Twenty years ago in Beijing, you could find signs for “Chengdu Snacks,” “Sichuan Snacks,” and “Chongqing Snacks” on almost every street. There was no essential difference between the three: the owner of a Chongqing Snacks place might be from Neijiang, while the Chengdu Snacks shop might be run by someone from Wanzhou… It didn’t matter. They were basically all small husband-and-wife eateries from Sichuan and Chongqing, and their main draw was freshly stir-fried dishes and rice bowls. The couple would spend the morning prepping ingredients based on experience, then wait for customers to arrive around noon. Whether it was the cheapest shredded potato with green pepper over rice, or the pricier sautéed liver tips, moo shu pork, or twice-cooked pork over rice, or a few “big dishes” like water-boiled pork or mao xue wang that college students would order after getting their living allowance, along with some drinks—people’s first choice was often this kind of place. Cheap, filling, and fresh.
Back then, there were no central kitchens, no cold chains, no food science and chemical trickery. It was an era of fresh wok cooking. And what I admired most was that with dozens of items on the menu, whatever you ordered, they could bring it to you hot and steaming within minutes. The taste was at least guaranteed to be decent, and the place you frequented regularly was usually not just decent—it might even have a couple of off-menu specialties that only regulars knew about.
Nowadays I often miss these small eateries, but you can’t really find a true replacement. After all, the times are advancing rapidly, and changes in conditions like quarantine, hygiene, and emissions have also deprived these small restaurants of their environment for survival. Sometimes I even try to secretly replicate at home the few dishes I loved back then, but that’s slow, meticulous handiwork—how could I be as quick and efficient as they were?
Speaking of hand-crafting, R2R has recently made a comeback. There are two objective reasons for this: first, against the global backdrop of soaring chip prices, sometimes it’s not even a question of whether chips are expensive or not, but whether you can even get them at all; second, R2R really does sound comfortable. You know, when someone eats too much central-kitchen food, they’ll definitely miss the craft of fresh wok cooking. Likewise, when you’ve listened to too many spec-oriented machines, you’ll correspondingly miss listening-oriented ones. Best to have both, right?
HiBy made its move very early. Back in 2021, the first generation of the DARWIN architecture was already born, for the two reasons we just mentioned: both as a strategic plan to cope with fluctuations in chip supply, and to go deeper and further in the exploration of sound. Moreover, compared to traditional R2R, the Darwin architecture has its own full set of unique capabilities. It is not just an R2R resistor network; it also integrates powerful FPGA digital processing and adjustable filters. This means that while retaining R2R’s natural and traditional advantages in listening experience, it also incorporates core functions such as adjustable pure FIR filters, a harmonic controller, NOS/OS switching, and DSD direct pass-through, achieving full self-controllability across the entire audio chain. Not only does it offer greater versatility, but it also achieves high-standard mass production and consistency control—meaning that from the very moment this architecture was designed, it sealed off R2R’s greatest weakness and uncertainty. Looking back now, it was remarkably far-sighted—truly worthy of the phrase, “the scenery is best seen with a long view.”
The HiBy RS2 II in hand, as the direct successor to the highly acclaimed RS2, already features the third-generation DARWIN III R2R architecture—adopting the same platform as the flagship RS8 II, with a high-precision R2R resistor network paired with a brand-new FPGA digital engine. The number of logic units exceeds 35K, with 40 high-speed DSPs, and it features adjustable pure FIR filter algorithms, various DARWIN filters, a harmonic controller, and other distinctive functions. And distortion is as low as 0.0008% (isn’t that absurdly low for an R2R machine?). To put it plainly, it’s comprehensively more powerful than the previous generation. It also comes fully equipped with sincerity: a larger screen, the newer X1600E main controller, a femtosecond-level low phase noise crystal oscillator, a four-stage OPA1612 signal chain with fully balanced voltage amplification, and dual TF card slots (supporting a maximum capacity expansion of 2+2 for a total of 4TB, with simultaneous read access). Of course, it was also delayed for a long time—after all that polishing, it has finally hit the market.
As a device that runs the brand’s exclusive HiByOS pure music system and cannot install apps, the most typical way to use the HiBy RS2 II is naturally to load songs onto a TF card and use it as a pocket player. The new interface is attractive and intuitive, and power-on, power-off, and operational responses are very quick. Battery life is excellent, and output power is generously ample (remember to go into the “About” screen and tap the product model multiple times to enable Developer Mode and lift the volume limit—this is a mandatory requirement under national regulations, so long live understanding). It supports coaxial and Line Out outputs and has a USB DAC function, so for someone like me who enjoys hunting for new songs, I more often plug it into a phone or another player and use it as a “large dongle,” because this little thing is very light and small—only 156 grams, lighter than the vast majority of power banks, and not cumbersome at all.
In terms of sound quality, let’s describe the HiBy RS2 II somewhat subjectively, starting with NOS (Non-Oversampling mode).
In NOS mode, what this little machine gives me is a very authentic old-school freshly-stir-fried flavor—warm, natural, and full of analogue character. All sonic elements are unassuming and substantial; one could even describe it as having a down-to-earth, rustic feel. The priority here for the low frequencies is atmosphere, scale, and sense of presence far above the individual expression of specific details. The midrange vocals and instruments also do not emphasise their mutual separation, and even the treble’s thickness and mellowness come to the fore; in the middle is the expansion of the sense of space, and only after that comes the actually fairly wide frequency bandwidth.
It presents a kind of wholeness that modern sound struggles to deliver, with elements harmonious and integrated, and a very strong stage atmosphere—when we go to listen to a good livehouse, the live auditory experience is actually closer to this feeling. The sound that comes out is very holistic, not chopped up; everything prioritises atmosphere, scale, and a sense of envelopment; spatiality and layering sit in the middle; specific detail depiction and instrumental weighting are relatively further back, and yet these details sound very full, with an enchanting grain. It could even be said that in an indoor live setting, the sound you hear mixes the PA speakers in front of the stage with the actual positions of instruments (such as drums and acoustic guitar), and their sense of position is instead not as sharply defined as on a recording—there is a kind of displaced interweaving. Resolving power, too, because of reverb and standing waves, is not especially incisive; it holds something back, but what is held back is clearly full of interactivity and flesh-and-blood feel, sounding real and comfortable.
Well… if you want to say it’s a bit mushier? It really is noticeably mushier than the modern-tuning, digital-leaning type with its finely interlocking detail—but why, despite being mushier, are so many people in 2026 still championing the R2R timbre? It’s because of its prioritisation and the logic of that ordering—not only is it closer to the flavor of many older pieces of gear, but it’s actually closer to the flavor of a live performance. Of course, unplugged is another matter, and that includes concerts—actually, concerts too are logically closer with R2R, it’s just that most concerts are mushy to the point of excess, purely going for the excitement.
The NOS mode of the HiBy RS2 II does two things exceptionally well. One is dynamics. If the previous-generation RS2 still fell a bit short on large dynamic passages and couldn’t quite blow the roof off, then the upgrade in this generation’s RS2 is very significant. Whether it’s classical, rock, or J-Pop, the moment a large dynamic passage hits, it really can slam the momentum and scale to the fullest! The portable cassette players you may have listened to back in the day were also analogue and mushy, but their drive and dynamics are truly worlds apart from this—this is what it means to be genuinely well-modulated, relaxed in expansion and contraction. The second point is cleanliness. Yes, its sound actually has a clean foundation, its fundamentals are solid; it is not dirty, hollow, or bloated. So although this timbre does not take the refined route, it is truly natural and tasteful, and it is completely different from those HUFI machines that deliberately use MSG-like coloration to make things mushy and smeared.
It has large dynamics and a large framework, and on that basis it is full and solid. Within that wholeness and momentum, details and resolving power are hidden—this kind of logic closely matches the sound of a live performance. It can be said that the impression the HiBy RS2 II gives me is no longer simply that it sounds natural; what it conveys is a sense of realism imbued with power, weight, refinement, and charm.
Under OS mode (oversampling), the HiBy RS2 II clearly offers greater playability. Its sound becomes much calmer and more rational, and its baseline configuration shifts from warm and thick to a more neutral and measured presentation. Of course, its tonal characteristics do not therefore make a 180-degree turn and get lumped straight into the digital-sound camp; its foundation remains analogue, natural, and open, and its framework and sense of space are still sufficiently large—it is just that it is not as极致 freely expressed in timbre as NOS mode. At the same time, its dynamics, organization, definition of note outlines, and transient resolving power are enhanced by a notch, and on this sonic foundation you can fully explore and develop its sound playability.
If you’ve ever been to a livehouse, gotten tired of standing near the front, and tried walking further back, away from the stage, before sitting down on the floor, then you can more or less understand the difference in sound between these two modes. Because as you move further away, the low-frequency standing waves and head-pounding boom are reduced, the overall sense of atmosphere weakens, and the distinctness of details actually increases. Although in theory high frequencies attenuate more than low frequencies with distance, in a not-very-large live venue, this effect is outweighed by the substantial reduction in near-field effects and masking effects.
Of course, no one would just switch to OS and stop there. There’s no way you could resist playing with the digital filter modes and the harmonic controller. Just the eleven different digital filter modes alone are enough to keep you entertained for a very, very long time. So many sonic variations from one small machine—this is a joy that belongs uniquely to audiophiles.
For an R2R machine, it’s not hard to make one, but making a good one is truly difficult. The ladder network, digital switches, reference voltage—any tiny error that causes non-linear distortion will ultimately show up in the listening experience and can dig a huge pit. Unbalanced matching between resistor precision and speed is also fatal. A mature architecture like HiBy’s DARWIN III, when implemented in a portable machine, is truly a treasure—the sound signature it provides, natural, simple and unaffected, relaxed, holistic rather than chopped up, prioritising atmosphere, scale, and a sense of envelopment, with full details and an enchanting grain—it is not just a beautiful natural retro sound; what’s more, this whole approach is actually closer to live-performance sonic logic, and in the eyes of those who know what’s good, its value can be elevated infinitely.
At the same time, as an R2R player with excellent shielding and meticulous construction under a pure music architecture, the HiBy RS2 II’s distortion control and output performance are absolutely high-level. Not only is its timbre strong, but its sound-to-price ratio is equally strong. I might even say that for 2,798 RMB, what you’re buying is sound of this caliber—and the R2R timbre plus the excellent looks, feel, and operation among small machines are essentially thrown in for free. And if used as a large dongle, then among large dongles at this price, it is undoubtedly in the strongest tier…
The HiBy RS2 II is not just a premium compact pure music player, and it not only lets you reconnect through listening with the simple, natural taste of freshly stir-fried, hand-crafted cooking from memory; it also represents how major domestic DAP schools like HiBy have long possessed a distinct vision and technical path of their own. The sect has long since achieved mastery, and its goal is naturally the stars and seas, the vast heavens.
Source: Headphone Lin sir
