[Shmuel]

What is the best way to connect the hiby r6 to a Hugo 2? Usb-c or line out of hiby and to which connector on the Hugo 2, micro usb, etc.?

Your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated!

 

[37mica]

Joe - I appreciate your answer. Others have mentioned that some of us sound too aggressive. I hope I did not come through as aggressive. I do believe that HiBy Music player is a key app in a DAP, and was (still am) hoping for a fix

As for Poweramp, Neutron, BlackPlayer, foobar2000 or any other music player - can ANYONE please share their experience and recommendations?

I tried a few and ended up liking BlackPlayer the most.

I gave up on Pulsar, Phonograph and Shuttle because I couldn't figure out how to get them to read the folders on the SD card.
VLC was able to find the SD card and showed artwork correctly but couldn't load the m3u playlists.
Poweramp and BlackPlayer could find the SD card, show artwork and load playlists (the import individual playlist function in BlackPlayer didn't work for me, but it was able to import them fine as part of the library music scan).
Between those 2 BlackPlayer has a more modern interface and has a decent free version (Poweramp is pay only). Tons of tweaking in the Settings. Can manually search and select missing artwork and gives option to embed in files or just place jpg in folder.
There's a paid version which unlocks even more customization settings.
Didn't try neutron or foobar2000

 

[TheEldestBoy]

Great in depth review. Issues with Tidal scare me though. Hope they iron that out soon. It’s unfortunate that these new daps are built for streaming services but many don’t take full advantage. Streaming is where it’s at (for a lot of people). I don’t even buy music anymore since TIDAL HiFi. CD quality, I can download for offline use, create my playlists, that’s all I need. I don’t have to worry about getting my songs onto my dap and trying to get my playlists to show up. I still can’t get playlists to show up on my X7mkII. I pretty much gave up, but I have tidal now, who needs it I say. Eventually Tidal should bring MQA to Portable. When that happens we’ll have master quality streaming. It will eventually get there.

My point is I wish more dap makers start to take advantage of streaming and building there daps to bring all the functionality they brag about to streaming. To be able to eq tidal or Spotify or even Apple Music (sounds like crap) would really be a selling point to brag about. Same with DLNA. People stream at home. Things like eq and sound adjustments should be universally applied regardless of how one listens. As a software maker I’m sure HiBy understands this and knows they are in perfect position to lead the market in this area.

I agree 100%.

I pretty much only listen via TIDAL offline these days (it’s been 3 years+ since I bought a CD or a digital download).

I’m waiting for the day when DAPs can flawlessly run streaming apps and allow users to apply EQ settings system wide.

My dream is to have a DAP powerful enough for my HD600 and be able to play TIDAL offline with full EQ options (I love a bit of bass boost).

Until then, I’ll be stacking the Fiio Q5 with my iPhone.

It does sound like the R6 is a step in the right direction though (3GB RAM, etc)!

 

[davidcotton]

I tried a few and ended up liking BlackPlayer the most.

I gave up on Pulsar, Phonograph and Shuttle because I couldn't figure out how to get them to read the folders on the SD card.
VLC was able to find the SD card and showed artwork correctly but couldn't load the m3u playlists.
Poweramp and BlackPlayer could find the SD card, show artwork and load playlists (the import individual playlist function in BlackPlayer didn't work for me, but it was able to import them fine as part of the library music scan).
Between those 2 BlackPlayer has a more modern interface and has a decent free version (Poweramp is pay only). Tons of tweaking in the Settings. Can manually search and select missing artwork and gives option to embed in files or just place jpg in folder.
There's a paid version which unlocks even more customization settings.
Didn't try neutron or foobar2000

Any noticeable sound differences between them (which I doubt?)

 

[FastAndLight]

Does anyone have a good way for handling compilation albums in Hiby Music? I don't see an option to group albums that are listed as compilations together (my tags include the compilation information). I just loaded a few onto my card and now have a mess of artists. Browsing by artist is my preferred method, so I now have a bunch of artists with one or two songs.

While writing this I realized I could do a scan of just some folders, so I've done that and I'll now just browse by folder to get those albums. I do have a few albums with featured artists in the title which show up as separate entries, so some way of addressing this natively in Hiby music would be much appreciated (giving us the option of grouping compilations / various artist albums separately, recognizing the album artist tag, etc.).

 

[37mica]

Any noticeable sound differences between them (which I doubt?)

I switched back and forth between BlackPlayer and Hiby Player on the same song and couldn't hear any difference

 

[FastAndLight]

My dream is to have a DAP powerful enough for my HD600 and be able to play TIDAL offline with full EQ options (I love a bit of bass boost).

I think the R6 is pretty close. The Tidal issues are software based, and given the number of complaints here I'm sure Hiby is working on it diligently, as well as making the EQ settings available outside of Hiby Music (I thought I read that. @Joe Bloggs would have to confirm both of those).

Driving the HD600's should be more than possible through the balanced output. I was not happy with any previous portable source for my heaphones, including my Macbook Pro, until I got the R6. The experience with the R6 (using the balanced output) is comparable to my desktop amp.

 

[TheEldestBoy]

I think the R6 is pretty close. The Tidal issues are software based, and given the number of complaints here I'm sure Hiby is working on it diligently, as well as making the EQ settings available outside of Hiby Music (I thought I ready that. @Joe Bloggs would have to confirm both of those).

Driving the HD600's should be more than possible through the balanced output. I was not happy with any previous portable source for my heaphones, including my Macbook Pro, until I got the R6. The experience with the R6 (using the balanced output) is comparable to my desktop amp.

Thanks for the insight.
I would love to hear what @Joe Bloggs has to say re: making the EQ settings available outside of Hiby Music. This could seriously sway me away from the Q5 and towards the R6.

 

[DougD]

Hello ying27,

Yes, the line out volume is currently adjustable on the R6. This is a feature of the DAC itself (hence it is a true line out) but often leaves users of previous fixed line outs a little confused and doubtful, so we don't know if we'll be keeping the feature

Hello Joe!

Sorry if this has already been commented on by others, I'm a bit behind in my reading.

I don't have the R6 (yet?), but to me this is a really nice feature, assuming there's no SQ tradeoffs involved. When I make a line-out connection to other gear, having working volume controls on the device that I'm also using to pick the tunes means I don't have to go to any of the other connected devices to manage the volume. So those other devices .. be they desktop or portable gear .. don't have be as accessible. That's adds convenience to me as a user and also flexibility in gear placement/configuration.

"Users of previous fixed line outs" should be able to re-calibrate their minds reasonably quickly. (We would hope.)

 

[Yuurei]

I think the R6 is pretty close. The Tidal issues are software based, and given the number of complaints here I'm sure Hiby is working on it diligently, as well as making the EQ settings available outside of Hiby Music (I thought I ready that. @Joe Bloggs would have to confirm both of those).

Did I miss something, what problems with Tidal? For me it’s running flawless (90% offline listenining), although I had two, minor hicups. But it was nothing comparing to X5-3

 

[Mezzi]

I tried a few and ended up liking BlackPlayer the most.

I like that the Black Player shows ALL of the album art, the Hiby app has a cuts it off, it's also nice there are no missing art issues.
Looks like the Black Player app is a great choice until Hiby fixes their app.

 

[G_T_J]

Did I miss something, what problems with Tidal? For me it’s running flawless (90% offline listenining), although I had two, minor hicups. But it was nothing comparing to X5-3

Will you also share some impressions of the differences with the X5iii?

 

[doomgazer]

I like that the Black Player shows ALL of the album art, the Hiby app has a cuts it off, it's also nice there are no missing art issues.
Looks like the Black Player app is a great choice until Hiby fixes their app.

I second this. The Hiby app cutting the album artwork also bothers me a lot.

 

[Yuurei]

Will you also share some impressions of the differences with the X5iii?

I had lots of stuttering while playing with X5iii, sometimes every 3rd song. It was irritating as hell. Also there was always a small “pause” between tracks while on R6 I get gapless playback so it’s much better and more engaging experience with HiBy.

 

[G_T_J]

I had lots of stuttering while playing with X5iii, sometimes every 3rd song. It was irritating as hell. Also there was always a small “pause” between tracks while on R6 I get gapless playback so it’s much better and more engaging experience with HiBy.

Brilliant! I suppose sound is also superior?