HiBy R4 MP3 & MP4 Player Spotify Player with Bluetooth and WiFi 4-Way HiFi DAP Android 12 OS 3.5mm PO+4.4mm Bal 32G+2TB Scalable Memory

As someone who recently came into the DAP world, I did a fair amount of looking around and watching reviews before I purchased the HiBy R4. While I realize this player has been around for about a year now, I only just now concluded that I would like to have one. I think for a mid-range DAP with a lot of high end features you can't go wrong here. Really for the bargain price you pay, you get a lot of bang for your buck here. Sure you can do a lot better if you have deep pockets and are an audio snob, but this will be more than enough for most people. The main reasons I decided to get this player specifically were the following; 1. Up until now I always used my iPhone for music playback and while that may suit my needs for convenience, when I can only carry one device, I am trying to get away from my phone more and not be distracted with texts or endless scrolling of nonsense so I can just relax and enjoy my music and the HiBy R4 allows me to do that. Sure as it is an Android OS, you can add internet apps as you would on pretty much any smart-phone (with a few limitations), but this requires steady wifi and then your kinda eliminating the point. This is a DAP for those who are serious about intimacy with their music the ability to play it back as intended and maybe having a few extra features. Nothing more, nothing less, which is exactly what I wanted. 2. I'm really sick and tired of the trouble I have to go to in order to sync my CD collection in the hundreds of albums, to my iPhone AND the space is limited too so I can't just store every album I have on my phone. Additionally, iPhone, though it is capable of playing FLAC in the files folder itself independently from their music app or third party apps, does NOT allow you to natively sync FLAC files to be played back in Apple's native music app built into iOS. So this means if you want your lossless files with your mp3s you downloaded from Amazon or elsewhere, you have to convert your CD's to ALAC to begin with or convert your FLAC's to ALACs in order for them to show up in the native music app. Yes there are third party apps but why should I have to go to all that trouble? It's tedious and a royal pain. I don't like itunes, never did (I always used a third party program), but I am tired of a controlled proprietary eco-system where, in 2025, being a PC user, I 'should' be able to plug in my iPhone and just sync my files (and by now for the cost it should handle any kind of audio files I would like to play on it). This operation should be simple right? But no. Thus I wanted to get an audio player that handles it all! AAC, AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, mp3, WAV...whatever! And further, I want it to be drag and drop where I can just simply drag the album folder over to the SD card within Windows explorer without the experience needing to be some contrived and tedious operation. You get the point. HiBy4 to the rescue! 3. The standard iPhone dongle DAC can only handle up to 16 bits and 48kHz sampling. While this is sufficient in most situations and for most people, there are times it's limits come into play. For example, if you have a 24 bit, 96 kHz files, it will down-convert it upon playback (or you will need to down-sample it in an audio program and resave it as a new file -in ALAC-otherwise it may not even play at all). And though I realize you can get a separate DAC dongle, why bother spending the money? With all the above mentioned, why not just eliminate all the headaches at once? That's what I like about this player in addition to; -Four ESS DAC's and crystal clear smooth sound. I mainly have ALAC and FLACs on mine but I do have some albums I have only in mp3 because they came from Amazon with vinyl purchases. Even playback of moderately encoded mp3's sound great and dare I say even at times, indistinguishable from lossless in clarity. Some have said they hear noise. On the few occasions I have played mp3's I have not experienced any problem like that whatsoever. Obviously with mp3, the higher the bit-rate, the better but it does just fine with high-quality VBR files in that area too. Keep in mind an mp3 or AAC file is also going to dependent upon original encoding but I have noticed no issues in this area. -Class A amplifier with three stages of gain (I use the middle one with my IEM's). No volume limits! You get a warning once if you go over a certain threshold but once you dismiss it, it does not keep annoying you. As an adult I can appreciate they let the user set this. Most of us should be able to discern what is too loud. That said however, you CAN limit the max volume allowed under settings as by default it's at 100. I have mine set around 80 and usually I don't go above 55-60 in my average listening time. I do this personally so I don't accidentally turn it up to max so there is a limit. The only times I may turn it up is for an older album that's not as loud. Some have said they don't know how to unlock the volume and I admit at first this confused me too. This is under the audio settings for MQA/DSD (yes this player can play MQA and DSD too). You have to disable the 'Spdif digital volume lock' and then it will allow you to turn up and down the volume with the buttons on the side so as to use with a headset. Since I have no intention to playback DSD and MQA encoded music (though it's nice to know you can) this was not a problem for me. I could be wrong about the setting on this part but then I have no DSD or MQA files to test it with and probably never will. Still nice to know about it though. -Ability to use a micro SD up to 2 TB so I can carry my entire library. I currently use a 512 GB SanDisk Extreme C10, U3, A2, V30. My other choice would have been a Samsung Pro with the same specs which I may order eventually as a backup. I got a higher class card because I wanted fast transfer speeds both when adding files from my computer to the player and when the player itself is reading them. It may be overkill but I wanted to be sure. I also wanted to use a card with a good reliability reputation and these two appear to have some of the higher ratings. -Ability to use a 3.5mm unbalanced or a 4.4mm balanced. So this DAP can handle various IEM's and headphones and due to it's class-A amplification it has plenty of power to do so. I am currently using the Linsoul KZ ZS 10 pro as I wanted a cheaper pair having never owned IEM's before. I realize there are better IEM's but I'm not made of money either. To start with as a newbie to IEM, they will do (for now). -Excellent clear display. Pics I have posted speak for itself. Some have complained about the brightness and resolution but I have not had to adjust the brightness at all and it's on 80 as it came from the factory and it's absolutely sufficient for basic operation and album art. And 720p resolution is fine for a DAP. Remember, this is for mainly enjoying music. Not watching movies. Though it can do those things if you want, it's then sorta defeating the purpose and why would you want to watch a movie on a 4-inch screen anyway? I digress. It is adequate for my needs and will suffice for most. If you expect it to be a phone then you may as well stay with your phone. -I like that HiBy included a case to put the player in. Many DAPs do not come with a case at all from what I've heard. It also has a clear, glass-like screen protector installed. Some say theirs had bubbles, but mine did not. They give you an extra one in the box too, though I think that one is more of a matte finish so I prefer the one that's already on the R4. In both cases, I'm satisfied that I didn't have to purchase these accessories separately as usually with a phone or most audio players you have to. For being included I think HiBy hit a home-run here. -The ergonomics. This player looks and feels like it's built like a tank. The packaging in which it arrives makes it even more 'premium-like' and appealing. There is a little weight to it, but to me it's really no heavier than my iPhone with an Otter Box case/protector installed. The difference in weight between the two are pretty negligible in my opinion. Some say it's too chunky, but most higher end DAP's with all the circuitry they pack in there are anyway. To me it actually feels great holding it. It's not to slim, not too large and it allows for a good-grip. -Setup is straight-forward to get it going if your intention is soley for music purposes. Obviously if you want to use streaming services such as Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify or Tidal -you will have to add those apps as they are not pre-installed. While I'm specifically not a fan of any Android OS as I'm used to iOS, it's not that difficult to figure out with some patience. It does take some getting used to but the more you use the player, it really shouldn't be a problem. Actually the fact that it has Android 12 is a good thing because this means you aren't limited to a locked-down system as then it can run pretty much any app you would need it to. -It has Bluetooth but be cautioned that you CANNOT play lossless through Bluetooth! Sure the lossless file will play in and of itself, but the audio you actually get from any Bluetooth device (whether this player or a phone) will be compressed so that it can send that audio data wirelessly. Apparently, the R4 can also receive audio in Bluetooth mode, though I have no intentions of using mine in Bluetooth either way because again, I feel it defeats the purpose. Some swear by LDAC which it apparently does support but you have to verify that whatever you are casting to and pairing it with can also support LDAC otherwise it will use whatever is best for compatibility. It is my personal opinion that if you're going to be playing lossless music, you should always use a wired connection but again, that's my opinion. -It can be used as an external DAC and you can get an adapter as well to connect a digital SPDIF to the USB-C port. Though I will likely not use that feature, it's nice to know it's there if someone would need to or like to use it or if I would ever choose to use it in the future depending on my setup needs. Now the few things (so far) I have noticed that I don't care for or like (and this may be more related to HiBy music than the player itself); -ALBUM ART. -In the HiBy music app, though I KNOW that an album has art as it's verified on my PC before transferring to the R4, for some reason, the player or the HiBy music app does not always display the album art. There is a feature where it can display the art by downloading it, but you need to have it connected to wifi, which when I'm using the player, I prefer not to have it on Wifi for battery saving purposes. As a recommendation, I think it would be cool if the app would actually update the art and save it to the audio file in question if it thinks its missing. If it's going to download the art in the first place to display it, why not make it so that it stays with the audio file even if your offline? Another suggestion, when sorting albums or artists, they need to use the name of the group, NOT the preceding suffix. Let's say for example if I want to listen to The Cranberries or The Cars -the app should alphabetically sort these under C, not under T for the word 'the.' There are other apps for playback that do this so I'm not sure why HiBy does it backwards in their music app -but maybe they can fix it. :) -The EQ and related touch insensitivity. Sometimes, when adjusting the EQ or toggling certain options off and on, there can be delay which is annoying. The reason this is an issue is because then you may move the slider too far on a certain frequency and it jacks up the sound. I primarily noticed it in the EQ within the music app and the MSEB settings for sound in both the music app and the settings for the player itself. Certainly there must be a way to fix this. When I received the player as of June 2025, I ran all the updates but it still seems to be there. The weird thing is that it doesn't do it every time. This may be what folks are referring to when they say there is touch laggy-ness. I have confidence this is probably some bug that needs to be worked out or a firmware update may fix it. I do think the EQ could be more user friendly. It would be nice if in the settings they had one like they do in the music apps where I could just slide the different frequencies up and down. Maybe they will read this and may be able to add that but for now it's only in the HiBy music app. -The battery. Man this thing drains fast. It seemed when the charge was at 100% it was down to 90% in 10 to 15 minutes. I don't usually listen for more than a few hours at a time but if I were using the player longer than that it may be a concern. I can only attribute this to the hardware that makes the player work and specifically, the amplification and DAC processes. The gain may have something to do with this as well. Like I said above, I leave mine on the middle as I felt the default at low was too low and this is going to be circumstantial to the user's IEMs or headphones being used. I will say I have not noticed any heat issues like some have mentioned. I have also heard that this could be because the battery is new and needs to be fully cycled a few times. It seems to be lessening the more I use it. Maybe if they are using gain on high this could be why but to me the player gets a little warm but it certainly doesn't get anywhere near so hot I can't hold it. I imagine if you are driving headphones that require a lot of amplification this could be a factor both from the amp and battery drain. I like that it does support quick charging. I use mine with an Anker PowerPort III nano at 19 watts (you can use a charge brick up to 20w) and charge time is about two hours. You can set a battery charge limit so when you have it connected to a PC it does not reach 100% and prematurely charge it more than you want. Doing this can help prolong the battery life. For example I won't let mine charge past 75% if it's connected for adding music but this is totally dependent on what the user wants to do. Short charge cycles repetitively can and do wear out a battery. The battery is accessible for service if it needs replaced at some point. Obviously have it serviced by a professional if it should ever get to that point but you could theoretically do it yourself if you know what you're doing. There are screws on the back and some folks have pointed this out in video reviews so that too is nice to know for when the time comes. -I really don't like the appearance of the 'future-funk' feel U.I. Some may like it, but I'm not a fan. It was confusing to me in the beginning because icons were not labeled as to what they were. The player itself is sharp looking but it would be nice if they had more options for background and themes as I find the included ones quite hideous. Just being honest. Being an Android OS I'm sure there is a way to make it more personable on the apps and such. I personally use the Niagra launcher for Android on mine to make the music apps front and center and to organize and customize everything. Shout out to SuperReview on YouTube for pointing out this solution when setting up a DAP. All in all so far, the HiBy R4 seems to be a great value and overbuilt (a good thing) for the cost. Could it use a few improvements? Of course, but then what player could not always use improvement? Nothing is perfect and this is why my review title says 'Great...but have realistic expectations.' It's great for what it does and overall has everything you need and nothing you don't. I originally removed one star due to a few of the problems I mentioned but HiBy did reach out to help and I have since been able to customize and overcome the original few issues I mentioned. Overall I would still recommend for the facts that it still sounds fantastic, seems to be built well and simply does what I need it to do. It is an older model as of the summer of 2025 but for someone new to the DAP world, I think it's awesome as you get quite a bit for your money even considering HiBy has since released a new player. This will still be more than fine for most out there. Even audiophiles have been pleased with it and that says a lot. Happy listening everyone!

GREAT product! Downloaded 200GB+ FLAC files and at least 50GB of Spotify music to 1TB microSD over Wifi using SyncThing and Spotify, drained battery by 45%. This is incredible. Took a nap while it finished downloading a couple dozen GB of FLAC files on the charger, was cool to the touch and fully charged when i woke up several hours later. Spotify CANNOT be used while downloading files to microSD card, nearly unusable, even on a high speed card. The music i listen to all the time (using bluetooth, Spotify, Very High) is noticeably enhanced. I have not tested with wired headphones yet, but I assume the enhancement would be even higher. Connects and works well with both my vehicles bluetooth systems (Microsoft Sync and Generic GMC). Today it was 96 degrees F and downloading both Spotify and SyncThing/FLAC at the same time produced noticeable heat, but not much more than my phone while browsing facebook. The system is blinding fast and reacts to button presses immediately. The bit perfect system is very apparent. Very easy to use. I really can't find a reason to complain about this device. Besides maybe not having a GPS chip so I could use it entirely instead of connecting my phone when i need to get directions. But that is not the point of this device. I like the color better with the TPU case on and the warmth of the device when syncing so much data, at the same time, in nearly 100 degree weather would have been a bit much to comfortably hold the device for a sustained period of time. Storage capacity is adequate for testing the device, but you will want to use a microSD card formatted in exFAT format (mine came preformatted). I got the green one, and instead of the neon green, with the TPU case on, it is more of a forest green. I was between this and the M300, and the battery life is worth not having an onboard speaker. Body is aluminum and glass, very high quality and durable build quality.

I have enjoyed using this, but I find myself wishing I had shelled out for a more expensive alternative upfront. This was my first mp3 player since my iPod Touch in 2008. My ultimate goal with this was to have a separate device for ebooks and music to escape doom-scrolling on my phone. This suits that need fairly well, with some minor annoyances. The battery life seems to get mixed reviews. In my experience, the battery lasts significantly longer when WiFi and Bluetooth are turned off. I generally get around 12 hours of use under these conditions. I really enjoy the auto-shutdown feature, which helps a lot with conserving battery. I hoped that this player would be able to handle playing flac files by Bluetooth without buffering, but the Bluetooth performance seems comparable to my smartphones. I don't know of this is a limitation of the player, my speakers, or Bluetooth transmission itself. Frankly, if you are buying something like this exclusively for Bluetooth, just get an Android phone. The OS is running an outdated, slightly modified version of Android. People complaining about the UI most likely have never used an Android device before. You can install other apps through the Play store, but compatibility may vary. I was glad that PowerAmp (my preferred music player) works fine. There is an Android Auto compatibility mode in the settings, but I have not been able to get it to pair with my 2026 Corolla. (Not that I would use it, because this can't run Google Maps.) I have had a few issues with the OS crashing and freezing. Fortunately I've been using Android long enough to know you can hard reboot by holding lock and volume down for ~30 seconds. I occasionally get issues with playback stuttering as well, but this may be attributable to the player app I'm using. The reboot resolves these issues, but it is somewhat annoying when this happens. This is small enough to be portable, but I tend to throw it in my bag rather than my pocket when it's not in use. It's a bit thick. Also, the buttons on the side seemed neat at first, but I am very thankful there is a switch to disable them. Having this in your pocket with the buttons unlocked is not a great move. They require very little pressure to activate. I've seen a few people complain about volume issues. If you experience this, turn up the gain in the settings. I have mine set to High a majority of the time. I am sure there are audiophile related reasons this is not ideal, but I am not cultured enough to notice or care. Overall, I think this is a good choice if you're just starting out with mp3 players and need expandable storage. I would like to eventually upgrade to a slightly higher-end model that doesn't crash irregularly. But with the crazy inflation of electronics prices lately, I will be fine using this for the foreseeable future.

So far, sound quality is great, Bluetooth support has been great, and I have no real complaints. The interface can be a bit clunky (to me), but it supports importing playlists as actual playlists, and that was a big selling point to me. If you have to, it does have google play, but running it on airplane with my local sound collection battery life has been pretty solid. I haven’t had to intentionally charge it all week (a little incidental charging sending files over usb)

This is the pinnacle of media players. The sound is pure and powerful. Bass is punchy and clear. There are so many ways to tweak the sound, I doubt I will ever know the full capabilities of this player but I know I won't be looking for another one for a long time. The player is robust and well made. UPDATE!!!! it's a brick. Woke up this morning and went to turn it on and nothing. Plug it in to USB and it shows the Hiby logo then the battery power is at 100% then...nothing. Tried every trick in their book and online and absolutely nothing worked. It's a brick. Don't waste your time. Update #2 it's costing me $40 just to send it to China. Not happy at all.

This Device is great if you want to listen to music offline. There is a lost of settings and customization within this device that takes a while to get used to but works well. The option to expand the storage is a plus and easy to access within the device when importing music. Connecting to bluetooth is easy to do and the sound quality is convenient but it does not compare to listening to it with wire headphones, there has been latency and skipping if I'm using bluetooth while I'm walking so keep that in mind while exercising. The touch screen is not very responsive at time compared to your usual smartphone but the physical buttons make up for it. The device itself is well made and sturdy as well. Overall this is a great modern Mp3 player/DAP for the price the pros overweighs the cons in my opinion.

That was quite a waste of money for what I wanted to do. My goal was to play Tidal music stored for offline listening in my car, while being able to use the advanced sound features, MSEB, parametric equalizer, etc. But that didn’t work, because there is no combination that brings all 3 components together: 1) connecting to the car, 2) playing tidal music offline, 3) enabling the sound features. Here are the details: 1) My Acura Integra with ELS does not support USB DAC, and therefore the HiBy can only connect via Bluetooth. That would be the same for the non-ELS models and also the Honda Civic. This tripped me up because I thought USB DAC was supported. 2) You have 2 options to play Tidal music on the HiBy. Either you use the HiBy music player and you ‘connect’ your Tidal subscription to it. Or you install the Tidal app and play directly from the Tidal app. Of course, either option only works with a Tidal subscription. Using my Tidal subscription worked without problems. 3) When you use the HiBy music app then the sound features work. But the HiBy app cannot download tracks for offline listening. 4) When you use the Tidal app then you can download tracks to the device for offline listener, but then the sound features don’t work. 5) The sound features can be accessed 2 different ways. First in the HiBy app directly. That always works. The second way is to use the general setting. But as one post says: HiBy has confirmed that the general settings do not work when using Bluetooth. And this is weird because the in-app (HiBy music player) settings work. You can see that there is no combo that works for me. I have to use Bluetooth because the car does not support USB DAC. With Bluetooth the general access to the sound features don’t work. Without the general features I can only use the built-in HiBy music app, which has its own access. But then I can’t listen offline because the HiBy app doesn’t allow to download Tidal music. I could actually stream the music while driving using my phone as a hot spot. But that is not really a good option. Reception is always spotty, and in rural areas you’ll hit zones with insufficient bandwidth all the time. And secondly, hot spots are capped and I need the quota for other things, like connection my laptop when I’m not connected to WiFi. Finally, comparing the HiBy with my iPhone for in car use only. The HiBy R4 is a nice device, but it connects to my car only via Bluetooth, while my phone can use wired CarPlay with no audio compression. And since my phone has less storage than the maximum 2TB of the HiBy, it has enough to store plenty of music in lossless CD quality. So while the HiBy could store more music it loses quality by using Bluetooth. In the end the device has not one advantage over using my iPhone. If your use case is different then I’d expect that you like the HiBy. It is a nice player. But for me it was a total dud.

If you are new to DAPs, these require a learning curve. The main reason, imo, to have a DAP is for very good listening experience without being distracted by your phone. In other words, these are for folks who love to listen to music, sometimes called amateur audiophiles. I purchased the HiBy R6 III soon after it's launch and it is a good DAP but with multiple issues. The volume knob would stick and require significant pressure to turn. These are Android devices so if you're unfamiliar with Android it may take a little time to learn. You can download the browser of your choice. These devices have three different EQ interfaces that are very good yet also take time to learn how to use. HiBy has zero online explanation of these so you'll spend a lot of time playing with the system. NOTE, you can go do deep as to set EQ on individual tunes and it is then saved to the device. Perhaps some helpful info: 1. The R6 III has been in China for over a month supposedly being repaired. (The repair process was very difficult. Buy these at your own risk.) 2. I purchased the R4 in the meantime and it's as good as if not better than the R6 III with a few exceptions. (I have also purchased an additional R4 as gift.) 3. The R4 has side buttons for volume instead of a knob. Much better. 4. The R4 screen is not a bright but more than sufficient. 5. The HiByMusic interface is clunky and requires a lot of patience to use. 6. You will not get long battery life / use out of these devices no matter what they say. Even YouTube reviewers can be way off. I might get 6 hours in 1 day then it has the be recharged. So if you plan to use on travel, be sure you have a charger, cable... 7. When you use TIDAL, Qobuz, etc. music sources, it's quite a challenge to use these away from Wi-Fi access. In other words, the DAP won't play music you have downloaded to the device through a music source. I have a friend who uses Amazon music and his experience is excellent with downloading, art work, etc. (But AmazonHD is a lower res than other music sources.) 8. When you download your own music to the device (or I recommend a microSD card) you will have your music whether or not you have Wi-Fi access. 9. HiBy tech support is slow and inadequate. You are kind of on your own and may find help on YouTube or forum reviews. 10. The 4.4mm is the bomb. Using high end IEM's with a balanced cable is THE game changer. That is the primary reason, imo, for these HiBy DAPS that offer a true balanced 4.4mm connection.

10/10, el mejor reproductor para empezar y el mas económico de este tipo, al menos de Hiby Es un gran reproductor, no me canso de el, la musica se escucha increible, aunque si lo compras debes tener unos buenos audífonos de cable para aprovechar lo maximo del producto

Aprender a usar todos os seu recursos demanda certo tempo, mas vale o esforço. Robusto, moderno, completo para os audiófilos que querem excelência sonora.

Excellent use and good screen display. It is on the high side on price but its also equipped with a good OS. I do like the chunkier side of the design, it doesn't identify as a smartphone. Delivers good sound and is clean regardless of what file you use. Also it comes with screen protectors which gives piece of mind to some. If you used to own an MP3 and want to listen to some songs or transfer them to this device this is the device to use. The HiBy R4 is a standout choice for anyone seeking audiophile-grade sound, futuristic design, and Android flexibility—all without breaking the bank. Whether you're upgrading from an older DAP or diving into high-res audio for the first time, this player delivers

Great product

I bought this a few weeks ago, so far so good. Excellent quality audio, balanced output and decent power to drive most headphones. Just the one negative is the screen brightness, you will struggle to see this in bright sunshine. It looks cool, and despite some online reviews, the overheating issue is now sorted, it barely gets warm.