HibyMusic Player - play SACD ISO from Smartphones using external USB DAC

[orangem]

​Would like to share my recent experience with somebody who has the same pursued interests -

 

I managed to rip my SACD collection by following ted_b's gigantic thread, but I have been limited to playing SACD ISOs with foobar2000 and jriver installed on my PC.

 

My inital thought is to buy a UDP that can read SACD-R as an alternative PC-free option, but it's difficult nowadays to get one. I don't want to try those jailbreak firmwares from China. Also, even if I can get one, these UDPs (usually low to mid ends) are limited to HDMI digital or analogue outputs for DSD streams. My stereo DAC, as well as most others, won't accept HDMI and I doubt the analogue music quality decoded by the mediocre DAC of these UDPs.

 

As said, I have been stuck until I tried 'HibyMusic Player' recently. This is a FREE app available both for Android and iPhone:

HiBy Music

 

Installing this app on my Samsung C7 and connecting it to my Northstar Supremo USB DAC with a OTG cable, I have been enjoying native DSD music for the past 2 days. My other system components are a pair of Jeff Rowland preamp/ poweramp and a pair of Spendor bookshelf speakers. To my most satisfaction, I hear only very minimal difference in music quality between this app from phone and foobar2000/jriver from PC. If there is any difference, I think it's difference in flair rather than quality.

 

I also managed to buy a cheap ($6.50) USB OTG combo with 2 USB-ports and 2 SD slots. I copied my music files to a USB flash drive (exFAT for my C7). I connected my DAC to one port and the flash drive to the other. Now, I don't need to turn on my PC every time just for playing music files.

 

To list some of the features stated on the official website of 'HibyMusic Player':

 

- a free lossless HiFi audio player which is designed for audiophile and music fans.

- play DSD files from your net driver (like Dropbox/DLNA/LAN) directly with native DSD support.

- all lossless audio format decoding, including DSF, DFF, ISO (SACD ISOs of DST streams work ok too), WAV, FLAC, AIFF, M4A, AAC, MP3, OGG.

- CUE sheets are supported.

- High precision decoding with 32 bits output, 64 bits float point and 128 bits internal calculating. Just for the best quality of audio.

- External USB DAC is supported with DXD/DoP output. You will get Native DSD or 384KHZ 32 bits audio stream easily.

- Gapless playing is supported.

- 10 bands graphic EQ are supported.

- Separate plugins for sound field.

 

I know there may be other apps with all above features, but this one is FREE. I have not tested everything, and I am not sure if it works for MCH. It seems to be under continuous development. There may be areas for improvements, features to be added and bugs/compatibities to be fixed. However, for now, I am well satisfied.

[robcee]

I wanted to check out Hiby but got turned off when the installer said the app needed permission to access my web browsing history. Maybe it's innocuous, but in my experience, "Free" usually comes with some catches. Would love to know why it needs it.

[orangem]

I wanted to check out Hiby but got turned off when the installer said the app needed permission to access my web browsing history. Maybe it's innocuous, but in my experience, "Free" usually comes with some catches. Would love to know why it needs it.

 

I don't know why. Maybe someone here can have a better answer. I just accepted the permissions during installation without going through the details because nearly all apps ask for some permissions during installation.

 

I went back to Google Play Store, and click "View details" of Permissions required by HibyMusic. I couldn't find it required permission to access web browsing history. To quote the permissions it required:

 

[color=#616161][font=Roboto]Version 2.3.4 can access:[/font][/color]
[color=#333333][font=Roboto][color=#212121]Device & app history[/color]

[list]
[*]retrieve running apps
[/list]
[/font][/color]
[color=#333333][font=Roboto][color=#212121]Phone[/color]

[list]
[*]read phone status and identity
[/list]
[/font][/color]
[color=#333333][font=Roboto][color=#212121]Photos/Media/Files[/color]

[list]
[*]access USB storage filesystem
[*]read the contents of your USB storage
[*]modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
[/list]
[/font][/color]
[color=#333333][font=Roboto][color=#212121]Storage[/color]

[list]
[*]read the contents of your USB storage
[*]modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
[/list]
[/font][/color]
[color=#333333][font=Roboto][color=#212121]Wi-Fi connection information[/color]

[list]
[*]view Wi-Fi connections
[/list]
[/font][/color]
[color=#333333][font=Roboto][color=#212121]Device ID & call information[/color]

[list]
[*]read phone status and identity
[/list]
[/font][/color]
[color=#212121]Other[/color]

[list]
[*]view network connections
[*]pair with Bluetooth devices
[*]access Bluetooth settings
[*]send sticky broadcast
[*]change system display settings
[*]allow Wi-Fi Multicast reception
[*]full network access
[*]change your audio settings
[*]draw over other apps
[*]prevent device from sleeping
[*]modify system settings
[/list]

 

After using this app for 2 days, I didn't notice any "catch". There is no adv poping up, and no in-app purchase. My phone works normally. This app was first released in 11-11-2014. I can't find any adverse comment from other users on the web regarding security of this app. Even if I find out something wrong later, I'll just remove it.

 

I just tell you my experience so far with this app. It's always your decision if you want to try it. Cheers .

[robcee]

It may be nothing, but if an app is free, there's usually a catch. Especially if you don't see ads. I went back and checked to make sure I wasn't making it up, and you can see in the Device & App History, that gives it permission to see all kinds of things. Maybe it's innocuous, but I'd like to know what it needs it for.

 

[mansr]

It may be nothing, but if an app is free, there's usually a catch. Especially if you don't see ads. I went back and checked to make sure I wasn't making it up, and you can see in the Device & App History, that gives it permission to see all kinds of things. Maybe it's innocuous, but I'd like to know what it needs it for.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34100[/ATTACH]

It says "one or more of" those permissions. If you check the detailed permissions in Android 7 (Nougat), you'll see that it doesn't request the browser history or bookmarks.

[robcee]

It says "one or more of" those permissions. If you check the detailed permissions in Android 7 (Nougat), you'll see that it doesn't request the browser history or bookmarks.

Alright, thanks for clearing that up! I don't think you can check Detailed Permissions without first installing.

[wgscott]

When I installed the iOS version, it asked for permission to access my music files on my iOS device. Since I didn't have any, I just said "no" and continued without incident (up to the point where I would have to read the directions, at which point my attention span became exceeded).

[mansr]

Alright, thanks for clearing that up! I don't think you can check Detailed Permissions without first installing.

The Play Store app shows them:

 

[Aitch]

Can't see any way to log onto shares on Nas - nice clean interface though, shame all my stuff lives on various shared folders on my nas.

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[orangem]

Can't see any way to log onto shares on Nas - nice clean interface though, shame all my stuff lives on various shared folders on my nas.

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Computer Audiophile mobile app

 

Try to search for servers under the 'LAN' tab. See if your NAS server can be discovered. I can see my QNAP NAS and all folders inside without asking me to log in, but fail to open the share folders directly ... the app always hangs whenever trying to do so. You can try to see if you have a better luck than me. I hope this can be fixed in future. Meanwhile, I tried 2 temporary workarounds:

 

1. The app can access MinimServer installed on my NAS and play FLACs, WAVs, DFFs, DSFs without problem, but for some reason, the songs are sorted in alphabetcal order and not according to their track numbers. Also, I can't play SACD ISO because MinimServer can't stream ISO, and I think at present no software music server can do so. Most important, this forfeited my main purpose of using this app to play SACD ISOs to an exteranal DAC.

 

2. I formatted a 1T HDD in exFAT, which is of much bigger capacity than my 64G USB flash drive, and copied all my favorite albums including SACD-ISOs to it. I then connected the HDD and DAC to my Samsung phone through a OTG USB hub. In this way, I can play everything I want and all music files on HDD are sorted according to their track numbers.

[Aitch]

Yup - it sees the NAS ok ( and the relevant shares ) but there isn't a mechanism to input username / password for the shares so that it can open them.

 

It does find DLNA OK but since this bundles all of the music together it sorta defeats the many hours I've spent organising folders etc by type of music, bitrate etc etc.

 

I also tried it using some files locally on my phone ( put a few albums of mixed type ( flac, DSD, DFF etc ) on a micro sdcard and connected my Mojo with an otg cable - works great & a nice clean interface, I like it. Unfortunately as it is at present it's less than useful in my configuration - and I'm not going to remove the passwords etc. from my NAS.

 

Maybe in a future update.

[orangem]

Hope update will come soon. Glad to know you like it. By the way, I am now doing the same boring thing ... reorganising my music folders. Seems a never-ending job. >_<

[scottm_dj]

Wow...i had this exact same question because Hiby can technically play all my converted SACD-ISO files i have on 256GB flash drives fpr my main home theatre.   That means i could get the LG V30 and use it's great DAC with my existing files--and dump my dedicated DAP.   I noticed with OTG on a test with my Note 5, it WILL play my 128GB exFAT formatted flash drive (its seen in HiBy), but will not see any of the 256GB NTFS formatted ones (gives corrupted error).   Is my solution to just format one of the 256GB flash drives (or an even larger portable drive) in exFAT mode?    It sounds like the barrier is the formatting type and not the storage size...