Even in this age of streaming, there’s still demand for hi-fi portable music players. Just announced this week, the HiBy R3 is a tiny portable hi-fi player that looks like an iPod Nano (RIP) and it raised $120,000 on Kickstarter in just 24 hours. Its real allure is that it’s specifically designed for Tidal subscribers. The HiBy R3 supports the Tidal app and if you have a microSD card (up to 2TB) you can download Tidal tracks and listen to them offline, which is a very rare feature. Although, it, unfortunately, doesn’t have any onboard storage and it needs to download tracks over wi-fi, which is typically slower than if you downloaded directly from your PC.
The HiBy R3 can play PCM up to 384Khz/64biit and native DSD 256, and it supports AirPlay, Bluetooth aptX and DLNA. You can stream music to wireless headphones or plug in your hi-fi headphones via a 2.5mm or 3.5mm headphone jack. Additionally, the device has a 3.2-inch touchscreen display and it can fit in the palm of your hand. If you’re an avid Tidal listener looking for a more affordable way to listen on the go, I recommend keeping an eye on this little device. It’s a Kickstarter campaign, yes, but HiBy has a track record of delivering products. You can back the Kickstarter project until April 26 for $189.
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