M500 notes

• Long term use warms up similar to my EVA R4

• Today from 100%-40% span of 4.5 hours mostly listening to music near full volume before next charge

• Buttons are DEFINITELY sketchy and questionable on longevity as seen in videos

• Camera is a Straight Gimmick, needs to be removed, barely anyone will ever use it even less for WiFi only units(can use for “Spotify codes” etc but might as well use your phone) Camera takes a while to focus and takes 7-8 sec to load your photos and still doesn’t fully render for another 3 seconds (side note, it has a flash but doesn’t by default allow to use for a flashlight outside of the camera app)

• Volume output is louder than my R4 EVA on medium gain (can run my HD6xx but 60-80 vol for acceptable performance) can’t change gain like r4

• Side light never turns off while unit is powered and doesn’t change color depending on track coding like all other hiby units, you can have the light always on or off that’s it. (Can get annoying at night AND Can drain battery if left on at night without charging)

• Speakers are mediocre (not surprising)

• Build quality is pure plastic (Reminds me of android phones of 2012-2017 made of pure plastic like budget HTC phones,1st gen Razer phone, or the Robin phone etc)

• Way less audio settings compared to my hiby R4 Eva. All you have is [Digital filter] and [Output power mode]

• No “Mode change” like the R4, so no USB DAC, BT RECEIVER MODE, or pure audio mode.

• Definitely NOT Left handed friendly: vol control hard to reach/use and fn key is hard to use. Sorry lefties

• Screen is a big improvement over the r4, even though the r4 has a higher resolution of 750x1334 compared to m500’s 720x1280, the colors pop out way better and you can change the amount of color your screen displays in settings, and the m500 seems to have less lag compared to the r4 when watching videos in testing

• Not useable in pocket, most buttons feel the same and vol wheel catches in pocket, must take out fully to use

• User interface does run faster than R4 in some applications, in others you can’t tell the difference, I took off the miku theme because it did actually lag certain stuff like changing songs: songs skip to the next FLAWLESSLY, but the miku theme player struggled to change album art and froze if you skipped to fast

In conclusion it’s still a fun dap but for people who want there first dap or an everyday/everywhere dap, i wouldn’t recommend it since there are other android daps in the same price range. Some of the software stuff ive mentioned can be fixed over updates but this is first day impressions with no updates yet announced

P.S. for people who want more of an audio review I’m currently testing my iems and headphones on it, it DOES sound fantastic, don’t hear any audible lag or distortion. currently with my iems it’s hard to tell which is better my Eva or miku but the HD6xx headphones definitely show the EVA r4 shine

But TBH just wait for one of the YouTube audiophiles to post since they got more experience, equipment, time, bishes, etc.

The current pricing on Amazon is: M300 $189 (including case and screen protector), R4 $249. I have tried out the M300 and liked the device overall, at the time the R4 wasn't available on Amazon but now that it is I'm wondering if it's worth getting the R4 over the M300. I do plan on using it with a Sony Bluetooth speaker (srsxb43), and with the Fiio FHE and (once they arrive) the FatFreq DEUCE. I'm not too knowledgeable with these kind of things but ivee seen mentioned that R4 has had some issues (overheating), and having to use UAPP with M300 because of some reasons. I guess I'm just wondering if any of that matters or makes one better than the other.

Hello, I’ve been considering buying a DAP. At first I was looking at the R6 III 2025, but they recently announced the M500. They seem similar to me, but the M500 has newer Android, better battery life, and similar 4.4 balanced output power. I have some discounts, so I can get the R6 III 2025 for the same price as the M500. Because of that, I’m wondering which one would be better as a daily work/travel DAP, and also for occasionally testing headphones at audio shows.

For reference, I have the Ori 3.0 and AM7 Opal Audio headphones, as well as some IEMs (Crinacle Meta + Rinko).

Thanks for all the help and recommendations :)

Just posted in their Instagram 🎵🎶🩵

Seems kinda surreal... I'm down. Opinions?

Well, at this point and so close to 11.11 I'm sorry HiBy I'll be spending my money elsewhere 🤷🏻‍♂️

I guess everyone knows everything about this dap. but I share this japanese review here: