Hi-Fi News Reviews the Harmony µDAC

Sep 23

2 min read

A sincere thank you to Jamie Biesemans and the team at Hi-Fi News for reviewing the Harmony µDAC. Hi-Fi News is one of the most established names in the audio press, with a reputation for pairing critical listening with a full lab report, so having the µDAC assessed there, and coming away as it did, means a great deal to a young company from Singapore.

Jamie summed the µDAC up as "quirky but compelling," and the review is warm about the things we cared most about getting right. He praised the amazing build quality of the compact, CNC-machined aluminium chassis, the eye-catching design with its signature corner cut-off, and the large dot-matrix display that stays legible from across the room. Above all, he responded to the sound. He described an assured, engaging presentation, with drums that were rhythmic and robust, cymbals and snare that sounded authentic, and the fluency of a trumpet or the texture of a xylophone fully uncovered. On choral and cathedral recordings he wrote of a real sense of being present in the space.

His overall characterisation is one we are happy to own. He called the µDAC's sound "clear but organic," adding a touch of warmth without ever letting detail slip behind a veil or dulling the pacing, and noted that it leans gently toward art over strict analysis in a way he expects many listeners will appreciate. He was fair, too, that this is a focused, minimalist design rather than a feature-laden one, and that its scale is generous rather than the last word in expansiveness. That focus is deliberate: the µDAC puts everything into its R2R converter. Hi-Fi News scored it 86% for sound quality alongside a Hi-Fi News award badge.