[Murgatroid]

I just received my R4 DAP unit today and I am having an issue with it. The short time I have been using it, it is getting VERY hot. To the point that I have to shut it down as it is burning my hand. The unit is only playing files I had downloaded already to the SD card from Tidal. Playing for no more than 15 minutes, it becomes too hot to handle.

The player is getting hot on all four sides but only from the bottom half of the unit. The top half on all four sides is remaining cooler but it is to the point I am worried and very concerned that it will fry or burn me. Thinking of requesting a refund already regarding this issue.

Are you charging while playing? That may make it hot. Class A amps run warm anyway and it’s best to not charge while listening for better battery health.

 

[JimiMack]

By the way. When you say "files downloaded from Tidal" did you mean for offline listening or did you actually convert it to files that can be played independently from Tidal?

No so far I just downloaded directly from Tidal for offline listening, have not moved over any of my own as of yet.

 

[JimiMack]

Are you charging while playing? That may make it hot. Class A amps run warm anyway and it’s best to not charge while listening for better battery health.

No,

After it got hot the first time, I shut it down and let it cool than about 30 minutes later tried again and after 15 minutes, again too hot to handle.

 

[Murgatroid]

No,

After it got hot the first time, I shut it down and let it cool than about 30 minutes later tried again and after 15 minutes, again too hot to handle.

Yeah, it sounds like something is wrong with it. Hopefully others with the R4 can weigh in.

 

[orklykid]

I find the Hifiman HE400SE, as well as the Ananda Nano, are driven nicely by all my DAPs, including the anemic Sony A306 (uncapped version) which surprised me. I've been eyeing the Meze 99 Classic. They are currently $250 on Amazon. The Neo version is $200. The 99's are supposedly very easy to drive.

I haven't used IEMs in a long time. I think the last pair I owned were those Sony MDREX90LP and Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 (which might still be in a drawer somewhere) but I figured I should invest in a new set of IEMs if I really want to dive into this portable DAP lifestyle. After some brief research I impulsively purchased the Artti T10 (which I assume the Hiby R4 can power sufficiently), but I probably should have bought the Simgot EM6L IEMs instead.

 

[Somafunk]

No,

After it got hot the first time, I shut it down and let it cool than about 30 minutes later tried again and after 15 minutes, again too hot to handle.

Having experienced how violent Li-ion battery explosions can be I’d be very wary of booting the unit back up, especially as you mention how hot the unit can get. Any prolonged temperature of over 110° can be damaging to the cell.

 

[Smirk 24]

Just received my R4. Overall great sounding DAP with good design language and SQ. Tons of fun features like plugins, MSEB, and PEQ.
I like the way it handles bass on my Singularity, making it sound tight and clean. Vocals can lean a touch cold and sound slightly digital but not overly so.

Unfortunately, the R4 does get quite hot. I have the TPU case on and I can feel a substantial amount of heat through it. It's hot enough that I’m concerned I'd have trouble handling it if I took the case off.

In case anyone wants to try replicating it, I'm streaming Tidal on high gain with the Convolution plugin enabled.

Edit:
Did some testing with the Convolution plugin disabled. Still gets quite hot but not as much as before.

 

[JimiMack]

Just received my R4. Overall great sounding DAP with good design language and SQ. Tons of fun features like plugins, MSEB, and PEQ.
I like the way it handles bass on my Singularity, making it sound tight and clean. Vocals can lean a touch cold and sound slightly digital but not overly so.

Unfortunately, the R4 does get quite hot. I have the TPU case on and I can feel a substantial amount of heat through it. It's hot enough that I’m concerned I'd have trouble handling it if I took the case off.

In case anyone wants to try replicating it, I'm streaming Tidal on high gain with the Convolution plugin enabled.

Edit:
Did some testing with the Convolution plugin disabled. Still gets quite hot but not as much as before.

Yeah, I found using the Plugins does greatly increase the heat. I noticed when I disable them it does run a little cooler, still warm but not as hot as I was feeling earlier.

 

[orklykid]

I've been loading up my SD card with music in preparation of receiving my R4, by using a couple of mediocre card readers that I thought were USB 3.0, however I'm really only getting about 10-15MB/sec transfer speeds.

How does this compare to just sticking the SD card into the Hiby and transferring over USB? Is the data transfer speed more solid if I were to mount it and copy without the card reader? Anyone have any benchmarks for that?

It's kinda holding me back from buying a 1.5TB card right now. It's been rather tedious to load even a 400GB card.

Separate question: One of the reviews posted earlier highly suggested not signing in with your personal Google account since most DAPs use an old version of Android without the latest security fixes. I guess that means I can't load my recent purchase of UAPP (w/ the Expansion Pack). Do other people feel this way, or do you just side-load UAPP from other....sources.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Yeah, I found using the Plugins does greatly increase the heat. I noticed when I disable them it does run a little cooler, still warm but not as hot as I was feeling earlier.

Headquarters confirms that this is an amp issue for which the unit needs to be replaced, regardless of the plugins. You may confirm by playing with headphones disconnected.

This is based on the symptoms described only.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I've been loading up my SD card with music in preparation of receiving my R4, by using a couple of mediocre card readers that I thought were USB 3.0, however I'm really only getting about 10-15MB/sec transfer speeds.

How does this compare to just sticking the SD card into the Hiby and transferring over USB? Is the data transfer speed more solid if I were to mount it and copy without the card reader? Anyone have any benchmarks for that?

It's kinda holding me back from buying a 1.5TB card right now. It's been rather tedious to load even a 400GB card.

Separate question: One of the reviews posted earlier highly suggested not signing in with your personal Google account since most DAPs use an old version of Android without the latest security fixes. I guess that means I can't load my recent purchase of UAPP (w/ the Expansion Pack). Do other people feel this way, or do you just side-load UAPP from other....sources.

I would suggest finding an actual USB 3 cable and make sure to connect it to an actual USB 3 port on your computer. Either of these could be the culprit for the card reader being slow.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

@JimiMack can you also check the device serial number and let me know by pm for us to chase this issue down?

System settings->device information (or similar wording)

This is not to say that there's a whole batch of affected units.

 

[RampagedDeath]

Headquarters confirms that this is an amp issue for which the unit needs to be replaced, regardless of the plugins. You may confirm by playing with headphones disconnected.

Incoming mass product recall? This comment really puts me off buying a R4.

 

[gLer]

Headquarters confirms that this is an amp issue for which the unit needs to be replaced, regardless of the plugins. You may confirm by playing with headphones disconnected.

Interesting, I didn't notice mine heating up too much during testing, but will test specifically for this now. Hopefully it's only batch related and not a widespread issue.