My impressions on the RS6 are ready. I got the unit a few weeks back. here are my thoughts on it. I bought the unit from a friend after auditioning it at his home. He sold it as he doesn't has time and I got myself a great deal haha.
HiBy RS6: The Ultimate Music Player!!
As the title says, This right here in my palm is my audio nirvana. After exploring plenty of music players across different price segments, I am finally settling with the HiBy RS6. This is the latest Sub-flagship from the house of HiBy and their first DAP to feature R2R DAC and Darwin Architecture.
Sound Technicalities:-
RS6 is my first interaction with the R2R world, I can say I fell in love with the organic, warm, pleasing tone of this DAP with the very first track that I played on it(It was Tere Bin from the Bollywood movie Guru). I can simply say the resolution, the clarity, and the dynamics of this DAP is simply outstanding. You will be able to hear every single detail in your music with a pleasing warm tone. Yes the DAP has a warm tuning but it doesn’t sacrifice even a single bit in terms of detailing. Billie Jean is a fully loaded song filled with multiple tracks of instruments and vocals, one can identify them precisely with the RS6 and a good IEM(Using Tansio Mirai Land here). The output has a pitch dark clean background with no noticeable hiss or noise even with sensitive IEMs(such as the Land with me).
One thing to praise here is that the RS6 remembers your volume settings with output ports. Like if you were previously listening on an IEM via 3.5mm output at 45/100 volume but then switched to Balanced at 30/100 volume. When you switch back to the 3.5mm output it will change volume back to 45/100(your last used on that port) and vice versa for Bal port. Another thing here is the line-out quality, I am yet to hear such a clean output from any portable device. Of all the DAPs I have explored so far, nothing has ever sounded so clean whether it be from Line out or via Phone out.
Tonality & Timbre:-
RS6 has a warmer than neutral sound tuning. No, it isn’t as warm as N6ii(with E01), but still, it is warmer than R6 2020 and Shanling M3X. It makes the sound pleasing and charming IMO. Both male and female vocals maintain good clarity, thanks to the outstanding resolution by RS6. One thing I can guarantee you, if you like listening to vocals or acoustic music just like me, you are gonna love the tonal balance and timbre quality of the RS6.
UI and Build:-
Top-notch. Though it is very identical to the R6 2020, the RS6 has Rose Gold body with a Carbon Fiber style glass back panel. The device is loaded with Snapdragon 660 SoC, making it one of the fastest DAPs I have experienced to date. Even though the R6 2020 also uses the same SoC chip, I feel like the RS6 is a tad bit smoother in the user interface. HiBy has designed the UI following their Darwin Architecture green-gold theme. In terms of UI, you can load this with a 1TB microSD card and it will still swift through thousands of songs(personally tested).
Darwin Architecture:-
I just couldn’t explore this much because as of now none of my IEMs are in the preset list. Eagerly waiting for HiBy to release some preset for any budget IEM. I wish HiBy releases more presets soon.
The Not So Good With RS6:-
Like every other device in the market today, HiBy RS6 is not free from any kind of flaws, here are the ones I noticed with the device.
>Battery life:-
Hardly 7-8 hours of music playback. I am telling you if not for its sound quality, I would have sold the RS6 already because of this poor battery life. But it just sounds too good to me so I am ignoring this. Telling you, you will have to charge this like you charge your smartphones.
>No variable line-out:-
The digital audio players at this level have variable line-out options. It would have made this dap better.
>Soundstage a bit intimate:-
RS6 produces an immersive, intimate soundstage. N6ii was wider.
Some comparison with N6ii(With E01/A02):-
>UI is much better and faster in RS6.
>Resolution is better with the RS6.
>Tonal balance and Timbre with the RS6 is simply exceptional.
>Battery life is better with N6ii.
>Soundstage is wider with N6ii.
>N6ii has a warmer tonality.
>N6ii allows one to experience different tonality and timbre with swappable audio motherboards.
A Few Final Words here:-
I am back to square one, back to the original words with which I started this write-up with. HiBy RS6 sounds like it is tuned specifically for my taste in music. The resolution this player produces in our music is simply top-notch. It is a tad bit warmer than the R6 2020, but it doesn’t allow any single detail to miss from my music. I personally feel like I have achieved audio nirvana in terms of digital audio players for me. Now the only thing left for me is a TOTL IEM, I have my eyes set on a target 64 Audio U12t(Out of my reach for at least one to two years though).