[gLer]

Nice review. Glad I'm not a real audiophile as eco-mode sounds fine to me with the benefit of 30hr battery life. Yes, the A amp sounds better even with my easy drive IEM's but not a must use feature for me. I do tend to like Sabre DAC's.

Thanks, and yes, all of my observations are based on my own music library, IEMs and preferences. I probably should have included my music test tracks, but in the end I decided to keep my IEMs out of the review and give a more high level view of what I think the R52 has to offer in general.

The 'criticisms' I noted were written after many, many hours of A/B comparisons with other DAPs. On its own and before comparing, I found the R52, even in eco mode, a very pleasant listen. Paired with my cheapie BLONs, I can happily listen all day without any complaints. I guess it's the same way you heard it...but no contest once you heard the WM1ZM2 side by side (at almost 10x the price!).

I really like how HiBy is testing out new tech with the midrange DAPs, so hopefully the Class A stuff will filter up to future flagships. An R2R DAP with Class A will be yummy indeed!

 

[chaturanga]

How is the streaming performance? Especially Spotify?

 

[gLer]

How is the streaming performance? Especially Spotify?

No idea about Spotify but Tidal is perfect.

 

[adultbaby]

How is the streaming performance? Especially Spotify?

Don’t use Spotify but Apple Music works perfect. Not as snappy as on a flagship android or iPhone device but that’s to be expected

 

[Photoman]

How is the streaming performance? Especially Spotify?

Both tidal and apple music is fine. You can also use the Hiby app to login tidal

 

[psikey]

How is the streaming performance? Especially Spotify?

Perfectly fine for me. No issue streaming Spotify, Tidal or Amazon music.

 

[originalsnuffy]

Post in thread 'HiBy R5 Gen 2 - Class A headamp, Dual ES9219C, 35h playtime, MQA 16x, open Android'
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hib...ime-mqa-16x-open-android.962816/post-16964039

Buried in settings there is a way to download to the SD card in Tidal. Settings itself is somewhat buried.

 

[Cabalsoljea]

First on Head-Fi:
HiBy R5 Gen 2 - the full review​

Hi guys, I've just posted my full HiBy R5 Gen 2 review, the first on Head-Fi, here. I've also created a product page for the R52 here, so if anyone else wants to post their reviews on Head-Fi, please feel free to do so. Hope you enjoy the write-up (and photos).

​

Echo chamber here:

Turning off A-class personally feels like the sounds are squished together. It is not bad; when out and about this is non-issue and the battery life helps.

 

[Cabalsoljea]

How is the streaming performance? Especially Spotify?

Spotify main here. No issue streaming, though I usually will download my main playlists to turn off wifi.

If you're used to higher end phones, start up may get a tad slower, but once it's loaded up, you'll not notice.

 

[rarewolf]

Spotify main here. No issue streaming, though I usually will download my main playlists to turn off wifi.

If you're used to higher end phones, start up may get a tad slower, but once it's loaded up, you'll not notice.

Streaming is one aspect of this DAP thought to be a possible problem due to the age of the Snapdragon CPU. It’s good to hear that practically speaking, it’s not… but I wonder about streaming lossless audio(?)

 

[Photoman]

Streaming is one aspect of this DAP thought to be a possible problem due to the age of the Snapdragon CPU. It’s good to hear that practically speaking, it’s not… but I wonder about streaming lossless audio(?)

If you’re talking about R gen2 streaming tidal and Apple Music lossless it’s great.

 

[StivVid]

If you’re talking about R gen2 streaming tidal and Apple Music lossless it’s great.

Qobuz works fine too. Sounds excellent.

 

[Cabalsoljea]

Streaming is one aspect of this DAP thought to be a possible problem due to the age of the Snapdragon CPU. It’s good to hear that practically speaking, it’s not… but I wonder about streaming lossless audio(?)

I'm currently up to only Deezer lossless streaming (no Qobuz here, no Tidal for me ). No issues. Runs the same as Spotify high quality.

 

[UrbanAnimism777]

Like others above, I'm really interested in r5g2 but the 2G RAM has me on the fence. I'm subscribed both Tidal and Qobuz, and have a large DSD library. Will this fella handle everything with ease?

 

[dougms3]

Like others above, I'm really interested in r5g2 but the 2G RAM has me on the fence. I'm subscribed both Tidal and Qobuz, and have a large DSD library. Will this fella handle everything with ease?

It seems to handle a decent size dsf file without any issues but the dsd upsampling is a bit buggy and not fully developed with any apps. So far it seems only neutron player is supporting dsd upsampling with the r5g2, sounds really good even at dsd64 though. I hope they develop it further for dsd256.