Hiby R4 – High Performance DAP You Can Afford

Hiby R4 DAP (Digital Audio Player) promises a great set of features, build, and performance. All of that at a really reasonable price. Is that realistic? Let’s find out.

Build and Features

Hiby R4 is not a small and lightweight DAP. The height and width of 130 x 68 mm are going to be fine for any modern smartphone user, but the thickness of 18.5 mm makes it kind of chunky. Since all sides are made of aluminium, it feels very sturdy and high quality. This also means that there’s room for a big 4500 mAh battery that can pull off up to 11h of music play.

I will not go into every bit of technical detail, as you can easily find that on the official webpage. It’s enough to say that hardware is sufficiently modern and fast. The whole system is based on Android 12, so you can easily install any app you wish, including Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, YouTube, YouTube Music, etc. All of that looks good on a 4.7″ high-resolution IPS LCD touchscreen.

Several physical buttons on both sides will help you pause, play, skip tracks, and change volume without having to resort to the touchscreen. On the bottom of the device, we find a USB-C input that will be used to charge the DAP, but also as a digital input if you decide to use it as a DAC connected to your PC, for example.

Finally, the whole device is based around four Sabre ES9018 DAC chips, and OPA1652 and OPA1612 operational amplifiers. Two analog outputs are single-ended 3.5 mm and balanced 4.4 mm. We have a respectable 4.1 V and 525 mW on the balanced output, and a lower 2.3 V and 165 mW on the single-ended one.

Sound

Hiby R4 presents a tonally well-balanced sound. Bassline is weighty, punchy, and offers great control. Inner tone detailing of the bass notes is also easily observable. So we’re talking about a powerful but resolving bassline. Midrange is also very resolving and layered. The highest region is once again very open and revealing. The good thing is that high resolution never turns into unpleasant sharpness. R4 knows how to draw a fine line between transparency and good natural presentation.

Good tonality is accompanied by a very spacious soundstage that is rarely found on DAPs and portable DACs of this price. Tones are well separated, pinpointed with good stability, and have a good amount of room to breathe.

Finally, dynamics are strong. This DAP can kick and punch when the song calls for it. In fact, I have yet to hear any DAP or portable dongle DAC at this price point that can match it. Until then, it’s fair to say that this is the most dynamically capable DAC around this price.

Comparisons

Older brother Hiby R6 III is twice the price and does offer a slightly airier sound with a bit more inner tone texture, but it feels tonally leaner and thinner. It’s different but not truly better across the board, simply more different. You might also prefer R4 for its bolder and punchier sound. Given a considerable price difference, R4 is for sure a better value.

The xDuoo X5 or Fiio JM21 are both similarly priced DACs that are decent on their own, but can’t fully match the R4 in terms of soundstage size, detail retrieval, and dynamics. So I can’t see any competition outperforming it at the moment. For that, you would have to go to the pricier and newer R6 III 2025. But we’ll talk about it more in its own review.

Conslusion

Hiby R4 is currently running at the front of the affordable DAP pack. Rich functionality, great build, and most importantly, fantastic sound have no match on the market at the moment. At least among the ones that I’ve tried.