Woooh. The suspense... Fire up that flamethrower! 🤠 Always good to get more opinions and comparisons.

Am I right to suspect it's fine for headphones but not enough for a high res speaker system? I also sorely miss a real analog input. That would have been no big problem to implement. Instead of the fixed RCA output. So many people have a turntable now.

That's nice to read. I'm still very tempted. Also the combination with those headphones. I am very confident in my choice for R2R but this Sigma Delta could come close. Unfortunately there is a lot of overlap with my other option that is R2R DAC only. I'm telling myself I should pick one of the...

Nonsense. There are all sorts of proper volume controls that don't degrade the sound in any way you could notice. And 'far more' is totally unsubstantiated. I was hesitant inserting my current SMSL pre-amp because of concerns about adding extra electronics and extra cables in the way. But it's...

Magical thinking is wishful thinking. "If I say it with enough conviction and willpower it will become reality". But that's not reality. Things often are the way they are because of physics and practical solutions. If you don't understand the reasons behind it you can dream all you want...

Obviously volume control is not a must in the literal sense. It's a choice. Or an option. But a dac is a dac. A digital to analog converter. Not a preamplifier obviously. It would be if you could add a few purely analog inputs. I also hate it when there's a volume control on every box in the...

I I presently have a 300B, KT88 and 6p1 single ended tube amps. Two phonostages EAR834 clone (ECC82) and Klimo clone (ECC 88). And a tube dac I totally modified myself to much higher levels. I replaced power caps, removed opamps, replaced the dac-chip for AKM, rebalanced the tube levels and put...

J That's really comparing apples and pears. Only SD DACs need amplification by tubes or opamp. R2R (except some old IC based) do not need tubes. In my experience tubes don't inject any magic. I have a lot of tube gear bit i don't like tube buffers. In most cases (I'm not saying always) tubes...

Hard to tell without properly defining what you mean by those terms. They are very subjective, and can mean all sorts of things to different people. One man's neutral is another ones lifeless, one man's warm is another ones lacking detail. Just read or watch some reviews. Most will say neutral...

I was editing... I always first finish the essay and edit the specifics in later. Links are added now.

So we agree pretty much. Just talking about different aspects. I was specifically not talking about digital time domain (jitter). And you do. You speak about ringing and sigma delta, I about it's absence in NOS R2R. Look at the first page of the Pasithea review on 6Moons. That plot is so clean...

Nope. That's why I didn't go in to it. It's just a statistical rounded off average. I could hear it too at that age. Not anymore. Instead I am rewarded a constant high pitched tone in both my ears. That's called tinnitus... The 20-20kHz is just an easy to remember number we learn in school. So...

I disagree on a few things. Or let me redefine the framework. And get some definitions straight. Broaden the horizon so to say. I learned a lot in school, but what I learned best is that most teachers have no idea what they are teaching you. Besides the language and math you get indoctrinated...

Very interesting. In my understanding there is no dac chip inside the Laiv. How else do we explain the stated resistor tolerances. And the specs don't point to this either. I was assuming there is no chip inside. But what made me suspicious is the small size of the gold wrapped R2R modules...

This is always a difficult subject. And there is a diffentiation that is often underestimated. I'll try to explain short and sweet. Transducers that convert electrical to dynamic energy or vice versa (microphones, pickups and speaker drivers) have a hard time keeping the amplitude linear over...

What dac chip do you mean? There is no dac chip in an R2R dac that already puts out line level voltage. With a SD dac chip there is only very low voltage and you need an elaborate well made I/V stage (or opamps, or tubes or discrete transistors). Then you can implement a volume control. But...

I think you are only speaking from your specific situation and preferences. Not general opinions or uses. Keywords: "for me". You state: "AES is the best output". Not true You should have stated: " I think AES is the best output from my DDC". True. You are also pretty opinionated on the use of...

Can you make a direct link to YouTube? I'm now watching it on Rosetube so I can't get the link.

1 The output impedance is actually 600Ω If you use the balanced output it doubles, because you have 2 signal wires. This is a pure dac. Not a preamp. You are not supposed to directly connect it to a poweramp. If that poweramp has a balanced input it seems to me that 10k is rather low. 2 AES...

That is not true. You are forgetting scalability. Like DACs have an output stage that is very defining for the quality so do speakers have an input filter. Exception R2R DACs and fullrange speakers. In budget speakers this crossover is often hidden and made of very cheesy parts. You need to see...

I didn't say they weren't professional. It's just the payment and transport service I have a problem with. Transport services can be really, really annoying. I'm now in a heated dispute with FedEx, and a friend had stuff from Hermes that just vanished... I tried to buy a pair of Fosi ZA3 but I...

It's 600 for single ended, which is ok. Balanced needs to double that of course. The input impedance of balanced inputs should be double too.

I ha It is not expensive, but I agree that it's still a lot of money. Expensive is always relative to perceived value. It it were a car for €5400 you wouldn't say it's expensive, would you? Or a boat, or a house, or a jet... It's a luxury item that is more useful than a omega watch. Or a Birkin...

About Europe: I just saw it mentioned on the website of Audiophonics.fr for €3k. That is including VAT, which is a decent price. https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-without-volume/laiv-harmony-black-p-19276.html It's not available yet but we knew that. I never ordered in France from them. It's...

And by presentation you mean how lifelike the musicians or venue is presented before your eyes (ears)? That's what I currently miss from the digital part of my setup. For instance when I play 'Get lucky' by Daft Punk from lp it's like there's a living breathing Pharrell Williams in my room...