Onkyo HF Player - Hi-Res Music Reviews

If you aren’t aware - the latest update release note roughly translated to English means: made correct = corrected issues = fixed some bugs.
Take a look at your most recently updated Apps, you’ll probably see something like this;
‘we corrected issue xyz and fixed some bugs’

Well, Onkyo is telling you the same thing, got it? Good.

Now, I really don’t understand what all the fuss is about. I’ve never seen a single ad*, no sign of a mini-player, the UI is intuitive and my music library is organized and looks very sharp.

Listening to your music precisely how you like is what OnkyoHFPlayer is all about as the equalizer gives you an infinite amount of adjustment. So tweak it to your liking.

side notes -
• probably no ads because I’m on a VPN
• excellent equalizer presets with the added perk of listening to presets from top musical artists
• it makes perfect sense to me
• do you know how to properly use your iDevice
• don’t be afraid to explore OnkyoHFPlayer

I’ve been on an iPhone user since the first day the original iPhone was released for sale in the United States back in June 2007 or so. I think I’m on my twelfth iPhone or thereabout and I’ve owned more than 4000 Apps over the past 11 years or so.

I love OnkyoHFPlayer for its functionality and ability to play hi res music and have purchased it for the ability to play dsd files. It’s easy to use and sounds great, but it’s causing my iPhone backups to be huge because it is backing up my hi res music files when doing an iPhone backup. Some apps allow you to select whether they are included in the backups, but there is no such selection with OnkyoHFPlayer so I have ended up having to buy more iCloud storage to accommodate these huge backups that OnkyoHFPlayer is causing. Emailing support has been useless so far because they have offered no troubleshooting and their only suggestion is to contact Apple. I don’t believe this to be an IOS issue because no other music apps that I have tried have caused these huge backups even with hi res audio added to them. Bottom line is that so far there has been no support for an app that has been paid for. Beware

This is a solid piece of software ruined by idiotic middle management who, looking for a feather in their cap, decide to add ads and ruin an otherwise perfectly useful product. I know the engineers didn’t do that.

I, like many people, hate ads and will not tolerate them. I would be willing to pay a few dollars to remove them. But $10 in an in-app purchase that can’t even be shared? Absolutely not.

Onkyo burns good will treating their customers this way while the original app had built good will. I own Onkyo hardware but when a company “pulls a Sony” I not only refuse to give them my money with future products, I become an evangelist against them. So, middle managers, do the math: you have received no payment from me, I block ads, and now I refuse to buy your product and persuade others not to as well. That looks like a loss to me.

[Updated 14 May, 2020 - OnkyoHFPlayer used to support the Onkyo music store, which essentially paid for the music player app support and development. The music store is gone (in the USA) but OnkyoHFPlayer is still here. Thank you Onkyo. I’ve tried six other “HD” or High Resolution players and the Onkyo player remains the best I have found.]

Onkyo works well if one has audio files not (yet?) supported by Apple. It handles everything I’ve thrown at it (mostly FLAC, which Apple does not support and likely won’t)

I was loving VOX, still do, but I do not like “subscriptions;” a model they have adopted for many essential features. I would rather follow the Onkyo model, which is pay once to access “High Definition” encodings.

There are some things about Onkyo that bother me, but it is the dark UI design and my inability to see its on-screen widgets without my glasses. But that’s my problem so I won’t ding OnkyoHFPlayer .

Good enough to call good stuff.

Enjoy the show.

If you are not using itunes (i.e. you have moved to music) and you are planning to load a large number of flac or other uncompressed music files look for other players.

If you do not not have a large iCloud drive to hold the fat uncompressed flac files then look for another player.

Finally, if you are looking for application support then look for another player. I have found no e-mail address, no iphone and no FAQs for OnkyoHFPlayer .

The instructions to transfer files into your iphone assume that you have itunes. I guess Onkyo realized that music was quite different from itunes and added a file browser to download stuff from the iCloud drive. This works – but only partially. After a few downloads the application ceases to download and the only way to continue is to restart the iphone.
When files are not completely downloaded or they cease to respond OnkyoHFPlayer aborts.
I do appreciate a few things particularly the possibility to see music organized by either composer or genre. And then, of course, you must be sure to have organized your metadata correctly.

I’ll leave this short and sweet. There are some reviewers who have complained of a “serious” navigation flaw. I don’t understand how it’s “serious”, you just have to navigate back to your album page after you’ve CLOSED OnkyoHFPlayer , which, to me, isn’t a “problem” at all. Bottom line: the sound quality is unparalleled in iOS, flat-out. Pay the $10 for the “hi-fi” playback for FLAC files, listen away, and never look back. I’ll never purchase another music player for iOS, because this one is that good.

I have really enjoyed OnkyoHFPlayer for years now. I just upgraded to the iPhone XR and now the mini-player overlaps the Artist/Songs/Albums category selectors at the bottom. If I hit the category I want enough times, it does finally go to that category, but sometimes it is as many as 10-12 times before it happens and it is inconsistent. Please re-evaluate the location of the mini-player (which may not be necessary anyway!) or eliminate it. I am hopeful the developers will address this. Eliminate this and I’ll upgrade my rating to 5 star.

I love OnkyoHFPlayer! I only wish it had the option to show the bitrate of the file. Like 24bit/96khz. I have many hdcds that we’re converted into flac using dBpoweramp and the hdcd codec. I would like to be able to see what bitrate the file is playing so I know its playing correctly! Thanks for such a great product!

Edit: in the latest iOS version, OnkyoHFPlayer stopped working with my 2016 Toyota Camry. It will not connect at all. Hope this gets fixed. Had to start using VOX instead.

I like OnkyoHFPlayer a lot. Way better than iOS iTunes. But every time I leave OnkyoHFPlayer then later come back to it, when I navigate backwards from the song I was playing, the player goes back to the Artists tab instead of the Playlist I started from. Then when you tap the Playlists tab, it always starts me back at the top of the playlist list rather than where I left off. This is a real pain! I was hoping this would be fixed in the last recent update, but it was not. Ugh!!

A few days ago I left a 3* review stating there was a major display error on iphone X in which none of the lower row buttons could be accessed. Seems like devs either took note or were aware of the situation as the small update that just came out fixed the issue. Really happy with the quick fix. Now if only the playlist creator was more intuitive OnkyoHFPlayer would be even better!

This is hands down the best sounding music player for iOS; however, since the last update, there is no way to navigate back to the list of songs on an album or to the main menu of all your music. You have to close OnkyoHFPlayer and reopen every time you want to go back and see all the songs on an album or play a different album - so annoying! At least I don’t have the banner ad or the mini music player everyone’s complaining about, which is why I’m afraid to delete OnkyoHFPlayer and download it again. Please fix this ridiculous issue!

It seems that an otherwise great app has fallen to a mild pollution of ads from yes you guessed it Google. Not enough their fingers are into everything but now your playing music on your fav music player has to have their crap in your face where songs were listed by OnkyoHFPlayer . Was great now eh. Sorry Onkyo ya dropped the ball on this one and a few others recently with hitching up to these clowns.

I recently upgraded to the HF version of OnkyoHFPlayer and while I was glad that the ads were removed, I was flabbergasted that the mini player now covers half of the control buttons for the artist and albums functions. Now it takes multiple tries to get the buttons to work and it’s really frustrating! I like the mini player, but please move it up a little so it doesn’t cover the function buttons.

OnkyoHFPlayer used to be free for iPod (basic option) and we had to pay $10 to play hi-res files. Now the Ads has been added to the free app and no way to remove it, except upgrading to hi-res that I don’t need, and paying $10 to just remove the Ads (for my needs) doesn’t make sense at all!

Please remove the Ads from the free app as before or at least ask a reasonable price to do that or I have to say goodbye and leave 👋.

Really liked OnkyoHFPlayer until a few days ago when it was upgraded to 2.14. I rely heavily on the EQ for being able to enjoy listening to music on the usual subpar audio that comes in most vehicles. I drive two vehicles that I have fine tuned with EQ presets and ever since I updated OnkyoHFPlayer I cannot switch between the two because when I flip the phone to view the EQ nothing happens. Yes, I’ve made sure my orientation lock isn’t on. Hopefully this gets resolved soon.

Absolutely awesome player.
Here’s the good: Any/all formats just about. Sends converted to DSD via a camera USB adapter to outboard devices in DoP, such as my Sony RSX-GS9 head unit with ESS Sabre DAC. The sound is spectacular.
Here’s the opportunity: Onkyo do please consider a landscape mode for OnkyoHFPlayer and not EQ but the actual player. Several high-end car audio competitors and enthusiasts want to use OnkyoHFPlayer for tablet in dash installations, except that means typically landscape orientation. Please! :)

Although OnkyoHFPlayer supports ODP on my iPhone and older IPad Pro with a lightning connector and an Apple CCK
I cannot get it to export DSF files to a Mojo thru USB C of the current iPad Pro
It just downgrades every DSF file to pcm even though the DOP switch is turned on
I thought this might be hardware or iOS related but using another high res app , it works fine.
I would welcome a solution

App is very good. However, the new ios software upgrade to 12.1 isn’t compatible. The bottom selection of Songs/Playlists/Albums etc . is covered up by advertising and unaccessible. Contacted Onkyo many times but never responded. Unfortunate - seems like easy fix.

******Back to normal now. Took little while but appreciate the fix Onkyo.*******

Why should people who’ve already owned OnkyoHFPlayer be subjected to ads? This doesn’t bode well with loyal users who’ve made your app popular. I’d understand showing ads to new users and requesting an optional IAP to get rid of them — but it’s truly unfair and a money grab to do this to those of us who’ve had your app for years. I’m considering deleting your app for this reason alone even though it’s a stellar app — there are plenty of amazing HiFi iOS app options that don’t impose ads on current users. Please rethink this decision ASAP or else you’ll likely lose many users.

The sound from OnkyoHFPlayer is amazing and transfer from itunes was a breeze
Interface is s bit clunky but you get used to it
Major down side is for the life of me I cannot figure out how to shuffle a playlist ; if that were possible this would be a ‘5’

It will play everything excellently. I have a wish list, but as-is it’s great. Buy the hi-res upgrade, a camera adapter and a good DAC and you can carry a ton of hi-res music around and play it. I don’t use any of the equalization features. For me its about playing DSD, FLAC, and MQA material with artwork and lyrics.

Simple to get the files on your phone via iTunes file transfer, or you can move them from one-drive into it as well.

It has DSD over PCM and upsampling built-in to get 176.4 from 44.1 or 48 to 192. It also has this PCM to DSD feature where instead of 44.1+ PCM going to your DAC, you can go as high as double-precision double DSD over PCM from low rate PCM. It brings out all detail and dynamics available in the content. It’s not magic so fidelity is still limited by available data, particularly on the hi and low extremes, but it’s better.

Wish list: 1) Ability to set and store desired upsample and/or equalization by song. 2) More metadata visible in app. 3) more robust editing of the player’s file system to find and select items by album or artist and delete it

App is very good. However, the new ios software upgrade to 12.1 isn’t compatible. The bottom selection of Songs/Playlists/Albums etc . is covered up by advertising and unaccessible. Contacted Onkyo many times but never responded. Unfortunate - seems like easy fix.

******Back to normal now. Took little while but appreciate the fix Onkyo.*******