I think they missed the mark with the marketing and the target audience. There's a growing community of people who want to use their smartphones less (or switch to a dumb phone completely), so they compartmentalize their activities into multiple devices, like an iPod for music, a Kindle for reading, an actual camera for photos, a dumb phone for calling, and perhaps a notepad for taking notes, and maybe an alarm clock. I think it's great for people who want an iPod, but since they're somewhat difficult to get, and you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it working, it would be easier to buy this $200 device, download Spotify, download your favorite playlists and albums, and then switch it to airplane mode indefinitely. They wouldn't care about all the stuff like bit-perfect audio and so on. They would just be happy to have something to play their music on, and maybe use Bluetooth here and there. Instead of sending it to audiophiles for reviews, they should have sent it to youtubers who talk about digital minimalism, and maybe some mainstream ones who would be like, yeah, it plays music, and it sounds good. If you'd like to use your phone less, buy it. Right now, it's just getting needlessly scrutinized for things casual listeners don't care about, and they don't even know it exists. I think it's going to sell pretty poorly, and it's such a shame because this device is great, actually. I myself started out with an old phone and a dongle as a dap. Geez, what a long comment. TL;DR: dap for casuals who want to use their phone less, but its gonna have poor sales because they keep trying to sell it to audiophiles.
It's cheaper than most daps, sure. But for its price of 200USD, audiophiles can expect above average performance. Otherwise, there's cheaper options that also has Hiby app as its defaulting music player like Innioasis. That one costs about 60USD. That one I wouldn't care about advance stuff and just be happy I can stream Spotify and Tidal and have MSEB setting on my music player
This device is also for us who buy £1000 DAPs but want a device to power our DAC devices like Chord Mojo 2 or iBasso DC Elite. A player like this, we wont really listen to on its own but to provide portable power for those DAC amps I mentioned, perfect.
Is its ability to get it to output DSD easily really going to be a big deal to anyone buying this? I would expect anyone who has enough of a DSD library to be concerned about it to be spending more than $200 on a portable solution. 🤔
I liked your review, thumbs up! Here are some suggestions I'd like to share. I, find it more convenient to use a smartphone while on the go for listening to music. I like listening to streaming services like Spotify, Qobuz or Tidal. I very much like to be introduced to suggestions they offer. These days, unlimited data plans have become more affordable. So, my solution for enjoying quality music while out resting on a bench in the wood preserve or on a beach is: a smartphone paired with a quality USB DAC/AMP used with a nice set of IEMs. This way you overcome the Android's downsampling issue, you have mentioned. Or I can simply trade music quality for convenience and use my streaming smartphone with a quality pair of true wireless earbuds if I go to a gym and do not want to hassle with the cable. Cheers!
I don't want calls and messages interrupting me, and android phones after Android 9 have issues with getting USB Exclusive mode going on some dacs, so I am getting this as it's made to be used with dacs, I will use it as a transport, and only use the built in headphone jack for low res stuff like RU-vid Music
Apologize for N.B.O.T (not being on topic) but I have a collection of Digital Audio Players, including a Hiby which is excellent. My goto (music player of choice) however, is an iriver h10 20Gig . Am 55 years old and love the retro DAP's such as the iriver unit. Last unit I bought was $40 on ebay. Doesn't have bluetooth. But the sound.......................is excellent
If you like that sort of thing try an Ibasso dx120, two memory card slots, older akm dac, very classic sound, very nice indeed for old dude music. I listen to King Crimson and Yes, etc, on mine.
Do you know what you are talking about? This entire "review" was a waist of time. Thanks for your attempt but next time read the user manual before sharing your opinion. Best of luck in your future endeavors
Gen Z audiophiles use an apple dongle and IEMs. No? Even seeing a DAP is a rare thing these days. What was Hiby thinking. I'm sure my students just think I am a boomer for using a wired headphone, period.
They might think you are a boomer, I am, but a person who does not use wired headphones is not an audiophile of any sort, unless he is geared up for LDAC, and Bluetooth headphones of decent quality are rare as hens teeth, anyway.. So.. Not audiophiles. Neither is an apple dongle.
@@PetePohjanniemi That wasn't the point of my comment, lol. The point was I don't understand what part of the market Hiby was targeting considering what newer generations use for music playback.
@@Rusty_Shackleford099100%. I got the M300 from wanting to break away from smartphone dependency and not from an audiophile angle. Couldn’t care less about audiophile features, I would have bought an iPod if Apple still made them or used ones had expandable storage.
