[Polterzeitgeist]

Bluetooth Signal problems also depend on exactly where the devices are. For example, Since Water absorbs Bluetooth signals, if you have phone in your hip pocket, and the bluetooth receiver in your breast pocket, you are more likely to have signal loss even at a short distance. (i.e. The devices are not in line of sight, and have a lot of water/solids between them. A room full of people between you and the transmitter also reduces range for the same reason. Bluetooth also drops if you are behind a refrigerator, or metal filing cabinets, Steeel Reinforced Concrete wall, etc. Also if the bluetooth antenna on either transmitter or receiver, is flat and facing a metal desk, then the bluetooth signal may get absorbed by the metal desk; "Standing" them on edge can help prevent that problem.
The Q5K has better bluetooth range. To me, the R3 Pro Sounds better/warmer (gives a bit more/better but still neutral bass ) when both are used as a wired dac/amp. PEQ on the Q5K should be able to correct that... My 5K is the original and it's a different dac/amp than what Qudilex puts in the newer 5K's. So things could be different than my experience.
20 Years ago, both would have been considered great sounding; And for entry level portable devices they do sound great. But neither will be as good as a mid-fi $400 to $500 DAP. Neither is a bad choice for "on the go".

I don't have that kind of budget unfortunately
I am using FiiO X3II right now but it has usb problems that cannot be fixed(sent it to FiiO 2 times). I guess both Hiby and Q5K would be an upgrade.
Thanks for the help

 

[XTF1]

The beauty of the R3s is that they do so much for the price: BT receive and transmit, Airplay, DLNA, Tidal, Qobuz, DAC in or out, etc... Oh, and it's a DAP also...

Totally agree !!! The Swiss Army pocket knife of audio
That being said, the beauty of the Q5K is its PEQ and Auto EQ integration.
It’s all about what you value the most and how much you’re willing to spend.

 

[XTF1]

I don't have that kind of budget unfortunately
I am using FiiO X3II right now but it has usb problems that cannot be fixed(sent it to FiiO 2 times). I guess both Hiby and Q5K would be an upgrade.
Thanks for the help

What’s your max budget? Next up are Tempotec V3, Shanling M1S, Tempotec V6 “black wheel edition”…

 

[Polterzeitgeist]

What’s your max budget? Next up are Tempotec V3, Shanling M1S, Tempotec V6 “black wheel edition”…

Max budget is $200. I would pay a little bit more but custom tax is already very high in Turkey. Its %50 for China and %20 for other countries.

I still havent decided.

HiBy R3 II
+multifunction
+DAP (so I wont use phone battery while listening music)

Q5K
+PEQ and AutoEQ
+will listen to music from other sources so it will automatically scrobble to last.fm

 

[HoppyKing]

+1

It's a real pain, also what about Tidal Max support?

@Joe Bloggs

Actually, it's just a policy of Tidal on this sort of devices... So it's Tidal, which forces auth token to expire each 24 hours.

But I agree, this login process is not easy. Moreover, when you finally login, and you see clunky Tidal interface in HibyOS... oh gosh. It feels like nearly command-line players mp3 era

 

[HoppyKing]

Any word on an upcoming firmware update? What would you guys like to see improved with the R3II? I would like to see full frame display of Album Art on the display. I think it was an interesting choice to go...smalller? But for the real estate, I think bigger is better, like on the R3 Pro or ANY other DAP.

No news, but my request will be to work on the USB DAC functionality of the R3. If you turn on the equalizer or MSEB then you will get pops and clicks, when you use R3 as USB DAC (tested on 2 phones and on MacBook Pro). There are cases, when R3 hangs or looses the "DAC mode".

Additionally, it will be great to change USB mode (Storage-Audio) not from the settings, but from the DAC screen itself.

Aaaand i still didn't find what does "DAC feedback" mean. @Joe Bloggs Please hear my call

 

[rlw6534]

Actually, it's just a policy of Tidal on this sort of devices... So it's Tidal, which forces auth token to expire each 24 hours.

But I agree, this login process is not easy. Moreover, when you finally login, and you see clunky Tidal interface in HibyOS... oh gosh. It feels like nearly command-line players mp3 era

Oddly enough, embedded Tidal works fine on other devices without daily login, so I'm not sure what policy you are referring to.

 

[XTF1]

Oddly enough, embedded Tidal works fine on other devices without daily login, so I'm not sure what policy you are referring to.

I believe Tidal indeed changed something in their API login. The user needs to be registered, but also the app itself. And there may be other things as well…
Either HiBy has not updated their app yet, or there is some cost associated with registering the R3-specific app with Tidal (whereas HiBy Music is probably registered once for all their Android DAPs).

 

[rlw6534]

I believe Tidal indeed changed something in their API login. The user needs to be registered, but also the app itself. And there may be other things as well…
Either HiBy has not updated their app yet, or there is some cost associated with registering the R3-specific app with Tidal (whereas HiBy Music is probably registered once for all their Android DAPs).

Yeah, it's a mystery to me. But it is a pain to have to login almost every time I start Tidal. First-world problems, I guess...

 

[Neweymatt]

Actually, it's just a policy of Tidal on this sort of devices... So it's Tidal, which forces auth token to expire each 24 hours.

But I agree, this login process is not easy. Moreover, when you finally login, and you see clunky Tidal interface in HibyOS... oh gosh. It feels like nearly command-line players mp3 era

Yeah, it's a mystery to me. But it is a pain to have to login almost every time I start Tidal. First-world problems, I guess...

I thought it was a lot easier to just AirPlay to the R3 II from my phone rather than messing about with that clunky native Tidal app on the DAP. Sure, you've got the extra steps of first hotspotting the R3 II, and then enabling AirPlay, but once you do, you've got the full-featured phone App for Tidal, Apple Music, or anything else that can stream over AirPlay.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

No news, but my request will be to work on the USB DAC functionality of the R3. If you turn on the equalizer or MSEB then you will get pops and clicks, when you use R3 as USB DAC (tested on 2 phones and on MacBook Pro). There are cases, when R3 hangs or looses the "DAC mode".

Additionally, it will be great to change USB mode (Storage-Audio) not from the settings, but from the DAC screen itself.

Aaaand i still didn't find what does "DAC feedback" mean. @Joe Bloggs Please hear my call

DAC feedback is a setting regarding the asynchronous (better than synchronous in jitter) USB reception on the R3 ii. With this on, it submits feedback to the source regarding the current clock drift which should theoretically result in better audio performance. However, what happens instead to some smartphone sources (specifically Snapdragon 8 gen 1 and beyond) is that it results in regular dropouts, so we need to turn this off in those cases.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Oddly enough, embedded Tidal works fine on other devices without daily login, so I'm not sure what policy you are referring to.

the policy that their third party TIDAL API is intentionally hobbled for all sorts of things, starting with the elephant in the room, no offline playback, and going up from there?

 

[rlw6534]

the policy that their third party TIDAL API is intentionally hobbled for all sorts of things, starting with the elephant in the room, no offline playback, and going up from there?

I understand the limitations of using the Tidal API, but I don't think that having to log in every single day is one of them. Roon, Audirvana, BubbleUPnP, mConnect, UAPP, A&K and many other third party implementations don't have this issue. Maybe it has something to do with the limited capabilities of the Ingenic X1000E or perhaps memory?

Maybe with whatever changes are needed for Tidal Max (assuming it will happen), this situation can be revisited?

 

[XTF1]

I thought it was a lot easier to just AirPlay to the R3 II from my phone

I also use my R2/R3 that way, but more often connected to the home WiFi. It is stable enough, but the disappointing part is that you can’t use MSEB or the EQ—precisely what I need the most with an iOS source !!!
The DLNA renderer does not have this limitation.

 

[Pylaczynski]

My R3 II died out of a sudden yesterday. It does not power up and when connected to charger a white LED is flashing (interestingly depending on the power brick it blinks faster or slower) , but it is not getting charged at all even left for whole night.
@HiByMusic is there any button combination that is doing some hard reset? What would you suggest?