[Zune]

Hi all,

I've been using a 1st gen Zune for 13 years and I've listened to nearly 25,000 albums on it but it's tired now so I've been looking at what's available these days and stumbled across this forum. Man how times have changed since 2006!

I started looking at the Cowon Plenue's, Sony Walkman's, then various iBasso's and various HiBy's and i'm guessing they are all significantly better audio quality wise than my old Zune with a generic set of headphones that were probably free from an old mobile phone.

I've set myself a budget of £500 for the player so that's narrowed the choices a lot and after sound quality the next most important aspect for me is a glitch free UI and ease of use.

So after many hours of reading I've eliminated the Cowon's because of the UI issues and the FAT32 file system requirement. I'm not keen on the HiBy R3 design and the iBasso's and Cayin's i've looked at don't seem to be glitch free UI wise.

That just leaves the HiBy R6 but something about a 10 Ohm restriction has me worried but i see Advanced MP3 Players are bundling one with some HiBy Seeds in ear buds which should get me going until i get some better headphones and in ears later in the year. I'll get myself a Samsung SD Card and a case and i should be good to go.

I do have an old set of Sennheiser HD 270 which needs a new cable. I'm hoping to be able to use them for a little while until i can afford to replace them.

I suppose my question to anyone willing to chip in is should there be any other players i should be considering and have i missed any pitfalls with the HiBy R6?

Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[mattiav]

At that price point, I’d give the FiiO M11 or the iBasso DX150 a look - the former being newer and more responsive (but older Android), the latter giving you options to upgrade the Amp section in future.

The Activo CT10 is also an interesting option if you want affordable, compact and don’t need the ability to drive bigger headphones.

 

[rutter]

You deserve some sort of badge for not only having a Zune but using it for 13 years, though my iPod has been used for about as long as well. I think I have a 15-year-old one whose battery I've destroyed and have permanently put on an "iPod" speaker for exercise. I suppose you should be allowed to slide with calling yourself Zune. These players catapulted Apple back to relevance, Microsoft eventually decided why not. Now Zune is something about teleconferencing.

 

[Zune]

Wow, a reply! Thanks mattiav!

I think i've talked myself in to the R6. Plus i've found one on sale for £429 Mind you the FiiO M11 does look sweet, i'm just struggling to find as much about it as the R6 online

 

[rutter]

The Fiio M11 is new, so its thread on this forum might be one of your best bets. You could also consider picking up a dap second-hand here. There should be some good deals, pay attention to what people are saying. With daps in particular I would be concerned about batteries and would likely avoid something that has been used for 18 months.

 

[Zune]

You deserve some sort of badge for not only having a Zune but using it for 13 years, though my iPod has been used for about as long as well. I think I have a 15-year-old one whose battery I've destroyed and have permanently put on an "iPod" speaker for exercise. I suppose you should be allowed to slide with calling yourself Zune. These players catapulted Apple back to relevance, Microsoft eventually decided why not. Now Zune is something about teleconferencing.

Ha ha thanks. I like to make things last. The battery is about dead on my current Zune. I get about 2 hours out of it i reckon these days. I'm amazed it's lasted as long as it has. It;ll still be used in the car though with the radio adapter because my car stereo is out of the ark like the Zune

 

[Zune]

The Fiio M11 is new, so its thread on this forum might be one of your best bets. You could also consider picking up a dap second-hand here. There should be some good deals, pay attention to what people are saying. With daps in particular I would be concerned about batteries and would likely avoid something that has been used for 18 months.

Thanks rutter, I'll have a think. I'll be pulling the pin on the order tomorrow and at the moment i've got a HiBY R6, KZ ZS10 Pro IEM's, Balanced Cable for them and a Samsung Evo Plus SD Card ready to buy.

 

[rutter]

https://drop.com/buy/sony-nw-zx300a-digital-audio-player#overview

Sign up here and see what price you get.

https://www.joybuy.com/product/600192296.html

This Sony ZX300A is supposed to be identical to the ZX300 except a lot cheaper and with a lot less internal memory, which won't matter anyway if you're using an SD card. Power is a weakness though particularly if you won't be using the 4.4 balanced output. I'd probably stay away from it single-ended.

 

[Zune]

I've read a lot about Sony players over the last few days and they aren't floating my boat. I'm not keen on them having their own cable type. I have that already with the Zune and it's a pain

 

[mattiav]

The only thing to consider with the Hiby is the very high headphone out impedance (as you mentioned, 10 ohm, where most are well below 1 ohm). You may want to budget for an iFi iEmatch to go with it.

The M11 is a good bit more powerful than the Hiby R6 (non-pro). If it’s Hiby’s player you want, you can load it onto most any Android DAP.

 

[Zune]

As far as i can tell as long as i don't try and use anything above 80 ohm on the R6 i'll be ok. I may have read or understood that completely wrong though

I've just checked the specs out on the M11 and yeah they look very good. My only worry is that there is so little information out there on it.

 

[mattiav]

As far as i can tell as long as i don't try and use anything above 80 ohm on the R6 i'll be ok. I may have read or understood that completely wrong though

I've just checked the specs out on the M11 and yeah they look very good. My only worry is that there is so little information out there on it.

The output impredance does not relate purely to the headphone impedance. Some sensitive IEMs in particular are very sensitive to output impedance, and it can affect performance.

 

[PopZeus]

I’m a bit surprised I haven’t seen the Shanling M5s mentioned yet. It’s wonderful DAP and a solid value for it’s price.

 

[Zune]

Right I’ve read up on the m11 and to me it looks like the R6 has more options UI wise and is easier to try different player apps due to the R6 having Google Playstore.

 

[Zune]

The output impredance does not relate purely to the headphone impedance. Some sensitive IEMs in particular are very sensitive to output impedance, and it can affect performance.

From what I’ve read on the dedicated R6 thread all KZ iems work fine and I’m guessing the HiBy Seeds will work fine because they are bundled with the R6 on some online stores so I’m less worried about the impedance issues now. I doubt I can afford sensitive IEMs