LAIV Harmony

The LAIV is a very good dac but in several respects I feel the Denafrips New 15 

is a bit better in several areas especially low, midBass for it has Large Dual power supplies and much higher end Evos capacitors ,he power supplies not just shared  ,and depth of image a bit better this too maybe do to the power supplies ,leading edge the LAIV is a hair better in imaging  ,but the 15 th has 2 modes  non oversampling and nos, your tweeters character would determine which mode to use .the LAIV being $800 more ,if you throw  in another $400 you can have the Hermes 12  Reclocker which then makes nothing in its price class this good .this  reclocker I find once you put it in your system your dac just is not as clear and defined without it  . The Denafrips Hermes is a bargain at $1200, at our audio gatherings ithe Pontus 15 and Hermes combo beat every dac in its price class and easilly beat the Venus 12 pretty soundly,as well as Holo springs 3. if you have $3200 to spend and use the preferred I2S -hdmi connection .

According to Hans’ rating scale, the Cyan 2 seems like a sweet deal but a no-frills, barebones product. With no buttons or remote control, I consider it the poor man’s May. More relevantly, it offers true NOS but lacks an OS option. However, you can still do oversampling using software like HQPlayer if that’s something you’re craving.

•      +---- Chord Dave ($14k)
• 1A |---- Holo May Level 2 ($4,950)
•      +----
•      +---- Holo Cyan 2 ($1,300)
• 1B |---- Harmony@i2s ($2,700)
•      +---- Denafrips Ares 12th-1 ($950)

I was purchaser number nine of the LAiV Harmony. My input board has died. I’m not the first with this problem. It appears there has been a quality problem of some sort. Response from LAiV was within hours with a promise for a new board. I’ll follow up with my experience.

Until it expired, I have been very impressed with the DAC.

@audioman58 with the issues LAiV is having it cannot be a very good DAC. 

Maybe the Harmony sounds good but not reliable..