HiFiMAN R2R2000 Reviews Compendium

Compendium updated February 11, 2021

With the R2R2000, HiFiMAN has officially stepped into the ring of hi-fi DAP competitors, taking on heavyweights such as Astell&Kern and FiiO. We’ve compiled reviews from across the web for your reference. What you’ll find here are the TLDR versions of the full reviews (which you can access with the provided links). We’ll continue updating this compendium as reviews come in. 

From Home Theater and High Fidelity's review of the HiFiMAN R2R2000, first published on January 30th, 2019:

“It was hard to fault the musical performance of the R2R2000 from HiFiMAN. I could not find issues with the sound on any program material, and on lesser quality files, like MP3 music, the R2R2000 mercilessly revealed compression artifacts.

“Getting away from a generic Android operating system is a real plus. The player responds to touch faster than the Android based players I’ve used. This was surely more expensive to offer, but I think the performance dividends are obvious when you use it.

“At $2500, buyers should expect a lot, and sound-wise it is all there. Is it 2.5 times as good as a $1000 DAP? Probably not. But if you want to squeeze the last ounce of performance out of a portable player, and you want a beautiful compact design, you’d do well to consider the HiFiMAN R2R2000.”

From HeadPie's review of the HiFiMAN R2R2000, first published on February 10th, 2021: 

“Overall I'm happy with my purchase. It is not a DAP for everyone, but for me sonically it has replaced my LPG and Quloss QA361. QA361 is still my reference DAP, WM1A my DSD DAP and for PCM R2R2K is my sonic reference. It brings me so much joy to have such a sound in such a size format, and despite how arrogant Hifiman is about this DAP, its insane price tag of 2400 USD for a dap that offers so very little features, ignoring all that, and focusing on sound, it is a DAP worthy of reference level status. I hope to see a day where R2R chip come back. Until then I will cherish this dap, and ignore all that it doesn't offer.”

From Headfonics' review of the HiFiMAN R2R2000, first published on September 28th, 2019:

“To be honest, both of these players sound incredibly vivid, at least in a traditional wired local storage mode and concerns about noise, whilst valid with super sensitive monitors, melts away to moot with medium SPL gear.

“I can hear why the Black and its PCM1704K chipset is so highly regarded and it does have a bit more dynamic range and complexity to its sound than the Red. However, for vocal lovers, the Red has a lot of charm and a stunning harmonic balance.

“If you can put up with the OS limitations and can find an HWA capable transmitter smartphone we may just have the best sounding sources reviewed to date. It will be a very interesting main review so stay tuned!”

Editor’s note: Emphases ours.