Heyo! I just want to share my out-of-the-box impressions of the HiBy W3 II, HiBy’s update to their Bluetooth dongle priced at $49. Let’s dive in!
As someone who commutes a lot and has a device that doesn’t have a headphone jack (curse you, Apple!), I’ve been looking for a wireless solution to my HiFi needs. Well, the W3 II essentially served as that solution by being both a wireless receiver as well as a dongle DAC.
But of course, a device is only as good as its specs and implementation. So to give a short rundown of its specifications, the W3 II features a single CS41313 chip with an output power of 95mw, QC5125 BT 5.2 decoding to 384kHz/32bit, DSD256 PCM, and features LDAC, aptX, aptX HD, SBC, AAC, and their proprietary UAT that can decode 192khz at 1.2mbps. It features NFC, Car Play, an inline mic, and a 320mAh battery that’ll last you 10 hours of continuous play on AAC.
Enough with the boring stuff, the reason I really liked this in particular was how genuinely practical this has been in my daily life. Normally, the products that I review have to be slotted into my life with the rest of the things that I do. This usually means that I have to sacrifice some things in order to integrate them into my life.
The W3 II in contrast completed my daily carry as transitioning to a phone without a headphone jack meant that I had to compromise with either Bluetooth earbuds or a dongle DAC. And while I appreciate the convenience of BT earbuds, I don’t like investing in something that I know would die in just 2 years. But on that note, this thing lasts much longer than I thought it would. I basically spent an entire day with this out of the box and it dipped down to 30% left which, for its size, is very impressive
But being Bluetooth, I was expecting a compromise in sound quality that I would expect from something in this price range. But I was genuinely impressed by how nice these sound. It’s a little bit more midcentric and warmer compared to other CS43131 DACs that I’ve tried, but it was still very well done considering its form factor. The CS43131 is also the same chip that the $200 HiBy Digital M300 uses, so it’s impressive they were able to push down the price further
I genuinely love this thing. I can just plug in whatever IEM that I want and enjoy the high-quality sound with the convenience of Bluetooth. And the best part? It has a shirt clip! This means I can just clip this onto my shirt and forget about it. It’s a solid device for the price and I can’t wait to share more of my findings soon!
FULL REVIEW COMING SOON!
Thank you for reading my impressions on the HiBy W3 II. If you would like to order one, consider using the non-affiliated link below:
