[]eep]

Hi ]eep, this is Weng Fai from LAIV. Thank you for your interest in Harmony DAC. The spikes are detachable!!

Nai ho.
Of course. You're welcome.

I'm still not decided and this ticks a few boxes for me. Am I correct if I assume the output stage is very minimal (I/V only an R shorted across +/- and a capacitor). I saw some red Wima caps there. Not MKS I take it but real MKP10. I understand if you don't want to disclose this. Alvin didn't either.

What I miss on the Harmony DAC is (relais) volume. I hope that the coming HP²A will fill that gap, together with an extra input for vinyl. And 12V triggers for power amps. And please, less than half the price of the DAC. Any idea of an ~ price? This does affect my final decision. I don't mind waiting but I have set limits on price.

 

[]eep]

Just published; you can hear for yourself if your setup is discerning enough. He compares it to the Holo May. A short review plus soundsamples.


He has the best live recordings on YouTube with his Schoeps mics 1m in front of his speakers. So you are actually listening to the system you see without to much reverb and room acoustics. I bought a pair of Fosi ZA3 on listening to his comparisons and he wasn't wrong. And my ears neither.

However, I just changed my speakers to Magnepan 0.7 to test the Fosi with them and they are not as resolving (by far) as my speakers (Ti bipole fullrange plus AMT). So I couldn't hear any difference.

 

[RHMMMM]

I just ordered a black one. I’ll compare to my Terminator II 12th.

I’ll be shocked if it sounds better. It certainly looks better, though.

 

[tassardar]

I just ordered a black one. I’ll compare to my Terminator II 12th.

I’ll be shocked if it sounds better. It certainly looks better, though.

Looking forward to it ahha. Everyone Is asking how they sound vs a denafrips

 

[dijimet]

I'm very curious to see what he has to offer against Cen Grand and Denafrips.

 

[tassardar]

I'm very curious to see what he has to offer against Cen Grand and Denafrips.

I believe 6moon review did cover the Cen Grand

 

[audiobill]

One strange thing in the Virtual HiFi review is he claims to use it with DSD512 from HQ Player, yet the LAiV site states it supports a maximum of DSD256 via USB or I2S

 

[dijimet]

I believe 6moon review did cover the Cen Grand

My English is not very good. To summarize : What did 6moon say? Which dac is better ?

 

[XERO1]

My English is not very good. To summarize : What did 6moon say? Which dac is better ?

Hahaha!!

You are not alone in not being able to understand a single word the reviewer wrote! Srajan Ebaen is notorious for using the most inscrutable purple-prose in his reviews, making them nearly indecipherable to even the most well-read native English speaker! And Google Translate will have absolutely no chance of making any sense of his reviews either.

The bottom line is that he thought the Harmony DAC sounded excellent overall, he thought it sounded 'tonally richer' than the $5300 Sonnet Audio Pasithea (R2R DAC), he thought it competed directly with the $6200 Cen.Grand DSDAC1.0 Deluxe (DSD DAC), and he gave it a rare Blue Moon Award.

Hope this helps.

 

[]eep]

Hahaha!!

You are not alone in not being able to understand a single word the reviewer wrote! Srajan Ebaen is notorious for using the most inscrutable purple-prose in his reviews, making them nearly indecipherable to even the most well-read native English speaker! And Google Translate will have absolutely no chance of making any sense of his reviews either.

The bottom line is that he thought the Harmony DAC sounded excellent overall, he thought it sounded 'tonally richer' than the $5300 Sonnet Audio Pasithea (R2R DAC), he thought it competed directly with the $6200 Cen.Grand DSDAC1.0 Deluxe (DSD DAC), and he gave it a rare Blue Moon Award.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for making me feel not so alone. I had to really concentrate to not get lost in my own thoughts while reading it. But after years of reading British Hifi and PC magazines I've gotten used to it.

What you said about google translate is also spot-on. That's why I always convince teenagers to learn languages. The more you learn the better you learn to think because you understand the actual meaning and etymology of ideas captured in words.

The 6-moons reviews stand in somewhat of a stark contrast to many YouTube reviewers content when it comes to knowledge and experience. That's not snobbery but simply refinement. And they always bring new products that are excellent but nobody else talks about.

 

[]eep]

And here's another one (Sandu)

 

[dijimet]

Hahaha!!

You are not alone in not being able to understand a single word the reviewer wrote! Srajan Ebaen is notorious for using the most inscrutable purple-prose in his reviews, making them nearly indecipherable to even the most well-read native English speaker! And Google Translate will have absolutely no chance of making any sense of his reviews either.

The bottom line is that he thought the Harmony DAC sounded excellent overall, he thought it sounded 'tonally richer' than the $5300 Sonnet Audio Pasithea (R2R DAC), he thought it competed directly with the $6200 Cen.Grand DSDAC1.0 Deluxe (DSD DAC), and he gave it a rare Blue Moon Award.

Hope this helps.

Thank you very much. Is it believable that a $2,700 R2R Dac beats a $6,000 cen.grand deluxe? If so, I guess Laiv Harmony best DAC of the year in 2024

 

[]eep]

Thank you very much. Is it believable that a $2,700 R2R Dac beats a $6,000 cen.grand deluxe? If so, I guess Laiv Harmony best DAC of the year in 2024

Anything is possible. Western companies have dominated the market for over a century. Prices are based on western wages and business models (panents, distribution networks with intermediairs like distributors and dealers) where everyone demands a share. Well, the world is changing now...

I began my dac yourney with a $250 Chinese CD player that destroyed my expensive Myriad cd-pkayer, even in stock form. After upgrading the output stage and later even the DAC chip (board) itself it was far, far better. Then I tried a Chinese R2R DAC that cost only $45, and again: it was better, especially after a journey of research and changing the output stage. That's how I was 'converted' to R2R DACs. It's about accuracy in the timedomain.

Then came the discrete versions and now here we are.

 

[CFGamescape]

Comparison to Wandla needed.

 

[]eep]

Comparison to Wandla needed.

You mean you would like a comparison? Between a ES9038pro chip based dac and a discrete R2R? DYOR
https://soundnews.net/reviews/sources/dacs/ferrum-audio-wandla-dac-review-thinking-outside-the-box/
Vs
https://soundnews.net/reviews/sourc...iew-could-this-be-the-new-benchmark-under-5k/
You could ask him yourself. But it depends more on your preferences than just the numbers on the bottom line. The naturalness of an R2R will always beat any sigma delta chipbased dac. That has to do with phase and timing accuracy.