Disclaimer:
Hiby has sent us the R4 DAP and Project Ace IEM for a review tour in exchange of our honest thoughts and opinions. If you decide to purchase this DAP based on my review and find that you disagree with this assessment, that responsibility lies solely with you. I strongly discourage relying solely on a single review for making purchasing decisions in the realm of audio gear, as preferences vary. You should conduct thorough research by exploring platforms such as YouTube, head-fi forums, and various Facebook audiophile groups and websites until you come to a final conclusion.
Non-affiliated Purchase Link:
Pro’s:
- Great build quality, with an unique Mecha inspired design language
- A smooth warm-neutral sound signature with 525mW (BAL) output power and Class A amplification
- Black and clean background, no hiss present with sensitive IEM’s
- Deeply customizable and versatile sound with options such as MSEB, PEQ and Systemwide Plugins
- Pure Audio Mode, offering a cleaner, detailed and more powerful sound
- Very good battery life with up to 10 hours of playback via balanced 4.4mm port
- Smooth UI with Android 12 and Snapdragon 665 processor
- Good Wi-Fi speed and stable Bluetooth connection
- PD2.0 fast charging; Supporting 20W fast charging
- Good Quality Accessories provided in the box
Con’s:
- Device can get hot during playback, most likely due to the Class A amplification mode.
- Display quality is not great, lacks brightness
- No volume wheel, side keys takes some getting used to
- Not very stable connection when used as a Bluetooth receiver
- No option to switch to Class A/B amplification mode
Intro/The Tech:
So, Hiby has come up with a market disruptor in the budget segment. The Hiby R4 is targeted mainly towards the youth with its funky design language and a very reasonable price tag. It comes with a 720p, 4,7 ich IPS display. A quad-dac configuration with four ES9018C2M dac chips and OPA1652 & 2 OPA1612 OP amps. 3 GB RAM, 32 GB ROM and up to 2 TB SD card support. The R4 sports a snapdragon 665 processor and a 4500 mAh battery. It supports 5GHz Wi-Fi band and Bluetooth 5.0. It also supports native playback of DSD 256, PCM up to 32bit/768 hz and 16X MQA unfolding.
Unboxing (4.5/5):
I wouldn’t call the unboxing experience of the Hiby R4 premium, but it matches the overall theme and gets the job done. You get:
- 2 Matte Front Screen Protectors (1 Pre-applied)
- 1 Matte/Smoky Black TPU Protective Case.
- 1 Type-C to Type-C Charging and Data Cable
- 1 User Guide Manual and 1 QC/Warranty Card
- 1 Hand Strap matching the color of the unit
Inclusion of a charging brick with the box would have been nice, but maybe I am just being naive here as even more expensive DAP’s up to $1,000 range doesn’t include one.
Build Quality (4.5/5):
A futuristic graffiti inspired design with elements of cyberpunk, mecha and space opera, never thought I would be using these words to describe the design language of a DAP! Kudos to Hiby for using their creativity and coming up with this brilliant concept. The Hiby R4 not only looks good but its built quite sturdily as well using premium machine grade aluminum and colorful plastic accents. Hiby is offering this DAP in 4 colors: Black, Orange, Green and Silver. On the right hand side we have the power, play, pause and skip tracks buttons, on the left hand side we have the volume adjustment buttons and Micro SD card slot. On the top of the device there is key lock switch and when pressed on it can lock all the side buttons from accidental touch. You can also remap this button to other features like screen flip.
At the bottom you get a Type-C port and two output jacks, 3.5mm single-ended and 4.4mm balanced. This a chunky boy coming in at 231 grams. As I mentioned earlier the R4 is funky looking device, this is further evident when you check out the 3 disappearing orange stripes on the top plastic accent of the back part. It is only visible when the light hits it at a certain angle. Given the funky nature and bold design it’s understandable that the Hiby R4 won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, for the less daring the Black color provides a more minimalistic look.
Display (3.5/5):
The R4 comes with a 4.7 inch 720p resolution IPS display. The panel has good color reproduction but it’s not so bright. Even in indoor lighting you will feel the need to max out the brightness slider. which in turn will have a negative affect on the battery life. The bezels around the display are quite thick, you don’t get any of that modern Bezel-less look. I understand corners had to be cut somewhere so I will give Hiby a pass in this department. Hiby has also included a cool liitle RGB bar at the top of the display that changes color to display the bit-rate of the audio being played.
Connectivity (4.5/5):
Wi-Fi supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, it’s quite stable and I did not have any buffering issues or connection drops while streaming from apps like Tidal and Spotify. R4 features Bluetooth 5.0 with support for high-res codecs like LDAC, aptX HD, UCAT (Hiby’s in-house developed technology capable of transmitting sample rates up to 1.2Mbps), SBC, AAC etc. It also supports DLNA, Airplay and Wi-fi music file transfer. The R4 features bidirectional Bluetooth technology which means it can act both as a receiver and a transmitter. However, I have observed while acting as receiver the connection with my phone isn’t that strong and there are sudden drops while music playback. The R4 also supports USB 2.0 and 3.2 Gen 1, with transfer speeds up to 5 Gbps
Software (5/5):
Software is truly one of the strong suits and highlights of the Hiby R4 device. Android 12 with its custom skin called “Hiby OS” is very fluid and there are no lags. It’s hard to believe that this dap is running on a 6 year old mid-range processor from Snapdragon. Hiby has outdone itself with the optimization and they are well known for keeping their devices updated with latest features. For example, the R4 has already received Line Out and Pure Audio mode features via update since its release.
With Android 12 you also get features like dark mode and systemwide gestures. Hiby OS also bypasses Android systemwide sample rate conversion and brings you bit-perfect audio. With Android 12 onboard you are free to choose any music player of your liking, I personally prefer USB Music Player (UAPP) over the stock Hiby Music Player app, as it can’t detect my album art currently and also there is no “recently added music,” section present with the Hiby player.
Sound (4.5/5):
Hiby R4 is truly one of the most versatile dap’s when it comes to sound quality, in general it has neutral and smooth tonality with a slight hint of warmth. Despite the use of ESS Sabre chips (4 of them), there is no hint of a digital glare or as some refer to it as the “Sabre Glare,” the timbre sounds natural without any hint of artificial sharpness. However, the R4 is not a master of technicalities and it doesn’t extract a lot of details. Imaging, Soundstage, Resolution, Instrument Separation are all rather average and the rest of the frequencies will reflect the tuning of your IEM. Due to it’s neutral character the R4 doesn’t excessively boost the treble, mids or bass regions. This is one of those dap’s which you can listen to for hours without felling any fatigue.
Filters & Other Modes:
However, if you are a treble-head or a warm, meaty sound lover there is no need to fret. Hiby has got you covered with its MSEB or PEQ filters. For the beginners who like to tinker with their sound, MSEB is a very simple solution. It can make your R4 sound brighter or warmer, more bass heavy and even analogue sounding based on your preferences. The 10 band PEQ will achieve the same results with more precision and it is targeted towards the more advanced users who are familiar with graphs and curves. Hiby is providing system wide plugins as well to boost different frequencies an technicalities. For example, if you feel the soundstage of the R4 is a bit too narrow you can easily make it more wide and holographic sounding using the “Sound filed,” plugin.
Pure Audio provides more output power with a cleaner background and sounds slightly more detailed. It’s an evolution of the stock Android sound signature. With the use of their quad-dac array Hiby has created separated pathways for PCM and DSD conversion. R4 features separate individually designed DAC chips, LPF and power supplies for PCM and DSD conversion. This all translates to a more natural, organic and warmer sound quality for DSD playback. The Hiby R4 has provided excellent synergy with most of my IEM’s like Dunu DaVinci, Elysian Pilgrim, Simgot EA1000, Kinera URD etc. Even with more sensitive IEM’s like the Pilgrim at 9 Ohms impedance I did not come across any background hiss. Hiby R4 offers very good output (driving power), 165mW @32 ohms from the single ended jack with a maximum voltage swing of 2.3 Vrms. And from the balanced 4.4 port it outputs 525mW @32 ohms with a maximum voltage swing of 4.1 Vrms.
Battery (4/5):
My usage mainly consists of offline playback with high volume level (65%) from the 4.4 mm balanced port. I rarely use streaming apps like Spotify or Tidal. Based on this usage I got an average of 9/10 hours battery life while using Android OS. And using Pure Audio Mode battery life was slightly better offering 10/11 hours on a single charge. I have noticed the R4 getting quite warm especially while suing streaming apps to play music, I suspect Class A amplification mode is the culprit here, in this case it makes me wish Hiby had provided an option to switch to Class A/B mode when the user felt necessary.
Comparisons
Hiby R6 Gen III:
The R6 is the older brother of the R4 and sound quality wise there isn’t any significant difference. R6 sounds slightly brighter in the treble and upper-mids region, it has a sharper and more digital sounding timbre (Sabre Glare). The R4 sounds more smoother and more natural in comparison. The only advantages Hiby R6 can offer over the R4 is a bigger and brighter display, more RAM and storage (4/64) and option to switch to Class A/B amplification mode. Even with the more storage and RAM Hiby R5 Gen III feels slower and more laggy in comparison mainly due to poor optimization of the Android 12 OS. Battery life is slightly better on the R4 when comparing Class A mode using the 4.4mm balanced port, both devices get equally hot during online streaming or offline playback. The only other saving grace of the R6 might be that while using Class A/B mode it doesn’t get as hot as the R4, which only has a Class A amplification mode option available. Overall, at $250 Hiby R4 provided 90% of the features of the R6 Gen III and it is the better value for money device to get.
Cayin RU7:
These are two separate class of devices so I will only discuss the differences in sound quality. Even at it’s most neutral setting (DSD oversampling set to 256) the RU7 sounds more warmer and natural compared to the R4 DAP. RU7 offers thicker, wetter, more texturized mids and more forward vocals. Mid-bass is more prominent in the low end region of the RU7 compared to the sub-bass focus of the R4. High’s sound similar on both with RU7 having a bit better top-end extension and sparkle. Technicalities wise, both offer similar resolution with the RU7 having a much more wider, holographic and deeper soundstage. Instrument separation seems slightly better on the R4, imaging performance is on par in both. Simply put RU7 offers a warmer and more analogue sound, with a noticeability wider soundstage but the R4 isn’t lagging too far behind. It can replicate 90% of the RU7’s tonality with its various filters and plugins.
Conclusion:
In an age of dangly dongles, Hiby R4 is indeed making DAP’s great again. Granted if only sound quality is taken into consideration the R4 can’t beat the audio quality of higher end $250-ish dongles like Cayin RU7 or Questyle M15i, but it gets pretty damn close. Especially when you consider factors like R4 is a separate device with its own power supply and doesn’t cause a huge strain on your phone’s battery life or it’s USB Type-C port. You won’t get constantly interrupted with phone calls or social media notifications when using a DAP, making your music playback session a seamless and peaceful experience. Hiby has truly revolutionized the $250 price range with this feature-rich R4 and I am honestly surprised that there isn’t more hype around surrounding this device. This DAP has made many dongles and even higher priced DAP’s irrelevant and it gets my true bang for buck device vote for 2024.
