LAIV Harmony

@jackd Thanks for sharing your impressions.

I too am considering the LAiV Harmony, and the closest contenders in my mind are the Denafrips Pontus II 15th or Venus II 12th-1. I mention the Pontus 15th because this new version appears to use the same resistor ladder as the Venus, and the main difference between the two units seems to be the clock. Does anyone have any thoughts regarding how either one of these would compare to the Harmony? Only small minus on the Harmony is that it converts DSD to PCM vs the Denafrips units that handle DSD natively. But if the sound quality of the Harmony is significantly better than the Pontus or Venus, the DSD issue would be acceptable,

Regarding Hans’ review... The only time my Harmony sounded remotely close is during testing when I plugged it into the high current outlets of my Furman IT-Reference 20i. Going back to the balanced outlets marked a huge improvement for me within my system (so much so I just ordered an Audioquest Niagara 7000). I’ve mentioned this previously, but my experience is the Harmony is extremely sensitive to system issues and will happily expose them, so my best guess is there’s something in Hans’ chain that needs tweaking.

There have been some reports on Head-Fi in regards to testing NOS/OS and the consensus is there’s some high frequency roll-off with NOS so the "sibilance" claims are very puzzling and I’d again point to one of the many upstream device Hans has piping music into the Harmony. Some users have reported excellent results with NOS and HQPlayer, which I’m tempted to try, but personally, Harmony in OS has been very impressive.

I’ve had my Harmony DAC for about 2 weeks and have about 300 hours on it.  I also own a Pontus II 12TH-1 and borrowed a Cyan 2 from a friend to compare all 3 this weekend.  I listened to all 3 in NOS mode.  I spent hours listening to songs that I have heard many many times before.   The Harmony DAC has the most natural sound of all 3.  I listen to a lot of acoustic instruments and vocals.  The instruments like the piano sounds better and closer to reality with the Harmony DAC.  This is the biggest difference I could hear compared to the other 2.  While I have great respect for Hans B and enjoy his videos, I disagree with his comments on the Harmony.  

I have the Harmony DAC and the PS Audio DirectStream DAC Mk.1. 

I bought the DSD before the latest DSD Mk.2 came out. After reading reviews of both and also reviews of the DSD Mk.1 after it was modded compared to the newer Mk.2, I had Rick mod mine and added the LPS add on.

With all the discussions of how the Harmony compares to other DACs, a refurbished DSD Mk.1 can be purchased for around $2000 with 1 year warranty.

The Laiv Harmony is $2700 with a 3 year warranty.

The DSD is FPGA based and the Harmony is a R2R. Both are great sounding.

Going up in price, the T+A DAC200 ($7000) and the Mola Mola Tambaqui ($13000) are better sounding, more analytical, however some report they are not as natural sounding. Opinions are like rectums. Everyone has one.

The soundstage of the DSD is larger than the Harmony DAC.

I am keeping both, and I listen to both. They both sound natural.

My system:

Moon by Simaudio 700i integrated amp
Vandersteen Treo CT speakers
Custom built Roon Server
PS Audio AirLens streamer
PS Audio DirectStream DAC mk.1, modded, w/APS upgrades and LPS
Nordost power and interconnect cables

Fidelium speaker cables
 

Jay just made some comments on his YouTube channel in response to a question although not a full review. He says that the sound signature sits in between Denafrips (leaner and more detailed) and Holo Audio (warmer and less detailed) though he doesn’t think that the Harmony DAC competes with those companies’ flagships. He also added that the i2s on the Harmony is very good because it is configurable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc_v6xwLrnc