HiBy R2 - Off To A Great Start

Intro

Greetings! HiBy recently has been churning out Digital Audio Players (DAP) targeted more towards entry level-mid tier user and currently their latest installment for the market segment is the HiBy R2. It’s their most affordable DAP to date with plethoral of features that can put new users occupied long enough before needing an upgrade. Let’s see what the R2 has to offer!!

Packaging

The box itself speaks exclusivity. Well it’s a black box! The front side spots a large glossy printed R2 with its name on top and a yellow HiBy logo reminds me of some other consumer brands that went with this approach. On the back side lies all the information that one could ever need. The box do look “up to date” to say the least with every manufacturers trying to impress us with all the eye candy they can offer.

The unboxing experience was OK, nothing much to expect here with simple and functional enough package to get things going right out of the box. Also included is an instruction manual, a warranty claim card and…that’s about it. HiBy took the liberty of providing a plastic protective case for the DAP itself along with a short USB-A to USB-C cable for charging and to utilize one of its feature.

On to the build of the DAP itself, the HiBy R2 really felt solid. They are built with aluminum frame and glass panel on the front and back which translates “you need to baby me”. They possess a good heft for their size which is reassuring in the hands and as a statement that it is a product of quality. One letdown is that they are an annoying fingerprint magnet.

Functions And Specifications

Controls are mostly done on the small but decent (where portability is in play) 2.45″, 480 x 360 touch screen. They are good enough to provide a vibrant display and is actually usable in broad daylight. Simple smartphone-like gestures were implemented to navigate through the DAP’s menus which makes them very intuitive.

There are also physical buttons on the HiBy R2 namely the power button (obviously) on top, volume controls on the left side (yes buttons, no potentiometer knobs here), and play/pause, next track, previous track are all on the right side of the DAP. On the bottom there’s a microSD card slot (claimed to support up to 2TB of storage), a USB-C port (which can be used as Digital Coax-Out, as USB DAC mode and for charging) and a Single Ended 3.5mm jack (which also supports Line-Out function).

For first-timers, the HiByOS UI is a breeze to work/play with. The simple interface provides a very “fun” user experience with smooth transitions and intuitive gestures. Themes can also be customised to fit one’s preference. The overall screen tactility is OK although it could be better when responding to pinpoint touches. One thing to note is that with the small screen estate, they can only display 3 songs at once which makes scrolling through your playlist a bit cumbersome. Another thing that is quite of a letdown is that there’s an occasional UI lag especially when prompting their Bluetooth feature. One plus side other than the UI experience though is that the library scanning of my SD card (32GB) full of flacs and a few DSDs only took seconds to complete.

The core features of the HiBy R2 include:

DAP @ 384kHz/32bit & DSD128 (4x MQA unfold)
USB DAC mode tested @ 192kHz/24bit & DSD128
Audio Streaming (Tidal/Qobuz)
Bluetooth 5.0 Transmitter and Receiver with support of LDAC/UAT/AptX/AAC/SBC codecs.
Audio recorder
HibyLink
Low Gain/High Gain
1000mAh battery

The LED Indicator/power button glows elegantly but only changes based on format played and not on different Bluetooth codec. The color codes are as follows:

<16bit @ 44.1khz (blue)
>24bit @ 48khz (green)
DSD @ DSD128 (white)
Charging (red)

I also had a brief test with the audio recorder function of the HiBy R2. Equipped with 2 microphones on left/bottom, they support recording formats of *.wav/*.mp3/*.flac with selectable sample rate of 8kHz/16kHz/48kHz. You can also select the output channel being mono/stereo. One thing that impressed me is the Noise Reduction which works fantastically.

Now moving on to the battery life. What more could you ask for from a musical, laid back sounding DAP? A long lasting battery. Honestly for a small package, they are doing great. For this, I used the Moondrop SSR (known to be a tiny bit demanding) on Single Ended connection and TRN BT20s PRO module for Bluetooth connection. All possible output capability of the HiBy R2 was used to test the battery performance.

The results are as follows:

Line Out, Topping NX4 DSD amp section, 10hrs-11hrs
Single Ended, Low Gain @70% volume, Moondrop SSR 12hrs-13hrs
Single Ended, High Gain @ 50% volume, Moondrop SSR 9hrs-10hrs
Digital Coax, ESS9280c DAC Dongle @25% volume, Moondrop SSR 5hrs-6hrs
BT-Transmitter (AptX) @80% volume, TRN BT20s PRO 15hrs
BT-Receiver (AAC)/mic 12hrs-13hrs

Charging time took well less than 2 hours for a complete cycle charge from being totally depleted.

Note:

I omitted Tidal/Qobuz streaming because I have locally stored flac/DSD files and mainly will be using them offline.
Bluetooth Transmitter function was only tested with AptX codec due to TRN BT20s PRO’s limitation.

Price And Where To Buy?

RM449.00 and can be purchased through Red Ape – Headphone Store.

Purchase Link : Shopee | Lazada

Tone And Sound Presentation

For this, I used my Etymōtic ER3SE to listen to what the HiBy R2 can has to offer.

As a standalone DAP (MSEB & EQ off) & USB DAC mode, the ES9218 equipped HiBy R2 sound came out as warm-ish, smooth, laid back, non-fatiguing, with just enough details/nuances. They do sound a bit intimate, somewhat not quite revealing and would benefit with a bit more treble extension. This is to be expected from an entry level DAP. However, the HiBy R2 really complement any IEM’s (at least those in my stash) transient response quite well. For an ultra-portable DAP, their rendition of sound is easily likeable by many.

On MSEB: (Most of the time I steer away from using EQ or some sort of enhanced DSP to enjoy the different signatures and quirks of my iems)

It’s basically the HiBy way of doing EQ (2 Presets: HiBy seeds/Knight). On custom mode, the MSEB can be fine tuned accordingly. Eventhough the term used might take some time to get used to but they just basically lies within the increment range of the selected scaling. I have found that on the “Fine” scaling range is easy to use and good enough to benefit most users. There’s also a Normal 10 bands EQ @ (31Hz-16kHz) / (-12dB…+12dB) with 8 Presets + 1 Custom if you decide to go that way.

As a Bluetooth Transmitter: (AptX) tested with FiiO FH1 on TRN BT20s PRO module.

They manage to retain the same sound signature, clean, at the expense of being slightly more intimate as compared to DAP mode. The signal range is excellent. I can move around my house leaving the HiBy R2 on my workstation without having disconnection nor distortion even when I went upstairs to check on my kid.

As a Bluetooth Receiver: (AAC) tested with iPhone 8 Plus.

They do retain the same sound signature but not as clean and also lacks clarity (prolly due to codec limitation which is a bummer). Connection wise, I managed to get instant prompt from my phone when used with HibyLink to control the HiBy R2. Despite being equipped with Bluetooth 5.0, there is noticeable latency while streaming media content & playing FPS games (@200ms). Adding salt to injury, they seem to need to refreshed connection each time when switching between playing media to gaming. From Youtube to Netflix to Facebook to any local media, the connection is OK, great even. But switching from media content to PUBGM or vice versa, I need to prompt Blueetooth connection in order to receive audio signal. This might be caused by other issues (firmware) but yet to be discovered. Honestly it’s a frustrating Bluetooth receiver experience.

Comparisons

None, it’s my first proper Digital Audio Player. Literally. But I’d really like to know what others think about the HiBy R2 pitted against DAPs targeted at the same audience, namely the FiiO M5, FiiO M3 Pro, Shanling M0, Shanling Q1 or maybe even HiBy’s own R3 Pro.

For Who?

This will be an easy recommendation for those who are looking to start their portable audiophile journey without breaking the bank. “Just to get their feet wet before diving deeper” so to speak. Equipped with modern features such as Bluetooth 5.0, WiFi (up to 5.0gHz) and being able to stream online music offered as an added value, any smartphone user who already subscribed to audio streaming services looking for a dedicated audio player should consider the HiBy R2. It’s a great DAP to bring along and won’t take much space in your pocket (much less if you carry a handbag) with enough driving power for most IEMs.

Verdict And Star Rating

For something that is considerably cheap, portable and packed with features, there’s honestly nothing wrong with the HiBy R2 except for the minor quirks that I have mentioned before. One won’t get the “openness” nor the ability to dissect music which can be found on a more powerful DAP but then again this is an ultra-portable device and is more than capable to cater for most on-the-go needs. Albeit the sub-par output power, they do make it up with features and connectivity galore not to mention the above average battery life that will last for days of casual music listening. As my personal rig, I pair them with Topping’s NX4 DSD just to satisfy my cravings for the extra “power” and flexibility with various IEMs on the go.

A solid 4 stars for this little DAP!!

(4 / 5)

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