HiBy W5

HiBy W5
Wireless BT Receiver Headphone Dac/Amp Review
- Expatinjapan




Now live on kickstarter
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-powerful-bluetooth-hifi-amp-for-a?ref=62yot7

HiBy W5 information:
https://www.hibymusic.net/?fbclid=IwAR0rSfEpI200sXt0WiMLR1IfMd6J1pYhbboJmuccWJzDZuMVuWS-VFB5Mgk

Precise, energetic, neutral-ish, innovative & streamlined.



A stylist piece of kit to be sure. The BT amp, a charging case and a USB-C to USB-A cable.











I got sent The HiBy W5 for my impressions and a possible review. here we go.

To paraphrase from another of my earlier HP reviews:

"The xxx is the latest in a series of products from this company. Largely through Kickstarter campaigns and the like they have a history of delivering their products as a bit of short research will prove.
Although all this is true I do have a reluctance in trumpeting any crowd funding products as they usually have yet to be produced and anything can happen - timeline wise or after the fact.
Fortunately xxx has a good track record on completing the fulfilling of orders side of things so my anxiety is somewhat abated..."

The HiBy R6 I had a short listen to at a show and enjoyed, it was somewhat made lame by a high output impedance as a low OI is the general industry standard and is expected these days, the excellent snappy UI made up for this. HiBy also had a few issues with delivery of units at the time. This OI issue was resolved in the R6 Pro and HiBy also added a 4.4mm for good measure.
I also had a quick listen to the HiBy R3 and it is a little power horse with a variety of functions to please most audiophiles and casual users..

Onwards to the HiBy W5.



Packaging encases netherworld intriguing spaceship: HiBy W5 Bluetooth dac/amp








A wide range of Bluetooth codecs, slim form and battery charging case make the HiBy W5 an attractive option for most audiophiles of all persuasions, experienced/new, interested social and casual users.



Functions and directions


*I found the voice prompts to be very useful and helpful.











The HiBy W5 is definitely innovative, lines, dark, oh so smooth a finish and solid build.






Battery and life








*HiBy W5 will support both high and low gain modes. Currently the default is high gain.

The duration for single machine is about 3.5 hours under high gain, while the duration is about 4.5~5 hour under low gain.
Doubtless its long duration of battery use via the carry case makes it a versatile and practical multi day use piece of audio gear. One charge in the case for 20 hours of reuse.



How to use:

Step 1: Plug the headphone to the 3.5mm output.

Step 2: Tap the device for 2 seconds.

Step 3: Short tap the device to start pairing your smartphone or Hi-Fi player.

Step 4: Enjoy Hi-Fi wireless sound.



General overall impressions and sound.

Well in all honesty I am kinda dac/amp`d out. Cabled out and dap`d out. So many products of great to excellent quality coming out here and there in all shapes, sizes and prices. Where does a reviewer draw the line on what to review when balancing life, family, work, hobbies, school, free time and all sorts of other essentials and past times. It is not easy at times, some audio gear gets the go ahead, others sent to contributors and some having to be turned down due to time constraints or other reasons.

The HiBy W5 piqued my interest most of all because I saw the opportunity of making dildo and other inappropriate jokes about its suggestive form. But this being the vanilla review site of Head pie and not the Hell zone that is Head pie Facebook I shall refrain from such comparisons.

Looking at the beta packing and the item did not give me any initial excitement. The packaging being simple and not sexy and the lack of being able to make rude jokes dampened my enthusiasm at the first encounter. Later upon listening did the romance blossom.

Recently I published a review which one commentator said it was "It is 90% screen-shots of the product page, a copy and paste of the items specs and then only a few lines of your own actual text describing your experience with the product". Quite true it was indeed, that particular item required no more.
These days audio websites containing detailed specifications and descriptions and glossy pictures about functions some what lessens and diminishes the reviewers work to an extent. Long gone are the days when information was either scant or closely guarded by the companies.

So I make use of what is there. Reusing information in its purest form. Sure I could pad out the build, copy and paste specs in a way that looks like I hand typed it myself along with other information. But whats the point?

Also once one has been reviewing for a while the same questions come up...build, prices, where to buy?, specifications, sound etc....and so on. Sure a quick Google search will render these answers but usually people in this on demand age for consumers want everything in one place.

Therefore I contain as much information as possible and with links to the original sites for those who want to check out the item further. bearing in mind that the companies send me these items for review and would love for you to be a closer click away from buying, but many will not unless they all the information they need before they look deeper in a possible purchase.

I myself always research solidly before making any purchase and like to provide my readers with the same.

Copy and paste into text, or diagrams and pretty specification charts? I`d rather see the latter than wade through a wall of text.

So..."build, prices, where to buy?, specifications, sound etc..." what is left out of these for the reviewer which is not objective information but veers more into the subject, gear used, ear shape, hearing ability, music chosen etc?

we are left with build (which may change after extended use and a review is usually written between one week to several months depending on the reviewer) and build may be solid for a long time, or may falter perhaps within the review time or after. So on can only by the present impressions for build.

Sound, sound, SOUND. That is what we are left with in the end? How does it sound? warm, neutral, bright being terms an international audience can understand.

Then there is the issue of it being a dac/amp. preferably to my preferences it should be largely neutral, as a dap often is these days. Sometimes these on the go devices (or earphones) are tweaked a bit to lend a V shape to the sound which survives the chaos and noise of commuting well.

Dac/amps and daps are at the mercy of the earphones/headphones in many a review. Some parts should be separate, whilst others cross over.

It can be a battle getting to heart of the matter at times, peeling back the onion layers to get a true sense of performance.

Sometimes items require a long write up of analysis or the process to describe this, even a bit of word salad on or off topic to pad it out, but often for the seasoned reviewer a short summary of their extensive testing is enough to describe each item. But of course many readers want more and thankfully there is a sea of reviewers out these days to cater to all tastes and to fill the gaps in each other reviews.

so onwards to the HiBy W5.

What do we have?...



Even in the wettest and dampest of places the HiBy W5 endures and survives.

Price

A Kickstarter campaign for a device ranging from US$59 - $89 depending on how early you get in.



https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-powerful-bluetooth-hifi-amp-for-a?ref=62yot7
*(see the HiBy W5 Kickstarter page for options in price and perks).

Build

The build is great, solid and sleek. And dare I say smexy.
You can see in the many photos the attention to detail and smooth, slim corner less form that will fit so easily into a pocket or elsewhere without a painful experience (as many of these devices have sharp corners).
It is light weight.


*You can see below the HiBy W5 size when placed between the iBasso DX200 and Hidizs AP80.



Charging case

The charge case is a nice touch, but a simple cable port in its end would have been also useful for case less times. The charging case can can charge on the go which is great and still double as carrying case also.

Battery life seems to be 4-5 hours and the Charging case extends that to 20 hours.



Sound.

Well this is what most came for, and many just skip to the sound section. I know I and others do for sure.

Definitely it lends dulcet overtones upon pleasurable yearning overtures utilizing realtime and sonic simplicity.

As mentioned earlier describing a dac/amp or daps sound signature can be difficult because it is of course the earphones we are listening with/ to the music. So one must possess a fairly reference earphone that one is very familiar with as a baseline to see if there are deviations from the norm.

It used to be a an easy bet Wolfson warm/ Cirrus bright then later AKM warm/ ESS bright to simplify things. Nowadays the gap between the AKM and ESS dacs has lessened and many of the recent models have similar characteristics.

The reviewer now has to put in more time, take more notes to deliver a short, coherent, accurate and understandable summary for the reader.

I can happily say I quite enjoy using the HiBy W5, it has connected easily to most most the devices I tried, android daps, iphone, FiiO X7ii, iBasso DX200 (The OREO is a sonic plus), Opus#3, Hidizs AP80. I do not have a HiBy dap to experiment with. Sometimes pairing was instant, other times it took a few tries.
It is recommended to use the HiBy music app (which I did not).
I did notice a few sonic differences depending on what I used as the source and which Codec they were sending out to the HiBy W5.

Noise floor is good, no hiss to my ears with the various devices I paired it with.
I also placed it on my iphone and between the router and laptop simultaneously to check for interference and found none.

The overall signature is one of expansion - width and depth, sound stage being the domain of the earphones used and I did not found the HiBy W5 to impact the earphones sound stage unduly. No choking of the earphones performance.
Placement of instruments seems fairly accurate.

Bass and treble seem to be prominent with a soft V shape being the dominant feature and vocals nested between them. Mids takes the second place award in this arrangement. A fairly suitable agreement between bass, mids, treble due to the probable use of such a dac/amp being aimed more at the mobile types.

The bass is reasonably quick, thick and moves fast and is energetic, the treble is awfully clean and pleasing to the ear, vocals are realistic and smooth. Mids while present are not a main focus as already mentioned but are featured enough to be noticeable, it is not a desert as far as the mids are concerned.

Whilst 2018 seemed to be the year of small daps, 2019 is looking to be the year of small Bluetooth dac/amps.

The HiBy W5 performed well with the Daps etc it paired with. There were a few sonic differences at times in terms of depth, separation, layer, timbre etc but nothing largely significant.

For the price it is an excellent piece of gear and I am constantly astounded these days at the quality of portable gear and its acceleration in terms of price/performance.

Overall

The HiBy W5 is a decent dac/amp, quiet back ground, well built and light weight, the sound is very clean and retains the sound signature of the earphone used with slightly recessed mids and emphasized bass and treble, vocals are smooth for both female and male, sound stage is also retained as far as the earphones are able to perform, - no choking, separation of instruments is clean and coherent.

Smooth, understated, clean, coherent, musical, an impressively blissful and life like sonic spaceship.




More information via the HiBy W5 Kickstarter page:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-powerful-bluetooth-hifi-amp-for-a?ref=62yot7



UAT



"UAT is a new audio coding method based on DCT. First, it can quickly identify the type of signal and select the appropriate encoding mode through intelligent analysis. Then do quantization according to the specified bitrate. The trebles are preserved as much as possible in the process of quantization.

There is a dynamic transmission optimization can be performed for different genres and more bandwidth resources are allocated to some specific frequency bands to get more detail.

Entropy coding is performed after the quantization and then pack the code and side information to one stream for transmission. In addition, UAT also has a noise level detector which can effectively remove the noise existing in the original audio, making the transmission more efficient. "






https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-powerful-bluetooth-hifi-amp-for-a?ref=62yot7

Thank you for sending Head pie the HiBy W5 for review.

It is really interesting to observe how the most active brand names grow as the time passes. The most interprising and active ones join the rank of trendsetters in the related industries and spread their influence over the entire conglomerates of manufacturers and customers. Examples are not that numerous but there are some apparent and unarguable cases for the past several years: DJI with their drone technologies, Apple that is constantly changing trends, Tesla that shifts the world to green car energy and so on. Those companies are shifting the mountains of past beliefs to expand the boundaries of future expectations. Same happens in a smaller scale where fastly growing companies would also strive for better technology and standards. Just think of new graphene batteries, flexible displays, use of modern materials and large amount of Internet services that are accepted by mass market as new standards.



Now, lets narrow down to audio domain. De facto, HiBy has already joined the vanguard of the pushing force in this industry. This brand has started with HiBy Music application for the most popular mobile OS, introduced widely used functions like MSEB and HiBy link. They have also created and licensing their HiBy OS firmware to different manufacturers (doesn’t this reminds you of Xiaomi brand history?). One of their recent valuable deeds is the development of several HiRes DAPs with the superior price to performance ratio that forced a new spin of competition among all industry members. ‘



Today, we would like to demonstarte that HiBy has other trumps up their sleeve by presenting HiBy W5 — the world’s first Bluetooth DAC/AMP receiver with UAT (Ultra Audio Transmission) codec that might set the new wireless audio standards for the entire industry.

HiBy W5 technical specifications and discription:

• Type: Bluetooth audio receiver with integrated DAC&AMP
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0 (CSR8675)
• Bluetooth audio codecs: SBC, AAC, apt-X, apt-X_LL, apt-X HD, LDAC, UAT
• Max. bit rate: 1.2Mbps
• Max. bit depth: 24bit
• Max. sampling frequency: 192kHz
• DAC&AMP chip: ESS Sabre ES9218P
• SNR: 118dB
• THD+N: -103dB
• Output power: 80mW+80mW@32Ω
• Audio output: 3.5mm
• Control elements: 1 sensor button + LED indicator
• Battery life: ≥20 hours (W5 battery + cradle battery), ≥100 hours at standby
  Quoted playback time based on using the AAC codec
• Compatibility: Windows, Android, iOS, MacOS
• Other features: intergrated mic for voice calls, IP67 waterproof, remote control by HiBY Music app
• Weight: 19.5g (W5), 57.1g (cradle)

Let’s go over UAT and HW part: UAT stands for Ultra Audio Transmission technology that was developed by HiBy as new generation of Bluetooth audio codec superior to all previous standards ever presented by other companies.



Just a short comparison of main specs of the two latest audio codecs developed by Qualcomm (apt-X HD) and Sony (LDAC):



In other words, this table shows that HiBy has managed to take the advantage of Bluetooth 4.2/5.0 and overcome previous bandwidth limitations that didn’t allow sufficient data transfer speeds, consequently lowering sampling frequency. Of course, in order to to make this work HiBy had to develop its own algorythms and wrap it with Bluetooth standards. Moreover, this means that HiBy should have also developed and tested UAT for transmitting and receiving devices. This means integration with different operating systems and various microcontroller devices in future. Along with the codec, Bluetooth 4.2/5.0 is a must to get UAT working.



If to summarise all of this, theoretically, introduction of UAT codec together with the newest BT 5.0 standard solves the issue of downsampling audio library, increasing data transfer rate that should improve audio quality and overall satisfaction of going wireless.

As far as we understand, HiBy might be pushing their innovation to different vendors right after confirming that it is perfectly stable. UAT supports any Android mobile phone with HiBy Music app and DAPs like HiBy R6, R6Pro, R3, Cayin N8, Hidizs AP80. Moreover, W5 is compatible with all currently available BT audio codecs and could be paired to any other audio source supporting Bluetooth. Therefore, you can use it with any DAPs or smartphones and enjoy all advantages of the latest wireless audio transmission technologies.



Let’s move on to the device itself, starting with the externals.

HiBY W5 packaging, design and build:



W5 comes in transparent box with the device secured by the special insert at the top part. Rest of the space is consumed by the accessories. Device name, brand logo and company contact information are printed on the inner cardboard layer.

Box contents:

• HiBy W5 BT receiver
• device charging cradle
• microUSB type-C -> USB A cable
• user manual
• final productio versions of W5 would also have instruction manual and stickers on the left side of the box

Yes, in fact HiBy follows the trend and has developed special cradle for W5 the only purpose of which is to charge the device. It doesn’t mean that you cannot use it for storing or carrying W5 as it has the folding cover but the main idea is to use it as power bank whenever required.



W5 is quite small device with the dimensions of 61.7x21x17.6mm (with clip). Looks futuristic and intrigues by the absence of any control elements. Its smooth and elongated body consists of two parts — black glossy plastic top and brushed stainless steel bottom. Parts are perfectly aligned, no gap here.



Microphone opening is located at the bottom part of front cover. Steel back contains charging contacts and clip grooves.



3.5mm audio output is located at the top edge.



Plastic clip is detachable, feels quite secure and durable.



The most interesting starts when you try to operate the device (concerning that there is no physical control elements or screen). Upper part of top plastic cover is semitransparent and hides circle LED element combined with the touch sensor. Not easy to discover unless W5 is placed on its cradle for charging. Charging process would immediately reveal the position of hidden element by blinking with red LED. Let’s see how is looks (in this case it would blink blue due to fully charged state):



W5 cradle is not that mysterious but perfectly does the job. It is made of black glossy plastic, features foldable top cover with special soft insert to prevent W5 body from scratches and movements, spring-loaded W5 charging pins, 3 blue LED lights to indicate the amount of charge / charging process and microUSB type-C charging port. We’ve even managed to remove W5 bed from cradle and take a look at the HW part. Everything looks fine and neat:



HiBy W5 operation:

Charging process can be done in several ways:

• Charging only the cradle from USB power supply which takes approximately 2 hours from fully discharged state. Triple blue LED indicator on the front part of the cradle shows the amount of charge gained during the charging process. Cradle battery is 1000mAh LiPO.
• Charging both W5 and cradle simultaneously by placing W5 in its cradle when it takes charge from USB power supply. Chrging time would change accordingly to the current state of W5 battery (+1h at most). W5 would also blink with its red LED to indicate charging process.
• Use cradle as power bank to charge W5 battery. In this case cradle LED would indicate how much own battery capacity is left and W5 red LED would blink as it takes charge. Cradle battery has enough capacity to fully charge W5 five times (W5 battery is 150mAh LiPO).

Here is LED indication pattern of the cradle:

Charging process:



And here is how the charging indication goes on W5 itself:



Unfortunately, it is not possible to use 3.5mm audio output of W5 while it is on charge due to the physical limitations of audio jacks connection while the device is placed in the cradle. At the same time, W5 stays fully operational… It seems that there is a room for physical improvement of the cradle or future mods by end users.

Controls:

While not very obvious from its look, W5 incorporates touch sensor button as multifuctional control key with «vibrate on tap» feedback. Sensor shares the same front face spot of the LED indicator. Feedback vibration force is pretty strong to confirm the action. As any other sensor type key it does exhibit a slight lag between the actual finger press and the resulting activity but it is totally acceptable and pretty comfortable to use.

Here is the list of all button functions:



Of course, W5 LED indicates different working state as well:



Pairing and working distance:

First W5 pairing is done by holding the button for ~5 seconds. It would initiate pairing process while LED indicator would be quickly flashing with blue color. No problems with discovering and connecting from the smartphone side. It would list HiBy W5 among other discovered or paired devices. First connection as well as all further reconnections after power cycle are almost immediate.



No problems either if your device is not supporting Bluetooth 5.0 standard as it is backward compatible with the previous verisons and UAT is compatible with 4.2 verison as well. But Hiby recommends to use Bluetooth 5.0 to get the smooth implementation

In theory, according to new standard specifications, working distance with BT 5.0 should be 4 times larger than in the previous verison. In real life, smooth experience would greatly depend of the environment and radio band workload that might and would affect the amount of packets lost, especially with the higher data transfer rates. UAT codec features the highest data rate ever for BT audio stream…. Consequently, more prone to different types of interruptions. Our tests show that it is not a problem when you keep W5 and a smartphone in different pockets but might become an issue when you have to send data through 10 meters of working space with some obstacles like people, other transmitting devices, walls, etc. Therefore, despite new BT standard capabilities, you should expect smooth operation at the same working distance as everyone got used to before — ~10 meters at open space.



HiBY W5 applications:

There is a software part for W5 develped by HiBy for Android OS to provide more functions and better interaction. For now it is split into two different applications, both in beta state. Both would eventually merge with HiBy Music APP by the time of W5 market release. The compatibility of this software with other operating systems is yet to be declared (iOS compatibility is already declared).

Software part functionality:

• W5 settings:
  • Bluetooth audio codec
  • Sample rate
  • Bit depth
  • Current codec additional parameters

*this is similar to menu options found under Settings->Developer Options in Android OS. So, instead of sending people to activate hidden «Developer Options», HiBy has intergrated it to its own software and already added UAT codec profile there.

• W5 information: Name / MAC / battery level / battery status / RSSI / API version
• LED: switch W5 LED on|off
• Equalizer: BASS Boost / 3D / Presets (lets you use slots to store own presets)
• Remote control: buttons Volume UP/DOWN/Mute / PLAY/PAUSE/STOP / NEXT/PREVOUS. (Perhaps, the remote would be used with any default music application if you are not using HiBY Music)
• Battery: full information about the battery state and charging process
• Upgrade: W5 FW upgrade screen with file browser to navigate to FW file

Most of the functions are perfectly working already.

As already mentioned — all those functions would merge with HiBy Music app and let you control W5 receiver without the need of switching between different applications or Bluetooth system settings.

Sound tests:

Testing process: Tanchjim Oxygen IEMs wired to Hidizs AP80 DAP or Xiaomi Note 5 versus HiBy W5 connected to HiBy R6Pro DAP over Bluetooth (UAT and LDAC audio codecs). This gives us the understanding of how W5 sounds against one of the most popular DAP’s around.



Lows and midbass:

Lower range is quite exposed and has very good deep bass reach. Not overemphasized, nor shadowing other frequencies but it’s presence is evidently large. Texturing is moderate, can’t quite compete with wired connection to DAP but totally fine in case of good IEMs and much better than produced by a regular smartphone audio output. Overall bass presence and extension influences the sound signature, giving a picture a warm presentation. In fact, if bass texturing were a bit higher — W5 might have been almost similar to AP80 DAP bass reproduction.

Midbass power and dynamics are very good. Drums sound good, rich and engaging. Seems that W5 amp section is having enough potential to drive anything up to 80Ω. Most of the IEMs are not a problem at all. The only full-sized headphones we’ve tested were AudioTechnica ATH-M50 (48Ω) which also produced good results in terms of midbass dynamics, speed and articulation.



Mids and vocals:

Mids are little bit laid back in comparison to lows and treble. Voices are perceived as a bit thin and distant with not much of difference in presence between male and female vocals. There is a slightly warm timbre influenced by lows and this also helps to have a good control over lisping or harsh notes. Resolution on voices is moderate while string instruments are showing slightly better results. In overall, mids sound pretty intimate and warm, with smooth sound transitions. Even though, the clarity and detalization of mids is higher than Note 5 smartphone can produce on its own with wired connection.



Treble:

Treble section is slightly emphasized and brings up the additional clarity and imaginary resolution to the sound. While the extension is less than with wired type of connection, treble amount of presence still manages to balance the lower end. Resolution is moderate here as well. Such situation is common for all BT audio receivers as the most of noise floor and audio downgrades are affecting our perception of extensions on both ends, also reduces clarity on treble.

Sound in overall:

In fact, HiBy W5 sounds very good when advanced BT audio codecs are used. Some lack of resolution or texturing gets evident only in the direct comparison to wired method of connection to good DAPs. This is perfectly logical. On the other hand, only few smartphones, tablets or PCs would come close to W5 audio quality level and driving potential even with wired IEMs. Let’s say that W5 as a DAC/AMP is much better than regular smartphone bare audio output while the wireless method of sending data is not making it much less superior.



Definitely, we can tell the difference between using wired connection to DAP or smartphone and sending data over the air to W5 BT receiver. The main difference is higher noise floor and the latency (which is actually not that big to disturb from watching video content). At the same time, while wired DAP is inarguably providing the best sound quality to your IEMs, the results produced by vast majority of multifunctional devices (such as regular smartphones with no dedicated DAC chip) would fall short in terms of output power, driving potential, overall clarity, resolution and instrument separation. Therefore, those who use their smartphones for music would gain the wireless freedom together with the better sound quality in overall. More experienced audio geeks who possess good piece of equipment and searching for wireless receiver would not be disappointed either, as the difference in sound quality betweem wire and BT is not that obvious.

UAT V/S LDAC sound quality:

Honestly — hard to tell. When LDAC is set to its maximum data transfer rate of 990Kbps the only difference is that all of your >96KHz tracks would be downsampled to 96KHz. Roughly, it should result in less accuracy and extension, especially on treble. But the main question is whether this difference is audible… There are some people who would pretend to hear the difference between codecs but most of the blind tests show very small rate of success, if any. Therefore, we would say that the main advantage of running UAT instead of LDAC is a pleasing notion of the fact that nothing is being downsampled and you get the best possible audio quality. Why would you spend so much efforts finding 24bit/192KHz albums than?



At the same time, sound improvement between the basic SBC codec and anyhting that was designed to do much better job (aptX_HD, LDAC, UAT) is apparent. At least for the trained ears of long-time audio equipment reviewers and musicians. Sound is not that dry and narrow, overall resolution is higher, both ends are more extended, you get more microdynamics… IMHO.

Sound quality in voice calls:

Haven’t noticed any issues during the voice calls. W5 microphone sounds clear and pretty loud for the other party. Echo effect was not observed either. There is also a possibility to start, dismiss or end the call with sensor button.

Compared to Colorfly BT-C1:



Colorfly BT-C1 is very good and neutral Bluetooth receiver in terms of sound quality. It also can be used as USB DAC which is its main purpose, actually. It is not very convenient to be carried around in your pocket, doesn’t have that good battery life and lacks the output power (only 35mW@32Ω). The most advanced BT audio codec is represented by Apt-X_LL. Soundwise, BT-C1 is more gentle and more resolving across the AFR but at the same time more dry and much less fun to listen to. Adding here its low driving potential — and it is not getting anywhere close to HiBy W5. We would say thay BT-C1 should be considered only for stationary and wired use in combination with active speakers or as a DAC for home audio system. HiBy W5 is more universal in terms of usage scenarios, sounding brighter and more engaging, having more driving power and using better BT audio codecs.



Conclusion:

After examining early sample of HiBy W5 very closely, we can conclude that it is the most advanced and, in fact, a revolutionary Bluetooth audio receiver. Apart from traditionally capable hardware, great design and solid user experience, HiBY has presented the world with their own vision of supreme Bluetooth audio quality. They have taken the lead by the development of 192KHz Bluetooth Ultra Audio Transmission codec which, perhaps, would emerge into new industry standard. It also means new spin of competition on the market with further technical advance and benefits to all audio fans. Such innovations and related efforts should be supported by all possible means, that is why we would be standing in a first row of crowdfunding campaign when it would be launched.

Link to HiBy W5 Kickstarter campaign

Link to official HiBy W5 page