Two years ago, LAiV Audio was born, and in that short time, they managed to release a full-blown R2R DAC, along with a dedicated, fully discrete headphone amplifier and preamplifier. A year later, they followed up with a smaller R2R DAC and then a DDC designed to further elevate its performance. Even so, many people were still asking for an affordable, all-in-one solution with the necessary digital inputs and analog outputs, including headphone outputs and a fully fledged preamplifier section for under a grand.
That’s no easy task, but somehow, they pulled it off. This unit is called the LAiV Crescendo Verse. It comes in at $849, and today we’re going to see how it sounds with a variety of speakers and headphones.
