THE PLUS:
-smooth wide open sound with dense natural timbre
-bodied bass
-lush euphonic tonality
-excellent layering capacity
-beautiful vocal presentation
-weighty dynamic
-excellent sounding as pure DAC through line out
-powerfull enough balanced output for IEM and headphone versatility
-2 micro SD slot
-long battery life that surpass 10H spec
-low enough impedance output single ended way
-No Over sampling mode
-Competitive price value for mid-tier DAP
THE MINUS:
-not the best in resolution
-not the cleanest noise floor
-treble roll off rather fast pass 10khz
-bass lack proper separation
-average imaging and spatial depth
-small touch screen
-not the most intuitive user interface
-touch screen is too small
-no bluetooth
-sound filters and harmonic controller is kinda vain
-amping section overly warm the sound, so you need to try DAC line out to discover true R2R DAC potential
TONALITY: 8.6/10
TECHNICALITIES: 8.2/10
BATTERY LIFE: 8.5/10
CONSTRCUTION: 8.5/10
UI: 8.2/10
VALUE: 8.2/10
This is a detailed video review, so please give a look and subscribe, i feel video format is infortmative for showing user interface of DAPs, their will be more DAP reviews on this channel, upcoming one being Questyle QP2R and Hidizs AP80 PRO X!
Disclaimer: This RS2 was loan to me by a friend, so i have zero incentitive, obligation or self interest to do a review, which would have been as honest even if it was a review sample.
You can order the Hiby RS2 for 480$ directly from official store here:https://hiby.com/products/hiby-rs2
CONSTRUCTION is good enough, all metal with the back covered with tempered glass. The jacks are of good quality, gold plated and not plastic which is more fragile. Buttons are lacking proper click pressure and can be hard to press properly with the case for blind control. Touch screen is too small for my big thumbs but work properly. Overall interface is intuitive enough but the switch to unlock screen isn’t really practical, you can press2 times the screen, but a button would be better…it lack buttons in fact, its that simple.
TONALITY
I can’t quality this DAP as neutral sounding since it have a warm W shape balance to it were mid bass feel boosted in body and presence, mids are lush and focus and treble is smooth and rolled off on top. This is surely due to amping section since in DAC mode it sound more crisp airy neutral. Yet, musicality have a sens of openess and free layering, with natural dense timbre, euphonic edge to definition that can tame loudness peak in upper mids, which seem softed.
Its a laid back analog like musicality, with slightly dark resolution in DAP mode but a sens of richness still, very pleasant and immersive, due to an holographic spatiality that is all about lush layering. This is refreshing sound from a DAP, since most of them sound overly digital. Non over sampling mode sound slightly more natural too, unforced in definition and more articulate in dynamic rendering.
Smooth, euphonic and fully bodied in bass and mids, warm way, is how i would describe the tonality, which is all about musical magnification.
TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE
Here, its good but not mind blowing, this isn’t a technical sounding DAP, its not the cleanest sound and background noise floor isn’t the blackest. Imaging feel hint blurry, attack lack sharp accuracy and precision in timing, sustain-release is thicken and doesnt deliver clean resonance. As say, layering is great, dynamic too, note weight and openess of instruments presence is there.
AMPING
We have good power and not too high impedance output, so balanced way you can drive about anything but ultra hungry headphones. 320mw is plenty. Single ended can drive sensitive IEM like Audiosense T800 without distortion and hiss, T800 are 9ohm and impedance output of SE is 0.5ohm, which is versatile enough.
OK, you can give a look to my video for more detailed sound impressions and comparisons with Questyle RS2 and Tempotec V6.
CONCLUSION is: I love the RS2 and tend to favor musicality over overly technical sounding DAP, since we can boost technical performance bypassing the DAP amplification with Line out, we have best of both world with RS2. Battery life is excellent too, yet interface isn’t as intuitive as i wish and sound tweaking with digital filters and even NOS OS mode isn’t having biggest incidence on sound, so in that regard, a DAP with multiple soundsignature is still something to dream off.
Hiby RS2 is one of most natural sound DAP I ever head and let say that we need more of non-android DAP like this!
Give a look to my video review here, to see RS user interface in action!
https://youtu.be/igSActiuSjY
No Borders Audiophile 