HiBy Music's new Android 12 R4 discrete Class A music player is just such an example, being whatever you want it to be – a pocket rocket compact travel companion or beginner DAP.  We've seen this before: just HiBy pushing the boundaries of what's capable at the very top, but also at the bottom. Built on four low-power consumption ESS Technology DACs and two dedicated word clocks, pocket rockets like R4 – at this price – were what Head-Fi used to dream about. Able to decode streams off Spotify, Hi-Res Lossless Apple Music, Tidal and whatever you could download from HiBy's open Android Google Play Store, R4 is an affordable audiophile's dream. It goes right onto Headfonia's Recommended Buys list and into Audiophile-Heaven's Hall of Fame. It punches above its weight to Headfonics. "R4 punches well above its weight, while elevating music playback and user experience beyond anything else I’ve personally used in this price range" says The Headphone List. That fidelity flows on to be translated into difficult, committed audiophile IEM loads too. Eschewing the de rigueur op-amps that you've gotten blaissé about – the ones that other manufacturers fit even into their mid-tier players – HiBy asks you to choose R4's superior discrete Class A output stage instead. [See Product Desc. For More] For an entry-level player, working with high open-loop performance before feedback is applied is no mean feat ... not to mention being able to handle considerable current and provide actual power into low-impedance IEMs. Distortion always remains low when you're listening, helped by its amplifier's Class A operation. 16 output transistors are fully biased to achieve their most linear open-loop operation, ensuring an accurate reproduction of your music without the excessive use of negative feedback.  This means that the increasingly low impedances of modern IEMs will be dealt with adequately. R4's output devices are truly capable of handling current and outputting up to 525 milliwatts of power – it's not a player that will lose composure dealing with loads from Empire Ears and Vision Ears. Picking this HiBy up quickly on the go does not mean sacrificing fidelity. Using op-amps would have been too easy, and HiBy firmly stick by their discrete amplification guns even at R4's price of entry. It's a level of detail that's paid off in natural, accurate sound, reproducing the detail its quad of ESS ES9018C2M DACs are capable of. The attention paid to R4's digital decode extends beyond its DACs, its FPGA and dual crystal oscillators – it's in HiBy's desire to split its quad array of chips into two pairs. One pair decodes PCM, and the other DSD. By recognising the completely different requirements in decoding each format, R4 keeps impressing us below the surface. Specially configuring a pair of its DACs, and their ensuing analog low-pass filters (LPF), means HiBy are in a much better position to bypass DSD's problems and decode the format purely. R4's DSD decode path benefits greatly from its LPF's stronger rejection of ultrasonic noise, in particular preventing single-rate DSD64's noise problems from contaminating the subsequent signal path. HiBy might have gone in all in on the consumer market with R4, but that never stopped these innovators from respecting their audiophile roots. It then backs up that distortion and noise performance with all the luxuries that a modern music lover counts on. Android 12 and Google Play Store's apps run smoothly thanks to a Snapdragon 665 CPU, for up to 11 hours on a single charge. Seasoned audiophiles needing a compact and rugged travel companion will not find themselves missing their reference DAPs very much at all, given how high R4 gets you up the tree in performance. Similarly, newcomers will be treated to the full audio experience very quickly – and in painless financial manner. If you've graduated from R4, be sure to check out HiBy's other marvels here too, or view all our other music players here.

The cake’s ready, now it’s time for the cherry on top. HiBy Music’s ambitions for 2024 and beyond rise and rise, with the launch of R6 Pro II.  As if bringing AKM’s sought-after flagship AK4191EQ DSP and dual AK4499EXEQ DACs to a new level of affordability wasn’t enough, R6 Pro II adds on a discrete Class A balanced 4.4mm headphone amp. Sophisticated, open and airy, there's a refined flavour imparted on top of its neutral yet forgiving transparency. Headfonia have already elected it to their Recommended Buys list, something that Audiophile-Heaven second. R6 Pro II is The Headphone List's "instant recommendation at or below the kilobuck mark ... packs more technology than I’ve seen in flagships only a year or two ago, with sound quality that comes oh so close". R6 Pro II’s AKM decode gets passed along beautifully to drive your prized headphones and earphones says MOONSTAR Reviews. Audio Discourse writes HiBy hit it out of the park – empowered by a beautiful I/V stage, Class A discrete transistor output stage, Android 12, full Google Play Store and streaming usability, plus HiBy's relentless drive to surpass previous limits. [See Product Desc. For More] A modern-day music player is so much more than its DAC chips, and HiBy have taken that to heart … hoping everyone does too, to truly see the extent of their efforts. Greatness achieved at the highest end is easy, but portable digital audio has a new master in HiBy because of how much of that essence trickles down affordably into R6 Pro II. HiBy’s effort means R6 Pro II is greater than the sum of its parts regardless of its entry price, and ensures the very best platform for Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM)’s resurgent flagship DACs to make their mark.  That’s evident because of the mastery HiBy designed around AKM's digital ecosystem. These Japanese giants, back on their feet with a clean slate, started afresh expanding the basic footprint of a single DAC chip IC into three separate parts – to similarly multiply capabilities by a factor of three. AKM’s AK4191EQ DSP is the brains of the operation, receiving pristine I2S clocking and data from HiBy’s FPGA. Aboard, AK4191EQ’s delta-sigma modulator takes advantage of its expanded, dedicated, silicone footprint to lay claim to the title of the first chip IC working at seven bits. These seven single-bit modulators flow on into R6 Pro II's AKM 4499EXEQ DACs, one for each channel and built with a single purpose in mind: to turn the interpolated, noise-shaped, digital data it receives into the most precise analog waveform possible afforded by its large footprint.  Silicone size matters when it comes to a great DAC IC, and AK4499EXEQ has it. Enabled by much more exact, matched resistors and capacitors aboard for precise DC single-bit decoding, and dynamic element matching that is less burdened by switching errors – granted by parts accuracy from a bigger footprint. Any conversion errors from AK4499EXEQs outputting in current manifests as DC offset, and not total harmonic distortion, that is easily filtered out. That's expected of any source claiming to be high performance.  HiBy's eight-channel current-to-voltage I/V section follows these AK4499EXEQs, befitting of chips that output in current for best distortion performance and indeed more expensive players.  By treating each of the eight channel current outputs separately before stereo summing, R6 Pro II yields a small-signal stage that is transparent and, most importantly, accurate. HiBy's gain signal flows as a linear waveform on to a series of 16 discrete bipolar power transistors working in Class AB or an optimally pure Class A. Differentiating itself from so many others who use op-amp ICs with inordinate amounts of gain, R6 Pro II's open-loop linearity remains excellent before application of feedback. That's owed to its Class A bias ensuring individual output transistors are working in optimum condition – aided by an operating voltage of five volts. Distortion and noise are kept low, without resorting to the excessive use of negative feedback. HiBy designed a true-balanced differential amplifier to further improve R6 Pro II's linearity, and you can count on common-mode rejection at its best whenever you plug in via 4.4mm.  R6 Pro II's current handling is impressive given its number of output transistors in parallel, meaning this HiBy remains unfazed driving even the punishing low impedances of Odin and Legend Evo from Empire Ears, plus the Vision Ears EXT, Subtonic Audio's Storm, Focals, Fostexs and Rosson Audio Designs. A separately regulated inductor-based power supply ably backs up this potent voltage source. And even this overachieving HiBy is able to supply its clean small-signal to the likes of outboard amps such as Cayin Audio's C9II, via a dedicated 4.4mm line-out port. By putting such a high-performance circuit and a big 5,000mAh battery in the palms of people's hands and offering them a Snapdragon 665 with full Google Play support, HiBy grant you the ability to bypass Android 12's sample-rate conversion for bit-perfect playback. This is what it means to truly step-up in 2024, and HiBy use the statement that is R6 Pro II to tell you how much more you should expect. See what forward-thinkers HiBy can really do higher up the range here, or view our other music players here.

R2R is for the purists, and few get purer than RS2. HiBy Music distilled the necessities from their pioneer RS6 for pure file music playback in a mini-form factor. Clearly enough, to land on Headfonia, and Audiophile-Heaven's, Recommended Buys list, with no shortage of the R2R experience for Headfonics. While being the smaller sibling, RS2 plays music back with a sonic truth and a particular delicacy and refinement only possible from R2R, but different to its Darwin V2 counterparts. Those with a tremendous personal music library of files will be particular enamoured with RS2's dual micro SD card slots for up to 4TB of storage. READ ALSO Darwin R2R sees HiBy set the bar PCM and DSD will be decoded up and down RS2's ladder of individual resistors, in the second generation of HiBy's low-powered, battery-friendly, Darwin architecture. With the work and skill it takes to design one's own R2R resistor DAC from scratch, we must say: RS2, like RS6 before, is proof of how far up the ladder HiBy have climbed. [See Product Desc. For More] We've heard multiple times it's not a matter of parts but the implementation that counts. So we pay attention when RS2 coverts PCM and DSD via separate circuit paths, doing so for the former ala typical R2R – NOS (non-oversampling).  That's double the feat because the precision demanded in exact resistor values – for the buttery, natural and resolving ability that R2R DAC topology is known for – goes up. Lovers of reference sound need not fret, however, with the ability to switch PCM decoding from NOS to oversampling mode for the cleanest possible result. That scrubs any last distortion and artifacts beyond the audible human hearing range. HiBy make the distinction between PCM and DSD, because RS2 separately converts the latter with the most purity ever encountered in a portable device till date. Instead of pre-conversion to PCM as many other off-the-shelf DAC chips do, RS2 preserves the original DSD file throughout the process.  Believe it: HiBy decode natively in DSD's true 1-bit process. RS2 calls for a simple low-pass filter for the purest, most elegant portable DSD conversion that preserves the simplicity of the process and original waveform. Amidst minimal digital filtering, the format's analog-like goodness gets delivered unmolested to your ears. RS2's dedicated and separate R2R PCM and DSD circuit paths mean you stand to enjoy the best sound you thought possible from either form – impossible to this extent, till now.  The final product goes through JRC's NJW1195A digitally-controlled analog volume control before reaching the output amp, for preservation of your music's true resolution, and that very special, discrete, native DSD decode. The sleekest, latest version of HiByOS allows you to navigate basically between your albums, artists, files and folders as you wrote them to your SD cards. With 4TB of external file storage, and up to 10 hours of playback, get back on the road with maximum portable fidelity in 2022. Also check out HiBy's bigger RS6 here, all of HiBy's releases here, or view our other music players here.

Listeners just can't resist resistor-ladder DACs, and the same can entirely be said for HiBy Music's discrete Darwin V2 R2R RS6. Headfonia rates it a "very good statement from the brand". It's a worthy introduction for analog lovers says Headfonics, and R2R was just the first step in building a supreme Android DAP experience to Twister6. READ ALSO Evolve or go extinct with RS6's R2R Your music will be decoded up and down RS6's ladder of individual resistors. And with the work and skill it takes to design one's own R2R resistor DAC from scratch, we must say: RS6 is proof of how far up the ladder HiBy have climbed. [See Product Desc. For More] We've heard multiple times it's not a matter of parts but the implementation that counts. So we pay attention when RS6 converts PCM and DSD via separate circuit paths, doing so for the former ala typical R2R – NOS (non-oversampling).  That's double the feat because the precision demanded in exact resistor values – for the buttery, natural and resolving ability that R2R DAC topology is known for – goes up. Lovers of reference sound need not fret, however, with the ability to switch PCM decoding from NOS to oversampling mode for the cleanest possible result. That scrubs any last distortion and artifacts beyond the audible human hearing range. HiBy make the distinction between PCM and DSD, because RS6 separately converts the latter with the most purity ever encountered in a portable device till date. Instead of pre-conversion to PCM as many other off-the-shelf DAC chips do, RS6 preserves the original DSD file throughout the process.  Believe it: HiBy decode natively in DSD's true 1-bit process. RS6 calls for a simple low-pass filter for the purest, most elegant portable DSD conversion that preserves the simplicity of the process and original waveform. Amidst minimal digital filtering, the format's analog-like goodness gets delivered unmolested to your ears. RS6's dedicated and separate R2R PCM and DSD circuit paths mean you stand to enjoy the best sound you thought possible from either form – impossible to this extent, till now. It gets a Gold Award from Soundnews for its performance and innovation. The final product goes through an analog volume control before reaching the output amp, for preservation of your music's true resolution, and that very special, discrete, native DSD decode. No detail is too small for HiBy, and it stretches to software. With Head-Fi's best Google Play Store and Android 9 UI at your fingertips, audiophiles will enjoy the natural, fatigue-free detail of RS6. Use any streamed music service ranging from 16X Tidal MQA, Spotify, full Hi-Res Lossless Apple Music and Roon, to YouTube, Plexamp and Soundcloud.  This is innovation that saw Headfonics name RS6 on its prestigious Top Gear 2021 Editor's Choice list. Hear this in tandem with C9 – owners of Cayin Audio's flagship portable tube amp should also seek out RS6 for a tremendously thorough R2R source complete with hardware line-out port. Also check out HiBy's New R6 here, all of HiBy's releases here, or view our other music players here.

--- SOLD! --- HiBy Music's R8 release comes as a sign of assurance, a bid at challenging for the top of the DAP market. If you've found a niche make it yours, and HiBy's uber-powerful Android 9 and MQA 16X player is a showcase of electronics engineering brilliance. [See Product Desc. For More] R8's dual AKM4497s bring out the best of your online and offline Tidal MQA files, with a headphone amplifier Turbo Mode that puts out desktop amplifier leagues of power to drive Sennheiser and ZMF Headphones with ease. Here is a DAP that's all about the big experience. Such as the biggest, most speaker-like performance from Sennheiser's HD800S driven 4.4mm balanced: two strong tower images playing from in front of you. Even desktop amplifiers struggle to portray the same cues in spatial depth with this headphone legend, certainly never matching full-size stereo listening...until now. R8 leapt onto Headfonia's 'Recommended Buys' list for its supremacy in powering virtually all manner of headphones, being elevated to a 'Best of 2020' award given it's no small task for a portable device. Yet Twister6 hailed HiBy for giving us a flagship music player not all about brute force, but beautiful sound as well. This all led to Headfonics proclaiming R8 the most complete DAP on the market at time of writing. For the music player that does it all comes with a full suite of accessories including its own premium leather-bound carry box and exclusive Dignis case in tow. It's an unboxing experience to behold. Porta Fi called it – HiBy nailed it with R8. Now at Zepp, whet your appetites with the rest of HiBy's releases here first, or browse our other music players here.

When you've got the code, you've got the power. HiBy Music's proprietary DARWIN DSP and digital filter design has paid off in R8II – Head-Fi's groundbreaking, first totally original, discrete pulse-width modulated (PWM) music player. Sweet, with a black background and plenty of vocal density, R8II is one smooth customer. With DARWIN having gained prominence in the R2R RS6 and RS8 players as software specially written for hardware, the oversampling, noise-shaped PWM R8II eschews standard DAC chips and is an even further step as a pure HiBy digital creation. It goes right onto Headfonia's Recommended Buys list. Headfonics hail R8II's "vocal presence and midrange openness that might tick more boxes than the RS8". Twister6 praised "such rich selection of features and the flagship level of performance at a cheaper price in comparison to their RS8 TOTL flagship".  The Headphone List gives it the "highest possible recommendation". Indeed, HiBy loaded code aboard R8II's FPGA to run its PWM DAC with a new frequency and time domain accuracy. It gets the Soundnews Gold Award and even outscores its RS8 cousin, as this reviewer validly questioned if it's the best portable DAP ever. All these gains in decoding digital to analog translate to a newfound realism and accuracy in playing music back via the Android 12 R8II, which comes with HiBy's discrete Class A 4.4mm headphone amplifier capable of driving a new generation of low-impedance flagship earphones. [See Product Desc. For More] Instead of being a mere drive towards cost-effectiveness, the PWM R8II – dubbed DARWIN Multi-Phase Array (MPA) – unlocks a new era of sustainable portable performance in DAPs. This PWM prodigy sidesteps the impractical dependance on parts precision necessary in analog circuits and filters to perform. Rather, R8II shifts the hard work into the digital realm for frequency and time-domain results only possible with high-speed DSP. Its pulse-width modulation decoding of digital via individual capacitors and resistors is already a one-up on the standard delta-sigma modulation typically found in DAC chips.  HiBy's DARWIN MPA addresses the problems of conventional delta-sigma's inconsistent rise and fall edges at the frequency level, with adjustments made to facilitate more accurate, predictable switching on and off between 1s and 0s. This approach results in a reduction of errors by avoiding intersymbol interference. Notably, non-linearities arising from rise and fall mismatches do not manifest as total harmonic distortion. R8II's PWM decoding does not produce harmonic errors that vary with digital output levels. The brains of R8II are contained within its FPGA running a second generation of DARWIN digital filters. HiBy has cracked the formula for simultaneous time and frequency domain performance via its proprietary code. Certainly, digital can only claim to be high-performance if it oversamples heavily past the problems of Nyquist. And R8II is such a fruition of this ideal being developed entirely in-house at HiBy. DARWIN digital filters oversample incoming PCM data by 128x. These formats are put through a discrete MPA DAC running at an incredible speed of 6.144 Mhz. Shifting the Nyquist frequency exponentially beyond the range of human hearing enables the associated digital filter to function with a shallow profile. This allows for the effective blocking of aliased digital frequencies, while concurrently enhancing time-domain performance by minimising impulse ringing – a contrast to what a standard steep digital filter might induce. Importantly, this approach dramatically relaxes demands on the parts precision of any subsequent analog low-pass filter following R8II's DARWIN MPA DAC. Not that its discrete current-to-voltage I/V converter – made of individual transistors – has a problem dealing with any remaining distortion presenting itself as a DC offset that is easy to filter out. The dynamic element-matched, multi-bit output of R8II's DAC is precious. Indeed, HiBy's I/V stage has the high slew rates and instant step response necessary to keep up with the more linear phase of DARWIN MPA's shallow digital filters. Whatever entered R8II's DAC as digital comes out exactly the same in analog due to this I/V's low open-loop gain – with lower negative feedback necessary leading to its high speed, plus high slew rates and unity gain stability.  There's a reason R8II portrays elements within the soundstage with such solidity, despite aural image tangibility not normally being the strong suit of 2-7 bit delta-sigma or PWM designs. Indeed, the elements within the soundstage this HiBy generates are convincingly rendered because its small analog signal post-conversion is of the highest quality, and inherently stable without going into oscillation caused by too much I/V gain product. HiBy's decode goes through a four-channel analog volume control before reaching the Class A discrete output stage, preserving your music's true dynamic range resolution. R8II's power supply rails see operating voltages for its power section sit at a nominal 6 volts that Turbo Mode boosts to 7.5, assuring the open-loop linearity of discrete transistors. HiBy's discrete amplifier can be operated in Class AB or an optimal Class A, for sonic tweaking with your favourite earphones and headphones. Differentiating itself from even other flagships that cling to op-amp layouts seeking THX-certification but with inordinate amounts of gain and feedforward/feedback, R8II's linearity remains excellent already in the open-loop, owing to its high operating voltages and bias. Those ensure individual transistors are working in optimum condition. Distortion and noise are kept low, without resorting to the excessive use of negative feedback. HiBy designed a true-balanced differential amplifier to further improve R8II's linearity, and you can count on common-mode rejection at its best whenever you plug in via 4.4mm preserving its resolution. It's an output stage that's direct-coupled to improve low-frequency performance, and R8II audibly plumbs the lowest bass depths. With the extension down low, phase reproduction in the audible human hearing range for taut, hard-hitting and life-like dynamics is excellent. At the tip of R8II's power stage spear, 16 transistors ensure excellent current-handling for good reason, to reap the full benefit of HiBy's separately regulated power supplies for analog and digital sections.  The former is particularly massive and incorporates inductors that store huge energy in a magnetic field before releasing on demand to HiBy's Class A amplifier.  Superior even to super capacitors due to their low DC resistance, these inductors constitute a massive power supply for an output stage that can follow the impedances of the Empire Ears Raven, Odin, Legend Evo plus Vision Ears Elysium EXT down low. Simultaneously, R8II swings enough voltage to push Subtonic Audio's Storm and Symphonium Audio's Crimson, Sony's IER-Z1R as well as Focal's Utopia, Stellia and Clear MG Pro, with total aplomb. You'll want to exploit all of R8II's technical feats by getting as much of your music aboard. So HiBy built in the futuristic Snapdragon 665 SOC and 8GB of RAM to run Android 12 and Google Play Store perfectly. A 12,000mAh battery supplies up to 20 hours of use. Stream Hi-Res Lossless Tidal and Apple Music at full bit and sample rates with HiBy's Direct Transport Audio OS that bypasses detrimental Android sample-rate conversion. And an alcantara-covered backplate and stainless steel chassis means you'll always listen to R8II in style. It's style that absolutely comes with substance, containing a HiBy heirloom. A heirloom that cumulates as a symbol for how far they've come turning their code into truly groundbreaking products and musical nirvana. Track how HiBy made their way to the top by checking out their other innovations here, or view our other music players here.

World, watch out. R6III shows how serious HiBy Music continue to be. Disregard this Android 12 music player's affordability. R6III's potential to impress is unrestricted with a Class A discrete transistor balanced amplifier outputting in 4.4mm. Class A shows up in R6III's sound, with a sense of vibrancy and vigour delivering notes with charged energy. There's a trademark HiBy accuracy to frequency response too, coloured yet always correct. Neutral, clean, yet never sterile, R6III will delight budding music enthusiasts keeping them entertained – always. HiBy's latest release packs refinement amidst a black background attained from a low noise floor, capable of exposing all the detail flagship IEMs and headphones are capable of today.  R6III immediately went onto Headfonia's Recommended Buys list. It's extremely enjoyable to Headfonics. MOONSTAR Reviews thinks it has everything a music player needs. Its musicality was a distinguishing feature on Twister6. Dual ES9038Q2M DACs supply ESS Technology's usual precision as R6III's decoding backbone, allowing you to play back Apple Music Hi-Res Lossless, 16X Tidal Masters and Spotify with no shortage of mobile fidelity on Android 12's modern OS. [See Product Desc. For More] R6III brings its ES9038Q2M workhorses, and accompanying selection of seven digital reconstruction filters for sonic tweaking, to a new level of affordability. It entered Audiophile-Heaven's Hall of Fame. The Headphone List reiterated how complete a music player HiBy have introduced for the entry level. The converted analog, decoded with the backing of a FPGA leashed to R6III's DACs generating I2S, flows as an accurate waveform on to a series of 16 discrete bipolar power transistors working in Class AB or an optimally pure Class A. Doubling on its counterpart R5II's output device count, and differentiating itself from so many others who use op-amp ICs with inordinate amounts of gain, R6III's open-loop linearity remains excellent before application of feedback. That's owed to its Class A bias ensuring individual output transistors are working in optimum condition – aided by an operating voltage of five volts. Distortion and noise are kept low, without resorting to the excessive use of negative feedback. HiBy designed a true-balanced differential amplifier to further improve R6III's linearity, and you can count on common-mode rejection at its best whenever you plug in via 4.4mm. R6III's current handling is impressive given its number of output transistors in parallel, meaning this HiBy remains unfazed driving even the punishing low impedances of Raven, Odin and Legend Evo from Empire Ears, the Vision Ears EXT and the Oriolus Szalayi. And even this baby HiBy is able to supply its clean small-signal to the likes of outboard amps such as Cayin Audio's C9II, via a dedicated 4.4mm line-out port. By putting such a high-performance circuit in the palms of people's hands and offering them a Snapdragon 665 with full Google Play support, HiBy grant you the ability to bypass Android 12's sample-rate conversion for bit-perfect playback. Music is truly accessible to anyone and everyone.  Discussing the above, it's so easy to forget we're talking about R6III as HiBy's entry-level offering. See what these forward-thinkers can really do higher up the range here, or view our other music players here.

DARWIN shook Head-Fi and now HiBy Music has arrived at R2R's final evolution. RS8 climbs to the peak of portable decoding with DARWIN V2 – HiBy's flagship discrete R2R topology. HiBy's TOTL R2R music player spares no expense and doesn't stop at its most advanced resistor ladder DAC, adding on a discrete Class A 4.4mm headphone amplifier and overbuilt power supplies. RS8 is a new gold standard that matches desktop R2R writes Headfonics, winning its Best DAP of 2022 award. Headfonia elected RS8 to its Recommended Buys list. It also gets the Soundnews Gold award. Twister6 praised its "natural organic tonality with a resolving tuning". RS8 is the host with the most, doubling its DAC's individual resistor count compared to RS6 and putting its precision at the disposal of a full Google Play Services Android 12 OS. The Headphone List recommends RS8 unequivocally. Install and play back your favourite music streaming apps such as Tidal Masters and Apple Music at their full resolutions, courtesy of this decoding behemoth. [See Product Desc. For More] RS8 follows in RS6's footsteps converting PCM and DSD via separate DARWIN II circuit paths, doing so for the former ala typical R2R – NOS (non-oversampling).  READ ALSO How HiBy's DARWIN set the standard That's double the feat because the precision demanded in exact resistor values – for the buttery, natural and resolving ability that R2R DAC topology is known for – goes up. DARWIN II doubles the individual resistors originally found in DARWIN, making the most of its chassis space to line up 184 high-precision resistors to work the Most Significant Bits and Least Significant Bits of your music better.  DARWIN II's linearity improves as a result and its capacity to reproduce micro-detail from small signal levels sees a dynamic range improvement of 15dB in RS8.  Lovers of reference sound need not fret, however, with the ability to switch PCM decoding from NOS to oversampling mode for the cleanest possible result. That scrubs any last distortion and artifacts beyond the audible human hearing range, via proprietary DARWIN II digital filters implemented aboard RS8's FPGA. At the signal processing stage, HiBy make the distinction between PCM and DSD, because RS8 separately converts the latter with the most purity ever encountered in a portable device till date. Instead of pre-conversion to PCM as many other off-the-shelf DAC chips do, RS8 preserves the original DSD file throughout the process.  Believe it: HiBy decode natively in DSD's true 1-bit process. RS8 calls for a simple low-pass filter for the purest, most elegant portable DSD conversion that preserves the simplicity of the process and original waveform. Amidst minimal digital filtering, the format's analog-like goodness gets delivered unmolested to your ears. RS8's dedicated and separate R2R PCM and DSD circuit paths mean you stand to enjoy the best sound you thought possible from either form – impossible to this extent, till now. The final product goes through an analog volume control before reaching the output amp, for preservation of your music's true resolution, and that very special, discrete, native DSD decode. HiBy's reckoning has been in developing wonderfully innovative hardware free of any prior ceiling. And with RS8's R2R DARWIN II digital circuit only as good as its analog output stage, HiBy capitalise on the extra board space to mount a massive discrete headphone amplifier. Large power rails see operating voltages rise as high as 7.5 volts, the linearity of eight dual bipolar transistors outputting in parallel assured as a result. RS8's discrete headphone amplifier can be operated in Class AB or an optimal Class A.  Differentiating itself from even other flagships that cling to op-amp layouts seeking THX-certification but with inordinate amounts of gain and feedforward/feedback, HiBy's linearity remains excellent already in the open-loop, owing to its high operating voltages and bias. Those ensure individual transistors are working in optimum condition. Distortion and noise are kept low, without resorting to the excessive use of negative feedback. HiBy designed a true-balanced differential amplifier to further improve RS8's linearity, and you can count on common-mode rejection at its best whenever you plug in via 4.4mm preserving DARWIN II's resolution. It's an output stage that's DC-coupled to improve low-frequency performance, and RS8 audibly plumbs the lowest bass depths. Eight unconventionally large 3 ampere output transistors ensure immense current-handling for good reason, to reap the full benefit of RS8's separate power supplies for analog and digital sections. The former is particularly massive and incorporates inductors that store huge energy in a magnetic field before releasing on demand to HiBy's Class A amplifier. Superior even to super capacitors due to their low DC resistance, these inductors constitute a massive power supply that ensures RS8 relishes as much pushing low-impedance Empire Ears Ravens, Odins and EVOs as it will driving Focal's Utopia 2022. RS8 is digital, analog and power supply design excellence par none that will serve you for years to come as numerous firmware updates carry new code teaching HiBy's FPGA new tricks. And Android 12 OS mounted on top of a Snapdragon 665 CPU promises stable, snappy operating streaming 16X MQA via Tidal Masters, full resolution Apple Music Hi-Res Lossless, and Spotify. If Head-Fi had been looking at what the future had to offer, then HiBy have decisively provided us with dreams that are made out of RS8. Also check out HiBy's RS6 here, all of HiBy's releases here, or view our other music players here.

HiBy Music's R1 is one's ideal first music player. As affordable as a portable USB DAC dongle – in fact also able to be used as one – it's R1's standalone features that stand out. A dedicated device to play your music on, this HiBy packs its own battery meaning you won't need to deplete that of your everyday mobile devices.  HiBy use R1's battery to good effect, building a full audio circuit around it. You'll hear the upgrade proper PCB space and a dedicated power supply yields. From the outset, you'll find out what 'Hi-Fi' sound is about, through its Cirrus Logic CS43131 DAC. With specially-developed audiophile digital filters aboard R1's DAC– coded for their audio reproduction fidelity and not cost – you'll hear the difference versus your regular mainstream Bluetooth buds and PC outputs.  R1 also achieves high playback bandwidth, essential if phase response in the human hearing range for taut, snappy dynamics is to be preserved. Instruments and voices will sound lifelike for the first time, with transient reproduction all phase and timing intact. Come and reap the benefits from one of Sennheiser's single dynamic driver IE200 and IE600 earphones. Also check out the rest of HiBy's other releases here, or view our other DAPs here.