LAiV

LAiV

LAiV Audio is a hi-fi electronics brand founded in Singapore in 2023 by Weng Fai Hoh, who is also its designer and previously represented several digital-to-analog converter manufacturers in the West. Its headquarters are in Singapore, while production takes place in China.
The heart of the LAiV offering is the R-2R discrete resistor converter. The Harmony DAC, the brand's first product, uses a balanced R-2R architecture with 0,05% tolerance precision resistors switched in solid state, controlled by an Intel Cyclone FPGA, with Audio Note Kaisei and Rubycon ZLH capacitors, a mono OLED displayroma3,83-inch DAC and milled aluminum chassis. The Harmony DAC 2 builds on this architecture, adding a discrete Class A output buffer and a direct 10 MHz master clock input.
The Harmony Series also includes the compact Harmony µDAC, the Harmony µDDC digital-to-digital converter, the HP2A preamplifier and headphone amplifier, the LExt units and the GaNM monoblock power amplifiers, 200 watts into 8 ohms, gallium nitride (GaN) Class-D amplifiers. The latest Crescendo Series includes the VERSE, a single unit that combines the R-2R discrete resistor DAC, preamplifier with analog volume and headphone amplifier, the BEAT dual-output linear power supply and the Chorus power amplifier.
LAiV electronics have been reviewed by the international specialized press: the Polish magazine High Fidelity tested the Harmony DAC and the GaNM power amplifiers, while 6moons and Darko.Audio looked at the Crescendo VERSE.