I picked one of these up so that I could move away from a dongle dac on my phone - the USB C port on my phone is just a tad loose and the DAC would disconnect annoyingly. But I had a good ecosystem worked out for music on my Android phone. So the M300 with a decent chip and a native headphone jack was perfect. Love it so far. HiBy knocked it out of the park with this thing, I think.
Just grabbed a second hand one off ebay last week. That Quad DAC is lovely, and the device pumps enough power for up to, what? 300 ohm cans? Crazy. RIP LG.
I got an M300 and you can use it like the R3 as well not just as a streamer. I usually will offline albums from Tidal so I can listen to them without wifi when out of the house. For me that makes the M300 better then the R3. if you have thousands of songs already the you can use a micro SD card just like you would in the R3. If you don't have a massive FLAC collection then you can just offline stuff to the sd card to listen to anywhere
On the M300 the lower rocker has play/pause on the top. Lots of requests in for Hiby to allow us to program the buttons . I love the form factor and the fact it runs Android. It also has two way bluetooth (as does the R3) and is super responsive (unlike my old R3 Saber 2022).
The way i see it, a dap is a discreet way of giving your personal phone a lot more uplift to have your music/ media separated from it. Like a burner phone that is actually purposeful.
I have had a LG G7+ for 4.5 years now and the amps and DAC they used sound amazing. I have been tempted to get a Sony Xperia 1 V to have a much better camera, but at this rate the LG will have to die for me to switch.
I take my R3 Sabre HiBy to my local stereo shop (vintage). We demo lots of great old gear. It sounds better than the phone the owner uses. I bought a second one. It is only loaded with high res FLAC files for demo so far. These little things are fantastic. You wouldn't believe how good they sound through a pair of Tannoy SRM15 XRB speakers! Heavenly!
I still use daps alot. Some daps just have a unique sound signature - like I haven't heard a phone yet that sounds like my FiiO or iBasso or Sony daps. I don't bother with streaming because there's very little on the services that I want to listen to. I have hundreds of gigs of archived DJ mixes that I got off the old messages boards that no longer exist and aren't on spotify. I want to keep my phone's storage for photos and video and other stuff so I have minimal music on it, and take a dap with me as well. Often I just leave the phone at home because I don't want that thing in my pocket all the time. I guess they must be popular otherwise companies wouldn't keep making them year after year...
I got a Hiby R2 Gen 2 not too long ago and it sounds pretty damn great. I dropped it on the floor though and the screen went all weird so I can only see a littl bit of the ledt hand side, just enough to go through the menu and work out what to click on, still sounds great though. The volume knob is pretty flimsey though, would be nice if they where just built a bit stronger so they can take a few hits. My Xduoo X3 I had before was built better althought he jack inside went weird so I need to get that fixed one day. Sansa Clip+ still going strong though. Also the power sometimes sticks and turns itself off.
Got the R3 II demo unit for $109 - sounds great, runs long, and plays all my flac files beautifuully. Tidal app interface doesn't work with my huge playlists, but I still love it.
After several years, I am no longer satisfied with the sound, this coincides with my earphones getting better and better.. I suppose I have to buy a big boy's DAP.. But it lasted like 4 years, and I was very happy with it, for most of that time.
@@holiboin8108 Unfortunately, Hiby abandoned it this year. For the record, the 2nd generation R2 came out April 2023. Their baseline players usually come out around the late spring and keep shuffling between the R2 and R3.
m300 can do plexamp, spotify, apple music al natively. if only it came in the size of the R3 R3 II has hiby's default player which gets most genre, mood wrong or misses them. inaccurate mood listening, no artist radio, album radio etc so its only good for people who already got a big memory card and only listen to artist>album> play . perfect size for the pocket so i have it attached to CHORD MOJO2 to receive phone's bluetooth and output USB
Between the R3 II and the R6 pro II, which one do you believe is the best value for the sound/features? I'm torn between them!! I would choose the R3 for the battery and size, and the R6 for the best sound and features
It varies a ton. Usually listed in the specs. I don't really care unless it is less than 8 hours or more than 50. So long as I can get through a day out and about without it dying.
@@ZReviews Have you seen players with battery life more than 50 hours? I haven't seen something like that in over 7 or 8 years! Now because my old Sony NWZ-A27 (an all-button interface and has monster battery life) is beginning to act odd, I'm compromising by getting the M300.
I prefer daps than dongles . No need for phone. Dongle and all this mess. Sd card. Music . High quality. High volume and my ohone can stay in the bag. I mod mine with a leather lace around my neck and i make a hole in the case. Make my iem cord shorter and gym here i come.
The smallest old phone with 3.5 mm, SD card, and decent sound is Samsung Galaxy S10e. You can get a refurbished version for about $150. It also has a Bixby hardware button that can be repurposed as play/pause, next track. Can be upgraded to Android 12. That is the alternative to M300.
Bought a Hiby R3 Gen2 a month ago after I fried my btr5 by accidentally shooting phantom power into it. I like the R3 but have a couple issues. I miss the microphone and phonecall functionality my btr5 had. The button placement, like you mentioned, is foolish. The bluetooth connectivity is kinda buggy and you will always lose the first ~3 seconds of whatever you play when you first connect the device. The touchscreen isn't as responsive as I'd like. Overall it's a great sounding and pretty versatile gadget that could have used like 20% more polish in the UI and software.
Tharbamar, it’s been a while. I hope you are doing fine. I’ve been more into,upgrading and adding things into my headphone audio setup, and more to come.
I had a Fiio Q11 attached to my Xperia 5 II as my DAP device. It's not the best setup as I can't really pocket the thing for outdoor use and I have to keep recharging both the phone and the Q11, but it's good enough for me to not have a reason to go out and buy very expensive DAPs. If I do want to listen to music outdoors, I'll just plug an IEM to my Xperia 1 IV.
Man, having that big button just shut the unit off is a huge red flag for me considering this would be living in a pocket or backpack on the R3. Maybe the M300 will be the one I give a try because I really want something to bring my own music around with
I have no need for any "extras" in my ideal player......100% of its use is for outdoor activities. Quality of sound and small size are priority #1. Then, I'm interested in ease of use....skipping backward and forward, and maybe loudness adjustments, etc. I play ONLY songs stored on the device. I have zero interest in streaming from other sources. Would R3 Gen II be my best bet or am I missing something and the M300 would be better. Is there another brand (Shanling, Hidiz, ???) that I should consider? The Hidiz AP80 Pro is less expensive than the R3. Would it be as good as the R3 for my use? Thanks.
I bought like 30 deskmats off amazon to get people to click the link to something affordable in every video. But now they are disappearing so I have to buy MORE mousepads and sell the defunked ones in the yard sale.
@Z Reviews are you pad rolling your Athena? What are these pads and how are they any different than stock? I'm not sure I would want to change the sound of my ever favorite headphone but I'm curious. Thx.
So far my unit hasn't failed me, even though I've drooped it a few times. It even gets T60 Argons to listening volume. But I have been keeping my eyes peeled for an upgrade when I eventually drop it one to many times or it s battery fails.@@ZReviews
What does that dongle do that you put on that m300? I apologize, new to this dap stuff. I’m ordering me the m300 today. Do I need to get that dongle? Is it for sound?
For me the only reason to get a dongle is its smol size, other wise hiby makes some pretty nice small DAPs that do all the same stuff for about the same cost. Like the R2 if you can get around the tiny screen would directly compete in my mind with a dongle.
Phone is bigger but you're gonna have the phone with you anyway, so now you're going to have a phone and a dap. The dongle disconnecting is a red flag for me.
Still rocking the sony a55 and a105. A proper full set of physical buttons is so nice to have, volume buttons and media controls easily distinguished without looking. A55 is for my flacs, the a105 is for RU-vid music with the dsee upscaling 😅 Being able to eq Bluetooth output is nice too.
Ugh. Companies keep making audio players that are too easy to turn off by accident. I do not get it. I used to be really into the Sansa Clip players back in the day, when they had a hold switch. Then one day they decided the hold switch was not needed, and that the power button would be... the ONLY button that sticks out, thus constantly turning it off in my pocket! And like, 15+ years later, companies are STILL doing this?!?!?!
"I can turn on a speaker" lol u can also do that on android phones. You know my android phone likely has better texh across the board. But.. i will still buy a dap. Cos i dont wanna be annoyed listening to music
The only want a dap can play stored music and Qobuz, just Qobuz literally no other service. Full android is actually a detriment for me with all the bloat that’s added and reduced longevity in battery life and 7+ year old chips (just ask my fiio m11 with a swollen battery). So the fact I can still use Qobuz without full android makes this a winner and can finally replace my m11.
@@ZReviews The vast majority of NWs is made in Malaysia, but what the OP asked is a dap by a company that isn't based in China, so the Sony NWs are his best option nonetheless
@@andrearenaudo9045 @ZReviews Thanks, the reason I'm looking for something that's not made by a Chinese company is because I'm a tech enthusiast of sorts and I work in the field of cyber security, so I'm very hyper aware of what I plug into my PC or connect to my home network and there has been issues with mini PCS coming out of China being preloaded with spyware. Now that I'm into hi-rez music I feel the need for a Dap
I don't understand the speaker unless they are trying to market these to 12 year olds that think tinny music playing at full volume from their phones is great. it's like going to a 5 star Michelin restaurant and having the chef cook your food over a candle flame.
So why buy a 200$ DAP when I can get a 200$ BTR7. The phone part we already have, we got our music subscription or 1-200 GB of our music on the phone, why pay for that AGAIN, and not have 200$ worth of DAC? ... or 500 or 2000$ whatever everyone's budget may be, it doesn't matter. I said it before and i will say it again, DAP are useless.
@@ZReviews no it is not that. I also have my own music files, but when I am on the go, it is a matter of convenience not quality. 200$ DAP on the street with noise and not paying attention can't be a matter of quality in any stretch of imagination, so why not stream? Get the same or better music quality since the device has better quality, and got all the music with me. When I got home with my system, then is local files.
Do we need stupid ugly bricks DAP while my source is 5Gs phones with android14??.. Do the new Centrance butt.. Yup "Ampsand". Susvara OTG is a reality now... butt2.. Peace!
digital audio player? did i sleep/teleport back to 2001? why on earth would i want to carry one of those in 2024? uh...not interested. love your channel tho bro.
Better sound quality (if you care for better quality) compared to any phone made today. Yes, you can use a dongle but then you have a second thing to carry anyway and it will drain your battery on your phone quicker than you would like. Plus, no interuptions when listening to music. No alerts, no calls, no texts.
desktop computers? did i sleep/teleport back to 2001? why on earth would i want to have one of those taking space at home in 2024? uh...not interested. Oh right, not all people have their computing needs met by a phone or even a laptop.
1. Dongles come loose all the time and stop music on my phone. 2. Dongles wear out my USB port 3. I have 250 GB of flac files that I don't want on my phone 4. I can take this DAP anywhere and thrash it guilt free 5. 15 hours of great sounding music without running down my phone battery.