Enhanced Amber Light – Hiby R3PRO II Pure Music Player DAP
Hiby R3PRO II is a $199 USD Pure Music Player DAP with a colorful design, outstanding sound, and Dual CS43198 DACs plus four OPA1622 headphone AMPs at the core. Today we will review the R3PRO II and see how it fits in the busty world of today’s audio.
Introduction
Hiby has been designing DAPs and Music Players for ages now, so R3PRO II is a follow-up to the original Hiby R3 PRO which I have reviewed in the past and enjoyed a lot. Hiby makes music software, and for a long time hiby Music has been my favorite audio app for android, although it stopped running 3 days ago, but it runs fine on dedicated and optimized hardware such as this new R3 Pro II DAP. Hiby DAPs are available for purchase on all platforms you can imagine, Linsoul, Amazon, Aliexpress, and more.
As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases, and using the purchase links in my reviews helps me maintain this website and Youtube Channel. Huge thanks to Hiby for providing us with the sample for this review.
Product Link
Official Link – https://store.hiby.com/products/hiby-r3pro-ii
Build Quality – Design
We start with a unique approach to design as Hiby R3 PRO II has an Ultrasuede Backplate from Toray Japan, and R3 PRO II is likely the only DAP that has a fabric backpanel instead of metal or glass. At the core, we have a Dual CS43198 DAC setup, which is half of what iBasso DX260 uses. The Amplifier side of the R3 PRO II is powered by a selection of 4 OPA1622 Op-AMPs, separate from the DAC.
Battery is quite large at 4000mAh, and the R3 PRO II has around 15-18 hours of actual battery life, and it can idle for up to 900 hours, so even if you forget it turned on, it would take 37 days for the battery to fully deplete. This battery will help power the 480mW output power, and the 3.3″ High Resolution Display. This display has a bit of a green tint, but has strong sharpness and a fairly high maximum brightness.
Powered by a X1600E SoC, R3 PRO II is fast and snappy, and it has an All-New UI, being fully powered by Hiby OS, and having the MSEd Audio Tuning Board that Hiby holds as their pride. Although R3 PRO II has Dual hi-Res Certifications, this mainly indicates that it can decode DSD256 and PCM 384 kHz / 32 Bit signals, plus MQA 8X for internal files, but also that it has wifi support and Bluetooth 5.1 support. R3 PRO II can send signals in LDAC, and aptx formats, but it can only receive them in AAC and SBC formats.
You will mainly be listening to music from the internal 2TB microSD card, but R3PROII has support for Wifi too, with firmware updates, Wifi Music Transfer and even streaming being available when using Wifi. With a weight of 160 grams, and a size of 86x60x21, R3PRO2 is one of the smallest DAPs out there, not quite thumb sized and shuffle sized, but still small, and best used for shuffle playback.
USB DAC – Subjective Usage
I like using R3 PRO II, it is ergonomic, handy, and the orange color brings a sparkle of color to my life. USB DAC function is okay, but playback is not real time, and there is around 150ms of delay, enough for it to be rather noticeable when trying to watch real time content. This means that R3 PRO II is not designed for gaming, watching music videos or videos in general, and it is more of a pocketable DAP made for music playback, eventually perfect as a shuffle DAP.
Playback is smooth, OS is smooth, as expected from Hiby, it works wonders for playing local music. The best feature it has is the ultra effective MSEB EQ, you can fine tune your headphones without really knowing what you’re doing, it works really well for all music styles, all IEMs and easier to drive headphones. R3 PRO II got a high headroom when using MSEB.
Sound Quality
Pairings – I have paired the new Hiby r3 PRO II with a selection of earphones and headphones including KBEar Cepheus, Xenns Mangird Top Pro, Punch Audio Martillo, Crosszone CZ-10 Enhanced, TanchJim Origin, NFAudio NE4, NfAudio NA2+, Rose Technics QT-X, Palma DHS-1, Erzetich Thalia, Nf Acous Na20, and RAPTGO LEAF D01.
It has more than enough power for all the IEMS in this list, even on low gain, but on high gain it drives the CZ-10 Enhanced and Palma DHS-1 with ease. Harder to drive headphones like HIFIMAN Arya Organic or Erzetich Mania V2024 are not powered well enough, but you could use R3 PRO II to drive Crosszone CZ-8a and Erezetich Thalia, especially as the MSEB EQ options can help change the tonality of those two headphones for a different approach, as they are technically proficient, but can have a colored sound tonality. It really struggles with high impedance headphones like Sivga Peng or Sennheiser Hd 660S2.
Overall Signature – Once you find a pair of IEMs or headphones you like a lot, R3 PRO II is more of a chameleon if you engage MSEB. With all filters and tunings turned off, it sounds rather brilliant, sharp, aggressive, forward and highly revealing. With a truly neutral tuning and presentation, I am glad I don’t have to call it flat too, as there’s quite a bit of depth and impact, effective instrument separation. 
Bass – Starting from the bottom, Hiby went for full and true neutrality with the new R3 PRO II, as it has a fast, highly revealing bass, perfect for rock, metal, and other fast music. This emphasized instrument separation and definition greatly, but does not provide a lot of backbone for music, and it most certainly ain’t a warm signature, but you can tag in a lot of bass and more impact if you want, via the ultra effective MSEB EQ.
Midrange – In the midrange, R3 PRO II stays crisp, neutral, a bit cool toned, but revealing and has a high degree of instrument separation. It seems to have a really good foreground – background separation in particular, allowing background layers and voices to be easily distinguished from the foreground voices, and it has a slight tendency to thin voices, making the whole sound a bit brighter.
Treble – Quite the energetic DAP, R3 PRO II is rather brilliant, sharp, and can reveal brightness, not grain, but quite a bit of treble sparkle and brilliance. I find that this presentation works really well for rock, metal, EDM, Pop, but not older songs, which are recorded with a brighter tuning. It is the kind of DAP that works well with warmer sounding IEMs and Headphones, and does not work well with bright and sharp sounding IEMs and Headphones, as it is already neutral and also aggressive.
Dynamics / PRaT / Textures – R3 PRO II has a fast sound, nothing slows it down, and this reveals all the information in music, all the micro details and gives music a rather snappy and clean sound. Happily, the signature of the R3 PRO II is grain-free, it is on the slightly splashy, slightly smoother side of things.
Loudness Saturation Gradient – I think this is the only downside of the R3 PRO II, it has a really low maximum volume, even with IEMs, there’s not that much driving power, and in actual listening, it struggles to drive hard to drive headphones, but even when it does not struggle, it has a somewhat lower than the average maximum volume. This being said, sound is controlled, clean, there’s no noticeable distortion, and even at max, it keeps its cool. Background noise is minimal to non-existent.
Soundstage – Hiby R3 PROII has a wide, holographic soundstage with a huge space between instruments, clear and strong separation between the foreground and background layers, and it sounds super wide and holographic.
Value and Conclusion
As far as value goes, R3PRO II is rather affordable, and at 199 USD, it has the same price tag as the original R3 PRO, and offers a high value for your money. It is an effective way to listen to your favorite tracks, nimble, mini sized, clean and although thick, you never really feel that you’re transporting it.
At the end of the day, Hiby R3 PRO is a great little shuffle DAP, it has a brilliant, crisp, detailed sound, far more neutral and leaner than other DAPs previously created by Hiby, but more detailed too. Not a lot of power, but for portables, and in the entry-level range, it is one of the easiest to recommend DAPs this year.
PROs
- Superb design
- Bright Ornage color
- Textile back cover, unique to it
- Bright, sharp, brilliant sound
- Highly revealing and detailed
- Works great for rock and metal
- Lots of EQ options, including the best one, MSEB
- Stable and smooth software / firmware
- Long battery life
Cons
- USB DAC has a noticeable ~150 ms delay
- Not a lot of driving power, struggles with most harder to drive headphones
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Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
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