[jotterh]

I can help you out with this, because I’m exactly the same. I’ve come from listening to music on an iPhone and a ten year old Fiio X5, and it’s also my first Android experience.

The Hiby at its heart is an extremely competent music player. The audio quality from FLAC files and WAV files is extremely impressive.

But I’m not enjoying the Android experience at all. I have to remind myself that this isn’t a smart phone, it’s a music player and it’s about the superior sound quality. As with all hardware, I will learn to use it, but I’m finding navigating around straightforward operations to be rather tedious.

I posted just the other day that the Hiby time and date was constantly resetting every time I switched off the machine. Thanks to a reply on this thread, the v1.11 firmware fixed that. How did such a fundamental error like this actually make it to the point of retail?

I guess we have come to expect that manufacturers have no option, but to get their products out or they lose traction.
Conversely, I recently updated my historic X5 to v2.7 (from 2017) from v2.6 and it completely screwed importing FLAC files, with skipping and jittering. I rolled it back and it was fixed. So it also shows that even when a product has got that far, firmware can still cause issues.

I guess all we can do with these software based products is report issues as they happen and expect some action from the manufacturer.

Many companies in my industry, cameras, often just dangle exciting new upgrade features, with the fundamentals still requiring work a year later, as a distraction tactic and to keep hold of its customers with ‘caring’ development strategy.

I think if you remind yourself that it’s about enjoying the music, the player will already do what you need it to do, then you’ll be headed down the right road.

I really enjoy the R6 III sound, I don’t mind using the Hiby audio player app for now. I will learn the rest as I find my way through Android world, I’ll probably find I won’t care about much more.

One thing this Hiby experience has confirmed, is that I will never own an Android smart phone if the experience is like this! For me, although I know this is debatable, the iPhone is so unbelievably slick and intuitive everyday environment.

Thanks for the great reply, I've always had android so that part would be fine as used to settings & layout. I installed the hiby music app on my phone to try and i quite like it (though does have a few quirks i find annoying) i think i will ponder on it a bit more. Thanks.

I can help you out with this, because I’m exactly the same. I’ve come from listening to music on an iPhone and a ten year old Fiio X5, and it’s also my first Android experience.

The Hiby at its heart is an extremely competent music player. The audio quality from FLAC files and WAV files is extremely impressive.

But I’m not enjoying the Android experience at all. I have to remind myself that this isn’t a smart phone, it’s a music player and it’s about the superior sound quality. As with all hardware, I will learn to use it, but I’m finding navigating around straightforward operations to be rather tedious.

I posted just the other day that the Hiby time and date was constantly resetting every time I switched off the machine. Thanks to a reply on this thread, the v1.11 firmware fixed that. How did such a fundamental error like this actually make it to the point of retail?

I guess we have come to expect that manufacturers have no option, but to get their products out or they lose traction.
Conversely, I recently updated my historic X5 to v2.7 (from 2017) from v2.6 and it completely screwed importing FLAC files, with skipping and jittering. I rolled it back and it was fixed. So it also shows that even when a product has got that far, firmware can still cause issues.

I guess all we can do with these software based products is report issues as they happen and expect some action from the manufacturer.

Many companies in my industry, cameras, often just dangle exciting new upgrade features, with the fundamentals still requiring work a year later, as a distraction tactic and to keep hold of its customers with ‘caring’ development strategy.

I think if you remind yourself that it’s about enjoying the music, the player will already do what you need it to do, then you’ll be headed down the right road.

I really enjoy the R6 III sound, I don’t mind using the Hiby audio player app for now. I will learn the rest as I find my way through Android world, I’ll probably find I won’t care about much more.

One thing this Hiby experience has confirmed, is that I will never own an Android smart phone if the experience is like this! For me, although I know this is debatable, the iPhone is so unbelievably slick and intuitive everyday environment.

 

[jotterh]

Rarely happens. Computer gaming, TVs, and anything nowadays never gets released bug-free.

Certain Sony NW-A306s got released with what you could call the wrong sound signature with a big drop in bass db levels which Sony fixed in an FW update.

It happens all the time, no matter the cost, an A&K at £3000 will have issues. What matters is if a company listens and fixes them. An Android update could screw with the player's OS if it wasn't picked up by the manufacturer. All sorts can happen to an OS that the company doesn't think to check, or a combination of apps people use can affect the player that the manufacturer has no way of testing every combination.

If a bug doesn't affect me like some Tidal or Roon issues I just ignore them.


If the bugs mentioned here don't matter to you now and you don't think they will in the future, I'd say you can be relatively safe to ignore them.For me, the biggest issue is that my player is not picking up the newest FW update, but ATN it's not broken so I dont need a fix.

​

Hi, Yes thanks for reply I'm getting to understand it more now. Its just hard to get your head round quite expensive items needing to be constantly updated to fix issues, but like you say a myriad of different applications to all work seamlessly probably is quite a feat. Thanks

 

[jotterh]

While some people really, really, want to be early adopters, I think the general advice for most people is to never be an early adopter of a complex product. Wait a few months or more to let others find and report the most significant issues and for the manufacturer to address them.

(While Apple is not perfect, they do have a very unique situation where they control the full stack - from the hardware design, to the OS, to the software, so they can better understand all of the moving parts and thus have a much better handle on the quality. And they charge a premium which allows them more flexibility to invest.)

Hi, Yes your exactly right, holding back & waiting for the updates/firmware to sort the main problems to be solved takes time,(all the while sitting on your hands when wanting it now) Limited time doesn't help. Thanks

 

[jsmiller58]

Hi, Yes your exactly right, holding back & waiting for the updates/firmware to sort the main problems to be solved takes time,(all the while sitting on your hands when wanting it now) Limited time doesn't help. Thanks

Time isn’t really limited, unless the product or the buyer are about to expire! What is limited is patience - all of us want what we want, and we want it now!

Patience is, as the saying goes, a virtue (especially if the product will only get better with a little patience).

 

[tinkererGCH]

I am really tempted to get the TempoTec V6 (with Leathercase and the Serenade X as bundle. From the optic it it very similar to the Hiby R6 Gen 3 (the volume button is on the top). Of course inside is the big difference
- 2 GB RAM
- 16 GB Storage
- 2 AKM 4493 instead es ESS Saber
- Android 8.1.
but has all the features as the hiby (software wise). and also the connections are the same.
As an alternative I would really like to go with the Questyle QP2R, because it is Linux based (I really want to see more linux based system, even that Android is a Linux based Distro, but still Android). The price is steep.
Or I just stick with the hiby R6 Gen3. not sure.

 

[natanael]

I bought mine last week... really happy with the sound and the performance... I'm using apple music and download all the music I listen offline... just wondering.. will hiby add normal EQ (parametric eq) as an addition to MSEB?

I like MSEB, but sometime I like to have the full control of EQ for the system wide sound...

 

[corgifall]

My review for the R6 III is up!

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/hiby-r6-iii.26428/reviews#review-30579

 

[Sorys]

My review for the R6 III is up!

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/hiby-r6-iii.26428/reviews#review-30579

Guessing you havent used much class a. That makes the dap get very toasty

 

[whyohwhy]

Guessing you havent used much class a. That makes the dap get very toasty

He covers that in the review itself.
Nice review, thanks

 

[Sorys]

He covers that in the review itself.
Nice review, thanks

You are right they do. But also makes out using class a as an edge case when there are people who will no doubt buy this dap to use class a only

 

[corgifall]

Yeah, for full size over ear headphones, it will definitely need class A. I personally use it in AB mode probably 95% of the time.

 

[Sorys]

Yeah, for full size over ear headphones, it will definitely need class A. I personally use it in AB mode probably 95% of the time.

Completely agree overears really do like class a. Only had one pair of iems benefit from the class a that being the dunu talos gets rid of that treble glare it was picking up.

But i use my elegias a lot as they are my main travel headphones so class a gets a fair workout from me. Probably a split of 65% class ab 35% class a

 

[PeteJ]

Quick question, hope experienced owners would know the answer, is there any mechanism to bypass the battery when using this DAP connected to power on the desk ?

I'm considering getting R6III to use on the go and Fiio K7 for desk use with my IEMs... But if the battery would be bypassed and not used maybe R6III would do it all? What do you guys think ?

 

[corgifall]

Quick question, hope experienced owners would know the answer, is there any mechanism to bypass the battery when using this DAP connected to power on the desk ?

I'm considering getting R6III to use on the go and Fiio K7 for desk use with my IEMs... But if the battery would be bypassed and not used maybe R6III would do it all? What do you guys think ?

Someone might have better info but the only options I see for USB in are to have it use battery only or battery and charge. I would imagine it still charges the battery as is it’s plugged in. I keep it set to max charge of 85% and it doesn’t charge past that when used as a laptop DAC/amp

 

[omearmski]

Had the r6 iii for about a week now. Loving it although I am experiencing a very strange issue using Poweramp. Bluetooth, speaker outputs working perfectly but wired connection is playing all tracks at what looks like 2 or 3 times the speed. As soon as I unplug headphones from the balanced output on the r6 and switch to Bluetooth tracks play fine again. I've tried hi res, open, etc options but all the same issue for wired connection. I've also tried uninstalling, reinstalling, scanning SD card again etc. Both hiby player and uapp work fine wired and bluetooth but I'm used to power amps UI from my smartphone. Anyone any ideas? Its been reported to the hiby Devs for further investigation