HiBy WH2 Review

App Features

I have the upcoming version of the HiBy Blue app and it is a beta version made for testing purposes. After the launch, you will be able to update your WH2’s firmware with over-the-air (OTA) updates via this app. You will also be able to configure HiBy’s in-house developed and patented adjustable digital crossover. That way you can fine-tune your IEMs according to your taste. Note that this feature is only available on the dual BA version of the WH2. You can type in numbers (where the split is going to happen between the low and mid/high driver) and control the division. 

The app lets you choose the crossover frequency between 200 Hz and 20000 Hz. It does not give you a specific preset so that is nice. If you want a more energetic, transparent signature, you increase the value. If you want more bass and warmth, you simply decrease it. Easy, right? The effects of it on the sound are quite distinct so it is not for marketing only, it is actually useful. My favorite setting was 17-18kHz where the earphones had a good tonal balance throughout the frequency spectrum. Testing it yielded some interesting results and those will be discussed in the Sound section.

Controls

The WH2 features touch controls, and the sensitivity is good. If you follow my reviews you already know that I am not that into touch controls as I find myself misclicking them regularly, however, if you like touch controls, you will like the WH2. Via these sensors, you can accept or refuse calls, skip to the previous or next song, activate Android or iOS assistant, and of course, play or pause tracks. If you double-tap it while the earbuds are disconnected from other sources, they will go into the pairing mode. In the future, you will be able to remap the tap actions of the device, via the HiBy Blue application. 

Battery Life

The WH2’s case has a 350mAh battery inside it and the earphones have 40mAh of batteries per side. The battery life varies greatly based on the active codec. I have tested the product extensively using the LDAC. The WH2 offers around 3.5h of use with the LDAC. If you use SBC codec instead, you will get a nice battery boost and they will be able to offer you 5.5h of use. The case offers up to 30h with the SBC and I think that’s good. Especially 3.5 hours with the LDAC is quite nice considering LDAC is a power-hungry codec. 

Call Quality

The WH2 utilizes a half-rod design and one of the microphones is located at the end of the rod. The other one is on the faceplate I presume. The one on the rod faces the direction of your mouth to improve call quality. However, I have conducted several call quality tests in various environments and like many of its kind, the quality deteriorated with the background noise. In quiet places, the microphones do an adequate job. In crowded places, where there is a lot of chatter, you will need to hold one of the earphones right next to your mouth to communicate better. You should be fine as long as there is limited background noise.

Latency

The latency is another complex issue for the TWS earphones. The delay varies greatly based on the active codec. The WH2 in SBC mode has no delay issues with the YouTube app on my Android. However, if you go ahead and turn on the LDAC, you will notice a small delay. Additionally, I wanted to test the delay with mobile games. In my experience, games have latency issues with many TWS earphones on the market. After testing it extensively, unfortunately, there was a discernable delay. Even earphones with aptX-LL suffer from this and there is nothing we can do about that.

UAT

UAT stands for Ultra Audio Transmission and it is a codec researched and developed by HiBy Music. It is developed by HiBy with the aim of offering a superior codec to audiophiles and interested parties. It allows the user to transmit data at 1200kbps and it is already superior to LDAC and LHDC. UAT supports any Android mobile phone with the HiBy Music app. However, I couldn’t activate it on my pre-production WH2. It seems to be one of the features that will need to be activated by HiBy via OTA firmware updates in the future. I hope to see it as WH2 sounds great already and I want to push its performance to the limit.

Amplitude

HiBy did a great job with the WH2 when it comes to the sound and you will understand me better on the next page. Amplitude level also impressed me, the max volume is satisfyingly high and I prefer to listen to it around the 65% mark. The WH2 is the first TWS I tried that utilizes the premium grade Airoha AB1565 chipset. Upon checking the spec sheet of the chipset, I found out that it has an integrated Cadence HiFi Mini Audio Engine DSP coprocessor and it does its job well.

The review continues on Page Three, after the click HERE or by using the jump below.

Page 1: HiBy, WH2, Packaging & Accessories, Design, Stability

Page 3: Sound Quality, Comparisons, Last Words