r/Hiby

After using multiple digital audio players during the last 20 years, I am very surprised by the sound of these tiny little things when they work together :

Hiby R1 Midi Edition
Tanchjim Zero Ultima 3.5mm
Divinus Velvet Eartips

With them, and with my experience, I learnt a few lessons :

- If the device is too big, you will not take it with you as often as you would expect.
- A low price does not mean low fun.
- Never underestimate the eartips, they do quite a big part of the experience.

I enjoyed the music from my Hiby R3 Pro 2 plus the Sennheiser IE 200

- Insert Ado's Yoru No Pierrot 😌

Intro

TLDR at the bottom.

I recently got a Hiby MiDi R1 not realizing that it is a "separate" product from a "non-MiDi" R1. The problem with the MiDi version is no firmware updates. I was frustrated with buggy version 1.0 and even e-mailed HiBy trying to replace the player. Their response was:

>We expect to release a new firmware for the R1 Midi soon, so please stay tuned.

It seems that users have been getting this message for months now. So I decided to take this into my own hands.

What I found

I looked into available mods and scripts, which gave me insight into what is inside an upgrade file. I noticed that in the upgrade there are files with "configuration" for both R1 (/usr/resource/config.json and MiDi R1 (/usr/resource/midi_config.json). The only meaningful difference was the "firmware_name" key in the latter with the "midi_r1" value, which gave me a clue.

I downloaded the newest R1 firmware (r1.utp file, link below), changed the name to midi_r1.utp and put it on the SD card. Then I simply went to "System", "Firmware update", "Via SD-card". It worked! The firmware updated without any issues! Everything works just fine!

Resources

• Hiby-R1-Mod repo where I found the unpacking script
• R1 1.6 Firmware download

TLDR

1. Download the R1 firmware (link above)
2. Rename to midi_r1.utp
3. Put on an SD card
4. "System", "Firmware update", "Via SD-card"
5. ??? (it takes just a few seconds)
6. Profit!

I got the R1 about 9 months ago. Few weeks ago, I noticed that the battery dropped faster than before. I was travelling and using a powerbank to charge it paired with potential bad wall sockets from places I visited.
While I understand that bad charging behaviours may cause battery damaging, it’s seems strange that it died that fast, inflating and all that!
R1 is not really travel friendly if you ask me 😆

Did anyone had a similar experience?
I’m thinking of getting a Hifi Walker H2 as it seems to be a more long lasting device, would you recommend?

I bought a hiby r1 to replace my innioasis y1 and I'm loving it so far. The only issue is that my library is just a little over 50,000 songs so I can only browse by folder, but it isn't really an issue since everything is organized.

​

Hi,

just want to share my MSEB and PEQ here :)

Currently loving it so far.

Setup :

Hiby R4

CCA Hydro

Divinus Velvet Wide Bore

Kbear 16 core balance cable 4.4mm

Switch on on on off

Gain : Middle

Mseb :

Temperature -2

Bass Extension 8

Bass Texture 6

Note Thickness 5

Voice 3

Female Overtones -5

Siblance LF -5

Siblance HF -8

Impulse Response 3

Air 5

Peq :

Pre amp -2.5

Band 0 60hz q 0.7 gain 2.5 low shelf

Band 1 90hz q 1 gain 1.5 peaking

Band 2 200hz q 1 gain -1.5 peaking

Band 3 500hz q 1 gain 4 peaking

Band 4 1200hz q 2 gain 1 peaking

Band 5 3000hz q 3 gain -2.5 peaking

Band 6 4500hz q 3 gain -0.5 peak

Band 7 6000hz q 4 gain -4 peaking

Band 8 10000hz q 0.7 gain 1 high shelf

Band 9 13000hz q 1 gain 0 peaking

I used to borrow the Hiby R6 Pro II from my friend to enjoy music and now I got gifted the R4 now. I don't know where I did throw my 4.4 Kefine Klanar so I temporarily use the Earfun Ear Pro 4 instead.

So I have made a custom album, embedding a unique cover for all 6 tracks. The player displays only the first one though, unless I turn the screen off and on to look at the wallpaper, only then does my AP80 Pro Max display the correct one but trimmed. How do you ensure it switches cover?

Llevo una semana con el Hiby R1 y estoy pensando en cambiar los auriculares por unos más todoterreno para escuchar todo tipo de música (aunque lo que más me gusta y escucho es música con mucha acústica vocal e instrumental, jeje) y nose que auriculares comprarme, e visto muchas reseñas de auriculares y nose cual es mejor jeje

Que auriculares me recomiendas por unos 100/150€ para escuchar música y que sean todoterreno para disfrutar todo tipo de géneros.

😅😅

Hey everyone, I got this Hiby R1 last week. All was going well until this morning when I was listening to an album. The R1 stopped in the middle of a track and suddenly it said that none of my music could be found. I've tried:

• Restarting the device
• updating the music database
• updating the firmware
• community firmwares
• resetting to factory settings
• Reformatting the brand new 256gb Sandisk SD card to Fat32 AND exFAT
• Using a completely different SD card
• Limiting to just a few albums of the same artist

It shows all of the songs, and it can play all of them. Both the Albums and Artists are showing up until I try to tap on them. And when I go to files it looks like it's not even looking at the correct device? (Music shows the a:\ path and this is looking at a TF:\ path).

I'm at the end of my rope here. Has anyone seen something like this happen before, and if so, do you know of any fixes?

I hated the UI on the R3 II — I really disliked the black square around the album art, so I was just waiting for an update that would introduce a new UI, but it never happened.

Today I was browsing the web and came across this forum, where I found a solution: the dark theme from the R3 II 2025 ported to the R3 II.

I just installed it on my device and it works like a charm — the UI looks so smooth. The only downside I've found is the battery icon, but it doesn't bother me.

Installation is done like an offline update: put the .upt file on your SD card and install it like any other firmware update. The device will reboot and start updating (takes about a minute or so).

Disclaimer: The light theme does not work, so if you prefer light themes, don't do this. Also, the firmware shows version 1.1 but it's actually 1.3 — the author named it wrong.

If you don't like the result, you can download the latest official firmware from the HiBy website and install it the same way.

I won´t post the links here (just the forum) cause my post has been deleted twice and I think it is because of that.

Forum I got the firmware from

Greetings!!!