HiBy R3 Pro Saber 2022 Hi Res Music Player mp3 Player
HiBy R3 Pro Saber 2022 Hi Res Music Player mp3 Player with Bluetooth and WiFi/Tidal&Qobuz Streaming/Dual ES9218P Chips/2.5mm Balanced Output/Full Touch Screen (Gray)
WiFi music receiver
USB DAC
Digital source
Bluetooth receiver/transmitter
 |  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating system | HiBy OS | HiBy OS | HiBy OS | Android 8.1 |
| Display size | 2.45 inches | 3.2 inches | 3.2 inches | 4.7 inches |
| DAC | ES9218 | Dual ES9218 | Dual ES9219 | Dual ES9219C |
| Dimensions | 61x61x12mm | 82x61x13mm | 82x61x13mm | 123*71.3*15.5 mm |
| SoC | Ingenic X1000E | Ingenic X1000E | Ingenic X1000E | Snapdragon 425 |
| APP third party applications | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Unlimited installation |
| Internal storage | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16GB |
| Micro SD card (Not included) | Up tp 2TB | Up tp 2TB | Up tp 2TB | Up tp 2TB |
| Weight | 85g | 95g | 95g | 220g |
| Dimensions: | 16 x 11.2 x 4.39 cm; 290 Grams |
| Model: | HB-R3PRO |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacture: | HiBy |
| Dimensions: | 16 x 11.2 x 4.39 cm; 290 Grams |
| Origin: | China |
Seit einiger Zeit suchten wir nicht nur einen MP3-Spieler fr Musik sondern auch fr Hrbcher. Die Musik und die Tonqualitt ist beim Hiby Pro3 Saber ausgezeichnet. Jedoch das Hren von Hrbcher in der richtigen Reihenfolge (numerisch und auch alphabetisch ist einmalig. Es gibt kein Durcheinander der Zahl von CDs und Kapitel was bei vielen anderen MP3-Abspielgerten der Fall ist.
# Good
– Buttons. The lay out is different from sony BUT its a smart decision to have the volume on the left and play/pause/next buttons on the right
– The buttons change how they work based on how you hold it (you have to enable “auto rotate”)
– LED to show player status (optional to turn off too. great!)
– Small (slightly bigger/fatter than an ipod shuffle)
– audio quality is good (they have an EQ tool called “MSEB” which familiarizes you with audiophile terms like “warm” or “thumpy”)
– SD Card support (largest SD I have is 256GB)
– you DO NOT need to scan the entire music library to play music (good if you swap out SD cards or have gigantic libraries, like I do)
– USB headphones (like the new ones from ASUS ROG or logitech can just be plugged in and work)
– LDAC and DSD support (good if you have sony XM headphones)
– long battery life goes from 100-70 percent with unbalanced headphones if you listen the entire day like I do
– support for 2.5 MM balanced connections
– Plays “open source/FOSS” formats like OGG, Vorbis, and even OPUS (but it will also support AAC, M4A, FLAC, WAV, MP3 files)
– you can play playlists that you copy on to the SD card. No need to scan the SD, just navigate to the folder and select the playlist and it loads all the songs it can on the playlist.
– Support for HIRES and MQA (I know MQA is not that amazing but its nice to see they play nice with tidal who statistically pays artists what they are worth)
# Bad-ish?
– User interface is a little slow if you have over 20,000 songs like me. ( Last I scanned it had something like 23,000 songs)
– import for playlists can be easier too (you can just import the playlist to make finding the playlist quicker than navigating through the folder structure)
– Bluetooth does not automatically re-pair when you like get into your car (just enter the bluetooth menu and it will then reconnect to the previously paired BT car stereo or headset)
– IDv3 tags for album art not shown on some files (easy fix some players need the album art in the folder or sometimes the file gets this tag corrupt)
Mi piaciuto anche se non sono riuscito a configurare ancora le web radio troppo complicato doveva essere pi semplice
My car has an amp that accepts digital audio inputs. I originally bought a digital streaming device made by another company. Meh! The battery didn’t last more than a few hours and it would sometimes just stop when changing songs. So I bought this Hiby. Wow! The sound is significantly better (why?), and I love the MSEB (Mage Sound 8-Ball Tuning, which is a significant improvement from a mere equalizer. And, the battery seems to last significantly long than the my previous streamer. Well worth the money!
I really like the player. Amazing battery life enough power to drive many iems even some planar iems very customizable sound effects but I only listen without equaliser or mseb . Perfect size fit shirt pocket. I don’t listen Bluetooth but I try connection ok no problem. I recommend use with balanced cable makes big difference to sound. Very quick charging and easy using. I have it nearly 3 weeks no problem .
und das fr relativ kleines Geld. Der Ton ist mit allen meinen Kopfhrern (AKG K701, AKG K240 und lterer Monster) berzeugend. Einzig die Verbindung mit Tidal ist nicht immer stabil genug. Nach mehreren Playern von Fiio gab es dort nur “Mondpreismodelle” mit Tidal-Tauglichkeit. Die Fiio-Player scheinen zwar robuster aber sie haben bisher immer gerade wenige Wochen lnger als ihre Garantie gelebt. Da fiel mir der Wechsel recht leicht.
Sound quality is superb on this small player, but it does have some quirks and oddities that make it hard to truly love it.
This little fellow was to replace a 3rd Gen iPod that was beyond economical repair with something with a really large capacity, so support for 512Gb SD card was a must, as was a decent battery life. Wishes granted.
Qobuz support is a huge bonus for me, I’ll end up subscribing there eventually. For now, CD-quality tracks will suffice as it’s a major jump from low-grade MP3 rips of my CDs and way better than Spotify.
The quirks are mostly from a slightly odd touchscreen interface, a form factor that I’m not used to which is a little too small for my hands, volume buttons on the wrong side (I instinctively want them on the same side as my phone, which is the right – iPhone users will have less problem with this), and a really slow update process to reindex new songs that renders the player unusable until it finishes (it doesn’t run in the background). Finding the favourites list was difficult at first. Playlist management is ok but I’ve no idea how to really manage them so I’ll limit use of this.
Pluses for me are good volume (more than I need), a bright colourful screen, good EQ options, USB-C charging, Bluetooth worked first time with LDAC on older Sony MDR-1000X headphones. Powerbeats pro was a no-go. Wired is best and lovely to listen to.
Oddly I can use it to charge my phone. Handy in an extreme emergency.
I tried a few players and this was the best option for now, compared to Sony (reputed to have poor battery) or Fiio M11 (three times as expensive). I did also try a Hidizs player which has the same HibyOS and mostly the same internals but I liked this one better for the buttons and battery life. I still miss iPod though, so I’ll continue to look for something bigger physically.
Great sound, easy to operate, good Bluetooth. Can even hear the difference on my little Sony Bluetooth speaker, compared to streaming from my phone. Takes mini SD cards so easy to transfer files.
Excellent and quick delivery. No fuss – was worried about Brexit and its difficulty cross border but all to the good.
I have used this product for a while now, trying various audio file types (MP3, FLAC and DSD128) and also different music types (Classical, Country, Pop). It has handled them all magnificently. I’ve had more expensive Digital Audio Players in the past, but this beats them all hands down and at a reasonable price. You can tailor the sound to your individual taste with the built in equaliser. You can also update the firmware with your wi-fi (a very simple process) and it paired with my bluetooth headphones effortlessly. The real test for me though was how it handled the Hi-Res DSD side and it blew my socks off!!!. It can handle DSD up to 256 and is overall just a joy to the ears. If you’re just starting to explore Hi-Res music, then this in my mind is the one to choose and I think you’ll never want to part with it. Fabulous!. Note: don’t forget to buy a micro SD card, as it doesn’t have any internal memory.
Anyway, while I was waiting for it to be delivered, I prepared a 200gb SD card, with HiRes, Flac, MP3s (I hate these files, but it was purely for testing) and I downloaded the latest firmware to the card. When it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. Packaging and device all scream quality. I also love the size as this was purchased, primarily to be used when I’m out and about with my dogs, so the size is perfect for my pocket.
I switched on, changed language, scanned the music to the library and updated the firmware, all without referencing the manual.
I plugged in my Beyerdynamic Amirons (wired) and launched Hans Zimmer Live in Prague HiRes. To say I was blown away, is an understatement. This player performs way in excess of anything I expected.
Next (and the bit I was worried about) , I paired my Sony WH M4s. They paired straight away. Sound test was Guns n Roses Appetite For Destruction. Again, I was blown away.
If you are used to high end players, the UI is intuitive and better than most. Creating playlists came up in other reviews as problematic. I found them incredibly easy to create.
Time will tell on longevity, but there is a long warranty.
I’ve never dabbled with HiBy players before, but based on this device, this will not be my last purchase.
A stunning player, beautifully made, exquisite sound, my bargain find of the year. I cannot recommend it highly enough!
Expectation management is key here, this is primarily for playing stored files at the highest quality possible with the source material. If you just want to use Bluetooth, which is incapable as a protocol of transmitting lossless audio, just store files on your phone in lossy format.
3.5mm out, 2.5mm balanced out, two gain settings, EQ, MSEB and expandable storage. Device is ideal for the act of playing music and no more. 5 stars.
Would like more volume from this unit, excepted more from price, would not buy again. Difficult to use, bluetooth poor, menu’s difficult to navigate. No touch screen for the money. When I pick it up during playing it’s difficult not to hit buttons. Stuck with it instead of “oh this is great”!
I would have bought the latest replacement or upgraded, but FiiO didn’t offer anything in my price range that came with good reviews
I had looked at the R3 when it first came out and waited until it had some reviews
It looked like the answer and ticked more boxes than I had to fill
In your hand it’s better than it looks in the pictures, Its really well made and finished off to a high quality
The screen is great and the menu takes a little time to master, so from looks alone it wins
But it’s the sound that matters, It sounds different to my FiiO and this was a bit of a surprise but after getting a few hours of use with different types of rock ( classic, blues, folk, hard and heavy ) it sounds great
The sound is more separated but still blends well with good FLAC files
The soundstage is wider and you can place instruments or musicians with a good well mastered recording
Vocals are more central and mid range vocals come over really well and more pronounced – so for the sound it wins as well and for the price it’s three wins in a row
It’s still early days and it powers my HD598’s with ease after changing the gain
I haven’t made any changes to the sound settings and it came with FW.16 so a simple change to .17 and I can’t see or hear any difference
You can adjust nearly everything and finding three sizes of font was nice for aging eyes
Yes it could do with scrolling text in the menu’s but I know the albums I’m playing so I will forgive it that until it comes with a FW update
Love this player. Great size and works well. Would have given it 5 stars had it not been for the 20000 track limit. Absolutely no reason for the restrictions. Hopefully Hiby will increase the limit in a future firmware update
HiBY OS is good. It isnt immediately intuitive that you need to update the library via the player’s menu before it’ll recognise artists and albums. It doesnt just add these to the menu by default when you add files to the player. Its pretty quick to do though, and once you know that you need to then it’ll become second nature after you add music to the HiBY. Drag and drop in windows file explorer is the easiest way to manage files on the HiBY rather than using wifi sync, although syncing may work for some. Just change the windows explorer view to group by album and moving files is fine. USB-C makes it pretty quick. Learning curve is pretty shallow and quick. I spent a couple of hours adding music and setting up some playlists and it just feels natural and easy to use now, although out the box there are quirks to learn. It recognises M3U playlists but again its not intuitive when you first use it. You need to create your first playlist on the HiBY R3 itself. That’ll create the properly named playlist folder on the SD card. You can then create playlists in whatever audio player you want (I used MS Media Player, but anything bar iTunes will work) and then save into the HiBY created playlist folder as a standard M3U playlist. if you don’t do it that way and save into a proper playlist folder then the R3 doesnt recognise your playlist. You also need to tell the R3 to load playlists if you’ve added new ones to the player. It doesnt recognise them purely on saving the m3u playlist to the playlist folder. I was used to just saving the playlist into the file folder on my old (admittedly cheap) clip I bought to replace a busted iPod and it picked up m3u playlists from any folder on the card. The HiBY makes you work a little bit first, but after that you can save m3u format playlists via your media player on your computer easily. You get used to it pretty quickly and from that point on it’s easy.
A good SD card is a must as it doesnt have any onboard storage, but a 256gig card is probably as much as I’d want for now. High Res Audio format fans will want to use a bigger card. It’ll handle high res audio really well but even with the 320 kbps MP3 and MP4/AAC files I’ve tested, my pair of AKG Y50 wired headphones, the onboard DAC and equaliser options give a significantly upgraded sound from other devices I’ve used with the same model of headphones. Sound quality on this R3 Saber is particularly good compared to older DAPs I’ve used.
Was considering a Cowon Plenue D3 but there are supply problems with the Plenue. This HiBY was about 70 less (UK price) than the Plenue D3 would have been and it the R was available. I’m petty happy I saved 70. I don’t see much at the price, or even within a couple of hundred, that’ll beat the HiBY for battery life or sound quality. For anything less than Astell and Kern money, the R3 Saber is a great DAP at a really good price.
First, this player genuinely has brilliant music quality. The Saber version has a clean, expansive sound that is balanced across all frequencies. I found it very easy to set-up the library on a MicroSD card and intuitive user interface. Just put it in, scan and it was all there – along with the covers and right tags.
The sound is highly customisable, but for me – ace as it is with the right gain setting. There are two fain settings, ‘normal/high gain’ and a ‘maximumise output’. It’s worth playing with these to fit your headphones or desintation device as how you like the sound is always a personal choice. In particular I found it possible to get the best Bluetooth sound I’ve had sending to speaker systems by using the maximise output – it makes a big difference.
This is a player that benefits from you taking a bit of time to work through the settings and try them out.
For anyone who likes trying out tech or audio equipment, that’s a fun part. This works and sounds great out of the box, but there’s more you can do.
Updating the firmware was straight forward – go to device manufacturer site, download and put onto the microSD card with the files in root folder. Put card in again and start-up. That was easy and all fine. You can do it over wifi, but it was easy doing it via a download and avoids any issues mid-way through an update. Please note that being a Chinese site, Google tried to restrict me opening links from it so I used the Mozilla Firefox browser which worked fine.
My only initial issues related to wifi and bluetooth set-up. At first I couldn’t get either to work. For wifi, after reading up, it was because I had a mesh network set-up, so I turned that off temporarily and the device then found the hub first time. It then set-up okay with the mesh after, so a touch sensitive but all fine after that. This isn’t an issue with Hiby itself and will be a security measure we all experience increasingly across a range of sites by Google.
For Bluetooth this proved a touch more tricky, but I think that was my fault. It’s important to pick the right Codec your headphones/speaker supports and then do the search for devices. So if your speaker supports AptX, choose that and then do the search. The headphones/speaker need to be in an active pairing mode – so AKG headphones weren’t tricky, but Sony noise cancelling earbuds took a few goes until I used the ‘put in active pairing mode’ by holding fingers on both earbuds in the flat panel for seven seconds. Then it found it first time. Once connected for the first time, Bluetooth then works fine and seems to find the best, highest quality codec to use (generally for the ones I have AAC or AptX, not dropped to SBC once). Once the first pair was done, I set up about eight more in only a few minutes. HD streaming via LDAC to my Sony soundbar was brilliant and gave the soundbar the quality input that enabled it to shine in its performance.
An update on Bluetooth is that I have now paired the device with two headphones, earbuds, a soundbar (playing hi-res via 990kbs LDAC codec which is stunning to hear) and five speakers/hi-fi systems. So once you make your first connection, pick the right codec and you should fine it easy to make bluetooth connections.
Now that the connections are made, the music is playing without any stuttering or drop out. The connection is reliable and keeping the best codec connection. This includes LDAC too which has one very slight crackle in over two hours of constant play. Wifi is working fine and I do not have a problem on either front. But some users may understandably get frustrated and for that I docked a star.
The device also arrived with French language set, but that was pretty quick to sort back to English.
Now all is sorted in first hour or two of trying it out, I’m delighted. The music quality is fantastic and has real depth to it. Sound isn’t just across the stereo spectrum, it sounds infront, behind, under. With plugged in headphones the sound is best of course, but wireless headphones sound great too. Just make sure you sort the codec as I described and choose the right gain settings for you from the ‘System Settings’ panel.
In playing from MicroSD card at great quality – I’m set. Scanning five thousand FLAC/HD tracks took a couple of minutes. I’ve had a lot of players from the first Creative, Ibasso, Onkyo/Pioneer, multiple of Cowon, Sony, Samsung phone etc and this is probably the best sounding for a fraction of the price (the Onkyo/Pioneer is still fantastic though in its upscaling and resultant clarity).
I haven’t experienced any slowdown in the interface, sleeves are loading fine (mine are all 500×500 or 700×700), the device is stable. So I’m now very happy indeed. I did have a few sleeves that didn’t show which upon checking were all 1500×1500 in size, so I reduced them and rescanned – they then showed up immediately.
True HD files I have purchased above CD quality are playing fine and without any dropouts.
(Note if tempted by the R5 Pro Saber by the same company, it’s not an audio step up and closer in sound to the R3 Pro, not the R3 Pro Saber due to the sound processing chips used. It does have Android 8.1 with ability to use apps, but is bigger than this tiny but wonderful digital audio player).
I’m now delighted and hope this review both helps with initial set-up and in making the choice. For the performance this is a very low priced unit and is therefore worth a little bit of initial set-up for me.
Small enough, capable enough. Sounds great to me. I like my music not tampered with by tweaking, as the artists intended. This has made a enhancement on my onboard audio grade sound system built into my Tomahawk MAX mainboard. Enhancement I mean upgrade. Plenty of tweaking for those who do like a fiddle and poke about.
Only cons for me is 1, the built in battery. A weak spot if one can not find replacements.
2, Pedometer does not function at all.
3, The playlist setting change every now and then and have to be readjusted, I.E loops same track when playlist is supposed to play.
Love this unit. Had a Fiio X3MkII that I never really gelled with because of the UI. When the headphone socket gave out I picked up the R3 Pro. Battery life and sound quality are fantastic. I use the balanced output with Shure SE215s and give this 2 thumbs up. With a little playing with the EQ I have a good balance between detailed and lively. Can’t commenting wifi or Bluetooth as I don’t use those. The touch screen UI is very smooth.
First impressions are excellent. I mostly use DAPs for streaming Tidal and use bluetooth headphones.
Bluetooth is stable and there is wide range of codecs available, including those that support hi res music such as aptX HD. It’s a slightly stripped back version of Tidal, but once you get used to the little differences it’s very usable.
Sound is awesome – very clear and refined and I didn’t have to resort to high volume, something that other DAPs have issues with.
Battery life is very good and the included clear plastic protective case is a nice bonus.
UPDATE- tried using the balanced headphone input and the sound is incredible
Habe gleichzeitig einen Fiio M6 und einen iBasso DX80 hier (gehabt, der Fiio ging zurck).
Der HiBy gewinnt den Vergleichstest. Der Fiio klingt nicht besser wie mein Huawei P30 (!) und dem DX80 merkt man sein Alter im Vergleich dann schon an.
Update:
It’s six months later, I have been having issues with Bluetooth dropping off, I did all usual resetting and updating to the lastest firmware didn’t make a difference. I tried my hardest contact the seller just left me hanging, worst customer service ever. I wanted an exchange but got tired in end after weeks waiting and emailing. Amazon customer service Thank you for sorting a refund. It’s on the way back.
Great little unit, Sound is good depending on the headphones you use, Not got round to discovering all the features as of ye