The Hiby R5 gen 2 is my first experience with a high resolution music player. I found it to be better built and of higher quality than I expected, being that I had not heard of the Hiby brand before. The player is very solidly constructed and seems like it will be very durable. It has an Android based operating system, which I am familiar with because of my cell phone, but I don't use my phone to play music, and the R5's music interface is based on Android, so it took me personally, some time to get used to, but others might find it easy to use. The touch screen is a bit slow to respond at times, but I bought this solely to play music on, so it's not an issue for me. I found it very easy to put music into the player via a USB cable connected to a computer, but have not tried adding music over wi-fi yet. It is much simpler to add and remove music to this player versus doing the same with an ipod. I feel the quality and depth of the sound that the R5 can produce is outstanding! I listen to mine in the class A amplifier setting exclusively, and find that the sound is pretty amazing. I admit though, that a good pair of Headphones or IEMs makes more of a difference in the overall sound quality, then the player does itself, so sound quality is subjective. I listen to my R5 through a pair of Moondrop Blessing 2 IEMs, and find the sound to be like having a high quality hi-fi system in my ears. Overall, I love this player! It was well worth the cost for me because the quality of the sound versus an ipod makes me want to listen to my old music again!

A short summary to save your time. I compared: Ibasso DX160 Hiby r5s AK SR15 Hiby won and I returned the other 2. Please continue reading if you like to know why did I make this decision. ---------------- Hello, I am a long time music listener. I took some piano classes long time ago, but I am not a musician. I have Dynaudio lr120 speakers as my mains with budget Denon 2ch amp and Smsl ES Dac. My main music source is ...Youtube. I bought my first Dap about 5 years ago. It was Pioneer Japanese made Dap for 450$. They have basically the same model without a wheel on the side for sale for 199$ now. It is still a good choice for 199$. 2 micro sd cards 200gb each. MQA support. But... it does not play ape files for instance. So when I decided to upgrade my portable music source I targeted the same 400-450$ price range. I found AK SR15 used for 400$, Hiby r5s, Ibasso dx160 for 399 both. I decided to try all 3 and keep the winner.Hiby was delivered first, then AK, and I am still waiting for Ibasso. Hiby did not read my main 200gb SanDisc card. It reads up to 1600 songs and hangs. The card has about 100 gb of flac files. I plugged the card back to Pioneer and Pioneer read it instantly. I tried Samsung 64gb card with Hiby. Hiby read it fine with about 1300 songs on it. I have one more level in hierarchy on SanDisc card. Maybe that is why Hiby did not read it properly. I have 3 first level folders: Albums, VAs, Singles. It should not be a problem for a player for 400$ to read songs from 3 folders! But I have to say that Hiby impressed me with very detailed highs, good lows, near perfect mids. Bands like Acoustic Alchemy sound spectacular even comparing with my Dynaudio big shelf speakers. Comparing Hiby with AK SR15 it is like you have two kind of volumes one for music and one for SFXs. AK has sound with SFXs level close to 0, Hiby has SFXs at level all the way up. It is more obvious on in ears like BQEYZ Spring for instance. On ears are less airy. Try good in ears with Hiby and you will be pleased. Hiby has really fast chipset. I did not mention lags at all for Android. My Pioneer is still faster with Tidal, but milliseconds faster, not seconds faster. Android gives you a lot of options. I installed PUBG 3D game and even played it for about 20 minutes. Since it is multi player game and quite fast pacing game, it requires both good cpu and wifi speed. I was able to play and even won the battle. Wifi latency was 20ms. I have the same latency on my Ipad pro when playing this game. So Wifi is super stable and fast. Cpu is super fast... for a Dap. Sure, I am not going to play this game again because of some lags and very small size of the screen. Tidal quality is a little bit lower then native Hiby player app quality. The same songs have more clear and detailed sound if you play them from the sd card in flac format, then if you play them from Tidal on maximum quality(non Master). Tidal Masters sound better then both local flac and Tidal maximum quality. I kept MSEB and EQ off when compared. MSEB works differently from the Settings, and in the native Hiby player app. It has better quality in the native player app for some reason. And you will have to use MSEB from settings with Tidal which is not good. BTW you can really distort the sound if you use both MSEBs in Settings and in the app at the same time. Battery in Hiby is really good and stable. It took me about 10 hours of playing games, download Tidal albums, playing all kinds of music and even watching movies to get it from 100% to single digits. Thus, I decided to send AK SR15 back. I did not hear about 30% of details from AK comparing to Hiby, but Hiby does not read my 200gb sd card and has some lower quality with Tidal comparing with the native player app. Considering good quality of the native player app I will give this player 4 stars and wait for Ibasso to see if it reads my sd card and plays Tidal better. Update: I received Ibasso today. Installed Hiby player app on Ibasso, warmed it up for 2 hours, and compared it with Hiby. They are quite similar without the EQ and MSEB. There is more air in Ibasso and less air in Hiby. And there is a little more substance in Hiby. Hiby responds better to MSEB. It is easier to correct sound and tune it up for the headphones. I did not find the right MSEB setup for Ibasso in Hiby player app. The music was too harsh on my taste when I was playing Album Acoustic Alchemy Live in London. There is no EQ and MSEB available on Ibasso by default, so Tidal sounds too harsh too. Ibasso feels cheaper then Hiby in hands. It was very warm even when I was just playing music from sd card with display off. Display is good on Ibasso... but Hiby has better sound, so I chose Hiby!

I bought this to be a dedicated player for Amazon Music. Even after updating the firmware, the Amazon Music app was not compatible with the OS (based on a too-old version of Android). I was able to side-load an older version of the app, it worked, but it was clunky and buggy enough to interrupt both downloaded and streaming music. It's a shame, since the build quality and the audio components seem to be excellent- and the playback sounds great (when it works). Hiby has also already come out the R4, a cheaper, newer, DAP with an updated OS based on Android 12, which would, presumably not have the same problems I experienced. This could still be a good DAP for someone who isn't interested in using it for a streaming service - but then, what's the point of an Android OS? I returned this one and bought an R4.

My beloved FiiO m11 died, and I ordered the Hiby R5 Saber while I wait to see if my M11 ever returns from China repaired. I have not been able to compare the audio head to head with the M11. From the beginning, the audio was impressive. The bluetooth radio is stronger or in some way superior to the M11, in the sense that I have issues with cheaper wireless earbuds streaming with the M11, like the Anker Soundbuds Curve IPX7 headphones I use in the rain walking the dog & mountain biking. The R5 saber streams flawlessly. The screen is smaller and the interface is slower than the M11. The slowness is mildly frustrating, but the screen size does not work well with men's glove size Large hands. Navigating menus on apps like Spotify are a PITA. The inability to accurately tap the exact right part of the screen combined with UX delays mean I frequently select the wrong menu option, have to cancel, and try again a few times. I had none of these issues with the M11. The R5 case looks and feels cheap. I far prefer the M11's clear plastic protector. The R5 screen protectors are not glass - they are plastic, do not attach well, peel up easily, and as a result simply inserting or removing the R5 into/out of the provided case rips off the screen protectors. For a $400 music player the protection aspects are incredibly poorly implemented. I prefer the M11 button layouts. The R5 alternates buttons on both sides which is confusing. The only highlight is the screen-swipe volume control is excellently implemented. The R5's compact size makes it fantastic for fitting in a pocket or pouch. The stronger bluetooth radio means it works inside waterproof bags inside pockets and pouches under heavy fabric that the M11 does not work as well behind, as the M11 looses bluetooth connection easily. If this has a decent case and screen protector, I'd give it 5 stars, because the strengths and weaknesses balance out in my opinion. If I had not used the M11 for a year (and loved it) I probably would not be as critical of the Hiby R5 saber. The m11 sets the bar high.

UPDATE: I’ve had this DAP for just over two months... and it’s dead. It’s been slowly decreasing in processing speed and tonight, while listening to music, it power cycled. Then it power cycled a few more times. Then it power cycled a couple more times after that. Now it’s a brick. Hoping it’ll turn back on and work smoothly again because I loved it when it did but at this point it’s just a $400 paperweight. Wish I could return! Confession time... I purchased the HiBy R5s actually hoping that I would not like it so that I could return it and get it out my system. Truth be told, I didn't need another DAP. I didn't need to spend $400 on another piece of audio gear. I couldn't shake it though and I wanted to at least give the R5s a try. Turns out, I love it and maybe I did need the R5s the whole time. Quick note... I'm a long-winded reviewer and talk about things that 90% of people don't want to read about. That said, peruse as you will - I try to provide section headers so you can look at what your actually interested in. I have tried my fair share of DAPs. I've worked my way through almost the entire FiiO lineup; M11 Pro, M11, M9, and M6. I didn't particularly like any of them. Both the M9 and M6 had, in my eyes, fairly significant problems with WiFi connectivity, USB output, and overall sound quality which rendered them useless for streaming from Tidal. M11 Pro was overpriced when compared to the M11. I never really hopped onto the M11 hype train. Yes, I tried the DAP, but I didn't like it for a number of reasons. It had good power, but not quite enough to run some of my full-sized headphones well. My sensitive IEMs hissed a ton. OS was Android 7.1 and felt laggy at times - especially when trying to use streaming apps like Tidal or Spotify. I also had a defective screen and FiiO was so totally unhelpful that I decided to just return the thing and forget it. To put it simply... the HiBy R5s is everything I wanted the FiiO M11 to be and more. Right of the bat, one of the things I appreciated about the HiBy player is the amount of firmware updates I had to do. Via the onboard WiFi updater, I think I updated it 6 or 7 times and there was a noticeable difference between each update. If you read the description of the update, it didn't just say "minor bug fixes" - it was more substantial like "were adding this, or removing that, or resolving this issue". This is night and day from the FiiO M11 which I think I maybe updated two of three times - the first being "minor bug fixes" and then the second being the addition of the Google Play store. FiiO is notorious for releasing a product, specifically their DAPs, riddled with issues that need fixing, fixing a few of them, and then leaving an overall unpolished product. It may sound like I'm bashing on FiiO - I am and I'm not. I love FiiO's IEMs, DAC/amps and bluetooth accessories like the BTR5. I do believe their DAPs leave a lot to be desired for the price. That said, this isn't a review of FiiO - I mention this primarily to say that one of HiBy's biggest competitors is dropping the ball where HiBy is succeeding. HiBy clearly has a vested interest in a product not only releasing well but also being a joy to use long after the press or hype has died down. I tip my hat to you HiBy. One more note before I review the actual player. The HiBy music player. I love it. I've used Sony's Walkman player, FiiO Music, UAPP, etc. and I think HiBy's player is my favorite. Its organized well, the settings are all great. You can obviously download the HiBy music app for any device, but I wanted to mention it because I think it ties the R5s together nicely. The MSEB settings have mixed reviews. Personally, I think its super cool. I think some people do extreme adjustments and then go "aw, this is crap" and trash on it. If you make minor adjustments (I'm talking one point here, two points there), then its a nice way to gently and subtly change the overall sound signature. Does the R5s need to be adjusted? Not really. I have a few headphones/IEMs that are already pretty bright so the extra detail of the R5s was a bit much so I used the MSEB to slightly bump the brightness down. One other thing, there are four plugins you can download that are essentially spatializers. Would I use them all the time? Absolutely not, but they work well enough to present a new and unique way to listen to tracks that you've maybe become bored with. I say its worth playing around with it to see what you like. Now, the actual player... - Build Quality - I really like the size of the R5s. It fits perfectly in the hand. The screen is neither too big or too small. Yes, it can be a little difficult to type on the screen, but I have big fingers and I make it work. The entire thing is either glass or metal which gives it a premium feel. It also makes it a finger print magnet. I prefer the feel of it out of the case, but due to the finger prints and it having a lot of glass, I leave it in the case. Problem with leaving it in the case is that you lose the raised button feel. They've put indentations into the leather of the case, but if you have calloused fingers then good luck figuring out which button is which. Speaking of which, the buttons are backwards. The skip button is on the button. I'm not saying it can't be on the bottom, I think that's something they do in China, but the play button is facing the other way which means that the skip button should be on top. Anyways, that's a minor annoyance and I got used to it after a couple hours of use. Basically, the exterior of the R5s is identical to the R5 so anyone looking for in-depth reviews can just read reviews on the R5. - OS/UI - The R5s is running some version of Android 8 (I forget which one). It comes with a very basic loadout of apps which I love love love. You have the Google Play store to add more, but the player is not bogged down by a ton of bloatware that can't be removed. That's one of my biggest gripes with Android devices, they come loaded down with many apps that you don't need but can't remove. Comparing the R5s to a newer phone like the iPhone 12 or Samsung S20 would be unfair. When comparing to other DAPS though, I think the R5s is quite snappy and relatively bug free. I've only had one instance where the HiBy app kept crashing and a firmware update and restart resolved that. The R5s has probably been the best experience of streaming Tidal on any DAP I've tried. Even my Sony Walkman NX507 (twice the price) falls second to the R5s in this arena. Unlike the R3, you can download Tidal tracks for offline use. As a whole, I'm pleased with the OS/UI of the R5s. I would not recommend downloading games and tons of apps to it though or it will definitely slow it down. I try to keep it as pure of a music player as possible (except, I did put YouTube on it) and it runs very well. - WiFi - I've heard some reviewers of the R5 complain of WiFi performance. Seeing as how the R5s is identical to the R5 in this area, it's worth mentioning. Basically, I see WiFi/streaming performance being influenced by two things; speed and distance. Something like the M11 could do distance fairly well, but the speed sucked across the board - whether I was on the other side of my house or right next to my router. The HiBy R5s does not do distance well. As I get farther from my router, the connection becomes more unstable with the R5s frequently losing connection. BUT, it does speed very well. As a comparison, downloading my entire music library on Tidal (which is very near the 10,000 song max) took about 2 and half, maybe 3 days of me just letting the M11 sit by my router with average usage in the same room (basically it never was farther than 20 feet of the router) and it took forever. Important note.... I've got top notch WiFi with download speeds up to a full Gb. The HiBy player, however, whipped through downloading tracks. The drawback? I frequently picked it up and took it into the other room where it would lose connection and pause downloading without me knowing it. So, if I had left it by the router, it would have had my entire music library downloaded in about a day tops. All of that to say, WiFi is a mixed bag, I'm quite pleased with it, but I could see how others are not. - Battery Life - Despite being such a powerful player, the battery life on this is remarkable. Now, I primarily have the ZX507 to compare it to (which has notoriously bad battery life), but I'm impressed. I'm always pleasantly surprised when I can listen to music for extended period of time, look down and find that the battery has only drained a few percent. Even better, standby time is wonderful - I'll go to bed with it at 100% (unplugged) and wake up and have it be at 99%. If I forget to turn WiFi off, it might be at 97%. That's still fantastic considering that if I forget to turn the WiFi off on my Walkman, the battery will be full drained from 100% to 0% by the morning. - Sound Quality - This is probably the section that most people care about and rightfully so. Now, I don't have the R5 to compare to the R5s which means I cannot attest to whether the R5s is actually more detailed. I'm also somewhat hesitant to speak fully to the sound signature of the R5s because it is so heavily dependent on the source material and headphones/IEMs used. That said, I've listened with DT880s (250 Ohm), HE4XXs, Z7M2s, HD6XXs, 99 Noirs, KZ ZAX, Moondrop Starfields, KBear Diamonds and FiiO FH3s. Lots of different sound signatures, lots of different power needs. Perhaps one of the most impressive things about the R5s, and this is what initially drew me to it, is full watt of power at 16 ohms. It drives all my full-sized headphones to not only listenable levels but also in such a way that it preserves dynamics, etc. That alone, for $400, makes this a top pick in my book. Sound signature is on the brighter, more detailed side for sure. With first listen, it caught me off guard and I was not a fan. After a few hours of warm up (warm up for the player), I'm a huge fan now. It's an especially nice sound signature for classical music and anything that does benefit from that extra detail. That said, bass is still very much represented and is textured nicely. 90% of what I have listened to with the R5s has been classical music with my various headphones/IEMs and I loved every second of it. Despite having such power to drive my full-sized headphones, it also handles sensitive IEMs shockingly well (the KZ ZAX being the most sensitive IEMs I own and they hiss for literally everything). MQA support with 8x unfolding is also a very nice touch as it does bring some life to different tracks. The Walkman also offers MQA support, but I do believe that the R5s executes it better. As noted earlier, the MSEB settings are a nice touch. I know most audiophiles have a strong aversion to EQ'ing anything, but I would recommend giving the MSEB a try if the sound signature isn't quite to your taste. Again, small increments - if you're doing more than 4 or 5 points of change, then you're doing too much. I would rather alter the MSEB settings by a point or two to lightly change the overall tone of the player and still reap all of the benefits of the R5s than to say "this player is too bright for me" and ignore everything else it has to offer. Ultimately, I am very pleased with the R5s and it has become my go to DAP for full sized headphones. I do still prefer the Walkman for IEMs because of its unique, detailed and smooth sound signature. That said, the R5s is still a wonder for IEMs and I do use it quite frequently for them as well.

I REALLY REALLY wanted to like this after owning the R3 Pro Saber. More power, Android, the amp features and on and on..sounds really good. But these things obviously have connection issues. I returned the first one I received because of connection issues with different Bluetooth speakers. Thinking I had gotten a dud on the first order, because I already have an R3 Pro Saber, which I really like tho it lacks power to drive some speakers and headphones to max potential. Nope, the second one is probably worse than the first. Sporadically disconnects from Bluetooth, and sometimes reconnects. The volume will sometimes go up for no reason(extra annoying when I play music low volumes at nite when I go to bed). I contacted customer service, albeit after 30 days, to see if they could help. They emailed an update which I had no idea how to load on the device, and didn't receive help for it. I let them know the update was of no use, while explaining more issues with the connection. They finally got back to me about a week later and said it was determined to be a technical issue which needed repair. Well since then(weeks ago) I've heard back squat. I paid good money for this thing and I'm stuck with basically an expensive paper weight. If your thinking of buying this, I would go with another brand. I'm saving up to do just that after this expensive painful experience. Update- 5 stars..100% with latest update! Connection issues have disappeared and this thing as AWESOME! Worth every penny not having the connection issues anymore!

yeah, the screen isn't the brightest and it is an older version of android, but it it is a DAP and not a phone so it wasn't an issue for me. the android os can hang and/or be a little buggy along with a few more small related quirks. my suggestion, before you assume it is broke and return it, just hold the power button until it restarts (over a minute easy). personally I think this player is amazing in specs, sound, ui and everything thing else it does seamlessly. this is bleeding edge tech at this price point and I am super happy with this unit regardless. battery life is amazing while streaming qobuz with the amp off using wireless ear buds. the KZ planar IEM's I recently got sounded 'ok' with the supplied SE cable. I replaced that cable with a better balanced version and plugged it into the 4.4mm balanced jack on the HiBy R5 gen 2 and wow...mind blown. my DT990 250ohm SE headphones sound pretty amazing as well. at the end of the day I personally feel this portable unit's sound and ui experience easily rivals some mid-tier desktop setups...all in something that fits in your pocket (to go). disclaimer: it def runs 90% smoother now with the most current firmware update applied. if you are on the fence about getting this just do it or spend twice that for something comparable.

I LOVE this player. After years of playing MP3 files on a very nice iPod with surprisingly nice Sennheiser PX-100II headphones, my iPod died and the cable broke on my Sennheisers. I'd started listening to high-resolution FLAC and DSD64 (SACD) files on my home theater so I know the difference between low-fi and hi-fi but the iPod was for background listening while I programmed software at work. Now that I'm retired, it's time to treat myself. I read good reviews on this player and took the plunge. I paired it with some very affordable Sennheiser HD-599 headphones (I've loved the Sennheiser sound since I got my HD-424 cans 40+ years ago). I got a 1 Tb memory card, threw a bunch of high-resolution FLAC and DSD64 files on it and gave them a listen. I was blown away. I'm hearing details I have NEVER heard out of so many of my albums despite having listened to them on a fairly high-end home theater and with the aforementioned HD-599 and HD-424 headphones. This little box really brings out the detail. So why 4 stars instead of 5 despite 5 stars on Sound quality, Battery life and Volume control? Well, the player completely bricked about 3 weeks before the 1-year warranty expired. It took a bunch of emails back and forth with the HiBy warranty department to get them to believe it wasn't actually working and then I had to pay out of my own pocket to ship it back. To China. Ever shipped something from the US to China? It ain't cheap and it ain't simple and it ain't fast. If you want someone to sign for the unit on receipt, it'll set you back over $125 US. With no signature needed (and they could deny ever getting it that way), it was still over $45. You have to fill out a detailed customs form to get it shipped and kind of have to lie about it having a battery and being only worth $20 (HiBy tells you to do this). And then getting it there and back takes a solid month. I would be tempted to rate it even lower for all this, but nearly every decent portable music player available today comes from China and will have the same issues with warranty repairs. Believe me, I've checked a BUNCH of them. So, I love this player, I hate when it's gone and would probably buy it again if this one dies. Or maybe buy a pricey extended warranty next time and make the insurer deal with the repair or replacement. Maybe my model would have expired by then and they'd have to get me an upgrade model (HiBy makes some REALLY expensive models)! And maybe pigs will fly! Edit I did get this back from warranty repair (a lengthy, totally pain-in-the-a** process that involved expensive shipping on my part) and it worked fine for about 6 months. Then it locked up totally again. I am lowering my review to 2 stars. I am also NOT going to ship this back for what could be an expensive repair. I am giving up on HiBy and going to try a FIIO M11Plus ESS instead. Since that's also built in China and has the same 1-year warranty that is probably equally challenging to deal with, I'm going to buy a "3 Year Portable Electronic Accident Protection Plan" and have whoever backs that up deal with any problems I might encounter. Boy, I sure wish these were as reliable as my old iPods!

As of this writing there are no other reviews for this player, so I wanted to provide something basic. I’ve had the r5s for two days, and so far I really like it. I also own a Pioneer xdp300, a HiBy r3 and just recently bought and returned an Activo CT10. In the past I’ve previously owned a couple of ibasso’s. I’d say the r5s is closest to the Pioneer in terms of quality. The sound is also really nice, although I would not consider it neutral. It has a decent amount of bass, more than I was anticipating, but it’s not unnatural sounding. The soundstage is certainly broader than I expected — I was pleasantly surprised. Unlike the r3 where I just turn it on, select my sd card & start playing — here I have to open the HiBy music app first. Not a big deal. Plus you can download other music listening apps — I installed neutron so I could have options. The player comes with screen protectors already applied to it, front and back. I inadvertently ripped the whole thing off the front in the process of removing the screen protector’s protective film, so that was a pain. Luckily HiBy provides a spare. They also include a leather case. There have been a couple hiccups with the OS but nothing outside of what I’ve come to expect from electronics & phones. Restarting has fixed any weirdness I’ve encountered. The one thing I do not like — is that they’ve made accessing the sd card just like getting to the SIM card in your phone. They provide a little key to release the card slot & you can remove it completely. I kind of understand this design choice — and I mean this device can accommodate a 1tb card, so maybe HiBy isn’t thinking that you’re going to be popping that card out all the time. But swapping cards is officially a pain. I appreciate that this design is sturdier and keeps out junk/dust — but given the space where it’s located is covered by the case if you use that — it just seems a little too extreme. Also, they should have built storage for the key into the case — but I guess that’s what paperclips are for. Anyway, this complaint is a minor one. As I was writing this an update became available — it seems like it contained some UI tweaks. Stuff is highlighted a little differently and it’s helpful. So that’s a plus. Anyway, like I said, this is just a quick review. There are a lot of audio options on this little player and it’s going to take me some time to do a real deep dive. So far I’ve listened with my Beyerdybamic dt990’s, my Ella Blue’s, and Grado sr2e’s. They all sound amazing. Choral and music with strings really sing on this player. I read another review online that said his mp3 files sounded noticeably worse on the r5s — but that has not been my experience at all. About a third of my 512gb card is still mp3 files and I think they sound pretty good for what they are. So why not 5 stars? I suppose I’m a little salty about the sd card being harder to get to. And I wish the screen protector was glass (like with the r3) instead of plastic. I also think a few more UI tweaks would be beneficial — if you’re not familiar with android the HiBy r5s might come off a little unintuitive. But I’m grading harshly here. I think this HiBy probably outclasses a few higher priced DAPs for sure. UPDATE 1/28/21:: Mac users need to install a 3rd party app in order to drag and drop files.

LOSES PLACE: 2-3 times a week the player just loses its place on a podcast. DISCONNECTS FROME BLUETOOTH EARBUDS: about once a week the connection to my earbuds just doesn't connect or just disconnects. Take about 10 minutes to get them connected again. SPOTTY BLUETOOTH: The audio though bluetooth cuts out sometimes. It plays 99% of the audio with half second moments when it cuts out. It will do this while I am walking around with it in my pocket, or sometimes when I am bending over.