XTF1
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2014
- Posts
- 403
- Likes
- 477
Interesting points… My personal take on the R3-II.
I have several DAPs to choose from: R2, R2-II, RS2, R3Pro (2022), Shanling M0Pro, Tempotec V6, and now the R3-II and M300. My preferred DAP over the last few months has been the R2-II: it has the features ubiquity I’m looking for, the right size (for me), and I like the simple, very friendly UI. The R3-II ticks a few additional boxes: 4.4mm balanced (great!), larger screen, bigger battery, and a size that is still very pocketable.
The R3-II looks like a scaled-up version of the R2-II, and that’s what I don’t like. Let me explain. Example1: the vol. wheel. It’s clickable (great!). Being scaled up from the R2-II, it’s larger in diameter (Ok), but why is it also wider? It just protrudes more, could become woobly over time, and the increased width does absolutely nothing to improve the wheel usability. And why not a contrast color? Example 2: the home screen. The R2-II has 2 rows of 3 tiles. The R3-II has 3 rows of 2 (much larger) tiles. And since it does not have a recorder like the R2-II, the necessary, maybe interesting, but in the end useless “About” tile has been moved to the home screen to fill the gap. Really? That was the best use of the home screen real estate? Why not keeping the 2x3 tiles from the R2-II, replacing the “About” tile with, for example, a ”Now Playing” tile (redundant sure, but at least useful...), and reserving the extra screen space for some smaller, customizable, shortcuts? Example 3: the font size. The R3-II let you choose between ‘default’ and ‘big’, same as the R2-II (called ‘small’ and ‘big’ on the latest FW, as the ‘middle’ was dropped). Being scaled up from the R2-II, the choice is really between 'big' and 'ginourmous'! A smaller font size would make sense for the R3-II (it does not for the already smaller R2-II).
The screen is not as bright as the R3Pro, I agree they may have gone cheaper here (the R3Pro was truly excellent), but I personally don’t mind too much--I'm of the ones who would lower the R3Pro brightness most of the time. Also, the choice of a white-ish on grey color scheme re-enforces that "dim" perception.
The Play screen is very nice, with a much better use of the screen real estate than the R2-II. I noted it's about the only place where you see some color... from the album art !!! But overall, the trendy dark-mode interface is lacking a few color accents IMO.
I don’t think the touchscreen responds to heat: I believe it is a typical capacitive-touchscreen, so stylus and wearing gloves are indeed a problem. The new double tap to wake up option is a nice addition though.
The new customizable shortcut screen (non-customizable on the R2-II) is great. But why not adding more options to choose from? Who decided that 'DLNA' (I use it, but I may be an exception) was important enough to be a default shortcut, but 'Brightness' is not even offered as a selectable shortcut? And, as mentioned above, why not extending that shortcut concept to the main screen?
It has been mentioned before, but I can’t stop ranting about the Artists / Album Artist dumb logic: when you select an artist in the ‘Artists’ (with an 's') view, you then get a list of albums (albums where the artist contributed), then a list of tracks. Fine. But when you select an artist from ‘Album Artist’ (a new option for the R2-II, RS2, and R3-II, and no 's' to artist), you get a list of tracks, sorted by album then by track number (sorted by album then alphabetically on the R2-II, which is even dumber). What were they thinking at Hiby ??? This is the ‘ALBUM Artist’ view… Why is the actual album showing in the ‘Artists’ view but not in the ‘Album Artist’ view ???
The M300 (and Android HibyMusic Pro) have at least a context option to toggle between a Track list view and an Album-then-Track view--maybe unnecessary complex, but at least usable. Can somebody explain the rationale behind this UI choice?
There is a new USB mode selection. On the R2-II for example, you have a “USB mode”, with 'audio' & 'storage' as available options. The R3-II has a “USB working mode” with 'auto' & 'device' options, a “USB device mode” with 'audio' & 'storage' options, a "USB current limited" option (no change), and a new “USB DAC feedback” with 'on' & 'off' options. I'm sure there are good reasons for these options, but this is not intuitive...
I was initially disappointed to learn that Hiby did not upgrade the CPU--like Shanling did for the M1S. But I have to admit that the UI is fluid and responsive-enough, even when scrolling through my ~13,000 tracks library (getting ride of the art thumbnails may have helped). This could resurface as a problem in future updates, but as is, I think it's Ok.
Sound quality is a very debated and controversial topic... For me, all the Hiby DAPs--from the R2 and up--are “transparent” to my ears. I can’t objectively identify a difference on a lossless track between the R2-II, the R3-Pro, and the R3-II. Where there is a difference, it is in the power capability: the R3-II can drive IEM/HP in balanced mode that the R2-II would struggle with in single end mode. But again, for most if not all my IEM’s for example, the R2-II is a perfectly capable DAP and the R3-II is... as capable.
I did notice a few bugs with the R3-II: it forgot the clock time once (?), I crashed it a few times when messing with DLNA (as digital transport), and it did not resume correctly a couple of times (symptom: the on-screen play/pause is greyed-out and no longer responds). But overall, it’s not too bad (I’m on v1.1 FW) and the myriad of possible use scenarios remain a very strong appeal of the R2/R3 Hybi’s.
In the end, the nicer, more usable, eye-friendly UI, and the 4.4mm output are enough to justify upgrading from the R3Pro (where did I left this damn 4.4 to 2.5 adapter? is no longer a question). But it’s just me !!! Upgrading to the M300 is another interesting path: it's slightly more expensive than the R3-II, but if balanced output is not a must, you get this very detailed HibyMusic UI (but it is small!) with another kind of myriad options and possible use scenario (because Android…).
Last edited:
