 III is on the neutral side. Though I do find it doesn’t quite allow headphones to hit as hard as I would like. The bass isn’t bad in any way and the lack of bass impact isn’t noticeable on IEMs but I can tell on full size cans. The Class A mode does help offset this a little. The mids are once again fairly neutral but I find the details do shine through and have good speed. Instruments sound accurate without any extra color added. Vocals are really natural and present well. Upper mids and treble are a little on the brighter side. I can hear the somewhat artificial ESS “Sabre Glare'' I've heard in many other ESS DACs and while I have no issues with the added sharpness, I know this can be a let down for others. I do find that DACs and amps don’t really add an extreme amount of flavor to sound but the little extra sharpness can be an issue on brighter sounding IEMs for sure. I do think the R6 III does extremely well at bringing in details. Overall I really like the sound signature and details that the R6 III produces.

Filters and fun features​

The standard ESS filters are available to use and as always, I couldn’t notice any difference so I set it Apodizing like I do for all my ESS DACs and left that way. Hiby does have a built in MSEB EQ that I believe is system wide which is a fairly neat feature. As someone who almost never uses EQ, I didn’t test it other than for function checking but I see others liking it so I’m happy the option is available.

Imaging/Soundstage​

Staging is average here and not quite desktop level in terms of both width and depth but I do think it's good enough for its price. I do find that most IEMs I know excel at staging and imaging are running close to their full potential on the R6 III.

Battery life and heat levels​

Battery life on the new R6 III has improved quite a bit over the R6 2020 model it replaced. Running it on the stock Class AB mode, we get 12 hours max from the balanced jack and 15 hours from the singled ended jack. When in Class A mode, it drops significantly to 6 hours from balanced and 9 hours on single ended. I find all of these claims are usually via low gain. I found using a few different IEMs on low gain at work, I got about 10 hours of poweramp upscaling to 176.4 kHz with about 15 percent battery left. So I would call the battery life claims fairly accurate.

When it comes to heat from this DAP on extended use, I actually had very little heat discomfort issues. Running it in Class AB mode and using normal streaming apps doesn’t cause any heat for about an hour or so when stuffed into my pants pocket. Upscaling to a high sample rate and using Sox for resampling does cause it to heat up fairly quickly but it’s never uncomfortable for me personally. The only time heat can be an issue is when the R6 III is being run in Class A mode. Letting the amp section run at full power does mean the R6 III gets to uncomfortable levels like many high end DAPs do. I don’t believe many people will be running Class A in their pockets and even when I do use it, I just let the DAP sit on the desk so it doesn’t cause me any discomfort. I think for 90 percent of people, the R6 III will never reach a heat level others find uncomfortable.

Bluetooth/Wired connectivity​

I didn’t really run a bunch of bluetooth headphones off the R6 III as I don’t really use bluetooth on my DAPs and I tend to use Airpods Pro 2 with my iPhone only when I know I need to take a call and stay hands free. That still stays true and while I did use some TWS like the new Bowers and Wilkins PI7 S2 in LDAC mode, I don’t normally use bluetooth on my DAPs and use airpods pro 2 on my iPhone if I need wireless playback. I did check range on LDAC and I had no issues at arms length which is normally the max range most LDAC stuff works in my experience without connection issues.

As for wired performance. Using the headphone jacks was the way to go for the best sound performance overall. Now onto maybe something a little different, I did use the R6 III as a portable DAC/amp for my Macbook Pro to see how it did as a DAP and dedicated portable DAC/amp for another source. I was very happy that the time to get the R6 III into DAC mode was very quick with little steps and they give you easy access to features like low and high gain. The R6 III will easily hit 768 kHz sample rate with some extra heat but I see no issue with that since the R6 III will probably be used in DAC/amp mode near the source device.

Personal grips with the R6 III?​

I would love to tell everyone about gripes I had with the R6 III but I really don’t have show stopping issues with it. I do notice some little OS quirks here and there but I’ve not had any bad experiences. I do think the biggest thing that bothers me is the inconsistency of the double tap to wake feature. It’s so hit or miss for me that I’ve just started pressing the power button on the side instead of trying to mess with the screen double tap to wake feature. Outside of that I haven’t noticed any concerning issues. Keeping an eye on the forums for the R6 III, it looks like some people are running into little random software quirks but Hiby seems to be active with making firmware updates to fix issues as they come up which I’m happy to see.

UPDATE 4/27/23: Since the most recent firmware update, they've fixed the double tap to wake feature! Happy they took feedback and fixed the issue!

Single ended and balanced power output​

Power output is fairly good but I do find it a little on the low side given how well it does at everything and the fact it has the option to run in a Class A mode. It can do 125 mW into something and 405 mW into something as well. Unfortunately they don’t specify what ohms this is rated with. If I had to guess, I would say this is tested on a 32 ohm load but regardless of the paper numbers, I do find the R6 III can power everything really well. On low gain in balanced I can keep my collection of sensitive to power hungry IEMs all in the low gain mode. Some single ended power hungry IEMs do get me closer to max volume on low gain but I don’t see the need to run IEMs on medium gain. Full size cans are a different story. I only have two sets of full size headphones on hand but one is the 120 ohm Sennheiser HD 560S and the other a little more picky Monoprice M1570C planar. Both require high gain on the R6 III and both do show a slightly more bassy and wider sounding stage when using the Class A mode.

IEM pairing opinions​

Moondrop Variations​

The Variations are normally my daily drivers at work when I know I’ll be able to use IEMs for a longer period of time. I was very happy at the result of this pairing. The Bass is still very punchy and I find it sounds a little tighter than I’m used to. Mids are very accurate and stay neutral with good speed on the decay of instruments. Vocals are great and natural sounding. The upper mids do sound a bit brighter than I like but the treble is also boosted a little which helps the Variations quite a bit. Staging was fairly wide and somewhat deep. Overall I found this quite a good pairing and probably one of my preferred combos both the Variations and the R6 III.

THIEAUDIO Clairvoyance​

Ahhhh, the Clairvoyance! My all time favorite IEM tuning even though I have a bunch of stuff that sounds better as the Clairs age in time. The bass is both tight and provides just enough impact to make me happy. Mids are laser accurate and I found the decay to be quick as well. Vocals are exactly what I expect from the Clair and it provides a good natural presentation with the R6 III. The upper mids and treble are extremely clear but never too intense. Decay is fast on instruments in the treble and I find the detail retrieval almost on par with my desktop system. Staging was both wider and deep and I found imaging wonderful as always. Keep in mind I have an extreme bias towards the Clairvoyance so take this specific pairing as you will.

Letshuoer Cadenza 12​

My current all time favorite “all rounder” TOTL from Letshuoer pairs extremely well with the R6 III and it was the only IEM I found to actually benefit from the Class A mode. On Class AB mode, the bass hits really strong and is well controlled and fast. The mids are still neutral sounding but they still sound really detailed. The Vocals are still very natural sounding, if not a bit more artificial on the R6 III. The upper mids are a little brighter with this pairing and the treble is really sharp but its still a little on the neutral side for sure. Staging is where I saw a difference between Class A and AB mode. Staging is slightly wider and deeper on Class A mode and swapping to A mode does add a small but noticeable extra sense of space to the stage. Overall, a very good pairing. I will say that I think this is very much “enough” gear for the Cadenza 12 but I do think it benefits from a good desktop source.

Over ear pairings​

Sennheiser HD560S/Monoprice M1570C​

So the only two wired full size cans I have on hand are two that I hate but I find they have good qualities in certain genres. Plus both are a little harder to drive so they act as power testbeds. I can confirm that the R6 III via single ended and balanced has no issues getting to a good volume. The lack of bass on these two slightly more demanding headphones can be somewhat counteracted by turning on the Class A mode but at the cost to battery life and heat from the R6 III. I don’t have an abundance of full size cans so it’s hard to say if the R6 III is enough to power other more demanding headphones but I think this is about 70 percent of the way to a good desktop amp or more powerful DAP in terms of amp output.

DAC/Amp comparison​

SMSL SU-9/SMSL SP400​

Does the R6 III compete with my trusty desktop stack? It gets close but it doesn’t quite match the performance when it comes to detail retrieval and staging compared to my review stack. The “gets close” part is very impressive to me however since I like to detach myself from my desktop setup as much as possible and things like the Topping G5 and now the R6 III make it much easier to have a solution away from my room or when I’m at work where I can’t confidently leave a mini stack sitting around on my desk. The only DAPs I’ve used that got close or matched the performance of the desktop all were near the $1k mark which is a lot in my book to spend on a dedicated player with a non user replaceable consumable battery.

The R6 III uses the same family ES9038 DAC that my SU-9 uses but the SU-9 has a more accurate and dynamic sound signature which is hovering closer to neutral while the R6 III goes for a bright-neutral sound signature. I also noticed the staging is a little more closed in on the R6 III over the desktop stack but given how much is packed into the R6 III without it overheating on Class A/B mode, I’ll take the slight loss in details and staging anyday for portable enjoyment.

Hiby R6 2020​

I don’t have a R6 2020 anymore but I was smart enough to note down all my issues with it as I had planned to give it a 2/5 star review but didn’t feel like wasting my time with it anymore back then. The big issues I had with the R6 2020 started with the internal design of the device itself. The device picked up an obscene amount of EMI noise and if I had anything like a cellphone, my apple watch or even my laptop near it, the R6 2020 would get that irritating static noise and clicking that really ruined the overall experience for me. It also heated up pretty intensely and caused discomfort when using it in a pocket for more than 20 min. Lastly I had a lot of issues with the Android 9 OS it was using at the time. I had lots of freezing and the worst was issues with sound popping through my IEMs when switching tracks on Tidal or Soundcloud. I believe a lot of the OS issues could have been fixed via firmware and they might have been over time. I’ll list the differences I found but I can easily say that the small headphone power output difference and the display resolution differences don’t amount to much in my book and I personally think the R6 III is a huge upgrade over the R6 2020 if you’re coming in fresh into the R6 line looking to buy either one.

The big differences I could find between the R6 2020($799) vs the R6 III($499) are as follows:

R6 III uses a Snapdragon 665 vs the R6 2020 660.

R6 III is running Android 12 and the R6 2020 is running Android 9.

Both have the same 64GB storage and 4GB of RAM.

The R6 III uses a 720p display vs the R6 2020 1080p display.

The R6 III has the option for Class A or Class A/B amplification modes. The R6 2020 doesn’t list which class it uses

Both use a ES9038Q2M DAC and same battery size

The R6 III has a max power output of 405mW vs the R6 2020 max of 750mW

Topping G5​

I like the sound quality I get out of the G5 and it continues to be one of my favorite portable DAC/amps for portable use when I don’t want to use a DAP. Even if it’s fairly bright sounding. Both do bass fairly well though I find the R6 III is a little stronger when it comes to impact/slam. The mids are more neutral sounding on the R6 III as well. I would say both allow vocals to come through well but I still find the G5 is a bit more sharper and somewhat less natural sounding. The upper mids and treble on both are fairly brighter and sharper and while both have noticeable “Sabre Glare”, I think the R6 III handles the treble better. The G5 can be a little too strong for a lot of gear where the R6 III can stay sharp and detailed without overdoing it. The Staging I found was wider on the G5 but depth sounded about the same between both. I would say the biggest difference between the two is the power output. You get a peak of 405 mW on the R6 III and full 1.2W from the G5 so for full sized headphones, I find the bass is stronger and things sound more spacious on the G5 over the R6 III when it comes to full size usage.

Overall thoughts​

The Hiby R6 III like I said at the beginning is a winner and I can easily recommend this DAP. I’m really happy to see a more modern DAP right at $499, though it makes a lot of older DAPs under $800 IMO seem fairly obsolete in a long term use scenario. Which is kinda a bummer. I also feel like we’re seeing multiple DAP releases per year from the DAP companies which I think kinda hurts their lineups when you don’t know how soon a better version of your recently purchased DAP might appear. I get Moondrop single DD IEM release feelings here haha I imagine we will begin seeing a lot more of these modern OS DAPs in the near future but for now, the R6 III is the king of mid range DAPs in my book! Good job to the Hiby team and I look forward to checking out what they have in the future.