iBasso DX160 - The listening experience only gets better and better. ******NEW FW 1.09 - link 1st page.******
Jan 6, 2020 at 11:46 PM Post #2,146 of 7,008
@Paul - iBasso any tips? I would love to hear an explanation as to why this player has this WiFi noise issue. Honestly have never had a crackling issue like this even with cheap stuff... I like everything else about it; it's just that crackling when connected to WiFi is a such a disappointment. How could something that costs $400 be suffer from this so bad that I hear it with not just my more sensitive Beyerdynamic Xelentos, but my fullsize AKG K371s as well?

edit: sorry to be so harsh, but I'm pretty sure the first step when making a DAP is to make sure it's not unbearably noisy.
Have you tried a different channel on the router? Are you using 2.5 or 5ghz? Either one should be fine but sometimes the channel used can make a big difference. I use two here to test all the time and no noise on wifi unless there is some on the channel.
 
iBasso Stay updated on iBasso at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
http://www.ibasso.com/ paul@ibasso.com
Jan 6, 2020 at 11:54 PM Post #2,147 of 7,008
Have you tried a different channel on the router? Are you using 2.5 or 5ghz? Either one should be fine but sometimes the channel used can make a big difference. I use two here to test all the time and no noise on wifi unless there is some on the channel.
hiss and popping is apparent out of 3.5mm on my 2.4, 5, and my phone hotspot. Other people in this thread have mentioned the same issue as well, so it's not just me. Seems like it's a problem with the DAP.

X number of devices being on my wifi could be the cause of the crackling, but no other DAP I've tried has had this issue. It's simply poor implementation, which is a damn shame because this DAP sounds great. Perhaps consider a selling a first party router? Or ethernet adapter*
 
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Jan 7, 2020 at 12:04 AM Post #2,148 of 7,008
So I have more to report regarding charging speed using the below anker charger. The PD port does not fast charge, but the IQ port does. So it appears I need to carry two cables with me everywhere I go. A bit of a bummer, but not the end of the world.

https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Anke...ocphy=9032012&hvtargid=pla-570957444165&psc=1
Are you on the latest firmware? We have a couple of Anker chargers here with PD but not the one you show. It works with them but if you are on the latest firmware and it is not working with the charger you link to, we will purchase the charger and find out what the issue is.
 
iBasso Stay updated on iBasso at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
http://www.ibasso.com/ paul@ibasso.com
Jan 7, 2020 at 1:22 AM Post #2,149 of 7,008
I made a little page on improving performance on the DX160 - hope this helps
https://www.antdroid.net/2020/01/ibasso-dx160-mods-for-better-performance.html

This summarizes many of the things I've discussed on this forum.

Nice write up. Maybe also nice to mention (to speed up UI) for those who don't want to fiddle to much with flashing roms.

To set up the Animationscales in developer settings at 0.5x instead of 1.

And could you please write up the unlocked bootloader procedure? And if you could make a Twrp for it would be even more awesome.

Thanks!
 
Jan 7, 2020 at 2:30 AM Post #2,150 of 7,008
this is a copy/paste from my blog:

COMPARISON OF THE IBASSO DX160 AND THE HIBY R5 MUSIC PLAYERS




Comparison of the iBasso DX160 and the Hiby R5 Music Players

It seems like on a daily that I’ve been asked to compare these two Digital Audio Players, the $399 iBasso DX160 and the similarly priced Hiby R5, on the various internet audio communities. I happen to own both of them and have reviewed them individually, however I didn’t go to great lengths comparing the two in my previous review of the iBasso DX160 on headphones.com.
In this article, I’ll go over my subjective opinions and some objective facts about both players.

Let’s go over their similarities first.

The two players share a few things in common besides just their price of $399.
1. They both run Android 8.1 OS
2. They both contain their proprietary Music application however you are free to install anything else you want on the system
3. Both contain 4.4mm balanced as an optional headphone output
4. Both use 2-way Bluetooth for receiving and transmitting
5. Both use the same Cirrus Logic DAC (and 2 of them on both as well)
6. Both have very low noise floors, though YMMV
7. Both have 2GB of system RAM
8. Both had 1 expandable microSD slot and both have a small amount of on-board disk space

What I like about the the Hiby R5

The Hiby R5 is a compact, easy to handle and very well-built player. It has great curves in the right places and the candy-bar style look reminds me of Sony’s line of DAPs. The buttons are large and easily pressed, but more importantly, are not easily depressed in pockets or with cases on. This is important as I find this to be an issue with the other player in this article.

In terms of software, the Hiby R5 is incredibly fast, as it uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 SOC which is actually used on many budget/mid-tier phones. While it’s considered slow for phones, it performs outstandingly fast as just a music player with minimal multi-tasking and not having to handle phone priorities.

Along the way, Hiby a software-first company, also added System-wide Equalizer and filtering via their MSEB equalization software. This is pretty great because no other DAP that I am aware of has system-wide EQ that’s android based or has support for third party apps. Most of them only have EQ that works on the default music player and other apps are left to their own devices.
The R5 is targeted at delivering a very smooth mid-focused sound that would really appeal to lovers of a relaxing, laid back listen, similar to how I enjoy warm tubes and listening for an extended period of time. This is a good or bad thing of course….

What I don’t like about the Hiby R5

…because with this, the resolution isn’t very good, at least when compared to the DX160 and comparably priced Fiio M11. The R5 is only slightly better in sound quality than the average smartphone. That’s a little unfortunate because everything else about it is great. It just doesn’t have great treble extension and seems to roll-off rather soon. This goes along with the previous statement where I find it warm, lush and mid-focused.

The R5 definitely has a smaller soundstage width and sounds more intimate in that regard, while still retaining a very smooth sound. For me, I would prefer something a little more open and airier.

What I like about the DX160

The DX160 has a larger, brighter and more vibrant looking screen. On top of that, the volume wheel is attractive, albeit, its not the best volume wheel out there. In fact, I think its really a poor use of the wheel and may have been better just using buttons – I love my volume wheels as its done very well with my previous DAPs, but this one doesn’t cut it for me.

Oops, that was a What I Don’t Like About It spoiler. Oh well – What else do I actually like? Well the DX160’s bigger screen makes it easier to type and view things than on the R5. That’s a nice advantage actually. I also enjoy the fact that the USB-C is on a different side than the headphone connectors, however I wish they were flipped, as the USB-C is on top and not on bottom. Either way though, this allows me to use a USB-C docking stand to charge my player while I use it, which I can’t do on my Hiby R5 since they ports are all on one side.

As far as sound quality goes, the DX160 is markedly better than the R5 in terms of shear resolution, treble extension, separation, soundstage width, and dynamics. There’s a noticeable difference going from one to the other and I’ve done a lot of A-Bing between the two and trying to adjust the R5 to improve some of it without luck.

To me, the R5 will present music at its basics and then continue onward. With the DX160, I get the basics but I also get just a little bit more. Strings have more twang to them. Cymbals have more resonance. It’s the little nuances that are just more apparently there that seem to go away quicker on the R5 – its like the difference between a ultra clean solid state amp and a highly distorted tube amp, where the R5 has more softened edges and a little more smearing to give you a more smooth sound, while the DX160 delivers with more intricate detail without as much signal loss.

What I don’t like about the DX160

There’s some issues with the DX160 – this is mainly very mediocre battery life and a UI that can be slow and laggy. This isn’t your best friend when you are trying to multi-task – say downloading tracks from Spotify, Qobuz or Tidal while trying to play music and doing other things – it may or will grind to a halt.

The BT and Wifi reception isn’t the best – in fact Bluetooth range is pretty poor and limited to just about 10-15 feet for me at best. That’s not a problem for me in most all use-cases, which is mainly using it on a plane or walking around where I still have the player near or on me.

While there’s not a whole lot you can do with the 2nd option, and for me its not really a big deal either, the first one comes down to very poor management of resources or picking the wrong governor settings in the Android kernel. This is something that I think Hiby has done a lot better job of, but luckily there are some hacks you can do to improve performance tenfold. I posted an article to that recently on my blog.

People have also complained about issues with noise when using wifi on some batches of the DX160. I, myself, have not experienced this issue but people I know have. This seems to be a small but still substantial bug with some of these devices and should be aware of.


Wrap-Up

I hope this little comparison helps some. I have both still – I prefer the iBasso DX160 with some modifications to the system to get it running how I want from a performance standpoint. The battery life is still not great but I can live with that since I am usually near a way to charge it or play it while connected. The bigger screen is also a big plus for me besides the great sound quality, especially at this price.

That said, I still have fondness of the Hiby R5. It’s a cute compact player that feels wonderful and has software that is fast and good battery life for an Android device. It’s unfortunate that I find the sound quality isn’t on par with the DX160 – and funny thing though, I used the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter with the R5 today, and actually found this to be a really nice combo, and the dongle isn’t software limited by the R5 for whatever reason like it is on other Android devices.

Anyway, there you have it. Let me know if you any questions!
 
Jan 7, 2020 at 2:54 AM Post #2,151 of 7,008
this is a copy/paste from my blog:

COMPARISON OF THE IBASSO DX160 AND THE HIBY R5 MUSIC PLAYERS




Comparison of the iBasso DX160 and the Hiby R5 Music Players

It seems like on a daily that I’ve been asked to compare these two Digital Audio Players, the $399 iBasso DX160 and the similarly priced Hiby R5, on the various internet audio communities. I happen to own both of them and have reviewed them individually, however I didn’t go to great lengths comparing the two in my previous review of the iBasso DX160 on headphones.com.
In this article, I’ll go over my subjective opinions and some objective facts about both players.

Let’s go over their similarities first.

The two players share a few things in common besides just their price of $399.
1. They both run Android 8.1 OS
2. They both contain their proprietary Music application however you are free to install anything else you want on the system
3. Both contain 4.4mm balanced as an optional headphone output
4. Both use 2-way Bluetooth for receiving and transmitting
5. Both use the same Cirrus Logic DAC (and 2 of them on both as well)
6. Both have very low noise floors, though YMMV
7. Both have 2GB of system RAM
8. Both had 1 expandable microSD slot and both have a small amount of on-board disk space

What I like about the the Hiby R5

The Hiby R5 is a compact, easy to handle and very well-built player. It has great curves in the right places and the candy-bar style look reminds me of Sony’s line of DAPs. The buttons are large and easily pressed, but more importantly, are not easily depressed in pockets or with cases on. This is important as I find this to be an issue with the other player in this article.

In terms of software, the Hiby R5 is incredibly fast, as it uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 SOC which is actually used on many budget/mid-tier phones. While it’s considered slow for phones, it performs outstandingly fast as just a music player with minimal multi-tasking and not having to handle phone priorities.

Along the way, Hiby a software-first company, also added System-wide Equalizer and filtering via their MSEB equalization software. This is pretty great because no other DAP that I am aware of has system-wide EQ that’s android based or has support for third party apps. Most of them only have EQ that works on the default music player and other apps are left to their own devices.
The R5 is targeted at delivering a very smooth mid-focused sound that would really appeal to lovers of a relaxing, laid back listen, similar to how I enjoy warm tubes and listening for an extended period of time. This is a good or bad thing of course….

What I don’t like about the Hiby R5

…because with this, the resolution isn’t very good, at least when compared to the DX160 and comparably priced Fiio M11. The R5 is only slightly better in sound quality than the average smartphone. That’s a little unfortunate because everything else about it is great. It just doesn’t have great treble extension and seems to roll-off rather soon. This goes along with the previous statement where I find it warm, lush and mid-focused.

The R5 definitely has a smaller soundstage width and sounds more intimate in that regard, while still retaining a very smooth sound. For me, I would prefer something a little more open and airier.

What I like about the DX160

The DX160 has a larger, brighter and more vibrant looking screen. On top of that, the volume wheel is attractive, albeit, its not the best volume wheel out there. In fact, I think its really a poor use of the wheel and may have been better just using buttons – I love my volume wheels as its done very well with my previous DAPs, but this one doesn’t cut it for me.

Oops, that was a What I Don’t Like About It spoiler. Oh well – What else do I actually like? Well the DX160’s bigger screen makes it easier to type and view things than on the R5. That’s a nice advantage actually. I also enjoy the fact that the USB-C is on a different side than the headphone connectors, however I wish they were flipped, as the USB-C is on top and not on bottom. Either way though, this allows me to use a USB-C docking stand to charge my player while I use it, which I can’t do on my Hiby R5 since they ports are all on one side.

As far as sound quality goes, the DX160 is markedly better than the R5 in terms of shear resolution, treble extension, separation, soundstage width, and dynamics. There’s a noticeable difference going from one to the other and I’ve done a lot of A-Bing between the two and trying to adjust the R5 to improve some of it without luck.

To me, the R5 will present music at its basics and then continue onward. With the DX160, I get the basics but I also get just a little bit more. Strings have more twang to them. Cymbals have more resonance. It’s the little nuances that are just more apparently there that seem to go away quicker on the R5 – its like the difference between a ultra clean solid state amp and a highly distorted tube amp, where the R5 has more softened edges and a little more smearing to give you a more smooth sound, while the DX160 delivers with more intricate detail without as much signal loss.

What I don’t like about the DX160

There’s some issues with the DX160 – this is mainly very mediocre battery life and a UI that can be slow and laggy. This isn’t your best friend when you are trying to multi-task – say downloading tracks from Spotify, Qobuz or Tidal while trying to play music and doing other things – it may or will grind to a halt.

The BT and Wifi reception isn’t the best – in fact Bluetooth range is pretty poor and limited to just about 10-15 feet for me at best. That’s not a problem for me in most all use-cases, which is mainly using it on a plane or walking around where I still have the player near or on me.

While there’s not a whole lot you can do with the 2nd option, and for me its not really a big deal either, the first one comes down to very poor management of resources or picking the wrong governor settings in the Android kernel. This is something that I think Hiby has done a lot better job of, but luckily there are some hacks you can do to improve performance tenfold. I posted an article to that recently on my blog.

People have also complained about issues with noise when using wifi on some batches of the DX160. I, myself, have not experienced this issue but people I know have. This seems to be a small but still substantial bug with some of these devices and should be aware of.


Wrap-Up

I hope this little comparison helps some. I have both still – I prefer the iBasso DX160 with some modifications to the system to get it running how I want from a performance standpoint. The battery life is still not great but I can live with that since I am usually near a way to charge it or play it while connected. The bigger screen is also a big plus for me besides the great sound quality, especially at this price.

That said, I still have fondness of the Hiby R5. It’s a cute compact player that feels wonderful and has software that is fast and good battery life for an Android device. It’s unfortunate that I find the sound quality isn’t on par with the DX160 – and funny thing though, I used the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter with the R5 today, and actually found this to be a really nice combo, and the dongle isn’t software limited by the R5 for whatever reason like it is on other Android devices.

Anyway, there you have it. Let me know if you any questions!
If the DX160 is slow or laggy for you, I think you need to redo the firmware. I use it every day with streaming and with a 1tb card and it is fast and responsive. Also, I get around 11 to 12 hours of battery life and can charge it in 1.5 hours, if I accidentally run it all the way down, which I don't like to do.
 
Jan 7, 2020 at 3:10 AM Post #2,152 of 7,008
@Paul - iBasso do you know anything in regards to the problem with automatic Wifi disconnects a while after the screen is turned off? I have this problem and it really is irritating on a device which seems to be primarily aimed at streaming Tidal and the likes. Otherwise great DAP for the price, the sound is sublime.
 
Jan 7, 2020 at 3:22 AM Post #2,153 of 7,008
If the DX160 is slow or laggy for you, I think you need to redo the firmware. I use it every day with streaming and with a 1tb card and it is fast and responsive. Also, I get around 11 to 12 hours of battery life and can charge it in 1.5 hours, if I accidentally run it all the way down, which I don't like to do.

Slow is relatively speaking. Without any tweaks, it's acceptable and only slows down in the scenario and similar ones like I mentioned in my post. But when compared to the R5/R6, M11/pro and even the older Pioneer XDP300R I used to own, it's slow.

Battery life will last me a full work day, barely, but again, it's still mediocre compared to similar players like the ones I mentioned above, except the pioneer which wasn't very good either due to using an older Android that didn't handle battery consumption very well.

These are my observations obviously. Ymmv.
 
Jan 7, 2020 at 4:36 AM Post #2,154 of 7,008
So I have more to report regarding charging speed using the below anker charger. The PD port does not fast charge, but the IQ port does. So it appears I need to carry two cables with me everywhere I go. A bit of a bummer, but not the end of the world.

https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Anke...ocphy=9032012&hvtargid=pla-570957444165&psc=1

I have the same charger in a different color and it's the opposite for me. It fast charges with the USB-C PD port but does not fast charge with the IQ usb port. I bought a fast charging usb-c to usb-c cable from Anker together with this charger. Maybe it's your cable that's incompatible with the charger.

At around 10-25% battery level, I can get the DX160 to finish charging in 1-1.5 hrs with through PD port..
 
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Jan 7, 2020 at 6:37 AM Post #2,155 of 7,008
hiss and popping is apparent out of 3.5mm on my 2.4, 5, and my phone hotspot. Other people in this thread have mentioned the same issue as well, so it's not just me. Seems like it's a problem with the DAP.

X number of devices being on my wifi could be the cause of the crackling, but no other DAP I've tried has had this issue. It's simply poor implementation, which is a damn shame because this DAP sounds great. Perhaps consider a selling a first party router? Or ethernet adapter*

These posts makes me very nervous for mine to arrive.
 
Jan 7, 2020 at 7:25 AM Post #2,156 of 7,008
I have the same charger in a different color and it's the opposite for me. It fast charges with the USB-C PD port but does not fast charge with the IQ usb port. I bought a fast charging usb-c to usb-c cable from Anker together with this charger. Maybe it's your cable that's incompatible with the charger.

At around 10-25% battery level, I can get the DX160 to finish charging in 1-1.5 hrs with through PD port..
This is the result you should be getting from that charger. That power IQ port does not do Qualcomm Quick Charge fast charging.

The DX160 does indeed fast charge from both Power Delivery (USB C ports only) and official Quick Charge chargers. I have discovered that not all Power Delivery chargers will fast charge the DX160 however. My Pixel 2 Power Delivery ( which fast charges the phone) will not fast charge the DX160. The charger below will fast charge via both ports however:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PNZS298/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_sGhfEb0C7HHXV

As others have mentioned, you also must have cables rated for each fast charge standard for it to work as well.
 
Jan 7, 2020 at 10:59 AM Post #2,158 of 7,008
few questions*
1) best way to get tidal / Spotify? --> via coolapk?
2) want to use UAPP --> do I install lurker firmware? or DL playstore on coolapk, then proceeded installing UAPP, however, installing playstore and play services seem to drain the battery really quickly...93% and it is reporting i have 4 hrs left.

3) what are your settings in DAC mode for UAPP?
 
Jan 7, 2020 at 11:46 AM Post #2,159 of 7,008
few questions*
1) best way to get tidal / Spotify? --> via coolapk?
2) want to use UAPP --> do I install lurker firmware? or DL playstore on coolapk, then proceeded installing UAPP, however, installing playstore and play services seem to drain the battery really quickly...93% and it is reporting i have 4 hrs left.

3) what are your settings in DAC mode for UAPP?

1/ yes...or you could APKPure for Googlestore and do everything else on the google store legitimately

2/ install by google store or APK pure. You don’t have to have lurker firmware...

3/ not sure, have not got there yet
 

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