Where a vacuum is ideal for tubes and housecleaning, reviewing in a vacuum is a raw deal. So next we see my alternate hookup with LHY's PSU. Both it and the Audalytic were relegated to the lower shelf to get my small smsl CD transport back on top and into the sun of playback fun. Hello triangulation between the baby Gustard's internal Hi-Link switching power; and Beat or LPS-80 Dual going at it the old-fashioned so-called linear way with bigger transformers, rectifiers and filter caps. On raw power, LHY's 15V+15V/3.5A add to 105 watts, LAiV's 5V/3A+15V/2A to 45W. That's roughly half. To revisit an earlier thread, my resident solution is a typical black box albeit with blue voltage readout and matching light ring. It's naught I'd show off on top. But stylish Beat earned its top placement. Rate that as you will but it is a factor. If you want to end up in decorated homes of more sophisticated clients, don't make things look meh. Aim for meow.
Here are the bullet points of the three sonic flavours this generated:
♦ SMPS: leanest textures, keenest outline edging, lightest most lit-up tonal balance, highest sense of speed, lowest sense of mass, most incisive, highest subjective resolution
♦ LAiV: denser textures, gentler image contours, heavier more bottom-up balance, more innate relaxation, greater substance, more embodiment or grounding, slightly dark, more macro than micro focused
♦ LHY: resolution plus density so mass with higher focus and crisper contrast for a quasi love child of SMPS+LAiV
Popular click-baiting loves 'destroyed' when an interviewer or athlete bests a guest or opponent. It's very adolescent glee over public failure. It's popular in those hifi circles where only painting in black'n'white pulls. The infinite gradients of rainbow reality are too normal. Yet my three flavours coexisted without one destroying the other two. Whilst everyone will pick a favourite, I expect no landslide victor. Other than streaming active speakers which integrate all, hifi systems are modular. Change one thing, affect all others. The resultant interactions can be unpredictable. For me, Beat's contributions changed sonic course from midday sun to early evening's longer shadows. Bright lights toned down, richer half tones emerged. Contrast softened, the weight of materialism increased. Sharp corners rounded, body built out. Musical gestures grew more emphatic since focus turned off the minuscule. Momentum relaxed, flow grew. It's how hard facts beget soft observations in gestalt. If we key into energetics, we invoke locomotive drive or easeful gush, tension or chill to distinguish feel. If we're visual, we talk focus, contrast, sharpness, sorting and layering. If we're motion sensitive, we deal in dynamics and air movement. All aspects inform each other in interactive mutuality. Listening with others reminds us. We hear, describe and rate things different. Even agreement needn't mean that we assign the same value to a shared observation.
If we prioritize twitchy reflexes and speedy acceleration, Beat was slower than the SMPS. Swap chairs and the SMPS was the more agitated, nervous or blunt. The same polarities held for lighting and density. One guy's bright is another's intelligible; one gal's chubby another's properly grown. Explicit/resolved. Incisive/focused. Lazy/relaxed. Exciting/exhausting. Each descriptor carries potential bias. In the gamut of possibilities, most are relative. Dark isn't dark. It's darker. That instantly asks, compared to what? Et voilà, the slippery slope. Here triangulating injects usefulness. It undermines absolutism. In said perspective and exploiting popular perception, the built-in switcher packed more 'digital' qualities, Beat more 'analogue' attributes. The SMPS was more front-loaded so transient keen. The linear supply played it more rear-weighted so bloom/decay heavy. It was darker, softer and heavier, the switcher more damped and enunciated. None of it surprised. What did was being audible when bypassing one power supply with another; on a decidedly budget if quality component. If performance is 80% power supply as often argued, we could go to €1'700 to max out the remaining 80% of Audalytic's €349 base price. Here Beat beat the math; big time. Granted, swapping it in didn't gloss up the sound by 80%. My meagre math merely suggests that bolting a €494 PSU to this DR70 needn't feel daft disproportionality. In LAiV's own twin-power context where Beat could front µDDC/Verse so $994 + $849 = $1'843, this linear power supply adds just ~1/4th to the total. That no longer seems imbalanced even to a cranky cynic.
On that score, Christiaan Punter just reviewed Beat + Verse and compared that combo to the original Harmony DAC. "Although the Harmony DAC and HP2A look massive on the desk and cost significantly more than Beat + Verse, they still deliver an even more audiophile sound with better articulation, higher precision and greater transparency. However, while Verse with its standard wall-wart switched power supply was previously clearly in a lower tier of performance, it's now more a matter of personal preference. While the big combo offers even higher precision, Verse with Beat is just as fluid, refined and lyrical. Unless you're looking for the absolute limit in transparency, Verse also offers plenty of resolution. As a matter of fact, although I always prefer the highest resolution and precision in the main system and listening on the sofa, the desktop system with its nearfield speakers can become unforgiving when used with extremely revealing equipment such as the Harmony DAC and HP²A. With some music that was on the spicy side or just not as well recorded, Beat + Verse produces a sweeter and arguably more musical performance. This difference, with one being more analytical and the other more musical, was present before but with the standard wall-wart switched power supply, the more musical presentation was held back by a reduction in crispness, clarity and communication. With the Beat power supply, this is no longer the case."
Another day; another LAiV. Another review; more plaudits. A team that seemingly does no wrong. It must be exhausting for the competition hoping for the first fail. Next life? My Harmony DAC2 sample already left the FedEx terminal of Roissy Charles de Gaulle. It could knock on my door tomorrow. Is more other-guys exhaustion inbound? If I weren't in my rain-wet lichen-limned ivory tower, I'd feel sorry for them. As is, capitalist competition is no joke, Darwin's survival of the fittest the playbook—and LAiV a quite dominant species in excellent nick. Revamped flagship DAC next.
