Hiby R6 2020 Review

HiBy R6 2020

Design & Build

As I mentioned earlier, the R6 2020 shares the same language with its big brother, the flagship R8. They both have this edgy, sharp design and in my opinion, they both look very elegant and professional. The R6 2020 is smaller and lighter in comparison. It weighs about 230 grams which are identical to the smartphones of today. It looks gorgeous in black color and feels rigid in hand. All sockets and jacks feel firm and tight.

The aluminum construction feels durable and the button layout is easy to memorize. We have 4 buttons in total, from top to bottom layout is as follows; the power button, previous track, play/pause, next track. The buttons feel stiff and there is no wobble at all. HiBy placed a colour-coded LED under the power button to let you know about the sample rate of the track that you’re playing right now. I should probably mention to you that the screen looks very very vivid and sharp. It has a pixel density of 443 PPI, which is really high for a hi-fi player and it is much appreciated!

The album covers and Tidal videos look astounding. HiBy chose to use a Japanese ALPS rotary encoder as the volume pot and it is very accurate. It has 100-steps and the player has 3 gain stages so you can adjust it just the way you want it. Screen to body ratio is brilliant and is a front & back glass device, it looks very aesthetic. I don’t think you’re going to have trouble carrying it around as it is not a big player. In fact, it fits right into a Pelican 1020 case with enough space to store your favorite earphones.

Hiby R6 2020

Interface & User Experience

The HiBy R6 2020 features HiBy’s own OS, based on Android 9. What is so special about that you may ask and I will explain.

Android has put audiophiles in some trouble at its early stages where it did some kind of resampling that applied to all apps, so you could not benefit from the DACs fully. Android phones had DACs that were limited to 48khz or 96 at most, so that was not a problem for the daily user but of course we, audiophile bunch suffered from this. Native and bit-perfect playback was necessary to increase the dynamic range of Android-based players and most importantly, apps. Tidal and similar high fidelity focused apps needed to utilize DACs to their full extent. HiByOS, a custom android rebuilt and in-house developed by HiBy, optimized for bit-perfect audio, completely bypasses the Android’s limitations and SRC thanks to their Direct Transport Audio Architecture. Of course, this means that any app that you could go for would benefit from the integrated DACs to full extent. This also means that you could enjoy Tidal as you would do it in exclusive mode on PC. That’s awesome.

The R6 2020’s SoC, the snapdragon 660, has enough processing power to support 16x MQA unfolding, which is really high for a mobile player. You get to enjoy masters quality authenticated tracks to their maximum. HiBy combined the SD660 with 4 gigabytes of RAM, which is a lot, for a player. I haven’t had any stutters or freezes during my time with it. For example, the iBasso DX200 was somewhat sluggish when it comes to browsing Tidal and I put the R6 2020 in all kinds of tortures with my fast fingers but everything was fluid at all times. As for the interface, Android 9 is really simple and dynamic. It is effortless to navigate and it is very easy to use. The R6 2020 has full Google Play support so you can just go ahead and download any app that you want.

Hiby R6 2020

I remember the days where we had to download APK files and transfer them via PC to install on our players… Man, I am glad that technology is advancing. Kudos to HiBy for this amazing OS experience. Another cool thing is that you can see the sample rate, right side on the notification bar which stays on top at all times. For example, if you’re enjoying Art Blakey’s Just Coolin’ MQA album, the top SR indicator states 768K and the LED under the power button is orange. I will go ahead and tell you this, the UI experience, navigating, installing, and all that is on par with my smartphone which has a Snapdragon 865. That’s some engineering right there, folks.

OTA Firmware Updates

The HiBy R6 2020 supports OTA (Over-the-Air) firmware updates and it is quite easy to update the device this way. Just go into the updater app and let it sit on the desk for about 6-10 min. Voila, you have successfully updated your R6 2020. You can get firmware updates here, too. https://store.hiby.com/apps/help-center HiBy is known for their long-firmware support so I think you and I are in good hands when it comes to device support longevity.

Hiby R6 2020

MQA

Just like the big brother the R8, the R6 2020 features 16x MQA unfolding capability. What so what is MQA and what is this -unfolding-?

Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) is an audio codec that lets you stream songs in master/hifi quality. After capturing and recording the performance, MQA folds the file to make it small enough to stream or download. They call this -Music Origami-.

Products with a full MQA decoder unfold the file to deliver the highest possible rate for you to enjoy. There are many different decoders 4x 8x 16x etc. Currently, as far as my research goes, the highest supported decoding rate is 16x. HiBy R6 2020 comes with this feature and lets you decode/listen MQA tracks via Tidal. 16x support is quite scarce right now and I do not know any other players that can do this other than the R8. Go ahead and listen to Art Blakey’s Just Coolin’ MQA album at 32bit/768k via R6 2020. It’s delightful.

Hiby R6 2020

Connectivity

The HiBy R6 2020 is a feature-packed device. It has DLNA & AirPlay support and on top of that, you can control the HiBy Music App wirelessly via your phone so you don’t have to actually put it out of your pocket. This could be useful during public transportation but well, that’s out of equation for a while due to coronavirus. It also supports Bluetooth 5.0 and high fidelity codecs such as the LDAC. Of course, HiBy’s own codec, UAT is also supported by the R6 2020. UAT stands for Ultra Audio Transmission and it is a codec researched and developed by HiBy Music. It is implemented in many HiBy DAPs, allowing the user to transmit data at 1200kbps.

One other thing to note here is that many audiophile DAPs do not have a great Bluetooth coverage range but the R6 2020 provided me excellent connection stability and 9m range with my Shanling MW200 (LDAC) so I am quite happy with that!

You can use the R6 2020 as a USB-DAC as well, it works really well with JRiver Media Player for example.

MSEB

HiBy’s in-house research sound effect module MSEB (Mage Sound 8-ball Tuning) is also available on the R6 2020. It is based on a parametric equalizer and can be used to fine-tune certain aspects of the sound signature. It is a really powerful tool that could save you when you already love your current gear but you could’ve really tuned those hi-hats down half a notch. It happened to every member of this society, you find an awesome piece of gear, you love nearly every part of it, emphasis on nearly, so you just want that really small thing gone. Haha!

Storage

The HiBy R6 2020 comes with 64 gigabytes of internal storage and an up-to 2 TB micro-SD card support. If any other Tidal freaks want to load their offline tracks into the micro-SD card, they can. The device supports it fully, just like a smartphone. You can just go ahead and download everything into SD card and enjoy. I also transferred files directly from my portable SSD to R6 2020 via OTG. Go nuts!

Battery Life

The Snapdragon 660 SoC has good power efficiency so seeing the posted numbers is easy. I listened to Tidal for 7.5h in one continuous session so the battery life is quite good. I believe I can easily see 8h or more via the HiBy Music app. This is for balanced of course. Going SE will add 2 more hours to the total playback.

The R6 2020 has a 4500mAh battery, which is quite large and that’s great. You get to have plenty of fun before the juice depletes. The device will warn you on the 20% and 10% battery mark. Charging the device via my 25W fast charger takes about 1h 15m. Quick charging capability is really nice.

The review continues on the third page. Click here or use the jumps below.

4.1/5 - (69 votes)
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Long time Tech Enthusiast, an ambitious petrol-head, Yagiz likes his gadgets and always finds new ways into the tinkerer's world. He tries to improve anything and everything he gets his hands onto. Loves an occasional shine on the rocks.

13 Comments

  • Reply January 3, 2021

    András Rév

    I just tried the Hiby R3 Pro Saber, which only has Hiby OS and found buggy, meaning the song played was stopped some times and the recovery from this state took half a minute!
    Android 9 is a great advantage!
    Could you try the R6-2020 with UAPP Android application?
    In my opinion this is the best mobile music player app sounding clearly better than e.g. TIDAL Windows application.

    • Reply January 4, 2021

      Yagiz

      I don’t know about R3 but R6 2020’s Android is very polished. Android is a resource hog and the better the processor, better the experience. I used UAPP before, and tomorrow I’ll try it with R6 2020. I believe it has a huge advantage when you’re pairing it with a USB DAC but I did not see any other improvement beside that in the past.

  • Reply January 3, 2021

    Aslan B

    Nice looking DAP. Hows it stack up against a Fiio M11/M11Pro?

    • Reply July 18, 2021

      Alex

      Too bad no answer to this 🙁

  • Reply January 5, 2021

    Claudio

    Hi. Googd review. I had the hiby r6 pro and i think was a great product so this r6 2020 must be the same or better. My only concern with this android DAP is the battery duration. As an smartphone, the battery start to reduce their capacity (after 1 year or less). That was the reason to sold my r6 pro. After four months using it i realized that the battery didn”t have the initial duration . The problem of this dap is that you are using the battery not only for the android system. You need battery to power the dac and the internal amps. For that reason i think if you like an andorid dap will be better to get one with huge battery not the same that the smartphones but be aware that after a year you will notice a poor batrery performance (assuming that you will use it almost everyday).

    Despite of that i would love to have the chance to hear music with the r6 2020

    • Reply January 22, 2021

      Yagiz

      These batteries do not degrade that fast, worry less and enjoy more!

  • Reply January 20, 2021

    Marc

    Would you happen to have had the chance to compare it to any of the iFi Micro iDSD models or maybe even the Chord Mojo? I am wondering whether the latest gen DAPs at the price point have caught up with the better sounding (trans)portable DAC/amps, at least for IEMs and efficient headphones.

    • Reply January 22, 2021

      Yagiz

      From memory, it has less midbass hump compared to Mojo. It is also technically superior and it is clearer, resolution-wise. It is more spacious and airy as well.

      • Reply January 23, 2021

        Marc

        Thanks for this! Read in another thread that the Hiby R6 Pro was better for a user than his OG iDSD. Glad to see DAPs really pushing quality that belies their size.

  • Reply March 10, 2021

    Brock

    Will this work with Android Auto?

  • Reply March 25, 2021

    Michael

    Can you tell me if they improved the high output impedance from the previous R6 that was 10 Ohms. Trying to decide if it’s worth upgrading my zx300 to the R6 2020. Thank you.

  • Reply March 26, 2021

    Andrew

    Skimpy review, just didn’t like it. Only one comparison, no test will full size headphones… There are more informative reviews even on YouTube. Sorry but I had to say it.

  • Reply July 6, 2021

    Eric Wilson

    How does sound quality compare to the R6 Pro? Is it really that much better to justify an upgrade or is it only marginally better?

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