Great points and I agree. I use the original Samsung Buds Pro and those sound fantastic using LDAC with my S21.
We live in a great time for portable audio to be able to get this kind of sound and performance out of something we can carry with us everywhere we go. I really only listen to my full size non-bluetooth headphones at home, and usually I am using my SMSL desktop headphone amp for that.
Yes, the SW on the HiBy devices can require careful handling to get around issues. I mainly use USB Audio Player Pro and it seems to work fairly reliably on my R5. I also often use Plexamp for playing my Plex stored FLACs and that also works well most of the time.
My worry with these devices is how long HiBy will continue to support it with OS updates and security patches, not that I use the device for anything sensitive, but it does use my Google account for the app store.
For Bluetooth, I have the original Samsung Buds Pro and the SONY WH900N’s, which I love and using LDAC for the connection, the sound quality is very good. I also just got the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC as my daily use buds for music and Teams calls and I am very impressed with them for the price. They multi-point connect to my phone and my iPad.
It’s probably worthwhile to differentiate between “MP3 Players” and DAPs (Digital Audio Players) that are designed to play high resolution music (mainly FLAC files) through high-end wired headphones. Companies like FiiO and HiBy make these and they sell for $500 and up. I have a HiBy R5 Sabre that has a balanced output for driving my decent Dan Clark Aeon headphones. This all sounds spectacularly good playing high res files or a service like Tidal. It runs on a special version of Android, so you can install apps, etc.
Having said all of that, I do 90% of my portable music listening through bluetooth earbuds driven from my Samsung phone, so not sure the money I invested in my DAP setup has been worth it, and I probably wouldn’t do it again.
Yes, late 50’s US and I drive a 6 speed Jeep daily. Taught my 23 year old son to drive a stick and he just bought a Tacoma stick shift.
I learned on my grandfather’s 3 on the tree 1968 Dodge camper van. If you can drive a 3 on the tree, you can drive anything.
For those who didn’t see the video before they took it down, here is a recap someone posted to YouTube https://youtu.be/IXPuRIFMwUE?si=5ewRdKeyEX9n8NF2
I thought they may take it down at some point as in the information it said “available now on our site” - so they definitely didn’t intend for this to be made public. I would guess they are pretty close to release if they even put this up on YT in private mode.
This is great information - I have a GOAT on order but am in the 2nd wave apparently. Once I get it I will refer back to this to make the modifications.
I am not expecting much from it, to be honest - I just wanted to support the effort of someone trying to do something different, and customizable. As I am a lefty, I am hoping I can rearrange the tools, for once, to make using it more easy for myself.
I did see your post on the GOAT and am responding on it.
Agreed about the hammer, and the ability to open the tools from the outside with one hand is really sweet (although I am a lefty and that negates this somewhat). I will probably end up digging into my wallet and getting one when it is released 😩
I have a GOAT on order as well, but the Arc appears to be on a whole new level.
I had one of the old black plastic Walkman cassette players and what a P.O.S. that was. Amazing how far we’ve come 😊