[cj3209]

I am constantly surprised they haven't gone out of business yet.

You mean because of all the people who aren't paying the regular price?

 

[psikey]

I have several DAPs and Amazon Music plays at 192 kHz on all of them, so I agree that it's the app itself that must be doing that. It sounds good to me but it must be upsampling lower bit rates. Of course I would prefer bit-perfect. I suppose upsampling 48 kHz multiples probably isn't so bad at 192 kHz but 44.1 multiples not so much with the uneven samples...

Its just really cheap (the £79.99 for 12 months option so £6.66/month), lots in HD or SD lossless, and works perfectly on PC and iPhone and even fully supported with my KEF LS50WII speakers (though speakers also support Spotify & Tidal) << I even got 1 week free trial of Prime just to get the annual sub for Amazon Music HD!

Saying that, if I can do 4 x Tidal HD plus after each other (new email each time) at £2 for 90 days that is a real bargain

PS I'm a tight Yorkshireman, its our religion to be frugal

 

[psikey]

You mean because of all the people who aren't paying the regular price?

Did you know if you use an Argentinian VPN for initial signup you can be paying about £1.60/month but apparently get a lot of Latin American offered up in their Discovery type recommendations.

 

[KutuzovGambit]

You mean because of all the people who aren't paying the regular price?

Low user count, constant promotions, been sold multiple times to other owners, just seems like they're constantly struggling financially.

 

[3Putter]

Tidal’s financial issues were five years ago. I’m not gonna be happy with you tightwads if they go out of business! It’s $20 a month. Less than a $1 a day. It sounds better than Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music. Qobuz sounds terrific but doesn’t have the library Tidal does. Tidal claims they share revenue with artists, too. I get a report each month on who gets what from my listening. We should support these providers, not try to game the system. Lecture over…

 

[psikey]

Tidal’s financial issues were five years ago. I’m not gonna be happy with you tightwads if they go out of business! It’s $20 a month. Less than a $1 a day. It sounds better than Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music. Qobuz sounds terrific but doesn’t have the library Tidal does. Tidal claims they share revenue with artists, too. I get a report each month on who gets what from my listening. We should support these providers, not try to game the system. Lecture over…

I know, but I just can't break the Yorkshire habit

All my IEM's were pre-owned too at better than half price

And this new Hiby R5G2 cost nearly £100 less for me to import than buying the R5 Sabre from Amazon UK.

 

[Narrative]

Tidal’s financial issues were five years ago. I’m not gonna be happy with you tightwads if they go out of business! It’s $20 a month. Less than a $1 a day. It sounds better than Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music. Qobuz sounds terrific but doesn’t have the library Tidal does. Tidal claims they share revenue with artists, too. I get a report each month on who gets what from my listening. We should support these providers, not try to game the system. Lecture over…

If you want to support the artist, buy the whole album (Bandcamp or the label's store), I do this in some cases. But this is already offtopic, it has nothing to do with R5 II.

 

[psikey]

So, where's all the semi and pro reviews? Couple in thread had early I think for testing, and nothing on the web really.

Did they hardly get any out before Chinese Labour Day holiday week?

 

[3Putter]

If you want to support the artist, buy the whole album (Bandcamp or the label's store), I do this in some cases. But this is already offtopic, it has nothing to do with R5 II.

I buy plenty vinyl, thank you for your suggestion. What would you like to hear about the R5G2? I'm not a professional reviewer but I could spend a few hours using the boiler plate review format and do one but I'm a part timer. This is my first DAP and I love it. It has terrific sound and opens up the stage for me, especially MQA. It could be my imagination but I prefer the sound of the Class A amp over the ESS amp. I left it in High Gain mode and tweaked the sound a little and just dug into listening. About 6 hours thus far and I'm digging it. Hard for me to imagine spending $3k each on IEM's and another DAP would make that much difference. I'm preferring my KS ZSX's 2.5 balanced over the other IEM's I have (both DD and 3.5). My first set of headphones, Grado SR125e's sound good, too. Will likely purchase a new set of headphones or IEM's, or both to get even better sound quality later this summer but if I had to or chose to stop here I'd be ok with that. I have had a couple of issues with it locking up or not responding but once I restarted the device I have had hours of trouble free operation. For $399 it's a great value rig. (The last hour playing w/o Class A and it sounds equally as good. Assume the additional amp is for higher impedance units?)

 

[Cabalsoljea]

I've been told that it doesn't drive the HD600/650 well.

Hmm. I'm listening at 50/100 volume level, high gain, Class-A, 4.4 BAL; sounds fine.

50/100 is thus set as my limit of the volume on the OS level.

 

[jsmiller58]

Tidal’s financial issues were five years ago. I’m not gonna be happy with you tightwads if they go out of business! It’s $20 a month. Less than a $1 a day. It sounds better than Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music. Qobuz sounds terrific but doesn’t have the library Tidal does. Tidal claims they share revenue with artists, too. I get a report each month on who gets what from my listening. We should support these providers, not try to game the system. Lecture over…

I have Tidal HiFi Plus, Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, and YouTube Music, all at full price Used to also have Qobuz, but in a brief moment of lucidity I decided one had to go. I can’t claim any real logic in the choice, just something had to go…

 

[Cabalsoljea]

I buy plenty vinyl, thank you for your suggestion. What would you like to hear about the R5G2? I'm not a professional reviewer but I could spend a few hours using the boiler plate review format and do one but I'm a part timer. This is my first DAP and I love it. It has terrific sound and opens up the stage for me, especially MQA. It could be my imagination but I prefer the sound of the Class A amp over the ESS amp. I left it in High Gain mode and tweaked the sound a little and just dug into listening. About 6 hours thus far and I'm digging it. Hard for me to imagine spending $3k each on IEM's and another DAP would make that much difference. I'm preferring my KS ZSX's 2.5 balanced over the other IEM's I have (both DD and 3.5). My first set of headphones, Grado SR125e's sound good, too. Will likely purchase a new set of headphones or IEM's, or both to get even better sound quality later this summer but if I had to or chose to stop here I'd be ok with that. I have had a couple of issues with it locking up or not responding but once I restarted the device I have had hours of trouble free operation. For $399 it's a great value rig. (The last hour playing w/o Class A and it sounds equally as good. Assume the additional amp is for higher impedance units?)

I prefer the Class-A sound too. But thankfully while out and about de-activating it still sounds great while having battery that lasts.

 

[StivVid]

I've been told that it doesn't drive the HD600/650 well.

Hmm. I'm listening at 50/100 volume level, high gain, Class-A, 4.4 BAL; sounds fine.

50/100 is thus set as my limit of the volume on the OS level.

I said earlier that it didn't drive my HD600s well from the single ended 3.5mm output. I don't have a balanced cable for my HD600s. Good to hear that you've had a good experience driving them balanced. I don't think that I'd actually ever be trying to drive my HD600s with the R5 Gen 2 in regular every day use. They're not very practical for portable listening. Good to know it's possible though.

 

[Cabalsoljea]

Ah yes not for walking around definitely. More for home use.

Don't have a dedicated stack at home for any monsters; Got the HD650 "cheap" when Sennheiser did their usual promos here.

 

[cj3209]

$450 for this...geez. With ROON capability via Google PlayStore, it makes my AK SP1000 and it's sideloading apps and ROON endpoint only look positively dated...