⌈ LAiV, founded in 2023 and headquartered in Singapore, is the “brainchild” of Mr. WENG FAI HOHA, formerly a representative in the so-called West of several other companies specializing in D/A converters. Trained in industrial automation, he gathered a group of engineers and together they designed the Harmony D/A converter. We are testing its second-ever product, the HP2A headphone amplifier. ⌋

IT FEELS TO ME that the Laiv brand is a dream come true for Mr. Weng Fai Hoh. And also a kind expression of a believe that audio does not have to be very expensive, to be perfectly made and functional. And also good-looking. Just have a look at the company's products, such as the Harmony DAC we tested exactly six months ago, as well as the HP2A headphone amplifier assessed this time. These are gems among other, even very well designed devices of this type.

The devices from this Singapore-based company are small in size a footprint of an almost perfect square of 255 x 250 mm. They are also quite low, although they are raised by three gold-plated spikes. Underneath the spikes are gold-plated pads, that deliver the first clue that the man behind this brand knows our industry. Indeed, in the box in which the amplifier is delivered, we find a nice template that allows us to position the pads and then lay the device on them without fear of scratching or damaging anything.

Let me recall an excerpt from an email that the designer had sent to us before we tested the Harmony DAC:

Harmony epitomizes our strive for excellence, combining advanced technology with meticulous craftsmanship to deliver an unparalleled sound experience (sub. - ed.). We have put our hearts and souls into creating a product that we believe sets a new standard in the industry.

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| A few simple words…

WENG FAI HOH
owner, and designer

⸜ Mr. WENG FAI HOH, the Laiv’s owner, and designer

OUR PRIMARY OBJECTIVE with the HP2A was to create a preamplifier with the added functionality of a headphone amplifier, focusing on a high-end design with precise volume control via a discrete resistor ladder and a Class-A buffer for the preamplifier. The headphone section is equipped with TPA6120 circuits for true balanced output.

As development progressed, however, we saw potential in this design and decided to some make changes to both the preamplifier and headphone amplifier, which required extensive modifications, multi-layer circuit boards and careful internal design to maintain the highest quality in the HP2A's compact chassis.

We've preserved the characteristic sound of the Harmony series in the preamp mode, while tuning the headphone amplifier for a lively, organic sound, avoiding fatigue with overly aggressive sound. This approach provides a rich, and full presentation, ideal for long listening sessions.

Feedback from industry events such as CANJam Singapore 2024 confirmed our vision that this balanced design allows the HP2A to excel in both preamplifier and headphone amplifier modes. WFH

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▌ HP2A

HP2A IS A BALANCED line preamplifier and headphone amplifier. Although, looking at it, it seems that its main task is to drive headphones - and that's how we tested it.

It offers up to three headphone outputs, including two balanced ones: a 4.4mm, or Pentaconn, and a 4-pin XLR; the third is a standard “big jack,” or 6.35mm TRS-type jack. The device also features a stereo balanced XLR input and two outputs - XLR and RCA. This is because the HP2A can also work as a balanced line preamplifier. The operation type of the device is selected by a small switch on the front panel.

The unit's preamplifier stage operates in pure Class A, and the volume is regulated by the company's patented resistor ladders. It allows the volume to be adjusted in 60 one-dB steps. The amplifier's output runs on excellent Exicon transistors, operating in class AB. The unit is protected by a circuit that detects input DC current, overload and excessive temperature. On the bottom panel there is a slot for a micro SD card, which will make it possible to change the amplifier's control software in the future.

The company’s website reads:

The Harmony HP2A is crafted with a focus on delivering an outstanding user experience. Every design element is aimed at making operation easy, intuitive, and enjoyable, while maintaining the highest standards of audio performance. From output flexibility to safety features, every aspect of the HP2A is built to enhance your listening experience.

⸜ Harmony HP2A, → www.LAIV.audio, acceessed: 4.11.2024.

FEATURES • Laiv's devices chassis are made from milled aluminum blocks, CNC machined, and are available in two colors: black and silver. In both, the dominant accent is gold-plated elements. These include a large volume knob, placed unusually, as it is vertically and on the side, and also buttons and bezels around the headphone jacks. Part of the front panel is occupied by two OLED displays. They read the selected input, volume level, and menu information. And there we can select the active input, display brightness, etc. The displays are protected by a plate of tempered glass.

That’s right, you can select an input there, even though nominally the HP2A features only one pair of XLR input jacks. How is that possible? This is one of those solutions that point out to a good, clever designer. On the rear panel of the amplifier, in addition to the aforementioned inputs and outputs, ground terminals for signal and chassis, triggers and IEC power socket, we also find a great LEMO socket. It allows connecting an external module to the amplifier and powering it with a single cable. This solution offers users two choices: the first one gives us two additional analog inputs, RCA and XLR, and another one a phono preamplifier.

They are housed in small, solid aluminum blocks and look very good indeed. Even a white-colored micro LED was added to signal the module's operation. At the time, when I wrote the test, an extension called LExt was offered, with analog inputs, as well as LExt PHONO, with a phono preamp. The communication system between the amplifier and the module is called LE-LINK.

Let's add that there are three, gold-plated inserts on the top panel to match the spikes on the DAC. So you can place both devices on top of each other without worrying about scratching anything. And one more thing - we also get at our disposal an aluminum, functional remote control, which we will also use with the DAC, and in the future also with the company's file player.

▌ SOUND

HOW WE LISTENED • The Harmony HP2A headphone amplifier was tested in a HIGH FIDELITY reference system. It was compared to the Leben CS-600X amplifier, which resides in it in a similar capacity. Along with the HP2A, we tested an additional LExt input selector. The amplifier was powered by a Harmonix X-DC350M2R Improved-Version cable and stood on its feet on the top carbon platform of a Finite Elemente Master Reference Pagode Edition Mk II rack.

The signal to the amplifier was sent from two sources in two different ways. From the Ayon Audio SACD player the signal was routed in balanced form with Acoustic Revive Absolute cables, and from the Leben T3 file player with Acrolink 8N-A2080III Evo unbalanced interconnects. I used three different headphones in the test: the Lime Ears Anima → Pentaconn, the Sennheiser HD800 → XLR 4-pin, and the HiFiMAN HE-1000 v2 → 6.35 mm jack.

» RECORDINGS USED FOR THE TEST ⸜ a selection

⸜ CHET BAKER QUARTET, Chet Baker Quartet, Barcalay/Decca Records France | Universal Music Company UCGU-9074, „Chet Baker In Paris SACD Collection”, SHM-SACD (1955/2024).
⸜ TOMASZ MREŃCA, Land, ForTune 0112 • 002, CD (2016).
⸜ MAX RICHTER, In A Landsape, Decca Records 587 5717, CD (2024).
⸜ SLENDERBODIES, The Sugar Machine, Slenderbodies/Tidal, FLAC 24/48 (2024).
⸜ HOPE TALA,Thanks Goodness,Jasmine Music Limited/Tidal, SP, FLAC 24/48 (2024).
⸜ TOMASZA MREŃCA, Man of The Light, Kayax Production & Publishing/Tidal, FLAC 24/44,1 (2024).
⸜ GREGORY PORTER, We Have All Time In The World, Decca Records France/Tidal, SP, FLAC 16/44,1 (2024).
⸜ LADY GAGA, Disease, Interscpe Records/Tidal, SP, FLAC 16/44,1 (2024).
⸜ HAYATO SUMINO, Human Universe, Sony Classical/Tidal, FLAC 16/44,1 (2024).

» The tracks used in the test can be found in the TIDAL playlist → HERE

THE BEGINNING OF THE LISTENING SESSION didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I remembered the excellent sound of the Harmony D/A converter, I still had its sound in my head. So when I pressed the “Play” button on the player, its mechanics began to spin the CHET BAKER’S Chet Baker Quartet disc, the DAC chips began to convert the DSD stream to analog, and the output tubes to amplify that signal, I expected to fill that space in my memory that I had previously prepared for the HP2A amplifier. Nothing of the sort happened.

You see, things in expectations and perceptions that are part of the life of audio journalists as well. The theoretical demands, suggesting one should be as objective as possible regarding the products being tested, the need to “clear” the emotional and intellectual buffer so as not to interfere with the test. This is all important and we try to do it, at least I try. This is the right direction.

In reality, however, we are subject to the same limitations as everyone else. Maybe, over time, we gain some skills that allow us to “gather ourselves” more quickly, to move more easily from the “expected” to the “unknown”. But it's still just some approximation to the ideal of a “clean sheet,” postulated by the theoretical assumptions associated with studies of this type.

Hence my disappointment with Baker's album. It came from the fact that in recent times most, if not all, of the products I tested with it gave the sound their own character and it was a “forgiving” type. That is, one that, by slightly unifying the sound, guaranteed that all, or almost all, songs sounded at least cool.

The Laiv amplifier is different. It's a device that could find its place in a high-end recording or mastering studio. But, to reiterate, high-end, not “home” one. Its sound is incredibly transparent and open. It's also very, very resolving, in which it reminded me of the → dCS LINA amplifier, but it goes further than its British counterpart in differentiating pitch, in describing its attack. the dCS fills in sounds more nicely, but the difference is not great.

That’s not what I wanted to talk about, though - the Singapore amplifier has a clear “agenda”. If I were to define it, it would be something along the “I'm not here” line. This is obviously ridiculous, the theory of information says that every transmission and conversion of it introduces interference to it, but some products do it more and others less strongly - the Laiv does it almost imperceptibly.

Because when I heard the first sounds from MAX RICHTER's In A Landscape, recently released by Decca label, I got great panorama and low, very low bass. And this is what headphones always, or almost always, lack. It was something similar to what bass sounds like plugged directly into a mixer line, in the studio or on stage, and listened to through high-end headphones. It was very low, meaty, and dense bass. But also selective and dynamic.

This is another thing that defines the tested amplifier: it gives you a thorough insight into the recording. Sometimes it can seem too powerful, but this is not the fault of the amplifier or headphones, but the recordings themselves. If it's a high-end production, but with sounds given too selectively, with vocals slightly off in terms of sound class from the instruments, that's what you'll get. Nothing will be smoothed out, or filled in.

Such was the case with the new song Setting Sun, a very cool, warm track by the SLENDERBODIES from its new album The Sugar Machine. And when, immediately afterwards, Lumin T3 played Thanks Goodness by HOPE TALA, a rather similar mood recording from the new album by this 1997-born British singer, I momentarily appreciated the depth of the vocals on the one hand, and also heard stronger compression on the instruments, making them more fused together and less selective.

These changes, when listening to these tracks through speakers, even very good ones, are somewhat less clear, while the headphones are like a magnifying glass, and the Laiv amplifier serves them as a near-perfect launching platform. Because that's how I see it: the sounds are fed through this device as if we were in hyperspace, where there is no fog, no pollution and everything is crystal clear.

The Baker mentioned in the introduction disappointed me not because it sounds bad, or that the amplifier in question played the material without emotion. It disappointed me, because I had other expectations. And yet this album is exactly that, that is, quite tonally light and not very filled in; it's 2D rather than 3D. But when I came back to it at the very end of the listening, having already acclimated to it, I appreciated its musical content again - and it's a wonderful document showing a European episode in this trumpeter's life.'

The HP2A amplifier thus plays selectively, accurately and has an amazingly extended frequency response, both from the top and bottom. Its strengths also include spatial relations. When you listen with it to tracks from TOMASZ MREŃCA's new album, titled Man of The Light, let it be the ˻ 5 ˺ title track, you can hear a depth that headphone amplifiers don't usually show. dCS did it, Leben CS-600X does it, and Laiv is also in the same league.

Mreńca is a Polish violinist, composer and music producer. His music is most often referred to as 'ambient', but is just as often described as experimental electronica. As soon as his new album was released, I remembered that had his CD released by the jazz label ForTunes. So I listened to the later, too. In both cases, the amplifier showed great depth and quite wide extremes of stereoscopic space.

WHEN NEEDED, Laiv plays with a close, strong foreground. As in We Have All The Time In The World, a track from GREGORY PORTER's new album. It was with this album that I experienced perhaps the strongest dynamic capabilities of the tested device. This is because the average volume level is much lower on it than on the other recordings I recalled, and I had to turn the gold volume knob up on the unit to get similar sound pressure.

It was full-range, dynamic, dense playing. There was no “extra” warmth in it. This is not an amplifier that would appeal to those for whom the aforementioned Leben or the Ayon Audio HP-3 are benchmarks. Even the dCS Lina sounds warmer and in a more tangible way. It's closer to what the → OCTAVE V16 SINGLE ENDED offers (˻PL˺). It is, if anything, more like the dCS SACD players than Esoteric or Ayon, the sound of Dynaudio rather than Harbeth.

But it is also, I must add, an extremely versatile device. It plays every music with commitment and lets every music speak with its voice. Listening to LADY GAGA on Disease, a really good track from her upcoming new album, I was almost blown away by the dynamic, powerful bass pulse. The vocals were firmly placed in the mix, being open and bright, but not too bright. Set to the extremes in the channels, the tracks with low pitched vocals, actually with melorecitation, were clear and just cool.

Yes, this is incredibly compressed material, and Laiv didn't hide that. But it also didn't lead it in the direction of brightness. It just slightly distanced itself from it, as if it didn't want to exacerbate the problems, but simply communicate the music. And that's part of, the aforementioned, versatility. The device will show Lady Gaga with equal commitment, that is not “clinical” presentation, as well as the piano, for example, of HAYATO SUMINO, a Japanese pianist born in 1995, who reached the semifinals of the 18th Chopin Competition in 2020.

The new album Human Universe features a Hans Zimmer track from the film Interstellar. It's a delicate piece, with a rather long reverb on one side, and with non-musical sounds, like the creaking chair the musician is sitting on. It's obvious nonsense to listen to such things by themselves, but they are what make something authentic or not. The Singapore amplifier showed both such details and the whole thing in a professional, extremely honest way.

HEADPHONES • I conducted the test using three different headphones. However, I spent the most time with the Anima in-ear stage monitors from Polish company Lime Ears. This is an excellent product, one of the best earphones available on the market, regardless of design. I listened to them using Pentaconn balanced output. When I compared the HiFiMAN HE-1000 v2 headphones with them, which are large, over-ears planar designs, I got a much warmer and much less selective sound from the latter. The amplifier was able to drive them perfectly, and there was no doubt that its current capabilities were sufficient even for such a hard load.

But it was a completely different sound. The selectivity and purity I spoke of earlier had given way to fluidity and a slight “honey” filling of the sounds, actually space among other things. Gregory Porter was a bit further away from me as was the overall presentation. Sumino's piano was also shown farther away, thus changing the perspective. It's hard to say which version was better, but both were dynamic and had excellent tonal balance. The HiFiMANs showed the fill of the sound a bit better, while the Lime AEars made the attack phase more pronounced.

Heavily compressed and produced tracks, like the aforementioned Lady Gaga, were less dynamic, but smoother and more enjoyable. As usual - we get something for something. Therefore, sort of the bridge between the two versions would be the Sennheiser HD800 headphones. I listened to them using the balanced XLR (4-pin) output. They tolerated the digital overdrive in Lady Gaga's track less well, but showed Porter much nicer, very stylishly. His vocals were closer than with the Hifiman headphones, although the bass didn't go as low as with the two designs cited earlier. With the HD800s it was midrange-focused presentation, but it was a really good midrange. ●

▌ Summary

THE LAIV AMPLIFIER TURNED OUT to be exceptionally transparent to the the headphones plugged into it. In addition to the aforementioned three designs, I also briefly reached for the Audeze LCD-3, the AKG K271 and the Beyerdynamik DT-990 (old version), i.e. extremely different designs, and each time it was the headphones character I could hear first and foremost, not the amplifier’s.

This is a very transparent device, also to the signal source and recording type. SACDs and CDs had a more silky and resolving sound with it, but files didn't stand out as much as one would expect. The amplifier is very resolving and selective, and has incredible dynamics. Despite this, you can listen to it for a really long time without fatigue. Which is not that common among most devices of this type.

I personally lacked a bit more fill that I get every day with the Leben CS-600X, but - we've said it before - something for something. After all, a tube amplifier from Japan is not as dynamic and transparent. Here and now, the Laiv does what it does perfectly. This is how you hear recordings in a good recording studio.

▌ DESIGN

LAIV HARMONY HP2A’S mechanical design is remarkably similar to the one we learned about when we tested the company's DAC. The manufacturer uses a proven method in which it is cheaper to produce a chassis than if each chassis were completely different. This means that the headphone amplifier in the test is perfectly made, is based on proprietary developments, uses expensive selected components, and the whole thing came in a wonderfully prepared package. As I wrote in the D/A converter test, this is a high-end for discerning young people.

CHASSIS • The housing of the unit is made of aluminum components, the body and the bottom panel. The former was milled from a single block of aluminum, with screens dividing the interior into smaller sections housing individual modules and a large power transformer. It was achieved via CNC machining.

The device has an almost square outline, but its design is really sophisticated. It is formed by details such as the beveled one side, gold buttons and knob, as well as two 1.5” OLED displays. The amplifier stands on three gold-plated cones - two at the front and one at the back. The feet are placed on stands; both they and the cones have the Laiv logo applied to them. The connection sockets come from Neutrik, a company specializing in professional products.

ELECTRONICS • The device is modular and consists of several blocks, connected by cables fitted with high-end plugs; the signal cables are shielded and appear silver-plated.

Small hermetic relays are placed at the input, also repeated in the external module with XLR and RCA inputs. Immediately behind are the volume control modules. They are housed in gold anodized aluminum shields. As we said, these are discrete R-2R type circuits, that is, with separate resistors for each volume level. Behind the screen there is the actual amplifier. This is a full-fledged power amplifier that could work in many integrated amplifiers. This is all the more legitimate because after the output transistors there are still resistors and inductors.

Four transistors per channel were bolted to a gold-anodized piece of aluminum, working in a push-pull configuration: the Exicon ECX10P20 + ECX10N20. These are MOSFET transistors designed specifically for use in audio applications. Many manufacturers refer to them as “MOSFET tube”, thus indicating their similarity to a triode. The entire circuit of the amplifier, by the way, is discrete; there are no integrated circuits in the signal path, not even in the power supply. Cooling is improved by a metal plate that dissipates heat toward a gold-plated mesh in the chassis.

The power supply is extremely elaborate. Its base is a large toroidal transformer, with several independent power supplies working with it. They feature, for example, Rubycon capacitors, a high-end audio classic, as well as Wima coupling rectifier bridges. There are more high-end components, including nice low-tolerance SMD resistors.

It is a well-made device, indeed. ●

▌ Technical specifications (acc. to the manufacturer))

Nominal output:
• ≤ 11, 8 W for balanced outputs
• ≤ 2.8 W for unbalanced outputs
Gain:
• 13.7 dB for balanced outputs
• 7.7 dB for unbalanced outputs

Frequency range: 10 Hz – 80 kHz, ± 3 dB
THD+N: 0.01%
S/N:
• ≥ 110 dB for balanced outputs
• ≥ 100 dB for unbalanced outputs

Input impedance: 94 Ω
Output impedance (line outputs): 200 Ω for XLR, 100 Ω for RCA
Output impedance (headphone outputs):
• 4-pin XLR, around 0.007 Ω
• 4.4 mm, around 0.007 Ω
• 6.35 mm, around 0.0035 Ω

Dimensions (W x H x D): 250 x 50 x 255 mm
Weight: 4.6 kg

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THIS TEST HAS BEEN DESIGNED ACCORDING TO THE GUIDELINES adopted by the Association of International Audiophile Publications, an international audio press association concerned with ethical and professional standards in our industry, of which HIGH FIDELITY is a founding member. More about the association and its constituent titles → HERE.

→ www.AIAP-online.org