Class (A)part!

PROS: Excellent VFM, classy design, build quality, one of the fastest DAPs as per AnTuTu Benchmark test, good usage of premium tech inside, very nice smooth HiBy OS experience, high quality rich and musical sound signature especially in Class A mode, very low noise floor, excellent 35 hour long battery life (Economy mode), QC3.0 support.

CONS: Class A mode is the standout feature but also consumes significantly more battery than the excellent 35 hour long play time Economy mode, old Android OS (Android 8.1)

WISH: HiBy should include their excellent 10-band EQ in System Audio settings too like they did MSEB.

About HiBy.

Established in 2011 and based out of China, HiBy has extensive history of R&D, developing software and UI for other manufacturers, their own music player HiBy Music (which is a killer music player capable of doing things the average Android player can’t) and are now a major player in the hardware world too with a vast DAP lineup as well as earphones, IEMs, TWS, Bluetooth DAC/AMPs, etc.

Links – HiBy R5 Gen 2 (Official website)

---

Included in the box.

• HiBy R5 Gen 2
• USB Type-C to Type-A Cable
• Blue leather case
• Screen protector (2 already applied on DAP front and back)
• Manuals

Tech Specs.

Model	HiBy R5 (Gen 2)
Operating system	Android 8.1
SoC model	Snapdragon 425
DAC	ES9219C x2
WiFi	Supports 2.4GHz, 5GHz
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.2
USB	USB 2.0
Display size	4.7”
Display type	IPS
Display resolution	720*1280
RAM	2GB
Internal storage	16GB
Micro SD card	＜2TB
Colour	Black
Body material	Aluminium
Dimensions	123*71.3*15.5 mm
Weight	220 g
Input	5V⎓0.5A or 9V⎓1.5A
Battery capacity	4500mAh
Charging time	Approx. 2h (0%-100%)
Firmware upgrade	Over-the-air internet connected upgrade
Third-party app installations	Unlimited

Technology Inside.

AnTuTu Benchmark – R5 Gen 2 scores quite well (for a DAP) in AnTuTu Benchmark test with an overall score of 73487, which makes it one of the fastest sub-$500 DAPs in the market and definitely the fastest DAP at its price point.

Battery Life (4500 mAh) – HiBy claims 35 hours battery life in Economy mode and 10 hours in Class A mode. I averaged around 31-33.5 hours in Economy mode and 8-9.5 hours in Class A mode with with local files and streaming music randomly.

I have to add that the 35 hour battery life was a massive boon in my recent travels. In the 5 day trip I made recently, which included two 8 hour flight journeys, I opted to take the R5 Gen 2 along and didn’t have to charge it even once.

Qualcomm Quick Charge QC3.0 Support – R5 Gen 2 supports QC3.0 fast charging, which helps charge the DAP within a couple of hours. It took around 2 hours to charge from 15% to 100% with the Mi QC3.0 charger.

Design and Build Quality.

I’ve generally found HiBy’s designs very attractive and classy. You can clearly see that HiBy is trying to keep the design language between the new DAPs consistent in the refreshed lineup. R5 Gen 2 looks like a baby R6 2020, which in turn looked like a baby R8. Compared to its predecessor R5, Gen 2 is sharper with bold straight lines and looks even more premium. It has a nice looking aluminium alloy body with bevelled edges and corners for smooth and easy usage. The 4.7″ 720p screen is not bezel-less but fills up almost 90% of the space with a very small bezel at the bottom which hosts the ‘HIBY’ logo.

The LED light indicator –

• Blue – 48kHz and under
• Green – 64k-192kHz
• Orange – Over 192kHz
• White – DSD files
• Red – Charging (faster blinks with quick charging, slower with normal charging)

Side by side comparison with R6 2020.

External buttons and outputs of R5 Gen 2 –

• Bottom – Outputs and charging port in the order below,
  3.5mm LO/PO | USB Type-C charging port | 2.5mm & 4.4mm BAL PO
• Right are buttons for Power, an LED indicator and buttons for Previous, Play and Next.
• Left we have the Volume buttons and a micro-SD card slot.

Some cool features of HiBy Music player.

Import music via Wifi – If you have a Mac, you know what a pain in the *** transferring files using Android File Transfer (AFT) can be. That is why I love this feature! You simple need to enter the URL mentioned by HiBy on this page in your laptop’s browser which loads a page where you can create folders and transfer the files to those folders on the DAP. It is fast and saves the hassle of connecting the the DAP to the laptop every time you want to transfer a new album from your laptop.

MSEB – Whoever has tried the HiBy Music player has probably come across the MSEB EQ and knows how cool an EQ it is. It has layman terms as the options to tweak, which takes the guess work in a graphic equaliser away.

10-Band Graphic Equalizer – Nothing out of the ordinary here but I’d like to mention that being an audio engineer, I use such EQs on a daily basis and HiBy’s EQ works and reacts to gain increments and decrements very well. It’s a very musical sounding EQ!

HiBy Link – Link lets you control and manage your music files wirelessly with your mobile phone. With the HiBy Link, you can also play the Hi-Res music stored on the R5 Gen 2 wirelessly right on your smartphone.

Page 2 – Sound Analysis, Pair-ups, Comparisons and Conclusion.