[Joe Bloggs]

I'm guessing that this is because the R6 Pro seems to experience a base ~5%/hr battery drain when the screen is off. I was experiencing this on the current 1.17 and the previous update, and I don't like the idle shutdown solution since it prevents automatic updates and downloads from functioning since when the player is on, I'm usually on the go somewhere without constant Wifi access.

I spent a bit of time in the last two weeks, to see if I could track down the issue and figure out how to get rid of it and it seems that I may have figured out how to reduce the drain to ~0.6%/hr with the screen off.

The source of the battery drain seems to be the Hiby MusicService triggering partial wakelocks with the OS while the screen is off, even if the actual player has been closed and removed from memory.

Since I know of other apps that keep a persistent notification loaded to prevent android from removing from memory or deep dozing the app and/or service, I figured it was worth trying to turn off the the notifications for Hiby. In the end it seems that disabling the notifications for the Hiby MusicService fixes the high battery drain issue when the screen is off.

To try and fix this, I did the following:
- Go to Settings -> Apps & notifications
- Select HibyMusic
- Select App notifications
- Under categories, you'll find two entries, leave Play control bar alone, but turn off notifications for MusicService

I've had this set for the last few days and can confirm that the battery drain seems to be gone, but I can't say for sure it fixed it without a longer period of testing. I've not noticed any issues with playback using the Hiby app, or with the audio quality in the Hiby Player or with any of my other music apps or players, but can't say for sure that there are no actual detrimental effects from doing this.

@Joe Bloggs do you have any info on if there is any reason not to disable the notifications for the MusicService if it mitigates the screen off battery drain behaviour of the R6 Pro? The service doesn't have anything to do with the custom audio stack that Hiby is using does it?

No it doesn't. If you notice your music dropping off sometime after you turned the screen off and left the player untouched for awhile, that would be cause for reversing the changes you made.

 

[jsmiller58]

@Joe Bloggs can you confirm that, with the latest R6 Pro FW installed (international version), it is safe to update to the latest version of Tidal? If it is not, then what is the latest version you recommend? Of course this is in the context of having Tidal's app MQA playback work correctly in offline mode.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I think that @Joe Bloggs has previously stated that the R6 Pro is upsampling everything by 2x in order to enable MQA software decode in the Tidal app... So..... even if it shows the higher bitrate it might not actually be doing the software unfold. Anyway ping @Joe Bloggs to see if this is all still the case.

For the longest time if you actually wanted offline MQA to work on the R6 Pro you had to side load the apk for an older version of Tidal, but I think that has been fixed in the newest FW. So if you recently updated the FW and are running the latest Tidal, it might in fact be working. Just don’t rely on the bit rate reading... I don’t know any way of actually knowing for certain what the R6 Pro is doing with Tidal...

As a reminder, the R6 Pro itself is not capable of the hardware decode of any second and third unfolds, if present (unlike the R3).

No, I said the R6 *would* have to upsample 2x in order to enable *system-wide* (not just in TIDAL) MQA decoding, the problem being that that would cause stuff that is not MQA to be upsampled as well.
That is not being done now, or planned in the works, the R6 makes no provisions for MQA decoding in its audio stack, but TIDAL 2.11.3 (a particular old build) and newest versions of TIDAL currently on the play store both do MQA decoding inside the app itself.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

@Joe Bloggs can you confirm that, with the latest R6 Pro FW installed (international version), it is safe to update to the latest version of Tidal? If it is not, then what is the latest version you recommend? Of course this is in the context of having Tidal's app MQA playback work correctly in offline mode.

I can confirm that about a month ago I updated to the newest version of TIDAL then available and it supported MQA decoding both online and offline.
Before that, the "version to have" was 2.11.3.

 

[jsmiller58]

No, I said the R6 *would* have to upsample 2x in order to enable *system-wide* (not just in TIDAL) MQA decoding, the problem being that that would cause stuff that is not MQA to be upsampled as well.
That is not being done now, or planned in the works, the R6 makes no provisions for MQA decoding in its audio stack, but TIDAL 2.11.3 (a particular old build) and newest versions of TIDAL currently on the play store both do MQA decoding inside the app itself.

Thank you for the clarification; sorry for any confusion I created. So the bit rate indicator is a solid way to determine what's going on. Good to know.

 

[jsmiller58]

I can confirm that about a month ago I updated to the newest version of TIDAL then available and it supported MQA decoding both online and offline.
Before that, the "version to have" was 2.11.3.

Thank you

 

[ariscotle]

Curious...

Anyone know why the R6 Pro displays "32bits" on the USB Dac screen?
I am currently playing a 24/96 stream from Qobuz from my MacBook Pro to the R6 Pro in USB Dac mode.

No matter what kind of file I play or what source of stream, the R6 Pro will display the proper kHz, but always read 32bits.
Just trying to figure out what this means.

Anyone with any info... hit me back.
Much appreciated

@Joe Bloggs ?

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Curious...

Anyone know why the R6 Pro displays "32bits" on the USB Dac screen?
I am currently playing a 24/96 stream from Qobuz from my MacBook Pro to the R6 Pro in USB Dac mode.

No matter what kind of file I play or what source of stream, the R6 Pro will display the proper kHz, but always read 32bits.
Just trying to figure out what this means.

Anyone with any info... hit me back.
Much appreciated

@Joe Bloggs ?

It's common that the bitstream will be "padded out" to 32 bits somewhere along the signal chain, possibiliy somewhere even within the player itself. As this consists simply of adding trailing zeroes, this has no effect on the sound, not even digitally, let alone audibly.

 

[mihaig]

No it doesn't. If you notice your music dropping off sometime after you turned the screen off and left the player untouched for awhile, that would be cause for reversing the changes you made.

I also noticed the same thing recently: music stops playing with Hiby Music unless I turn on the screen. Then it resumes playing. But I did not fiddle with any settings recently.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I also noticed the same thing recently: music stops playing with Hiby Music unless I turn on the screen. Then it resumes playing. But I did not fiddle with any settings recently.

What output method are you playing through? Headphone jack (which), coax, line, usb?

 

[mihaig]

What output method are you playing through? Headphone jack (which), coax, line, usb?

4.4mm output.

 

[IryxBRO]

HiBy R5 review

My blog: Link
Here: Link

 

[Nailzs]

Does the R6 Pro use USB-C out for music or is it input only?

 

[LoveMusicEveryday]

Does the R6 Pro use USB-C out for music or is it input only?

You can use it as a source as well.

 

[Nailzs]

You can use it as a source as well.

Thanks!