Libratone vs HiByMusic
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Libratone
Easily set up and manage wireless speakers for a personalized audio experience. Stream music throughout your home, create multi-room soundscapes, or enjoy local sound on the go. Control your music and save favorite radio stations.
- Speaker setup (WiFi/BT)
- Multi-room audio (SoundSpace Link)
- 360 FullRoom Sound
- Local soundspaces (BT+1)
- Internet radio station saving
- Music control
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Create SoundSpaces with Libratone wireless speakers Libratone speakers play your way – move, link, and enjoy the music you love. The Libratone App is required to setup and connect new Wifi or BT speakers, and manage the Classic range – Zipp Classic, Live, Lounge, Loop and Diva. CONNECT Simply connect your speaker to WiFi or BT in seconds. Choose the perfect audio setup to match the dynamics of your room and the position of your speaker. Save 5 favourite internet radio stations for each speaker. COMBINE Use SoundSpaceTM Link to play the same music across your home, or stream different sound to different spaces. Fill your home with 360 FullRoomTM Sound. Bring your speakers with you and use the BT+1 feature to create local soundspaces anywhere on the go. CONTROL Take charge of your music with the new Libratone speakers and App - it’s simple, fun and free.
HiByMusic
A free, high-fidelity audio player for audiophiles and music lovers. It supports a wide range of lossless and lossy formats, offering high-precision decoding and advanced audio features for a premium listening experience.
- Wide lossless/lossy audio format support
- CUE sheets and ISO image support
- High precision decoding (32-bit output, 64-bit float)
- External USB DAC support
- Gapless playback
- 10 band graphic EQ
- MSEB support
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HiByMusic Free lossless HiFi audio player. Easy to use, clean and clear. HiByMusic Player is a free lossless HiFi audio player designed for audiophiles and music fans, giving you a first-class music experience wherever you go. Features: 1. Wide lossless/lossy audio format support, including DSD(DSF,DFF), ISO(DSF,DFF,DST), WAV, FLAC, APE, AIFF, M4A, AAC, WMA, MP3, Ogg Vorbis; 2. CUE sheets and ISO images are also directly supported; 3. High precision decoding with 32 bits output, 64 bits floating point decoding and 128 bits internal precision, all for the best quality audio; 4. External USB DAC is supported, Output Native DSD with DoP, Direct output DxD and 384kHz@32bits audio streams easily; 5. Gapless playback; 6. 10 band graphic EQ; 7. MSEB support; Stay tuned, more professional function will be added continually! email: service@hiby.com website: www.hiby.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: HiByMusic at 3.4 against Libratone's 2.2. HiByMusic also leads on review sentiment (42% vs 16%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.6). Libratone's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
HiByMusic holds the better App Store score, 3.4 against 2.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 193 and 143 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 16% of Libratone's written reviews are positive against 42% of HiByMusic's.
Libratone ships an update every 3 weeks, HiByMusic every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Libratone | HiByMusic |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.2 (193 ratings) | 3.4 (143 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 15.8% of reviews | 42.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 193 — better | 143 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 250 MB | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Little Bird Co., Ltd | Dongguan Hiby Music Technology Co., Ltd. |
Customer experience
Libratone
HiByMusic
User reviews
Libratone
From 193 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great sound quality
- 🚀 Speakers work well when connected
- 💡 Useful features like stereo pairing
Room to improve
- 🐛 App is buggy and unreliable
- 🔒 Forced to login/create account
- 🔋 Battery level indicator inaccurate
- 🔍 Difficult to set up and configure
HiByMusic
From 143 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎵 Excellent hi-res audio support (DSD, FLAC, WAV, APE)
- 🆓 Free app without ads or hidden fees
- 🎨 Clean and intuitive user interface
- 🔗 HibyLink functionality for controlling compatible devices
- ⚙️ Effective equalizer and DSP effects
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
- 📱 Poor iOS optimization compared to Android version
- 🔌 Unreliable Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity
- 🎯 Clunky and unintuitive user experience
- 🚫 CarPlay support removed in recent updates
Bugs and requests
Libratone
Reported bugs
3 issues- App frequently crashes or fails to detect speakers
- Speakers randomly disconnect or lose WiFi connection
- Issues with firmware updates and compatibility
Requested features
4 requests- Add custom EQ settings
- Improve app stability and reliability
- Restore battery percentage display
- Allow speaker control without app
HiByMusic
Reported bugs
21 issues- App crashes during music library scanning (around 3,000 files)
- HibyLink connection drops repeatedly
- Music playback stops when app is backgrounded
- Rewind button behavior inconsistent (goes to previous song instead of replaying)
- Album shuffle mixing with existing playlist songs
Show 16 moreShow fewer
- SMBv3 compatibility issues
- DLNA functionality crashes
- EQ and DSP effects not working on iOS
- DSD DoP not functioning on iPhone 15 Pro Max
- MQA track playback crashes
- Search function keyboard disappears after each letter
- Album art cropping and stretching issues
- Lyric loading failures
- Some MP3 and M4A files fail to play
- Bluetooth pairing inconsistency with Hiby devices
- Firmware update required every startup (2-3 minutes)
- Music file scanning not detecting all formats
- Volume control glitches when pressing quickly
- Plugin deactivation after app closure
- Folder sorting in reverse alphabetical order
- Track order randomization in folder view
Requested features
20 requests- Manual playlist reordering
- ID3 tag editing capability
- Folder-based music library scanning
- Album artist sorting (not just track artist)
- Album favorites/bookmarking
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Gapless playback
- Crossfade between tracks
- Folder icon display in browser
- Font size adjustment
- Language settings
- Dark mode and theme customization
- Background playback support
- Search by filename
- HTTP/NAS access support
- Lyrics matching and custom lyric sources
- Portrait mode support for iPad
- Online lyrics and cover art fetching improvements
- Ascending/descending sort order options
- Playlist organization and song management
- VoiceOver accessibility improvements for iOS
In-app purchases
Libratone
No in-app purchases
HiByMusic
No in-app purchases
