TONEAudio Magazine
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<p><strong><a rel="attachment wp-att-10934" href="http://www.tonepublications.com/review/light-harmonic-da-vinci-dac/attachment/1-32/"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10934" title="1" src="http://www.tonepublications.com/media/138.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="407" /></a>A certain comfort level comes with listening to your own audio system, like slipping into a pair of old tennis shoes or worn jeans. *The surprises are few and your ears have become accustomed to the insufficiencies that are an inevitable part of any system, no matter how good it may be. *But this is no cause for shame. *The cold, hard truth is that the best that even the fanciest rig can attain is a simulacrum of the real thing—a fact that I was reminded of this past June, when attending a performance by the amazingly dynamic and inventive Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C.</strong></p>
<p>But if we’re chasing rainbows, then it’s always healthy and intriguing to hear a different audio system than your own. *Surprises can lurk in unexpected places. *I recently had such an experience when visiting Mike Grellman, who used to work for <em>FI</em> magazine during its heyday in San Francisco (before it crashed and burned like so many audio magazines). *Having retreated from the audio-magazine battlefield, Grellman now contents himself with listening to his own very high-end system. *Like more than a few audiophiles, Grellman is proud of what he’s assembled, and it provides good reason for his paternal pride: *His system consists of the legendary Rockport Sirius III turntable with a Lyra Atlas cartridge, Aesthetix preamp and phonostage, CAT Legend monoblock amplifiers and last but surely not least, a pair of Rockport Altair loudspeakers.</p>
<p>What struck me most forcibly when listening to Grellman’s system was the thick, rich and palpable sound produced by all the tubes in the chain, plus the amazing control of the Altairs. *Only afterward did I begin to dwell on the equipment and I realized, with something of a start, that there was no digital on hand. *No CD player, no DAC, no nothing—just old-fashioned vinyl played back at very high levels of resolution and fidelity.</p>
<p><strong><a rel="attachment wp-att-10935" href="http://www.tonepublications.com/review/light-harmonic-da-vinci-dac/attachment/2-29/"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10935" title="2" src="http://www.tonepublications.com/media/236.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="336" /></a>The Sound of Silence</strong></p>
<p>But as enjoyable as the experience may have been, it did start to nag at me a little that we only listened to vinyl, for digital playback has reached very high levels indeed. *A case in point is the new Light Harmonic Da Vinci DAC, which is constructed near Sacramento, Calif., and is a quite unusual beast. *For one thing, it swivels on its pad.* This isn’t simply an aesthetic choice; it also ensures that the unit runs as coolly as possible. *But it has to be said that the Da Vinci also looks pretty darn cool. *However, looks aren’t the only thing that distinguish this DAC.* Talk about silent backgrounds—this baby really commands your attention in its ability to reduce grain and grit. *But I’m getting ahead of myself in my enthusiasm for the Da Vinci, which is priced at $30,000.</p>
<p>No one would mistake me for a technical guru, but I will say that the Da Vinci has some unique aspects that warrant note before I launch into discussing its sonic attributes. *Probably the best way to run the DAC is via its USB 2.0 input; the unit also offers S/PDIF inputs. *Outputs options include XLR and RCA. *I usually opt for RCA because I often run my stereo in single-ended mode and, yes, when utilizing the RCA output, playback is quiet with no buzz, noise or hum—the usual nasties that balanced operation is supposed to cure.* (I should note that I am feeding balanced power to my equipment via an Equitech 10-kW wall-mounted transformer, which noticeably lowers the noise riding on the electrical lines and allows me to isolate stereo equipment from the rest of the house.)</p>
<p>Another of the Da Vinci’s features is a sophisticated 64-bit digital volume control that allows you to set the level directly from your computer—and this opens up a whole can of worms regarding the benefits of digital versus analog controls. *I tend to prefer analog (that is, having a preamp in the chain), but with the Da Vinci you can bypass the analog control and run the DAC directly to your amplifier, a move that could save you a bundle of money. *In my experience, however, it is almost always preferable to have a preamp in the system. *I’ve fought and lost this battle in the past, which is why I run my dCS Vivaldi into a Ypsilon preamplifier. *The Da Vinci does not use any digital filters, nor does it up-sample. *Light Harmonic maintains that this introduces its own set of distortions, which audiophiles perceive as “ringing”—you know, the shrill enunciation of notes in the treble that make you wince. *This is another battle that designers like to wage. *Having played around with the dCS filters quite a bit, I can say that I enjoy being able to use them, but can’t render a definitive verdict on this topic.</p>
<p><strong>Losing My Religion</strong></p>
<p>As with many things in audio, I am agnostic about the means used to achieve sonic bliss.* I don’t care as much about the travel as the ultimate destination. *And what a ride the Da Vinci provides! *Constructed out of six CNC-milled aluminum blocks, it offers superlative sound that should grab all but the most jaded listeners. *What we’re all searching for, after all, is that aha moment, that brief instant when an emotional connection with the music is forged, when mere reproduction turns into a transcendent experience, leaving behind the mundane aspects of technology to create a state of ethereal bliss.</p>
<p>The Da Vinci excels at helping listeners reach that enviable state of mind in a number of areas.* For one, its playback offers a lack of grain that helps sets the DAC apart from many other digital units. *Grain is something that seems to be far more of a problem with digital reproduction than with vinyl. *But the Da Vinci goes a long way toward creating a much silkier sound than is usually the case with digital equipment, particularly when reproducing high frequencies. *Any trace of sibilance is usually pretty easy to detect on a high-end stereo system. *It may be the most vexing aspect of digital recordings. *Enter any room at a stereo show and it’s possible to tell pretty quickly whether or not the sound suffers from rebarbative treble. *The Da Vinci emphatically does not. *Put on the Chesky recording of The Persuasions, for example, and I defy you to detect anything untoward. *Instead, a sumptuous and velvety sound will greet you.</p>
<p>The Da Vinci also does not lack bass slam.* Quite the contrary, this unit will send crushing bass waves rolling through your room. *One of my favorite cuts for checking out bass is on Jacky Terrasson’s album for Blue Note called <em>Smile</em>. *On the cut “Mo Better Blues,” the Da Vinci sails through the track with aplomb, digging out every last note of the electric bass. *Or consider Monty Alexander’s fantastic album <em>Montreux Alexander</em>, which the Da Vinci handles with great dexterity and power. *If you can really feel that warm, deep and woody bass reverberating through your body, then something is right on.* And that’s what the Da Vinci delivers. *This is no negligible aspect. *Bass is a tricky affair and is often discounted by audiophiles and even (gasp!) reviewers, but they’re fooling themselves. *It supplies the foundation of the music and sets up the ambiance for recordings being played at home. *To my ear, there are few things more satisfying than hearing a resolute, stygian bass note properly reproduced.</p>
<p><strong><a rel="attachment wp-att-10936" href="http://www.tonepublications.com/review/light-harmonic-da-vinci-dac/attachment/3-26/"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10936" title="3" src="http://www.tonepublications.com/media/332.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="407" /></a>Versus DaVinci</strong></p>
<p>What about dynamics? *Here, the Da Vinci must cede some ground to the dCS Vivaldi.* For sheer slam, verve and speed, I have not heard anything that matches the Vivaldi system. *But where the Da Vinci shines is its finesse, subtlety and speed. *Lack of distortion buys you a lot, including a vast soundstage. *What’s more, the Da Vinci is simply one of the quietest and smoothest units that I have heard. *Throw anything at it, ranging from Mozart string quartets to Led Zeppelin, and it will shower you with detail and filigree. *Cymbal crashes, piano arpeggios, violin double stops—all are rendered with exquisite fidelity. *Perhaps most impressive are the quiet, gentle passages where you can hear the interplay of piano, drums and bass at pianissimo levels, achieving a new understanding of the musicians’ mastery of their respective instruments and their ability to communicate with each other.</p>
<p>Or listen to Monty Alexander reach inside his piano to pluck the strings gently and then allow them to fade into the ether.* To me, music like this is one of the most moving and revelatory aspects of high-end audio. *It makes the struggle to achieve better sound worth it. *Much of this sonic prowess can probably be ascribed to the heroic technical measures that Light Harmonic has implemented in the Da Vinci.</p>
<p>But the best way to describe this DAC may be to say that it would have done the old master Leonardo proud. *Da Vinci the man was always looking for the next big thing. *And when he found it, the achievement was always executed with sublime subtlety and grace, which is what the DAC named in his honor also goes a long way toward accomplishing. *If audio systems demand some compensation on the part of listeners, the Da Vinci helps alleviate the burden of this task.* Its combination of a lustrous tonal balance and alacrity ensure that the music it helps reproduce always sounds engaging and riveting.</p>
<p>It’s in the nature of the high-end-audio consumer to jump from one product to another.* But despite the virtues of the Da Vinci, it isn’t enough to prompt me to leap in a different direction. *Am I dumping the dCS Vivaldi? *No. *Does the Da Vinci sound better than the Continuum Caliburn? *Nope. *But in the digital wars, which will continue as long as the format exists in one medium or another, the Da Vinci more than deserves its name.* Anyone looking for truly high-end digital performance with an analog sound would do well to audition it.</p>
<p><strong>Light Harmonic Da Vinci DAC</strong></p>
<p>MSRP: $30,000</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lightharmonic.com/">www.lightharmonic.com</a></p>
[Source: http://www.tonepublications.com/review/light-harmonic-da-vinci-dac/]
<p>But if we’re chasing rainbows, then it’s always healthy and intriguing to hear a different audio system than your own. *Surprises can lurk in unexpected places. *I recently had such an experience when visiting Mike Grellman, who used to work for <em>FI</em> magazine during its heyday in San Francisco (before it crashed and burned like so many audio magazines). *Having retreated from the audio-magazine battlefield, Grellman now contents himself with listening to his own very high-end system. *Like more than a few audiophiles, Grellman is proud of what he’s assembled, and it provides good reason for his paternal pride: *His system consists of the legendary Rockport Sirius III turntable with a Lyra Atlas cartridge, Aesthetix preamp and phonostage, CAT Legend monoblock amplifiers and last but surely not least, a pair of Rockport Altair loudspeakers.</p>
<p>What struck me most forcibly when listening to Grellman’s system was the thick, rich and palpable sound produced by all the tubes in the chain, plus the amazing control of the Altairs. *Only afterward did I begin to dwell on the equipment and I realized, with something of a start, that there was no digital on hand. *No CD player, no DAC, no nothing—just old-fashioned vinyl played back at very high levels of resolution and fidelity.</p>
<p><strong><a rel="attachment wp-att-10935" href="http://www.tonepublications.com/review/light-harmonic-da-vinci-dac/attachment/2-29/"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10935" title="2" src="http://www.tonepublications.com/media/236.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="336" /></a>The Sound of Silence</strong></p>
<p>But as enjoyable as the experience may have been, it did start to nag at me a little that we only listened to vinyl, for digital playback has reached very high levels indeed. *A case in point is the new Light Harmonic Da Vinci DAC, which is constructed near Sacramento, Calif., and is a quite unusual beast. *For one thing, it swivels on its pad.* This isn’t simply an aesthetic choice; it also ensures that the unit runs as coolly as possible. *But it has to be said that the Da Vinci also looks pretty darn cool. *However, looks aren’t the only thing that distinguish this DAC.* Talk about silent backgrounds—this baby really commands your attention in its ability to reduce grain and grit. *But I’m getting ahead of myself in my enthusiasm for the Da Vinci, which is priced at $30,000.</p>
<p>No one would mistake me for a technical guru, but I will say that the Da Vinci has some unique aspects that warrant note before I launch into discussing its sonic attributes. *Probably the best way to run the DAC is via its USB 2.0 input; the unit also offers S/PDIF inputs. *Outputs options include XLR and RCA. *I usually opt for RCA because I often run my stereo in single-ended mode and, yes, when utilizing the RCA output, playback is quiet with no buzz, noise or hum—the usual nasties that balanced operation is supposed to cure.* (I should note that I am feeding balanced power to my equipment via an Equitech 10-kW wall-mounted transformer, which noticeably lowers the noise riding on the electrical lines and allows me to isolate stereo equipment from the rest of the house.)</p>
<p>Another of the Da Vinci’s features is a sophisticated 64-bit digital volume control that allows you to set the level directly from your computer—and this opens up a whole can of worms regarding the benefits of digital versus analog controls. *I tend to prefer analog (that is, having a preamp in the chain), but with the Da Vinci you can bypass the analog control and run the DAC directly to your amplifier, a move that could save you a bundle of money. *In my experience, however, it is almost always preferable to have a preamp in the system. *I’ve fought and lost this battle in the past, which is why I run my dCS Vivaldi into a Ypsilon preamplifier. *The Da Vinci does not use any digital filters, nor does it up-sample. *Light Harmonic maintains that this introduces its own set of distortions, which audiophiles perceive as “ringing”—you know, the shrill enunciation of notes in the treble that make you wince. *This is another battle that designers like to wage. *Having played around with the dCS filters quite a bit, I can say that I enjoy being able to use them, but can’t render a definitive verdict on this topic.</p>
<p><strong>Losing My Religion</strong></p>
<p>As with many things in audio, I am agnostic about the means used to achieve sonic bliss.* I don’t care as much about the travel as the ultimate destination. *And what a ride the Da Vinci provides! *Constructed out of six CNC-milled aluminum blocks, it offers superlative sound that should grab all but the most jaded listeners. *What we’re all searching for, after all, is that aha moment, that brief instant when an emotional connection with the music is forged, when mere reproduction turns into a transcendent experience, leaving behind the mundane aspects of technology to create a state of ethereal bliss.</p>
<p>The Da Vinci excels at helping listeners reach that enviable state of mind in a number of areas.* For one, its playback offers a lack of grain that helps sets the DAC apart from many other digital units. *Grain is something that seems to be far more of a problem with digital reproduction than with vinyl. *But the Da Vinci goes a long way toward creating a much silkier sound than is usually the case with digital equipment, particularly when reproducing high frequencies. *Any trace of sibilance is usually pretty easy to detect on a high-end stereo system. *It may be the most vexing aspect of digital recordings. *Enter any room at a stereo show and it’s possible to tell pretty quickly whether or not the sound suffers from rebarbative treble. *The Da Vinci emphatically does not. *Put on the Chesky recording of The Persuasions, for example, and I defy you to detect anything untoward. *Instead, a sumptuous and velvety sound will greet you.</p>
<p>The Da Vinci also does not lack bass slam.* Quite the contrary, this unit will send crushing bass waves rolling through your room. *One of my favorite cuts for checking out bass is on Jacky Terrasson’s album for Blue Note called <em>Smile</em>. *On the cut “Mo Better Blues,” the Da Vinci sails through the track with aplomb, digging out every last note of the electric bass. *Or consider Monty Alexander’s fantastic album <em>Montreux Alexander</em>, which the Da Vinci handles with great dexterity and power. *If you can really feel that warm, deep and woody bass reverberating through your body, then something is right on.* And that’s what the Da Vinci delivers. *This is no negligible aspect. *Bass is a tricky affair and is often discounted by audiophiles and even (gasp!) reviewers, but they’re fooling themselves. *It supplies the foundation of the music and sets up the ambiance for recordings being played at home. *To my ear, there are few things more satisfying than hearing a resolute, stygian bass note properly reproduced.</p>
<p><strong><a rel="attachment wp-att-10936" href="http://www.tonepublications.com/review/light-harmonic-da-vinci-dac/attachment/3-26/"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-10936" title="3" src="http://www.tonepublications.com/media/332.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="407" /></a>Versus DaVinci</strong></p>
<p>What about dynamics? *Here, the Da Vinci must cede some ground to the dCS Vivaldi.* For sheer slam, verve and speed, I have not heard anything that matches the Vivaldi system. *But where the Da Vinci shines is its finesse, subtlety and speed. *Lack of distortion buys you a lot, including a vast soundstage. *What’s more, the Da Vinci is simply one of the quietest and smoothest units that I have heard. *Throw anything at it, ranging from Mozart string quartets to Led Zeppelin, and it will shower you with detail and filigree. *Cymbal crashes, piano arpeggios, violin double stops—all are rendered with exquisite fidelity. *Perhaps most impressive are the quiet, gentle passages where you can hear the interplay of piano, drums and bass at pianissimo levels, achieving a new understanding of the musicians’ mastery of their respective instruments and their ability to communicate with each other.</p>
<p>Or listen to Monty Alexander reach inside his piano to pluck the strings gently and then allow them to fade into the ether.* To me, music like this is one of the most moving and revelatory aspects of high-end audio. *It makes the struggle to achieve better sound worth it. *Much of this sonic prowess can probably be ascribed to the heroic technical measures that Light Harmonic has implemented in the Da Vinci.</p>
<p>But the best way to describe this DAC may be to say that it would have done the old master Leonardo proud. *Da Vinci the man was always looking for the next big thing. *And when he found it, the achievement was always executed with sublime subtlety and grace, which is what the DAC named in his honor also goes a long way toward accomplishing. *If audio systems demand some compensation on the part of listeners, the Da Vinci helps alleviate the burden of this task.* Its combination of a lustrous tonal balance and alacrity ensure that the music it helps reproduce always sounds engaging and riveting.</p>
<p>It’s in the nature of the high-end-audio consumer to jump from one product to another.* But despite the virtues of the Da Vinci, it isn’t enough to prompt me to leap in a different direction. *Am I dumping the dCS Vivaldi? *No. *Does the Da Vinci sound better than the Continuum Caliburn? *Nope. *But in the digital wars, which will continue as long as the format exists in one medium or another, the Da Vinci more than deserves its name.* Anyone looking for truly high-end digital performance with an analog sound would do well to audition it.</p>
<p><strong>Light Harmonic Da Vinci DAC</strong></p>
<p>MSRP: $30,000</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lightharmonic.com/">www.lightharmonic.com</a></p>
[Source: http://www.tonepublications.com/review/light-harmonic-da-vinci-dac/]
