[fljoe]

Anyone update their firmware to 1.0? Here's the instructions I found on the Hiby Webpage:

How to update the W5 firmware?

1. Press the touch button to power on, and then hold down the touch button until the voice prompt says "enter paring mode".

2. Enable the Bluetooth on the phone. Pair the phone with the W5 and connect via Bluetooth.

3. Run the HiBy Blue app, select 【HiBy W5】

4. Select 【Update】-> 【OTA update】

However after I select the Hiby W5, I do not see any "Update" button.

Selecting Hiby from the 3 parallel dots on the top right shows "Firmware Version: 0.10"

 

[jsmiller58]

I wonder if the 192K 24bit UAT Bluetooth audio integrity is preserved via the HiBy Blue app?

All that effort to transmit hi res UAT

I hope using the eq doesn't down-sample it

@Joe Bloggs are you able to get some info on this please?

Thanks.

Looking at the app it explicitly states the EQ only works if you are transmitting 48Khz or below. Kinda pointless to be using UAT or LDAC for that, I would imagine...?

 

[Pro-Jules]

Looking at the app it explicitly states the EQ only works if you are transmitting 48Khz or below. Kinda pointless to be using UAT or LDAC for that, I would imagine...?

Riiiight! OK thanks for that

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I wonder if the 192K 24bit UAT Bluetooth audio integrity is preserved via the HiBy Blue app?

All that effort to transmit hi res UAT

I hope using the eq doesn't down-sample it

@Joe Bloggs are you able to get some info on this please?

Thanks.

If you're using UAT inside HiByMusic or via a HiBy music player (that seems to cover all possibilities), you can adjust EQ or MSEB in the app itself and high res will also be processed (except on the R3).

 

[Pro-Jules]

Thanks @Joe Bloggs !

I have some of my music in Hiby Music

but I mostly use Qobuz downloads

So would like to apply global eq to that prior to it reaching the W5

But can't see a way to. The apps that work with Qobuz all rely on streaming they dont seem to work on the Qobuz offline download files I have

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Thanks @Joe Bloggs !

I have some of my music in Hiby Music

but I mostly use Qobuz downloads

So would like to apply global eq to that prior to it reaching the W5

But can't see a way to. The apps that work with Qobuz all rely on streaming they dont seem to work on the Qobuz offline download files I have

Well that does limit you to 48kHz and under for processing the EQ on the portable CPU of the W5. But in my opinion the advantage of higher fidelity bluetooth codecs is not in how high a sample rate it can give, but in how close to the original the data is within the audible range of frequencies (up to 20kHz, i.e. a tad above 40kHz sample rate).

 

[Pro-Jules]

Thanks @Joe Bloggs

I will A/B test what I have and see how I get on.

Hopefully the post office will release & deliver the W5 now that customs have been paid.

 

[fljoe]

Anyone update their firmware to 1.0? Here's the instructions I found on the Hiby Webpage:

How to update the W5 firmware?

1. Press the touch button to power on, and then hold down the touch button until the voice prompt says "enter paring mode".

2. Enable the Bluetooth on the phone. Pair the phone with the W5 and connect via Bluetooth.

3. Run the HiBy Blue app, select 【HiBy W5】

4. Select 【Update】-> 【OTA update】

However after I select the Hiby W5, I do not see any "Update" button.

Selecting Hiby from the 3 parallel dots on the top right shows "Firmware Version: 0.10"

Just wanted to close the loop on this firmware upgrade ... the Upgrade button does not show up in the iOs Hiby Blue app on my iPhone XS Max. However when I downloaded the Android Hiby Blue app on my LG V30+, the upgrade button shows up there and using the OTA mode, I was able to upgrade firmware to 1.0. Listening to my Tidal playlist using UAPP using LDAC codec ... sound is sublime!

 

[hsdrggr]

R6 pro is what I plan to get.

Currently using FiiO M9 and Radsone ES100 LDAC - balanced 2.5 mm output. I love the ES100 eq I can remotely control via the EarStudio (iphone) app. I hope the Hiby eq is as good.

W5 EQ works ok but no where near as well as the ES100.

 

[hsdrggr]

It is sadly not an attractive proposition for iPhone users. Perhaps apple will open up full speed Bluetooth on their iPhones to third party developers one day?

Also the volume control is too coarse when using with an iPhone. iPhone uses a stepped control instead of smooth and linear. So with the W5 I can’t get my IEMs to the volume I like. Volume levels are either too low or too high on the increment of volume positioning.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Also the volume control is too coarse when using with an iPhone. iPhone uses a stepped control instead of smooth and linear. So with the W5 I can’t get my IEMs to the volume I like. Volume levels are either too low or too high on the increment of volume positioning.

There are various volume controls in the HiBy Blue app, do they help? E.g. adjust the overall volume to put the W5 into the finer higher rangrs of the iPhone volume control. Or fine tune the volume directly within Blue.

 

[hsdrggr]

There are various volume controls in the HiBy Blue app, do they help? E.g. adjust the overall volume to put the W5 into the finer higher rangrs of the iPhone volume control. Or fine tune the volume directly within Blue.

Not sure. I have the Blue App but thought those were just limit adjustments. I’ll get in there and work with the controls. Thanks.

 

[Pro-Jules]

W5 EQ works ok but no where near as well as the ES100.

It's going to be a tough act for the W5 fo follow I agree.The R6 pro and ES100 running LDAC with my tweaked out custom eq's is working so well.

 

[Pro-Jules]

It's here!

 

[mruddo]

First post here, as I too have one of these now, and wanted to discuss my experience so far. I'm using this with a Pixel 2 Android phone. (I've upgraded to the V1.00 firmware.)

Firstly, audio quality is great. LDAC works well, and although officially we can't use UAT (yet) there's a copy of the v3.3.0 build of HiBy music available online if you Google for it, so I have also been able to give that a go an the quality is further improved there too. So that's all good.

The BUT however, is a big one, for me at least... the Bluetooth range is lousy. Even with LDAC set to "Best Effort (Adaptive Bit Rate)" - the Android default - I only really get perfect "glitch free" audio on my commute if I hold my phone in my hand, or use a close front pocket whilst wearing the W5 (clipped to my shirt). i.e. if I have my phone in my back trouser pocket, it often glitches - which seems mad!

It's early days yet, but when trying UAT on the newer build, it's almost unusable. The range is further reduced with the additional data throughput (not such a surprise), but it's borderline useless unless I'm sitting still with the device next to my phone.

I've reverted back to the official v3.2.0 build on my phone now to further test LDAC reliability on my commutes this week, and I can only hope that when 3.3.0 is officially released, the performance is improved otherwise this is going to be a massive disappointment.

Not sure if anyone else is testing with a similar setup, but how does this compare with your experiences?