[jlemaster1957]

Only over ears

Both- great either way but my over ears (Audeze LCD-X and Hifiman Arya) are not hard to drive. No hiss on any of my IEMS.

 

[klyaksa]

Both- great either way but my over ears (Audeze LCD-X and Hifiman Arya) are not hard to drive. No hiss on any of my IEMS.

In fact, CA Solaris headphones hiss, not much, but audible at 3.5 and very audible at 4.4 How do you feel about ifi iemach? does it ruin the sound?

 

[iFi audio]

How do you feel about ifi iemach? does it ruin the sound?

If it does, we don't know about it yet

Other than this, iEMatch is quite popular among CA owners, thanks!

 

[TheDecline01]

Hi everyone, I have been watching the thread for some time since I'm a proud owner of the R8, but I never saw any official mention of an Android upgrade to a version 9/10/11/12/13. Does anybody know if that's in a Hiby roadmap? It's more about curiosity and relief in durability from the Hiby dev teams than a real need since I'm only using local files from an micro SD card. It's always good to know a flagship player at this price range has a good dev follow-up.

 

[jlemaster1957]

Hi everyone, I have been watching the thread for some time since I'm a proud owner of the R8, but I never saw any official mention of an Android upgrade to a version 9/10/11/12/13. Does anybody know if that's in a Hiby roadmap? It's more about curiosity and relief in durability from the Hiby dev teams than a real need since I'm only using local files from an micro SD card. It's always good to know a flagship player at this price range has a good dev follow-up.

It’s already running Android 9 not sure about 10 +- I was under the impression that there are hardware limitations to upgrading to higher versions like 10/11/12 but @Joe Bloggs may know.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Hi everyone, I have been watching the thread for some time since I'm a proud owner of the R8, but I never saw any official mention of an Android upgrade to a version 9/10/11/12/13. Does anybody know if that's in a Hiby roadmap? It's more about curiosity and relief in durability from the Hiby dev teams than a real need since I'm only using local files from an micro SD card. It's always good to know a flagship player at this price range has a good dev follow-up.

When I was PR for FiiO I made a post priding on how the original X3 had a firmware update 2 years from original launch. I remember thinking "well if they did it right the first time we could have done with zero updates start to finish..." Not to say that new updates aren't important, but the current state of firmware is even more important. I just wish planned obsolescence isn't so totally institutionalized with these Android devices... Anyway, I have posed the question to HQ and will let you know of any official answer given.

 

[gazzington]

When I was PR for FiiO I made a post priding on how the original X3 had a firmware update 2 years from original launch. I remember thinking "well if they did it right the first time we could have done with zero updates start to finish..." Not to say that new updates aren't important, but the current state of firmware is even more important. I just wish planned obsolescence isn't so totally institutionalized with these Android devices... Anyway, I have posed the question to HQ and will let you know of any official answer given.

It’s funny how we all (me included) start thinking an android dap becomes end of life when it’s android op system gets a bit old. Even if the streaming apps stop working you can still play your local files. When you think about it that’s what non android daps such as lotoo are like from the beginning

 

[jlemaster1957]

It’s funny how we all (me included) start thinking an android dap becomes end of life when it’s android op system gets a bit old. Even if the streaming apps stop working you can still play your local files. When you think about it that’s what non android daps such as lotoo are like from the beginning

Agree- however I am having NO problem with R8 and it’s Android ver 9 streaming Tidal via UAPP. Firmware is current and everything seems to work fine. Battery still holding up- I wish it was user changeable is all but I think that’s next years problem.

 

[klyaksa]

Agree- however I am having NO problem with R8 and it’s Android ver 9 streaming Tidal via UAPP. Firmware is current and everything seems to work fine. Battery still holding up- I wish it was user changeable is all but I think that’s next years problem.

I really hope that Android 9 streaming support will be long enough. I recently discovered qobuz, I like it more than tidal.
And about the battery sadness Self-discharge continues. You can replace it yourself. Patience and direct hands. Hairdryer (construction) and sucker.
Here to buy a battery, this is another question. I would like to know its dimensions and how many wires come out of it. How is the battery connected to the board? pick up

 

[TheDecline01]

When I was PR for FiiO I made a post priding on how the original X3 had a firmware update 2 years from original launch. I remember thinking "well if they did it right the first time we could have done with zero updates start to finish..." Not to say that new updates aren't important, but the current state of firmware is even more important. I just wish planned obsolescence isn't so totally institutionalized with these Android devices... Anyway, I have posed the question to HQ and will let you know of any official answer given.

Ok, nice update, I hope you'll hear from them soon.
I repeat myself, but to be quoting @gazzington I am still an LPG owner and user, and I do use the R8 as the LPG: playing local music, so I don't really care about streaming apps. But I do care in the case the current firmware goes wrong for any reason that Hiby is still there supporting their DAP.

 

[jlemaster1957]

Ok, nice update, I hope you'll hear from them soon.
I repeat myself, but to be quoting @gazzington I am still an LPG owner and user, and I do use the R8 as the LPG: playing local music, so I don't really care about streaming apps. But I do care in the case the current firmware goes wrong for any reason that Hiby is still there supporting their DAP.

Agree- I was a bit worried a couple of months ago when there was a firmware issue raised on this thread and then I saw that Musicteck in the US no longer listed the R8; however, now it is back up there. I imagine support will go on at least as long as they keep selling it and probably while they have parts for it The R6 Pro (pre-2020) is still for sale also though that one is (unsurprisingly) sold out. And even IF that day comes when they stop supporting but I need service, I am certain Andrew @MusicTeck would do his best to help me get the repair done. But it’s fine now.

My main concern is being without it when the battery fails if it has to go back to China to change that out.

 

[Newsee]

It’s funny how we all (me included) start thinking an android dap becomes end of life when it’s android op system gets a bit old. Even if the streaming apps stop working you can still play your local files. When you think about it that’s what non android daps such as lotoo are like from the beginning

Not that surprising when 95% of listening is streaming. Only the very long time favourite albums get purchased.

I changed to the R8 from Kann Cube one and a half year ago due to the comfort (no hurting edges) and the constant immediate readyness (wake up time from standby is almost zero, never afraid of putting it on charger as charging limit is configurable).

I am also using it as transport when I am using my desktop gear, it has a super smooth USB out. So for me, it is very important that it remains app compatible.

The Cube cannot take the latest Qobuz app any more, and the installed one cannot take my long list of favourites any more, so it started to be limited. The more limitation comes the less probability it gets for listening, even if I like how it sounds.

 

[Deferenz]

I have an issue with offline listening and I wonder if anyone else has had this.

I only stream music and I use Tidal. So that I could listen offline I used an SD card and downloaded some of my Tidal playlists to it. The problem I’m having though is that when I try to play music offline from the SD card a message comes up at the bottom of the screen that says ‘There was a connection problem - RETRY’. It will not let me play anything. However, if I then connect to WiFi the music will start to play.

I have checked that the playlist is downloaded, and the downloaded icon is coloured blue on the playlist screen.

The download destination is Memory card.

When I click on the heart symbol that takes me to the ‘My Collection’ screen, when I press ‘Downloaded’ it shows the playlists I’ve downloaded.

But here’s something I’ve found. In the My Collection page, when I press on the wheel icon on the right hand side, on the next screen there is the option for Offline Mode. If I switch this on I would assume that all of my playlists should be available. However, when I then go to the playlist a vast majority of songs are all greyed out. I have tried deleting the playlist and then downloading it fresh again, but the same thing seems to happen.

I’m at a loss of how to sort this. If anyone has any ideas that would be great

Here is an image of a playlist in offline mode. As you can see the track by Kansas is available to listen to, but the rest of the songs are all greyed out.

 

[jlemaster1957]

I have an issue with offline listening and I wonder if anyone else has had this.

I only stream music and I use Tidal. So that I could listen offline I used an SD card and downloaded some of my Tidal playlists to it. The problem I’m having though is that when I try to play music offline from the SD card a message comes up at the bottom of the screen that says ‘There was a connection problem - RETRY’. It will not let me play anything. However, if I then connect to WiFi the music will start to play.

I have checked that the playlist is downloaded, and the downloaded icon is coloured blue on the playlist screen.

The download destination is Memory card.

When I click on the heart symbol that takes me to the ‘My Collection’ screen, when I press ‘Downloaded’ it shows the playlists I’ve downloaded.

But here’s something I’ve found. In the My Collection page, when I press on the wheel icon on the right hand side, on the next screen there is the option for Offline Mode. If I switch this on I would assume that all of my playlists should be available. However, when I then go to the playlist a vast majority of songs are all greyed out. I have tried deleting the playlist and then downloading it fresh again, but the same thing seems to happen.

I’m at a loss of how to sort this. If anyone has any ideas that would be great

Here is an image of a playlist in offline mode. As you can see the track by Kansas is available to listen to, but the rest of the songs are all greyed out.

This issue came up before earlier in the thread, but in that instance the user was wanting to manipulate the Tidal download files as files e.g. in Solid Explorer or Google Drive and Tidal won't let you do that. It is important to re-download the files occasionally as if they are too old Tidal won't recognize them- but it seems you've done that. I am guessing that the main issue here is that you have downloaded the files to your SD card and that Tidal is not able to access them there. This is probably a Tidal issue not an R8 issue and I'd suggest first to contact the Tidal help line OR just change the destination for download to the R8 hard drive. I realize that will take up precious space there that you may want to preserve for memory- i have the 128 GB HD and 6 GB RAM version of R8 and a pretty good assortment of downloaded Tidal files and have had no problems with performance just letting Tidal save them to its default location. I too have a 512 GB HD on which I have saved my owned music library, and listen to that library via UAPP without difficulty - but when I'm truly off line and want to listen to my Tidal playlists, the default saving location has worked fine for me.

 

[Deferenz]

This issue came up before earlier in the thread, but in that instance the user was wanting to manipulate the Tidal download files as files e.g. in Solid Explorer or Google Drive and Tidal won't let you do that. It is important to re-download the files occasionally as if they are too old Tidal won't recognize them- but it seems you've done that. I am guessing that the main issue here is that you have downloaded the files to your SD card and that Tidal is not able to access them there. This is probably a Tidal issue not an R8 issue and I'd suggest first to contact the Tidal help line OR just change the destination for download to the R8 hard drive. I realize that will take up precious space there that you may want to preserve for memory- i have the 128 GB HD and 6 GB RAM version of R8 and a pretty good assortment of downloaded Tidal files and have had no problems with performance just letting Tidal save them to its default location. I too have a 512 GB HD on which I have saved my owned music library, and listen to that library via UAPP without difficulty - but when I'm truly off line and want to listen to my Tidal playlists, the default saving location has worked fine for me.

Thanks for your help here. That was interesting what you said about re-downloading the files again. So I wiped my SD card and then did a fresh download of the playlists to the SD. Now when I go into offline mode all tracks seem to be there. I’m sure I’ve been here before though and after a while the songs won’t play. Perhaps it is as you say, that after a time Tidal won’t recognise them. I’ll keep having a play around with things and see what I can find.