Laiv Harmony DAC Review – Fresh and Premium R2R Design

Laiv Harmony DAC is the first product of a new HiFi brand on the block. At the moment of writing this review, Laiv is probably not that new and unknown to you since many reviewers came on board and checked it out. There’s a good reason for that. The brand itself is new, but the people standing behind it are industry veterans. The team behind it consists of engineers who used to work at Phillips, Marantz, etc. You know, the big names of the industry. I’m not to go into “meet the team” territory, so let’s talk about the product itself.

Build and Features

Laiv Harmony DAC is a medium-sized device with a build that’s nothing short of the highest possible standard. The whole body is machined of one piece of aluminum and feels incredibly sturdy. The weight of the unit that is substantial only adds to that. It comes in either black or silver, while the accents are always brass colored. Remote control is made in the same fashion, it’s fairly compact but leaves a premium impression.

The front of the unit hosts a black and white OLED with big and readable digits. The whole unit is put on three spikes with footers. The look of a device is always subjective, and after my video review, some commented that the style is a bit blingy for their taste. I have to say that images don’t do it justice. Once seen and handled in real life, Harmony DAC is a stunner – at least in my humble opinion.

Moving to the back of the unit, we find a good set of digital inputs. USB, Optical Toslink, Coaxial SPDIF, and finally I2S over HDMI are all here. The only notable connection missing would be AES/EBU. It was never the connection of choice for me personally, nor any of my audiophile friends, so I barely noticed its omission. Most modern DACs nowadays sound best used over USB and I2S anyway.

On the analog side of things, we have both single-ended and balanced outputs. This is a fully balanced R2R design so that was to be expected.

On the right side of the back panel, we find an AC power inlet signaling that the power supply is integrated inside the unit and there is no external power brick lying around. This means that you can’t tinker with after-market power supplies. But given that Laiv opted for a linear power supply with a high-quality toroidal transformer and audio-grade capacitors – there’s no need for that anyway.

A quick look at the inside of the device reveals a very clean and thought-out design layout. What’s interesting here is that all parts that are visually divided can also be pulled out separately, making any sort of potential service very easy. Manufacturer thinking about the ease of access, serviceability, and longevity of a device is always a good sign. It’s something not often seen in the fast-paced consumerism world that we all helped create.

But I was never the one to talk much about technicalities and engineering choices. If done right, the result should speak for itself.

Sound

Laiv Harmony DAC has an interesting sound signature. The midrange is the star of the show with its forward presentation. It’s filled with details and a rich harmonic structure that brings top-tier inner tone texture and richness to every tone. Vocals and acoustic instruments sound as rich as I’ve ever heard them sound. Out of all DACs that I’ve tested and heard during the years, only Lampizator Baltic 3 with great tubes could match this level of midrange expressiveness and tonal richness. Moving to quick transients Harmony DAC is still a very capable performer but it does do that with slight softness compared to the best chip-based DACs around this price, like the ones coming from Gustard or Matrix Audio for example. This lends a very natural and “analog-like” sound to the Harmony DAC. Its midrange is splendidly revealing but in a softer and more humane way than most of the DACs out there.

The bass goes deep and has plenty of grunt, but it does that with a dose of warmth. This is especially noticeable in the midbass region which lends a pleasant warmth to the whole sound. Just don’t mistake this slight warmth addition with lower-performing DACs where warmth can easily turn into boominess or gooish sound. Laiv Harmony DAC has enough resolution and tone control to make this work as padding of the individual tones, which remain very skilfully separated and arranged.

Talking about the separation, the soundstage is huge. It creates a big virtual scene around your speakers that stretches far to the left and right. When it comes to depth, it is also pronounced but displaced a bit forward compared to the average R2R DAC. Leading vocals and instruments are somewhat forward in space, they sound very big and three-dimensional. This gives the sensation that you’re sitting close to performers and can hear everything they do intimately.

Finally, dynamics are solid too. While Harmony DAC is not the fastest there is with tiny transients, it’s no slouch either. It sounds more than sufficiently agile and fast. Bigger dynamic swings and slams are presented with great authority and the sensation of real-life weight to tones. Most of those fast, crispy, and “modern” sounding DACs will sound thin, lean, and energy-depleted next to the Harmony DAC.

Comparisons

Gustard R26 is also an R2R DAC coming with a decently lower price tag. It’s more feature-rich than Harmony and the most noticeable difference is that R26 has a network audio renderer onboard. You can decide if that’s an important feature for you, now let’s talk about sonic differences. R26 is also a very revealing DAC but with a softer and full-bodied sound signature. Harmony DAC is even more revealing, especially in the midrange where it’s noticeably richer sounding, digging more inner tone detailing and texture. Another difference is soundstaging. R26 has a really big soundstage with a slightly laid-back presentation. Harmony upgrades on that by creating an even bigger soundstage, but slightly more forward sounding. All in all, both are great-sounding DACs but Laiv Harmony brings a bit greater scale and realism to the sound.

Holo Audio Cyan 2 comes at half the price but is much more spartan. It doesn’t have a remote, and you can’t even select your inputs manually. DAC will do it for you, and if more than one source is active – it can get stupid so you have to turn off one of them. Cyan 2 is a NOS R2R DAC and oversampling is not an option either. Now all of that is out of the way, how do they compare sound-wise? Well, they’re definitely in the same tier. Both have warm and tonally rich sound signatures. Harmony sounds a touch softer but has a slightly richer and more expressive midrange. Both offer a big soundstage but Harmony does develop a bigger one. That size comes with a bit of a diffused character to all tones, whereas Cyan 2 presents smaller tones but with more focus. Once again, I do think these two DACs belong to the same A-tier but inside that tier, I find Harmony more satisfying due to increased sound size and richness.

Conclusion

Laiv Harmony DAC is a premium product, with a premium build, premium price, and premium performance to match all of the above. It’s an impressive product that any established brand would be proud to have in its line. Being the first product that this brand released makes it even more impressive. If you like rich and warm R2R sound – Laiv Harmony DAC comes highly recomended. Also, watch out for more Laiv products in the future – I have no doubt this brand is going places.