HiBy R5 (Gen 2) Digital Audio Player

[VSG]

HiBy is a popular brand in the audio world for its digital audio players (DAPs), and we examine its latest offering, the new R5 (Gen 2) player that offers a good balance of sound quality and efficiency on top of a dedicated Class A amplifier mode and the highly configurable HiBy mobile OS.

Show full review

 

[Denver]

What an expensive MP4 player. lol

 

[VSG]

What an expensive MP4 player. lol

It's actually one of the least expensive players in the market today, at least among those with an OS and screen built-in. These things get to the 4-5k USD range!

 

[OneMoar]

Earth to Hiby The ipod is Dead
just use your phone

 

[VSG]

Earth to Hiby The ipod is Dead
just use your phone

Your phone doesn't have a headphone jack most probably, and certainly not Class A amplification. Now if you pair your phone with a portable DAC/Amp, that's a whole other thing!

 

[DrCR]

I think I’d be far more interested if it was purely audio oriented. It’s too large with way too little storage for this era (particularly at this price point) to be of interest.

My aged Cowan MP3 player died the other day, and this article help sell me on another one of those.

Your phone doesn't have a headphone jack most probably, and certainly not Class A amplification. Now if you pair your phone with a portable DAC/Amp, that's a whole other thing!

Can you give us an idea of why a consumer group somewhere apparently buys a product like this instead of a dac for their smartphone?

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

I think I’d be far more interested if it was purely audio oriented. It’s too large with way too little storage for this era (particularly at this price point) to be of interest.

My aged Cowan MP3 player died the other day, and this article help sell me on another one of those.


Can you give us an idea of why a consumer group somewhere apparently buys a product like this instead of a dac for their smartphone?

These are generally better than a lot of portable DAC/amps to start with. Then there is the issue that smartphones themselves often don't spit out 24bit/192 or 24/48 sound to start with. These devices are for people that already own the headphones to make use of it which require a beefier amp and have a lot of highres and lossless stuff in their collection. DVD audio has been around since the early 2000s blue-ray audio is also a thing. The music quality most people get from say itunes isn't always that good.

These things are for someone who already has invested in highres audio, has a large collection, has hard to drive headphones, and wants to take them on a trip or to work.

 

[DrCR]

I looked up the Cowon Plenue D3 for comparison mainly because I keep looking over it and its predecessors over the years. It seems to be more attractive (smaller, cheaper, far more GB capacity)? Is it that some of this segment have a music video collection that makes them desire a smartphone-esque screen?

Personally, I still buy CDs for music, rip to flac on the nas, and transcode to Lame VBR -q 0 mp3 for my now flaky Cowan MP3 player. Guess I don’t have ears that require more, and I don’t travel enough that I need Plenue levels of storage capacity.

 

[Athlonite]

Ok so how long does it take to charge and what sort of file transfer speed can we expect when shuffling files over to it via BT, WIFI and over the type C port oh almost forgot to ask What spec is the USB Type C port

edit: NVM found out it's only USB 2.0 so if you don't carry the wall wart everywhere with you good luck in getting it to charge in 2 hours when you plug this into your PC/Laptop because your only going to get 5V/500mA and slow as shit file transfers

 

[VSG]

Ok so how long does it take to charge and what sort of file transfer speed can we expect when shuffling files over to it via BT, WIFI and over the type C port oh almost forgot to ask What spec is the USB Type C port

edit: NVM found out it's only USB 2.0 so if you don't carry the wall wart everywhere with you good luck in getting it to charge in 2 hours when you plug this into your PC/Laptop because your only going to get 5V/500mA and slow as shit file transfers

WiFi transfers are the way to go here, and of course you can just physically remove the microSD card for separate file transfers too.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

I looked up the Cowon Plenue D3 for comparison mainly because I keep looking over it and its predecessors over the years. It seems to be more attractive (smaller, cheaper, far more GB capacity)? Is it that some of this segment have a music video collection that makes them desire a smartphone-esque screen?

Personally, I still buy CDs for music, rip to flac on the nas, and transcode to Lame VBR -q 0 mp3 for my now flaky Cowan MP3 player. Guess I don’t have ears that require more, and I don’t travel enough that I need Plenue levels of storage capacity.

When you are looking at these most have SD card support so with a couple cards you can swap things out. I'd also keep in mind that smaller often means the amp and guts are less powerful. Think desktop dac/amp vs portable the since differences.

As for the screens, they android mostly. Mostly cause it's ubiquitus. It lets you album art as well. The answer "cause it was there".

CDs are not what these are for. These are for blue-ray audio and dvd audio, or scad types. Ultimately if you had a collection like that and wanted to take somewhere it's not really something you could do on your phone, and if you can not as well as one of these.

It's a niche group but it's a niche group that is willing to spend and upgrades like crazy.

 

[VSG]

When you are looking at these most have SD card support so with a couple cards you can swap things out. I'd also keep in mind that smaller often means the amp and guts are less powerful. Think desktop dac/amp vs portable the since differences.

As for the screens, they android mostly. Mostly cause it's ubiquitus. It lets you album art as well. The answer "cause it was there".

CDs are not what these are for. These are for blue-ray audio and dvd audio, or scad types. Ultimately if you had a collection like that and wanted to take somewhere it's not really something you could do on your phone, and if you can not as well as one of these.

It's a niche group but it's a niche group that is willing to spend and upgrades like crazy.

Thanks for basically putting my thoughts into words

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

Thanks for basically putting my thoughts into words

LOL I used to have a full audio speaker stack with all the works but then I got engaged and it's not something I can use in the area we move to, ditto the home theater system. The neighbors would freak so I scalled down. I'm still way to familiar with everything involved though.

 

[Lynskey]

Hi

Just recived the R5 Gen 2. Looks good.

One problem im having as a new user to an android device.

I can stream, bluetooth and can get music through the usb c port (very loud with no volume adjustment?)

But i cant get any sound out of the 3.5mm headphone port, either as a headphone or a line out. Is that a settings issue with android? or maybe hardware?

using spotify (at this stage)

Chris

 

[VSG]

Hi

Just recived the R5 Gen 2. Looks good.

One problem im having as a new user to an android device.

I can stream, bluetooth and can get music through the usb c port (very loud with no volume adjustment?)

But i cant get any sound out of the 3.5mm headphone port, either as a headphone or a line out. Is that a settings issue with android? or maybe hardware?

using spotify (at this stage)

Chris

No, that seems like a device issue rather than Android issue. The USB-C port allows you to use this as a wired DAC so that's probably what you are getting there, but the 3.5 mm port will still work there. I'd recommend talking to HiBy about this.