Hiby

Hiby R5ii

Name: Hiby R5ii
Brand: Hiby
Price: 399.00 SGD
Availability: OutOfStock

$399 $419

It's devices like R5II that really change the game. HiBy Music disregard this Android 8 music player's entry-level status, taking it to giant-killing heights by building it with a Class A discrete transistor balanced amplifier outputting in 2.5mm and 4.4mm.

It leapt immediately onto Headfonia's Recommended Buys list. Headfonics confirm R5II does it all. There was nothing of note for Twister6 to dislike!

Never mind that beginner DAPs have sounded good for the longest time – HiBy build R5II to sound great and punch way above its weight. Class A shows up in the 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.

Dual ESS Technology ES9219Cs supply the usual precision as a decoding backbone, allowing you to play back Apple Music Hi-Res Lossless, 16X Tidal Masters and Spotify with no shortage of mobile fidelity. [See Product Desc. For More]

$419

Our Price | $399

Product Description

What's special about the ES9219C is that it grants R5II access to its on-chip analog volume control – the baby of HiBy's bunch attenuates volume in the analog domain granting much better signal-to-noise performance than the average competitor's lossy digital volume control.

You'll see that we're already discussing R5II as a much higher-end offering than it is. And there's still more. Small signal accuracy in the DAC and gain stage is key, because this flows on to a series of eight discrete dual bipolar transistors working in pure Class A.

Differentiating itself from so many others who use op-amp ICs with inordinate amounts of gain, R5II's open-loop linearity remains excellent before application of feedback, owing to its Class A bias. That ensures 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 R5II's linearity, and you can count on common-mode rejection at its best whenever you plug in via 2.5mm or 4.4mm.

Without adding cheaply-built, signal degrading adapters to your balanced connections to make something fit, even your flagships can be juiced to the max potential, signal integrity guaranteed via direct sockets soldered to PCB.

R5II's current handling is impressive given its number of output transistors in parallel, meaning this HiBy remains unfazed driving even Raven, Odin and Legend Evo from Empire Ears, the Craft Ears Aurum, or Madoo's Type 711.

By putting such a high-performance circuit in the palms of people's hands, and offering them a Snapdragon 425 with full Google Play support with the ability to bypass Android sample-rate conversion for bit-perfect playback, music is truly accessible to anyone and everyone. TechPowerUp award their Highly Recommended and Innovation awards to R5ii.

Discussing the above, it's so easy to forget we're talking about R5II 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.

Product Specifications

DAC 2 X ESS ES9219C

Amp Class A discrete

SNR <122dB

THD <0.007%

Reviews

Beat this!

I'm not a "serious" audiophile by any means. The 20-odd years of enjoying music have been on headphones and IEMs that is not more than 400bucks (self inflicted). Demise of headphone jacks led me to OG BTR3, Helm Bolt, iBasso DC05 (same chips!) and the hip-dac2. As much as I love the ifi beauty, I just got weary of stacking. Thus on a look out for a DAP.

Pre-ordered from Zepp (awesome fellas!) almost a month before the YouTube "event". Had a quick audition there and at the price point, I guess the new R5 is the one.

Daily drivers: moondrop blessings2:Dusk

Home use: HD650, HD25

Audio-wise (overall): if the hip-dac2 is velvety, the R5II is clinical. Like an impromptu live jazz in a bar vs the same band in a studio. Clarity clarity clarity across frequencies.

Audio-wise (Class-A): it's not night and day definitely. But personally it is significantly distinguishable. Same layered cake, same baker, same ingredients but somehow for the premium priced (i.e. battery drain) batch you have the sensations of the different layers crumbling in your mouth. Can get tiring (not in a bad way, mind) and more often than not a straight up pleasure is all one needs. I don't know if it's just me, but with the latest update the difference is more apparent.

UI/UX: Coming from a Galaxy Note 20, the sluggishness is apparent. I use this as select playlist, press play and forget so this doesn't bother me much. Using the cover kinda flattens the right side control button, making it difficult to differentiate while in pocket; I turned off the functions while screen is off. Volume controls on the left is fine as there's only 2 buttons there vs 4. With regards to the EQ, with the help of info provided some pages back FR is easily adjusted (minor for me, at max +/-5 out of +/-100) to taste. There's OTA firmware update capability, but it's v1 is still current and there's no testing of that yet.

Battery: lasts as advertised.

Overall: no regrets; enjoying it as I'm typing this out. :wink:

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