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LAiV Harmony uDDC Re-clocker/DDC

Jan 19, 2025 at 1:19 AM Post #63 of 359
Jan 19, 2025 at 8:31 AM Post #66 of 359
demondes said:
I had a read of this article and was none the wiser after reading it. He talks around the mechanics of how the device works, he doesn’t really review it.
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Guess we'll ned to wait until the rest of it lands. Though why they can't just release the whole thing is beyond me. It's infuriating being "drip fed". Though as the uDDC is shipping perhaps it'll speed things up.....

I'm interested in how it works with the Harmony DAC which is sitting in my rack at the mo.....
 
Jan 20, 2025 at 1:17 PM Post #67 of 359
So I received my LAIV uDDC yesterday and put it in last night. I hate to admit it, but the damned thing made an immediate impression on me for the better. Too soon to really tear into the why, but I cannot deny that it did/does. The effect is a clear elevation of everything that I have enjoyed about my experience with the LAIV Dac. I am seriously curious what the specs and measurements are with the DDC in place. And am wondering how badly mauled LAIV will be by the objective camp.

This morning I switched clocking over I2S from the “Local” DAC to the “external” Clock in the DDC. I observed even more gain in my perception of increased fidelity. I am definitely not saying that spending more money on this is a must, but I do not know if having experienced this improvement, I would want to go back. This is a mixed bag from a certain perspective. I’ll have more to say on this as I get more time with it.

IMG_7344.jpeg
 
Jan 20, 2025 at 3:52 PM Post #68 of 359
@Sound Dragon Cheers for your initial impressions. Appreciate you’ll comment further after some time with it, so for now just a question on your setup - what was/is your digital chain feeding the Harmony DAC?
 
Jan 20, 2025 at 4:45 PM Post #69 of 359
Sound Dragon said:
So I received my LAIV uDDC yesterday and put it in last night. I hate to admit it, but the damned thing made an immediate impression on me for the better. Too soon to really tear into the why, but I cannot deny that it did/does. The effect is a clear elevation of everything that I have enjoyed about my experience with the LAIV Dac. I am seriously curious what the specs and measurements are with the DDC in place. And am wondering how badly mauled LAIV will be by the objective camp.

This morning I switched clocking over I2S from the “Local” DAC to the “external” Clock in the DDC. I observed even more gain in my perception of increased fidelity. I am definitely not saying that spending more money on this is a must, but I do not know if having experienced this improvement, I would want to go back. This is a mixed bag from a certain perspective. I’ll have more to say on this as I get more time with it.

IMG_7344.jpeg
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For those of us on Denafrips gear - Pontus DAC / Iris DDC (Hermes DDC out for repairs) you aren't saying anything we don't get - a DDC DOES improve SQ. so your post is not a surprise to me.

Peace :sunglasses:
 
Jan 20, 2025 at 11:48 PM Post #71 of 359
LAiV uDDC has been burning in since last thursday using the supplied power supply and I was finally able to listen to it today. I am using my diy power supply built using ultra low noise linear regulators and lithium batteries as I am not a fan of switching mode power supplies because of the noise that they introduce to audio gear.
The very obvious improvements that I heard was the sense of space of the recording venue was a little more wider compared to just the Laiv dac without the uDDC in the chain. I also heard more of that realistic woodsy sound of the cello and violin instruments and I have to admit is very intoxicating.

So my chain is mni computer with usb in to the uddc and into the Laiv dac. Listening to HiFiman mini shangrila headphones powered by Woo audio ES8 electrostatic tube amp.
The uDDC is also being fed a 10Mhz clock signal from a Stanford Research oven controlled Rubidium clock.

My results may vary from others since we all have different equipment and configurations and as the saying goes in this hobby YMMV!
 
Jan 21, 2025 at 3:46 PM Post #75 of 359
1laraz said:
There are some further specs in the manual:
http://www.laiv.audio/products/harmony/uddc/ownersmanual

SNR > 145 dB, THD+N 0.000005% looks promising
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fwiw this basically just means it outputs 24 bit (-146dB).

DDCs don't add or alter distortion as they're purely digital devices. The only time a DDC will change the content of the audio is if it's doing some other DSP like oversampling (MScaler etc)
 
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