DAP Device
As a disclaimer, I am in no way an audiophile, nor am I in any way an expert. I write this merely as a music enthusiast with a first time DAP.
Back to basic
This trend of reverting to analog devices has been going on for a few years now I think, but more than it is some sort of nostalgia for something that barely ever happened among zoomers and a desire for individualism and identity and a rebellion against the current state of hyperconsoomerism and the uprising of subscription-based platforms, some people just chase after that high resolution crispy audio quality like they mine for diamonds, that is by copping some sort of digital audio player that promises to perform better than your generic phone and Spootify or Yootube. I sympathize with all these reasons and I can attest for each one of them for myself.
I don't wanna pay anymore
The thing about subscription-based streaming services is that, as much as they are convenient and superb for a library sorting system, spending money on them feels more and more morally conflicting, especially with all these issues about AI-recommended albums, AI-produced songs, strange political involvements, causing all these sorts of moral dilemma from within.
Outside these higher order issues I do have more concrete ones like my internet. I don't think I'll always have access to good internet, so I have to find ways to download my songs, but the problem is they can take up storage as it is designed in a way that SD card insertion is somehow limited, and not to mention playing music kinda drains the phone battery.
Also, the fact that I have to switch out 3.5mm jacks for USB-C or bluetooth is tragic. 3.5 jacks carried me through the roughest moments of my life so they hold a lot of sentimentality, also the manufacturer's reason for subtracting the number of cable inserts on their phone for 'efficiency', 'aesthetics' and 'safety' feels disturbing.
To buy or not to buy
As much as I didn't like the idea of owning more digital devices than necessary, the idea of getting a DAP was something to I couldn't really resist any longer. It was a way to store downloaded songs on another device, all entirely offline, and run them separate to my phone as to avoid unecessarily draining its battery.
The thing about downloading music is the concern of sailing the seven seas, to which I say I wouldn't mind, especially if the artist is big or popular with plenty of various revenues, and/or if their works are over 50-100 years old. There's this rule, that compositions longer than this certain period of time eventually belong to the public domain, making it accessible for everyone. Not to mention, I believe that as long as none of the acquired files are redistributed or resold, no one should be in trouble.
In the search of a DAP
In the process of researching which DAP to get, on Hiby, allegedly one of the flagship brands, I found that:
- R1 is on a limited stock, and unfortunately it all ran out before I could get any. Also the battery life isn't so good, and its size is super small, giving the impression of a fragile device.
- R3 II Pro is an overkill for me. I'm no audiophile so I wouldn't even understand the HI-Res-ness of a Hi-Res player it promises itself to be, also the suede finishing they have it feels really dirty and they come with a very peculiar case that only covers the sides of the device, which is also too chonky for my liking. Be real, it would be too bulky to be pocketable.
- R3 Saber, has a cute name like that Saber girl from FGO. It's supposed to be an older model of R3 II, which has me somewhat worried about its system being outdated and chips being a bit older than expected, especially for an older device, so I passed.
- R2, is mostly out there in the blank, or maybe I didn't look much into it. Based on what I could see it looks too square, like its supposed to be built as a DAC more than a DAP, but I didn't want to risk it as it was also an older model.
- R4 was out of the question. Overheating complaints, Android IOS, weird flashy design, brick size, seemingly enough to kill a dog when thrown its way.
Fiio, or Snowsky, another alleged flagship audio player brand, do have some interesting products, but the more I looked into it:
- Micro Nano looks too much like a toy, it looks super fragile and non-durable especially with its seemingly thin plastic finishing. The navigation also looks really painful and inefficient that scrolling through it outside would be a pain in the joints and the nerves.
- Snowky Disc, is supposed to be an updated design of Micro Nano, and is supposed to be released later this year. For a bit I considered waiting for it to be released into the market especially with how promising its performance looks, but after looking into demo I figured it was too sleek to be a DAP. Again, it looks more like another fancy toy with a touchscreen but circular, which feels very limiting. Not to mention, the navigation was also again too confusing for me, and the flashy appearance was far off from my liking.
Another nother brand was Shanling, especially the Shanling M1 Pro, I think, that the DAP reddit kept mentioning in comparison to R1. It never piqued my interest from the start as it seemed too good to be true. If I were to place it harshly, out of every other product they have, only the DAP's like M1/ M1 Pro get mentioned the most often - wouldn't it kinda make you wonder whether they were really good? After looking into it a bit, I thought too, that it was too small and seemingly fragile for my liking. I didn't like how it was built like an Apple watch, and its price was a bit out of my budget.
I rarely ever mentioned budget, but that was another one of my consideration. It's somewhat difficult to go over as preference and spending priority varies from person to person, and being met with the 'with price comes quality' talk is the last thing I'd like to do. At first I was also hestitant about copping the Heebee R3 II with how much pricier it is compared to R1, but really what else was I supposed to spend on with all the options I've weighed out? So I did what I did and took a leap of faith. And a calculated risk.
Hiby R3 II
With that, I can confidently say that it's so much good for what it's worth, and I am very happy with this little friend that I have. It does its job and it does it quite well for my expectations. It plays music, it takes in SD cards, you can control its volume, it has a good battery life, it's pocketable, it works with all kinds of headsets wired and non-wired, what more do you want?
Okay in detail:
Size - chonky but grippable, rightfully palm-sized, not too small to be crushable, not too big to be unpocketable. Just make sure you have decent pockets too.
Button - you got play/pause and next previous track buttons, along with a volume knob. I'm not sure whether they intentionally designed it to be so, or they forgot to revise the button design before sending it off for production, but I don't understand why its layout is built like [back]-----[pause/play]-[next] instead of [back]-[pause/play]-[next] or [pause/play]-----[back]-[next]. The upside is that the pause/play button is easy to identify, but it takes a bit getting accustomed to.\
Also, one cool thing to mention is that the volume scroller button also works as an on/off screen button when you press on it. I don't get what people were complaining about when they say how flimsy the scroller could be as if it could pop off any moment. Tactile-wise, it's a bit too easy to turn, and how satisfying that is probably depends form person to person.
Accessories - right from the box you get a complementary cute transparent jelly casing, but no lanyard unlike what people often talk of. One issue is that the casing is a bit too tight that putting it on and removing it felt like wrestling with the tiny friend and the scroller every time. So one workaround for this was to cut off some part of the case so that I didn't have to struggle with the scroller.
Battery - it's good and long-lasting so far, only using up half of its entire battery life after an entire day of running music. That's on low gain though, not sure about high gain. Also, charging doesn't take that long, only 2-3 hours, so I wouldn't dare leave it charging overnight because it's not as smart as a smartphone to cut off charging power when full. Also, no speed charging. Run it on a normal charging head, God forbid it explodes.
System - non-Android Linux-based (super based) IOS that still looks eeriely similar to Android you won't even know, but you'd know they have no Google and Playstore so you're stuck with whatever existing built-in apps. Also I don't get what redditors have to complain about the laggy screen responsiveness and performance, it's been faster than expected so far and reading files doesn't take up to a few minutes. Unfortunately you'll have to transfer them manually via SD card first before inserting into the device, or else you'll end up with corrupted files like the doodoobrain I was. Internet syncing works but I don't trust it.
Playing - I still don't get why my albums won't loop even with the button but I guess it forces you to listen to more tracks than you intend. Also compared to wired headphones, bluetooth buds produce louder audio. Or maybe the problem is on my wired headset I'm not sure. One strange thing is how some static white noise plays when connected on bluetooth, but it's mostly negligible.
Sound - the sound profile is, as people have said, pretty much neutral. The EQ settings work well, though I only tried a bit of it. Personally I don't run on EQ because it's too complicated, also to embrace the sound profile of the audio track as it is. You also get a soundfield setting to set the sound stage I think? And a seemingly advanced MSEB settings which I have yet to comprehend. You can also set your L/R balance, which I think those with imbalanced earbuds would value. Quality wise, as it is, I think there's a lot of factors to consider like your earphones, audio file quality, setting, and so on, but so far it's been decent, and I'm not sure how much more hi-res and crispy you'd want your audio to be.
All in all, I'm looking forward to expanding my music collection with this little friend who takes up to 2 TB and all the little things I can do with it. It's a solid little device and I hope it lasts me a while for the price it costed me. Thank you heebee fren.