The HiBy Crystal 6 II was loaned to me for the purpose of this review and is now returned back to the manufacturer. I didn’t receive monetary or any other kind of compensation and I don’t use affiliate links. The price of the HiBy Crystal 6 II is $349 and can be ordered from HiBy official store.
HiBy Music
HiBy Music (or plain HiBy) specializes in research, development, and sales of high quality portable audio products. With over 40 professional audio R&D staff and nearly 10 years of experience in the portable audio field, Hiby has developed dozens of portable digital audio players (DAPs), earphones, USB DACs, etc. HiBy Music possesses its own IP over the whole audio reproduction chain, including key audio processing algorithms and ability to design its own FPGA-based audio processing chips.
HiBy is also well known for the HiBy Music application which is a free high-quality music player specially designed for HiFi applications and adorned by many third party manufacturers.
HiBy Crystal 6 II
The HiBy Crystal 6 II is the second generation of HiBy’s popular IEM, now redesigned to offer even better performance. It is an all balanced armature earphone featuring 3 pairs (6 total per earpiece) of drivers that are custom made in close collaboration with Sonion.
Custom 39AY dual-woofer LFE BA for low-frequency extension and texture on par with high-end dynamic drivers, Custom 1006 dual mid-high BA for excellent density of sonic texture and sweet vocals and Custom E50DT dual-tweeter BA for exemplary high frequency extension enabling boundless soundstage perception and air.
Utilizing the same 3-way design as in high-end loudspeakers, 2 bass, 2 mids and 2 tweeters ensure high quality reproduction throughout the frequency range and the high quality genuine 3-way crossover ensures that frequency response is smooth, handover is seamless, and the audio quality is natural and clear.
Full technical documentation is available here .
Aesthetics, fit and build quality
The earpieces of HiBy Crystal 6 II are 3D-printed on a high quality printer using skin friendly material. Each earpiece is individually ground, polished and coloured by hand, guaranteeing a unique appearance. These are beautiful and discreet looking earphones that can match with various lifestyles and dressing habits while they are very well made.
Moreover the earpieces are anatomically shaped and very lightweight, offering a custom-like and comfortable fit that makes them suitable for long listening sessions without causing any annoyance. Passive noise attenuation is good but not great, this is a set more suitable for places without too much background noise.
Cable
The HiBy Crystal 6 II comes with a detachable, 2-pin 0.78mm cable. It is a highly quality cable that is quite soft, with low microphonic noise and moreover it comes with two detachable plugs, 3.5mm and 4.4mm.
Accessories
The package includes a rounded carrying case that is compact enough to fit in a large pocket and three different sets of ear-tips in three sizes each.
Power requirements and associated gear
The HiBy Crystal 6 II is easy to drive so you can even use your favorite USB DAC dongle as long as it is of high sound quality and it doesn’t have audible noise. The earphones have a very transparent and revealing nature that make them scale well with upstream gear but they are also very unforgiving and require careful matching.
I was lucky enough to have at my disposal the excellent sounding HiBy R6 Pro II and I have also used some of my standard sources like the FiiO M11S and the iBasso DX240.
Listening impressions
The HiBy Crystal 6 II features a reference-like tuning with neutral bass, upper mids emphasis and brilliant treble. This is set suitable for critical listening and, as the name implies, it is distinguished by excellent clarity through the whole audio band and impressive transparency.
At this point I must make it clear that despite its reference and critical credentials, the HiBy Crystal 6 II is not a boring, lifeless, sterile or clinical sounding earphone and the only thing that betrays that this is a full BA earphone is its lean and dry texture in the whole frequency band.
The HiBy Crystal 6 II offers acceptable sub-bass extension and a mostly neutrally tuned bass with a touch of mid-bass emphasis that doesn’t make it sound out of tune or overly colored. Crystal clear and well defined, it is fast, tight and controlled without any bloating and bleeding into the mid range. It is dynamic sounding but it doesn’t have the raw impact , the force and the weight that can be achieved by a dynamic driver.
The transition to the mid-range is tonally even without any perceived overlapping so there is plenty of clarity and excellent perception of the mids. The tuning is neutral with a good upper-mids emphasis that can lead into sibilance and listening fatigue, especially with certain recordings or for people that are quite sensitive in this particular area. In this case it is recommended to pair it with a warmer source and keep the volume at moderate levels.
The HiBy Crystal 6 II is crisp, airy and open sounding in the mids with great resolution and refinement. The texture is rather thin but the earphone offers plenty of harmonic resolution when it is available on the source and moreover it sounds rounded and tonally accurate with a realistic rendering of the timbre despite a given brilliance in some instrumental overtones.
The emphasis continues into the treble which is very extended and luminous with a perceived brightness that nonetheless doesn’t lead into excessive harshness or piercing fatigue. This is undeniably a sharp and bright sounding earphone with plenty of energy on tap and a remarkable clarity. It offers excellent detail retrieval and a deep gaze into the recording but without sounding too analytical. The texture is thin but very refined and the timbre is mostly done right minus some intense metallic artificiality in the higher frequencies.
The crossover is well implemented and helps the HiBy Crystal 6 II to sound cohesive with a seamless transition from one group of the drivers to the other while all frequencies are reproduced with the same amount of texture intensity and body weight.
With such a tuning it is not of a surprise that the HiBy Crystal 6 II is very spacious and open sounding with plenty of air into the soundstage and laser sharp allocation of the performers. The soundstage is wide enough but mostly flat without much depth but it has a solid center image and excellent panning.
As stated early in the beginning of the review, the HiBy Crystal 6 II is very transparent and revealing so it requires careful matching, especially if you want to tame its brilliant character. Additionally this is not what we call an all-around earphone and is mostly suited for classical music and similar genres although there is a great chance that your mileage may vary according to your listening habits.
Vs Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite ($249)
The $249 Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite is a full BA earphone with 8 drivers per side. It features a similar type of monitor – critical tuning and this is I decided to compare it with the HiBy Crystal 6 II. It doesn’t look as premium and well made as the HiBy Crystal 6 II but it is equally comfortable and lightweight. It too comes with a nice carrying case, three sets of ear-tips and a high quality cable but it doesn’t have modular plugs.
The tuning of the Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite is neutral and more balanced without the upper mid-range and treble emphasis of the HiBy. It sounds warmer and more natural with better timbre realism but it is also not that crystalline or transparent sounding, not that detailed or technically competent.
In the end
The HiBy Crystal 6 II is, as its name suggests, a crystal clear and very transparent sounding earphone with a brilliant and luminous character that is great for critical listening sessions. If you favor this kind of sound approach, then it is highly recommended because it is also very comfortable and well made with a competitive accessories pack.
Copyright – Petros Laskis 2023.
+ Neutral tuning with treble emphasis
+ Crystalline clarity and great transparency
+ Excellent technicalities
+ Open sounding with sharp imaging
+ Suitable for monitoring
+ Comfortable and lightweight
+ Easy to drive
+ Well made
+ High quality modular cable
+ Accessories
- Lean and dry
- Lacking physical impact
- You might find the treble too much
- Requires careful matching
- Revealing and unforgiving
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