Monday, February 9th 2026
HiBy Announces the W4, a Portable DAC/AMP Merging Wireless and Wired HiFi
HiBy has officially announced the latest member of W Series, the HiBy W4. It is a brand-new DAC/AMP with portable and fashionable design, like an all-around swingman with dual modes, playing back Hi-res music in wired & wireless. With W4's release, HiBy aims to merge the convenience in wireless and high-fidelity in wire together.
To cover the scenarios, HiBy W4 features a flexible design with clip-on and magnetic attachment. Clip it anywhere for on-the-go. And the magnetic design fits to some smartphones or phone cases, used as a "MagSafe" accessory. The Uncharge Mode which is implemented in HiBy Digital Audio Player, isolates power supply from the smartphone, prevents draining phone's battery, and reduces interference. It builds in a 1500mAh battery to ensure a longer playing time.
HiBy W4 is a stylish accessory as an EDC for everyone. It boldly adopts a contrasting color design with the black screen against the brightly colored module on the other side, attracting visual at a glance. Its 2-inch touch screen supports full-featured operation and album display (in Bluetooth mode). It means you can directly control pairing, play/pause and settings on the W4. As a feature exceptionally in the DAC/AMP category at present, this operation significantly enhances the user experience.
Audio performance is a core and reliable aspect on HiBy. HiBy W4 integrates dual Cirrus Logic DAC chips CS43198, paired with dual headphone amplifiers, supporting PCM up to 768 kHz/32-bit and native DSD512. Dual low-phase-noise active crystal oscillators at 45.1584 MHz and 49.152 MHz are equipped for audio playback precisely. HiBy W4 offers both 3.5 mm single-ended and 4.4 mm balanced stereo outputs. In balanced mode, the W4 delivers up to 475 mW of output power, capable of driving a wide range of in-ear monitors with ease.
For wireless performance, the HiBy W4 adopts Qualcomm's flagship Bluetooth chipset QCC5181, supporting Bluetooth 5.4, and a full collection of high-quality codecs including aptX Adaptive, Snapdragon Sound, aptX Lossless, aptX HD, LDAC, AAC, and SBC, enabling high-resolution audio transmission with stability and low latency.
The HiBy W4 is available for $99 USD, via HiBy's official online store now.
Source:
HiBy
To cover the scenarios, HiBy W4 features a flexible design with clip-on and magnetic attachment. Clip it anywhere for on-the-go. And the magnetic design fits to some smartphones or phone cases, used as a "MagSafe" accessory. The Uncharge Mode which is implemented in HiBy Digital Audio Player, isolates power supply from the smartphone, prevents draining phone's battery, and reduces interference. It builds in a 1500mAh battery to ensure a longer playing time.
Audio performance is a core and reliable aspect on HiBy. HiBy W4 integrates dual Cirrus Logic DAC chips CS43198, paired with dual headphone amplifiers, supporting PCM up to 768 kHz/32-bit and native DSD512. Dual low-phase-noise active crystal oscillators at 45.1584 MHz and 49.152 MHz are equipped for audio playback precisely. HiBy W4 offers both 3.5 mm single-ended and 4.4 mm balanced stereo outputs. In balanced mode, the W4 delivers up to 475 mW of output power, capable of driving a wide range of in-ear monitors with ease.
For wireless performance, the HiBy W4 adopts Qualcomm's flagship Bluetooth chipset QCC5181, supporting Bluetooth 5.4, and a full collection of high-quality codecs including aptX Adaptive, Snapdragon Sound, aptX Lossless, aptX HD, LDAC, AAC, and SBC, enabling high-resolution audio transmission with stability and low latency.
The HiBy W4 is available for $99 USD, via HiBy's official online store now.
6 Comments on HiBy Announces the W4, a Portable DAC/AMP Merging Wireless and Wired HiFi
And you expect all of those features for US$99?
Ya, you'll still be able to play audio but BT 6 brings this "Succeeding Bluetooth 5.4, this new release introduces several performance-enhancing features, along with improved positioning accuracy. Security levels are higher, transmission speeds are faster, and larger data bandwidths enable faster file transfers and smoother media streaming. Connection stability is enhanced, reducing interference and interruptions, transmission range is increased, and lower levels of power consumption are supported, prolonging battery lives." www.avnet.com/americas/resources/article/bluetooth-6.0-vs-bluetooth-5.4-key-advantages/
Not that I have BT 6 wireless headphones yet 😜
Transmission speeds do nothing to audio playback and are technically optional, or at least adapted to various use cases differently.
Bluetooth 6.x doesn't actually bring faster transmission speeds, as the ability to transmit at 3 Mbps has been around for a while, but nothing uses it.
And since the highest quality Bluetooth audio codec tops at at 1.2 Mbps for one variant of aptX adaptive... I guess you can figure out the rest.
There are no connection stability changes vs. 5.4 and nothing that will do what you claim. The only thing that might lead to a minor improvement, are improvements to the frame spacing, but most people would most likely not notice this. Bluetooth 6.1 will bring more useful improvements, but I haven't seen a single implementation of this as yet, but this is where improvements to power efficiency has been promised. Avnet has clearly made up a ton of stuff that isn't true for the baseline 6.0 spec.
As for audio, since most people are relying on a third party audio codec, such as aptX or LDAC for high quality audio, it's unlikely that any of the enhancements in 6.x does anything to that. Even for Bluetooth LE/LC3 audio, there doesn't seem to be any useful features for consumers.
Most consumers just see a bigger number and believe it's better, when you can in fact get a pair of earbuds with Bluetooth 6.0 that only supports the SBC codec, which is the lowest quality audio codec out there, as most companies don't bother with any of the more advanced features available for it, mostly due to having as broad compatibility as possible.
As such, the audio codec is much more important than the Bluetooth version in 99% of cases when it comes to consumer audio devices like this and of course your headphones/earbuds.
TL;DR Bluetooth 6.x doesn't do squat when it comes to audio over Bluetooth, the audio codecs is what matters.
So no, nothing audio related that matters for anyone using Bluetooth with their phone or a device like this.
What we really need is a move to the less congested 5 GHz and a tad more bandwidth so the audio streams don't have to be so compressed, that's what would really improve Bluetooth, but it's not expected until Bluetooth 7 or later.