Anybody Using a Portable Audio Player (DAP) As a Streamer?

Hiby Cast didn’t work for me when I tried it but maybe I didn’t spend enough time with it.

Luck to ya to make it work. Not supported like streamer OS software.

I've been playing with an iBasso DX220 MAX in that capacity. The "problem" is its balanced line-out sounds so good, there may be no rational use of its digital (coax) out. Fed right from line-out into a very nice VAC Master preamp and Statement 450S amp - it absolutely trashes the NAD M12 (streamer/DAC) and Node 2i streamer I have around here. Pretty sure I like its sound better than the two Schiit Yggdrasils I had in past. Might be comparable or better to my Phison DAC (haven't directly compared those yet). But the poor M12 - my god, it sounds completely broken next to the iBasso. Really enjoyable sound, even with a high end analog rig in here. 

No issues with high-res when you use line out!

@fuzztone Which version of HiBy Cast were you trying to use that failed, the Android version, or the iOS/iPadOS version? I have a Lenovo android-based tablet as well as iPhone and iPad at my disposal, so fingers crossed that SOMETHING works out! 😂

@mulveling I am hoping to get just as lucky, so I can sell my Denafrips Ares II to my dad (at an extremely substantial discount, don’t worry—I’m not that kind of son!), who is currently using a, “mere,” SMSL DO100 in his chain.

-Ed

I have a A&K S3000 DAP. This was the flagship of arguably one of two two best DAP companies. I think the cost was around $3K. It does not remotely compete with the lowest level last generation Aurender and probably many lessor streamers.

How well it will work in your system will depend what you are comparing it to. But in general, I would expect a pretty big compromise in sound quality.

@ghdprentice were you using the internal DAC to compare or were you using an external DAC?

-Ed

@eddnog

Beats me, doesn’t matter, all you can do is try.

IBasso sounded good at their booth. I have an A&K and it sounds flat compared to my Cowon. This means squat ainregard to what you are attempting. Go for it.

OP,

I tried both. If I have a chance in the next day or two, I’ll do the comparison again.

@fuzztone …”I  have an A&K and it sounds flat …”

+1

My R6 Pro II came in on Monday, along with my Gustard H16. The H16 replaced an SMSL SP400 as my preamp. I installed an SD card preloaded with some DSD recordings as well as installed Apple Music for all of my lossless/high-res lossless playlists from the cloud. The latest firmware update from HiBy occurred on late Monday night for version 1.3 of the firmware which added system-wide fully customizable parametric EQ.

Long story short, I was able to successfully remove the DBX 31-band graphic equalizer unit from my chain which I had been using for room correction thanks to the firmware update/global parametric EQ. Furthermore, I found the performance of using the balanced analog output/integrated AKM4499EX/4191EQ DAC of the DAP itself to be quite good, 90-95% of the performance of using the separate Denafrips Ares II when comparing the most like filter settings (OS/slow on Ares II vs extra slow roll-off on the DAP), so I have decided to sell the Ares II to my dad and just run the DAP directly to my Gustard preamp--in other words, my experience is not too far off the mark from @mulveling . Changing my subwoofer connection from the sub outs of my Fosi ZA3 monoblocs to the single ended output of my new H16 also sounds way better, with significantly improved resolution as well as control from my SVS SB-3000 sub.

One thing I noticed was a massive change in sound quality by making sure to set Gain to High and volume to 100 on the DAP to ensure the full 4V is fed from the balanced line out to the preamp. Much better dynamics, much more punch, than Gain set to Low (comparing with volume matched at the preamp between settings). @ghdprentice I am wondering if this might have been part of the issue for you comparing the DAP to a desktop streamer for you.

@fuzztone I had no issues getting HiByCast to work on my iPhone or my iPad for controlling the R6 Pro II prior to the 1.3 firmware update. It was also working fine immediately after the firmware update. Last night I had only 5 minutes or so to play with it, but for some reason it was not working right all of a sudden, but I will try again later today when I get back home again (work from the office on Wednesdays) to fix it. Hoping it can be resolved by resetting or rebooting this or that.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with the result. The DAP has exceeded my expectations for performance in the role of network streamer for my chain. As long as I can fix this (hopefully temporary) issue with HiByCast, I couldn’t be happier. Being able to remove two other components from my chain is the icing on the cake!

-Ed

Oh yeah, I also decided to invest in the HiBy CR06 dock. Much more elegant than what I am using now with just long, loose cables and a microfiber cloth for it to sit on. 😆

-Ed

@fuzztone Looks like the problem is when using the invert or vertical flip option on the screen. Once I disabled that and returned it to normal orientation, it worked again.

-Ed

As an aside...I use a Fiio M11 Plus LTD as my source > Bel Canto S300IU using the lineout (LO) function > 1 to 2 rca cable into the Bel Canto > ML Ethos....

Sounds awesome and simple to use.

Yes, I have been having great success with this as my source in my chain. I eventually upgraded my preamp to a Schiit Freya+ and rolled that with quad matched Psvane CV181-T MkII tubes and it took the whole chain to another level. So happy with this setup!

-Ed