New company with a new product. There are several "professional" reviews out there, but not much consumer input here or elsewhere. Those that have been using now for over a month, what are your thoughts? What were you using previously and how does it compare?
Thank you for your impressions on Laiv Harmony Dac; if its sounding this good stock, can't imagine how much better it's going to sound when they release an upgraded power supply for this unit😊
So far prefer the NOS but not a huge difference between OS and NOS mode.
Packaging and remote is the best I’ve seen in an audio component so far...high end brands giving a dollar store type plastic remotes should be ashamed! LOL
I am surprised it has no volume control, I thought that gold knob on the corner was it's volume . I actually prefer a DAC have a fixed output with nothing in the way like cheap potentiometer or digital volume that truncates bits.
"25 hours in and I prefer it over the Holo May KTE by a tad bit." That is indeed high praise sir. Please keep us posted on what you are hearing vs the Holo on your journey to 100 hours and beyond. Thanks
Mine has a little over 100 hours. For the past couple of weeks prior to receiving the Laiv, I was going direct from my streamer to the DAC on my McIntosh 8950 integrated amp. It sounded pretty darn good. Changing to the Laiv, it sounded kind of cold/clinical out of the box, soundstage height was low. I was not all that impressed. I let it play for a couple of days. The cold/clinical sound was gone but something sounded off still. I noticed that instruments you could normally hear really well in a recording, the ones more forward or dominate in the mix, I couldn’t hear them as well but stuff that would normally be buried in the mix was more prominent. In a way I liked it, but also it kind of bothered me at the same time. I thought maybe the weak link was the ICs, but I only had one set on hand (Delund) and I couldn’t swap anything. But I did have a different USB. I pulled the Teknorov (I think that is what it was called) and swamped in a Kimber USB. Much better. I still get the benefit of hearing the background stuff in the recordings the Laiv lets me hear, but also the primary instruments have their prominence and power back. Listening to the Replacements Tim album as I type this. Not a great recording, but very enjoyable nonetheless.
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