HiBy R6 III (Gen 3) Android digital audio player, Dual ES9038Q2M, Class A / AB amplification switch, Snapdragon 665, Open Android 12 OS, DSD512 / PCM768

[brainfog]

I was thinking about getting a new DAP and have narrowed it down between the Hiby R6 III and the Shanling M3 Ultra. Any thoughts or comments?

@cobrabucket Having used both I will say that for me the R6 III is the clear winner. Out of the box the M3 Ultra might have a slight edge of musical ability but the Plugin's and MSEB functinality in the HIBY make it a very tuneable device making it ideal for pretty much all of my IEM's and Headphones. The Shanlings Android Implementation is flawed (see spoiler below). I really wanted to like the Shanling M3 Ultra but the software experience just was't up to par for me. The Hiby R6 III isn't perfect (yet) due to some firmware bugs.. but it is customizable.. which is something I find extremely important. I've attached a snippet of my initial impressions of the M3 below.

Spoiler: Shanling M3 Ultra Impressions

Shanling M3 Ultra: I loved the form factor, controls and build quality of this player straight away and once I loaded up my SD Card full of files I was taken back by the sound quality of this player. It presented superb detail and dynamics and imaging and staging was very good. It presented itself as neutral but spiced up the mid bass and upper treble region that created a good synergy with all of my IEM's and even my HD6XX's, every track I played through the Shanling Music Player App seemed to come alive with this player... through both the the 3.5 & 4.4 outputs. I stayed up many hours past my bedtime that day as I could not stop listening... So far so good..

The next morning I started to instal my streaming apps from the Google Play store and this is when my experience started to go south. A couple of issues presented themselves once I moved away from playing local files on the Shanling App:

1. I was aware the home button had been scripted to act as Shanling's home screen as shown in this review by Mark Ryan and figured I could live with it. I don't tend to use launchers on Android but what I failed to realize is that when Pinning apps there is no way to unpin them unless you physically reboot the player (which seems painfully slow). I see you own a M8 so perhaps you are fine with this functionality but for me it felt like Shanling's is taking an Apple ioS approach to an open source platform. At this point I was annoyed but overlooked this issues as I loved the hardware build, controls, and sound quality.
2. The nail in the coffin however came about from the WIFI connection when I started streaming music from Qobuz (my main streaming platform) and experienced stuttering. I then thought to download the album to the player (i tired both internal and sd card) and the downloads seemed to stall after about 30 seconds. I tested this on Tidal and Spotify and experienced the same issues. I then installed Speedtest and and saw my download speeds were hovering around 4.2 MBPS down and uploads over 61MBPS!
   
   I tried removing the device from network... setting a static IP via hardware IP assignment with no luck. I even tried factory resetting the device but the best performance that I saw was around 48MBPS down for about 30 seconds before going back to 4MBPS moments later. I tested on both my Samsung Galaxy S21Ultra and the FiiO M11 Plus ESS and both were downloading/uploading at over 200MBPS. I reset the system, boxed it back up, and submitted my return request.

 

[cobrabucket]

@cobrabucket Having used both I will say that for me the R6 III is the clear winner. Out of the box the M3 Ultra might have a slight edge of musical ability but the Plugin's and MSEB functinality in the HIBY make it a very tuneable device. The Shanling Android Implementation is flawed (see spoiler below). I really wanted to like the Shanling M3 Ultra but the software experience just was't up to par for me. The Hiby R6 III isn't perfect.. but it is customizable.. which is something I find extremely important. I've attached a snippet of my initial impressions of the M3 below.

I see you have a Dorado 2020. Any hiss when using 4.4mm? Thanks!

 

[BobbyTBrown]

Good info, Much appreciated.
My only concern is that I understand the noise floor is higher on the R6 III than the M3U. I think my most sensitive IEMs are either the Campfire Vega OG or Dorado 2020, but I don't think they are as sensitive as something like an Andromeda though. Might not be a big deal?
Also, as far as bypassing the resampler and getting bit-perfect audio, does this also apply to Apple music or Amazon music? My understanding [at least a few months ago] was that they were resampled and/or had a max rate.
Getting close to making a decision here... Thank you very much!

MESB does work with Apple and Spotify, but not with Tidal Masters. I don't use Amazon Music and so I cannot comment on this one.
Unfortunately, I cannot comment on the noise floor either, as my main IEM is the Moondrop Variations.

 

[brainfog]

I see you have a Dorado 2020. Any hiss when using 4.4mm? Thanks!

I have not experienced any hiss what-so-ever with my Dorado's or any other IEM/headphone for that matter on the R6 III on either 3.5 or 4.4.. though I will say that my 50 year old well-worn ears may just not be able to detect that level of nuance any longer.

 

[brainfog]

@cobrabucket I see we have some crossover in several pairs of IEM's and headphones... I'll just say that the Hiby R6 III pairs extremely well with everything I"ve tried but the Ikko OH10 and 7HZ Timeless are a very good match up with this DAP. Both IEM's really come alive with just a bit of the sound field plugin to bring some much needed width and depth. MSEB tunning really isn't necassary for either pair.

 

[cobrabucket]

@cobrabucket I see we have some crossover in several pairs of IEM's and headphones... I'll just say that the Hiby R6 III pairs extremely well with everything I"ve tried but the Ikko OH10 and 7HZ Timeless are a very good match up with this DAP. Both IEM's really come alive with just a bit of the sound field plugin to bring some much needed width and depth. MSEB tunning really isn't necassary for either pair.

Ok... You talked me into it. I am stoked about this one!
My only other experience with a real DAP was a used FiiO M9 a friend gave me. It was ok, but really sluggish and quite limited with customization, etc.
Anyways, I guess I can now convert that into a dedicated BT transmitter from my PC and use the R6/3 as a receiver around the house when I'm feeling froggy.
I do also own both a Chord Mojo and a Cayin RU6, but decided that the dongle set-up is kinda cumbersome.
Anyways, onwards and upwards! I'll update with impressions after it arrives.
Thanks for all the helpful advice, y'all!

 

[stehn]

Hi all. Are there any other R6 Gen 3 users who don't have Bluetooth DAC mode working? Two of us already have at least no sound in this mode. The rest, it seems, they fixed in firmware 1.11, but this mode still does not work. I wrote to them on Facebook, but they did not want to answer me. Can someone share some information, if any?

 

[Leonarfd]

Hi all. Are there any other R6 Gen 3 users who don't have Bluetooth DAC mode working? Two of us already have at least no sound in this mode. The rest, it seems, they fixed in firmware 1.11, but this mode still does not work. I wrote to them on Facebook, but they did not want to answer me. Can someone share some information, if any?

I tried finding this out myself also without luck

Easiest is perhaps mailing HIBY trough their website.

 

[brainfog]

Hi all. Are there any other R6 Gen 3 users who don't have Bluetooth DAC mode working? Two of us already have at least no sound in this mode. The rest, it seems, they fixed in firmware 1.11, but this mode still does not work. I wrote to them on Facebook, but they did not want to answer me. Can someone share some information, if any?

I would also recommend emailing them at hello@hiby.com as I've had farily quick responses with that method.

 

[stehn]

I tried finding this out myself also without luck

Easiest is perhaps mailing HIBY trough their website.

Yes, you can probably try that too. Maybe I'll write to them now. So there is a problem, but they don't want to admit it. The software of this model is very raw, alas. Early they released the product to the market.

 

[gLer]

Yes, you can probably try that too. Maybe I'll write to them now. So there is a problem, but they don't want to admit it. The software of this model is very raw, alas. Early they released the product to the market.

I think you'll find HiBy's software platform is one of the most complete, mature and robust in the industry. Teething issues are normal for new hardware, and HiBy is better than most for sorting them out quickly.

 

[Leonarfd]

Since my unit work very well, I haven't upgraded to the last firmware update. In case something gets ****ed up.

 

[stehn]

I think you'll find HiBy's software platform is one of the most complete, mature and robust in the industry. Teething issues are normal for new hardware, and HiBy is better than most for sorting them out quickly.

Well, so far I don't see results. And this is already the 3rd firmware.

 

[stehn]

Since my unit work very well, I haven't upgraded to the last firmware update. In case something gets ****ed up.

It does not work with the first version of the firmware. They fixed the rest of the problems. At least I haven't found any more problems. I advise you to upgrade to 1.11, it works noticeably better.

 

[Leonarfd]

It does not work with the first version of the firmware. They fixed the rest of the problems. At least I haven't found any more problems. I advise you to upgrade to 1.11, it works noticeably better.

Thanks that explains it, might upgrade firmware later today and try then.