[cleg]

My video about R3II



In short, it's still an excellent value, especially with an improvement in sound

 

[navii]

My video about R3II



In short, it's still an excellent value, especially with an improvement in sound

Is it an upgrade in sound over the R3 Pro? Thanks.

 

[cleg]

Is it an upgrade in sound over the R3 Pro? Thanks.

yes, it's better, but difference isn't huge

 

[Pylaczynski]

I received my R3 II yesterday. Some short very quick impressions
As compared to R3 Saber it is slightly thicker and larger in all dimensions. Still very handy.

Build quality is decent, however there is a bit cheap feeling to operation of the knob. The knob is the weakest point of the device in my opinion in general. It sticks out so much from the outline of the device even with a case on, so that I am really unsure why it was designed like that for "portable" device. It can get damaged on one hit in my opinion, but let's hope I would not need to verify that. That is in my opinion the biggest problem of this device. Which just may tell you that it is a quite good piece of equipment

The user interface is much more friendly than R3 Saber's one - it is more intuitive and it is easier to get to the playback screens etc. Also I strongly believe it is more optimized for this not so powerful CPU - it works visibly faster and smoother in my opinion.
On battery life:

• after around 1h of listening on balanced - (36/100) + library update it went down from 84% to 79%. So 5%/h of listening It gives 20h listening time, but I won't extrapolate this much.
• Then throughout the night (9h) on standby it went down from 79% to 76%, so 0,33%/h rate. I never turn off my DAPs, so I really like this rate
• Let's see how it does keep up, but it looks like it is very viable device from the battery standpoint

Edit: one thing that is also not better if not worse than in R3 Saber is the rate at which the album art loads on album list scrolling. Sometimes it takes like 5s to do so. It may cause the general performance a bit smoother, but still, something to note

 

[marekm]

I received my R3 II yesterday. Some short very quick impressions

My R3 II also arrived yesterday. Initial observations are very similar to yours.

Balanced playback is Ok, SE slightly weak, but sufficient for my IEMs. If I want to connect "full size" headphones with SE cable, I use a dongle connected to the USB-C port. UI is fine, scrolling is smooth. In other words, pleasant to use.

I need a "budget" DAP only when I want to listen to music outdoors, but choose not to take my (company) phone with me. Most obvious scenario - holidays (phone stays in the room)
I will get a chance to use it at the beach as early as mid-October

 

[marekm]

however there is a bit cheap feeling to operation of the knob. The knob is the weakest point of the device in my opinion in general. It sticks out so much from the outline of the device even with a case on, so that I am really unsure why it was designed like that for "portable" device.

Tempotec (and countless others) designed it better:

 

[Photoman]

I think the R3 II knob is fine. Better than some out there. It’s not loose either. I like it

 

[marekm]

It’s not loose either.

Mine is crazy loose (wobbly)

Perhaps, its' unit variance

 

[Photoman]

Mine is crazy loose (wobbly)

Perhaps, its' unit variance

Probably

 

[marekm]

 

[Photoman]

Tempotec (and countless others) designed it better:

Plus it’s a push button. So it will be a little loose. But I think it will hold up. Thanks for review

 

[Pylaczynski]

Plus it’s a push button. So it will be a little loose. But I think it will hold up. Thanks for review

In mine it is also loose even as compared to something from it's price range and tier - Shanling M0 Pro, which also has push button knob. Actually this M0 knob is one of the nicest I recall in portable audio. But it is not deal breaker in R3 II either, so just a side note.

Further notes after 2nd day:
- the physical button layout is one of the best I've seen. It is very thoughtful to split RWD from (Play/Pause and FWD) buttons for blind operation. It was not so nice in R3 Saber, Sony A55 nor ZX300. Big plus!
- skipping tracks is very fast even on shuffle of 3k+ library
- EQ/MESB does not work on bluetooth receiver mode. There is a bug related to that when you cannot actually stop the playback when exiting the screen you get the pop up if you want to stop the music and on confirm nothing happens
- sometimes it randomly stops playing music on a playlist in weird spot. I would try to recreate what is exact scenario, but it did happen more than 3 times today.
- after stopping the music with use of physical button with screen off on wake it shows different position on the track (or even different track) than it actually is. On play press it gets back to the real one.
- battery after today is left at 38% (-35% drop from 73%). There was around 3,5h of balanced playback + 1h of SE playback and the rest on standby (so 12h). So a bit worse than yesterday's projection, but still very good for normal usage considering most was on balanced out.

 

[navii]

In mine it is also loose even as compared to something from it's price range and tier - Shanling M0 Pro, which also has push button knob. Actually this M0 knob is one of the nicest I recall in portable audio. But it is not deal breaker in R3 II either, so just a side note.

Further notes after 2nd day:
- the physical button layout is one of the best I've seen. It is very thoughtful to split RWD from (Play/Pause and FWD) buttons for blind operation. It was not so nice in R3 Saber, Sony A55 nor ZX300. Big plus!
- skipping tracks is very fast even on shuffle of 3k+ library
- EQ/MESB does not work on bluetooth receiver mode. There is a bug related to that when you cannot actually stop the playback when exiting the screen you get the pop up if you want to stop the music and on confirm nothing happens
- sometimes it randomly stops playing music on a playlist in weird spot. I would try to recreate what is exact scenario, but it did happen more than 3 times today.
- after stopping the music with use of physical button with screen off on wake it shows different position on the track (or even different track) than it actually is. On play press it gets back to the real one.
- battery after today is left at 38% (-35% drop from 73%). There was around 3,5h of balanced playback + 1h of SE playback and the rest on standby (so 12h). So a bit worse than yesterday's projection, but still very good for normal usage considering most was on balanced out.

Yeah the EQ doesn't work on Bluetooth RX mode on the 3 Pro Saber either. That's a shame to hear.

 

[sicnesse]

Got mine today. Feels strange to handle after spending a whole year with the DX300, but so far so good

 

[marekm]

Pairs very well with Sennheiser HD560s (balanced cable)