[Joe Bloggs]

One irritating thing....
During the preorder period, Hiby will chuck in a free strap, which is great.
But it will be a randomised colour.
So if I buy an orange R4, it might come with a green strap....
In that scenario, I'd be sorely tempted to send mine back for a refund.
Why can't they just match the strap to the player?
Or are orders fulfilled by colour blind robots?

We are actually going to try to match the colours, however, there's a limited number of players of each colour and also a limited number of straps of each colour, and the limits may not line up, so we can't guarantee that it will be a match.

Then again, green+orange mightn't be such a bad match, arguably we might actually want an extra colour or two

 

[fish1050]

I had heard that china was getting a special release/exclusive that had the ability to turn off the class A mode but I am not entirely sure of the validity of that claim.

Pretty sure they are just swapping the Class A amp for a Class A/B amp to offer slightly better battery life. It wouldn't make sense to deprive international customers of this feature. Besides I am not sure there is an opamp onboard to provide power to allow you to turn off the Class A amp. The R5 gen2 has ESS 9219C DAC/Amp combo chips so these chips are providing power in economy mode as I understand it. The Quad DAC's in the R4 are only DAC chips and I don't see mention of opamps onboard to allow for an economy mode.

Not positive about this, so don't quote me on it. Perhaps someone else can provide clarification.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I had heard that china was getting a special release/exclusive that had the ability to turn off the class A mode but I am not entirely sure of the validity of that claim.

It was a limited run exclusive collab with a certain local company, but the change to class AB there is permanent not switchable.

 

[fish1050]

It was a limited run exclusive collab with a certain local company, but the change to class AB there is permanent not switchable.

So other than a more efficient Class A/B amp offering better battery life will the sound tuning be any different?

 

[Joe Bloggs]

So other than a more efficient Class A/B amp offering better battery life will the sound tuning be any different?

Well you'd think the class difference is a sound difference in and of itself but stranger things have happened... I can't comment in my position.

 

[fish1050]

Well you'd think the class difference is a sound difference in and of itself but stranger things have happened... I can't comment in my position.

Fair enough but I have listened to alot of Class A and A/B amps over the years. The sound differences can be very small or quite noticeable. I guess I was wondering more about whether you buy the Class A/B version to get a noticeably different sound or primarily for the extra battery life. Which as you say you can't really say so never mind.

 

[nioh]

So other than a more efficient Class A/B amp offering better battery life will the sound tuning be any different?

The Special Midi collab Edition has

Limited Edition design (almost same as standard black, just minor differences)
Class A/B amp
15 hours battery life (as opposed to 11 for the standard)
Tuned for Rock genre

It was anyway delayed because the MIDI festival was postponed. Now the release date for the special edition is unknown.

 

[XTF1]

I really hope they push a firmware that allows us to enter a low econ mode/turn off the class A amp for battery life. That is the only thing that is keeping me from going all in on replacing my r5gen 2 with no worries. I usually use class a mode anyway, but having the option when im looking to save battery life is appreciated.

Per spec., the R4 is class A only. There is nothing to turn off (except completely off ), or turn into: it does not offer a Class A/B “eco” mode.

The R5–II was different, with an “eco” mode using the DAC/Amp integrated amp, or an additional, higher power discrete amp stage.

 

[Lu88]

The Special Midi collab Edition has

Limited Edition design (almost same as standard black, just minor differences)
Class A/B amp
15 hours battery life (as opposed to 11 for the standard)
Tuned for Rock genre

It was anyway delayed because the MIDI festival was postponed. Now the release date for the special edition is unknown.

The MIDI edition seems to be sold in limited quantities only in China.
https://twitter.com/hiby_music/status/1783394717843276099

 

[nioh]

The MIDI edition seems to be sold in limited quantities only in China.
https://twitter.com/hiby_music/status/1783394717843276099

It will be sold during the MIDI festival which is presumably in May (was postponed from beginning of May)

 

[Discordiain]

We are actually going to try to match the colours, however, there's a limited number of players of each colour and also a limited number of straps of each colour, and the limits may not line up, so we can't guarantee that it will be a match.

Then again, green+orange mightn't be such a bad match, arguably we might actually want an extra colour or two

Thanks for that @Joe Bloggs
Looks like I might be preordering after all.....

 

[Hypops]

I had heard that china was getting a special release/exclusive that had the ability to turn off the class A mode but I am not entirely sure of the validity of that claim.

If there's no alternative amp circuitry and components, one cannot simply "turn off" class A mode.

 

[XTF1]

Well you'd think the class difference is a sound difference in and of itself but stranger things have happened... I can't comment in my position.

Attempting to fill some of the blanks...

Class A is in theory better, from a sound standpoint, than Class A/B (no crossover distortion). Now, Class A/B do operate in Class A at low volume, and depending on the bias level, this could be quite a significant part of the typical operating range, especially with IEMs. All of this to say that it's again about design and implementation...

The R4 specs talk about 16x "triodes"... I assume they mean transistors, not vacuum tubes (??????) and it is just a poor translation. I don't know if the two separate audio paths (PCM vs. DSD) also encompass the amp stage--each path having its own amp stage. In any case, 16x (or 8x) transistors are more than what you would need for a stereo Class A amp... meaning HiBY has probably implemented some trickery to make this work best.

 

[LordZero]

Then again, green+orange mightn't be such a bad match, arguably we might actually want an extra colour or two

Would love to see a Hiby r4 in purple black and green

 

[Joe Bloggs]

...
The R4 specs talk about 16x "triodes"... I assume they mean transistors, not vacuum tubes (??????) and it is just a poor translation. I don't know if the two separate audio paths (PCM vs. DSD) also encompass the amp stage--each path having its own amp stage. In any case, 16x (or 8x) transistors are more than what you would need for a stereo Class A amp... meaning HiBY has probably implemented some trickery to make this work best.

NPN / PNP transistors.

PCM and DSD each having its own DAC and analog LPF, it is the latter that different in hardware as far as I know (lower LPF frequency on DSD to suppress noise close to 20kHz of DSD64)