[Ceteru]

Well I have no issue with you having your opinion. I have mine and what you have stated above does not change it. What I see as an overreaction you don’t. Just as what I said as purely a joke clearly you and @Joe Bloggs don't see it the same way.

Like I mentioned already, I have said my piece. Will only respond if responded to. Moving this thread right along, let’s view it this way, just as two people will read things differently, two people will hear audio differently! Maybe audio is the best continuation here.

No issues with that on my side; trying to change someone's opinion is usually a futile effort at the best of times. The better approach is to "put a rock in their shoe" and give them something to think about long after you've left

I saw your edited apology to Joe above and that's good enough for me (whatever that means, as it wasn't intended for me).

Pure audio talk it is!

I will leave this here 3 https://archimago.blogspot.com/2017/09/mqa-core-vs-hi-res-blind-test-part-ii.html

This was pretty interesting to read through; I haven't tried in a while, but the last time I did, I couldn't hear the difference between MQA and Hi-Res.

My personal view is that if I absolutely love an album and I plan on listening to it for years and years to come, I'll get it in the highest quality that is still efficient for me space-wise.

Otherwise, I leave the rest at a lower quality (320 kbps MP3 minimum) since I'm not bothered by the sound difference.

People want support or features all the time that might not make sense... have you seen what is in a mansion, private jet, or high end sports car? Or the family that drives a Range Rover or other high end SUV when the most challenging terrain they encounter is a pothole on the way to the supermarket?

I agree that MQA is likely useless, and possibly detrimental. Doesn’t stop me from wanting it Companies should identify and fill market needs. Remember the old adage “The customer is always right.” It is important to help educate customers so they can make smarter buying decisions, so making public analysis like the one you linked to is a great public service. But the demand is still there for now. May as well fill it

I wonder if there's a different/parallel approach to be taken here as far as supporting MQA..rather than HiBy or whoever else putting themselves out on the limb and taking the fall if the format fails, could we all put pressure on Amazon for example to support it and push the market forward (allowing our favorite audio companies to feel more assured in following suit)?

Amazon clearly sees that there is a market for Hi-Fi audio, so hopefully it's just a matter of making them see the word "MQA" everywhere they turn

 

[jsmiller58]

No issues with that on my side; trying to change someone's opinion is usually a futile effort at the best of times. The better approach is to "put a rock in their shoe" and give them something to think about long after you've left

I saw your edited apology to Joe above and that's good enough for me (whatever that means, as it wasn't intended for me).

Pure audio talk it is!



This was pretty interesting to read through; I haven't tried in a while, but the last time I did, I couldn't hear the difference between MQA and Hi-Res.

My personal view is that if I absolutely love an album and I plan on listening to it for years and years to come, I'll get it in the highest quality that is still efficient for me space-wise.

Otherwise, I leave the rest at a lower quality (320 kbps MP3 minimum) since I'm not bothered by the sound difference.



I wonder if there's a different/parallel approach to be taken here as far as supporting MQA..rather than HiBy or whoever else putting themselves out on the limb and taking the fall if the format fails, could we all put pressure on Amazon for example to support it and push the market forward (allowing our favorite audio companies to feel more assured in following suit)?

Amazon clearly sees that there is a market for Hi-Fi audio, so hopefully it's just a matter of making them see the word "MQA" everywhere they turn

“The better approach is to "put a rock in their shoe" and give them something to think about long after you've left ”

Oh trust me, I’ve been in those shoes. I will give you an idea... Today I am responsible for an unimaginable amount of computing... I have to deal with unhappy customers all the time. A long time ago I had a role which had me responsible for all of my company’s products... on one trip to a foreign country to visit a customer there was talk of having my passport confiscated until their issues had been addressed... I did not take that as idle talk as I was told it had happened to others from our company in a similar situation. Yes, I’ve had to deal with difficult situations with customers.

Don’t assume I haven’t walked in @Joe Bloggs shoes, and definitely don’t assume I haven’t had pebbles, spikes, or hot coals in those shoes

 

[fonsecaj]

I just bought an R6 Pro a week ago and I think it's very good. Definitely not the most "reference" DAP I've had, but definitely the most fun. I like that it's one of the few current generation Android DAPs that has Play Store support. I think it pairs very well with my Fiio FH-7 nicely, 846s not so much.

Of course I sifted through this forum thread to look for possible issues/tips/whatever.

Now that I've gotten to the end, I have to say I'm even less interested in the bickering and hurt feelings than I am with support of MQA and of MQA in general. The difference is that the MQA discussion is relevant to the device. The personal insults and justifications for making them are not.

 

[LCMusicLover]

Since I don’t have a single MQA source file, I have nothing to contribute to that discussion. But...

I did just receive an aluminum R6-Pro from Amazon. Very happy with it so far. Especially pleased that it drives all my full-size cans with ease, including my HEKv2, which is playing between 35 - 50 / 100 on high gain.

I really like the usability and responsiveness of this device.

Really, the only nit I have is that all my portable balanced cables are 2.5mm terminated. R6 came with the the Cayin angled adapter (from MusicTeck) which works fine. It’s just the way the cable/adapter combo provides so much leverage (potentially) on the player jack that worries me. But I can’t really see modding all my existing cables.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Well, it *is* the sturdiest portable headphone jack out there, the 4.4mm...

 

[LCMusicLover]

Well, it *is* the sturdiest portable headphone jack out there, the 4.4mm...

I get that. But if you push on the cable termination plugged into the adapter, it does exert significant leverage against the jack. Not a complaint by any means — just a concern. Of course there are a couple of solutions:

- re-terminate
- be careful

cheers

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Regarding the calls of "but I'll pay for MQA on this",
1. there's not really a way of handling payments and exclusive updates to the firmware
2. even if there were, there's no realistic sum that *just the interested users* can pay to settle the cost of developing this and the license fees incurred.

Supporting MQA is also an ongoing expense, in terms of CPU cycles expended on constantly monitoring the audio stream for MQA content, working to satisfy MQA requirements such as no DSP with any MQA content (when the R6pro has both MSEB and tube simulation that are otherwise active all the time), and fielding support questions of real and imagined problems that arise as a result (e.g. of the latter: all MQA content is upsampled to 352/384kHz, even when the original sampling rate is stated to be lower. This is just how MQA likes it to be and there's no way around it.)

 

[Adnan Firoze]

I got one of the HiBy R6 Pro earlier this week.

I like it, but I'm getting occasional stutter on playback of my hi-res flac files. These same files play fine on all my other DAPs.

Anyone else having this issue? If it is persistent I will likely return the unit and try another brand but I'd prefer to keep it.

Thanks,
Randy

Hi Randy, did you figure this out? Is it a stutter or the (in)famous crackling issue with Wifi/Bluetooth IR interference? If you move your phone away from it, does it go away?

I really like the R6 Pro and I use it on the go and the IR interference is a buzzkill. I saw that a way-around is to disable bluetooth and Wifi on the phone that is nearby but that shouldn't be an ideal solution. Anyone else figured any fix for this? Mine is still under warranty (from Musictek) and I really want to keep this as I love the sound. But that quirk is a real downer.

 

[Ceteru]

Regarding the calls of "but I'll pay for MQA on this",
1. there's not really a way of handling payments and exclusive updates to the firmware
2. even if there were, there's no realistic sum that *just the interested users* can pay to settle the cost of developing this and the license fees incurred.

Supporting MQA is also an ongoing expense, in terms of CPU cycles expended on constantly monitoring the audio stream for MQA content, working to satisfy MQA requirements such as no DSP with any MQA content (when the R6pro has both MSEB and tube simulation that are otherwise active all the time), and fielding support questions of real and imagined problems that arise as a result (e.g. of the latter: all MQA content is upsampled to 352/384kHz, even when the original sampling rate is stated to be lower. This is just how MQA likes it to be and there's no way around it.)

This makes a lot of sense to me honestly..

My company is in the Enterprise SaaS (Software as a Service) sphere, and we have to explain to customers so often that with the product we develop, there is limited room for the type of deep customization they want.

We're actually in the middle of cleaning up the mess of one of our biggest clients because they decided they wanted a custom build of code with features special to them (as well as roadmapped features that were coming down the line anyway), and our leadership gave into their demands.

Big surprise, it turned out to be impossible to support this on either side for more than 3-4 months (from a testing, development, deployment perspective), and now we're taking steps to merge them back into the main code branch where they can receive the regular, stable updates they complained they weren't getting.

Trying to support the main firmware code branch + n other branches ("n" meaning people who paid for the special MQA license) would be a nightmare.

Joe, I know you probably don't have the answer on this, but is it possible MQA was brought to the R5 as a test of the waters to see how difficult/expensive it would be to support?

 

[Pretardo]

Hi Randy, did you figure this out? Is it a stutter or the (in)famous crackling issue with Wifi/Bluetooth IR interference? If you move your phone away from it, does it go away?

I really like the R6 Pro and I use it on the go and the IR interference is a buzzkill. I saw that a way-around is to disable bluetooth and Wifi on the phone that is nearby but that shouldn't be an ideal solution. Anyone else figured any fix for this? Mine is still under warranty (from Musictek) and I really want to keep this as I love the sound. But that quirk is a real downer.

RF or EMI can be a bit annoying, but I’ve been playing around with it for a while on the R6 pro. I’m going to make the assumption that you’re using the 4.4mm balanced connection and that you’re probably driving ~20ohm IEMs?
Here’s what I have noticed. I haven’t completely narrowed it down, but I’m getting closer and I think it’s the cable used seems to matter quite a bit. I was using a Meze 4.4mm cable and I had lots of RF clicking even from the R6 pro’s internal WiFi connection. This problem got me onto this thread and kept me away from 4.4mm for a while.
But me, being me, I couldn’t just leave it alone and when I got a set of BLON-03’s I also order a Tripowin C8 (you can find your own link) cable to go with it terminating in 4.4mm. Amazingly the RF wasn’t an issue anymore unless I was stacking my phone with the R6 pro.
Ive since tried IEMs with no problems.

32ohms / 102db/mW (BLON-03) tripowin C8
40ohms / 103db/mW (IER Z1R) stock 4.4mm
12.6ohms / 108db/mW (U12t) tripowin C8

The only thing I haven’t done is go back to the original IEMs and try the Sony stock cable to see if there’s any impact on the RF crackling. Maybe do that later today to just close this case.

Hope that helps.

 

[Adnan Firoze]

RF or EMI can be a bit annoying, but I’ve been playing around with it for a while on the R6 pro. I’m going to make the assumption that you’re using the 4.4mm balanced connection and that you’re probably driving ~20ohm IEMs?
Here’s what I have noticed. I haven’t completely narrowed it down, but I’m getting closer and I think it’s the cable used seems to matter quite a bit. I was using a Meze 4.4mm cable and I had lots of RF clicking even from the R6 pro’s internal WiFi connection. This problem got me onto this thread and kept me away from 4.4mm for a while.
But me, being me, I couldn’t just leave it alone and when I got a set of BLON-03’s I also order a Tripowin C8 (you can find your own link) cable to go with it terminating in 4.4mm. Amazingly the RF wasn’t an issue anymore unless I was stacking my phone with the R6 pro.
Ive since tried IEMs with no problems.

32ohms / 102db/mW (BLON-03) tripowin C8
40ohms / 103db/mW (IER Z1R) stock 4.4mm
12.6ohms / 108db/mW (U12t) tripowin C8

The only thing I haven’t done is go back to the original IEMs and try the Sony stock cable to see if there’s any impact on the RF crackling. Maybe do that later today to just close this case.

Hope that helps.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. Really appreciate it. I am using pretty sensitive IEMs (Solaris and Andromeda) and some very good Null Audio cables (Tiburon Copper Cryo and Lune - 8 wire versions). I will give a go with stock Litz cables too. And yes, I am using 4.4mm.

Also, a good pairing with this was my IMR Rah, which has a decent cable too (also 4.4mm) - and that's not too sensitive.

I will experiment and update too.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[Pretardo]

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. Really appreciate it. I am using pretty sensitive IEMs (Solaris and Andromeda) and some very good Null Audio cables (Tiburon Copper Cryo and Lune - 8 wire versions). I will give a go with stock Litz cables too. And yes, I am using 4.4mm.

Also, a good pairing with this was my IMR Rah, which has a decent cable too (also 4.4mm) - and that's not too sensitive.

I will experiment and update too.

Thanks again for your help!

Thanks,
Cool! Let’s build a data set and maybe we can find out what works and what doesn’t. It could be cables or it could be devices or environment.
I’ll get back to you regarding the Meze Rai Penta and 4.4mm

 

[Pretardo]

Quick update:
Meze Rai Penta with IER-Z1R balance cables have very little RF either playing or paused stacked with an iPhone 11 on LTE (4 bars). Volume level: 26

As a result, I’m pretty comfortable saying that the most significant impact on RFI with low impedance IEMs and 4.4mm balanced connections on the R6 pro is audio cable insulation. If you have an issue with RAdio Frequency Interference (clicking), then try a different audio cable, first.

 

[magicrandy]

Hi Randy, did you figure this out? Is it a stutter or the (in)famous crackling issue with Wifi/Bluetooth IR interference? If you move your phone away from it, does it go away?

I really like the R6 Pro and I use it on the go and the IR interference is a buzzkill. I saw that a way-around is to disable bluetooth and Wifi on the phone that is nearby but that shouldn't be an ideal solution. Anyone else figured any fix for this? Mine is still under warranty (from Musictek) and I really want to keep this as I love the sound. But that quirk is a real downer.

Thanks for checking.

It was a stutter, not the crackling issue. I played the unit overnight and the stutter went away. Maybe it needed to be burned in. I had already played it a lot with Amazon Music and that was fine. The stutter came when I first started playing music from a microsd card.

Randy

 

[Pro-Jules]

I'd like to know the same thing. I think Tidal is superb on the R6 Pro, both through the native app and through UAPP. Amazon Music is slow and cumbersome by comparison, and you don't get the advantage of streaming through UAPP's optimised engine.

Can anyone tell me about the sonic benefits of UAPP playback of Tidal (I assume it only works when streaming)

Thank you