Hiby Music Introduces Their Upcoming R6 DAP
If you’ve never heard of Hiby Music – please, kindly, climb out from under that rock.
Hiby Music is responsible for the firmware on a number of DAPs, and they’ve also got their own Android and iOS music app too. Seriously, the Hiby Music app is one of the best (if not the best) music player apps out there. It allows for DSD decoding, as well as digital output to an external DAC. Best of all – IT’S FREE!
So even though Hiby caters to other manufacturers in terms of firmware development, they’ve recent decided to delve into the hardware side of things too.
1. Meet the R6
So, design-wise, we do see a little hint of a Shanling M2s flair. A nice, big screen, but without the control-wheel.
This is because the R6 will be running Android, and hence will make use of a touch screen. Still, that retro feeling you get from seeing some sort of analogue knob is pretty cool.
It also isn’t absolutely clear yet if the R6 will be running a full Android flavour, but so far it does seem like it will. This should then allow users to install 3rd party apps such as Tidal and/or Spotify to quench their streaming-thirst.
Read: Shanling M2s Mini DAP Review
2. Under the Hood
Ok, so we know it’ll run Android, but for the first time a Chinese-made DAP will be using a Snapdragon SoC. Previous DAPs have largely employed some RockChip processors, so the Snapdragon chip in the R6 should mean – well – snappier performance.
ESS and AKM DAC chips are all the rage now for high-performance devices, so it’s no surprise to see Hiby going with a dual ES9028Q2M setup for the R6, along with a fully balanced design of the components. Now, this does not necessarily mean that the R6 will have a balanced output though.
3. Pricing
Whilst there doesn’t seem to have been any official statements about pricing yet, it has been indicated that the R6 would cost around US$560. This put the R6 at around $100 more than the Fiio X5 3rd Gen, but still considerably less than the $900+ iBasso DX200.
Read: Fiio X5 3rd Gen High-Res Player Review
4. Release Date
No concrete information has been provided for the release yet. It seems that Hiby have encountered some or other major production delay, and so have suggested that the release could be pushed to October 2017, or perhaps even later.
