Merging Hapi - A few words about one of the best DACs I ever listened to, and that money can buy to make happy an Audiophile like me.

[improvedsound]

The HAPI in D/A version by Merging Technology, in my opinion is the best DAC DSD 64/128/256 and PCM / DXD 44.1> 384 kHz currently available on the market for remarkable technological and sonical quality!
Belonging to the Professional applications devices, it is the "smallest", equipped with "only" eight independent channels whose configuration can be decided and managed by the user through a powerful software management and control interface. To give a more details about the  "Merging Tecnology" I would like to inform that, this factory produces two product lines. Consumer devices for the Hi Fi / Hi End and for the Professional market.
By making acquaintance with the machine and by shaping up the settings, I have been led to discover a universe that otherwise would have remained unknown to me.
There is nothing in the Hi-Fi market, with the exception of NADAC (a version dedicated to the Hi-Fi market, always produced by the same Swiss company), which allows such an advanced and refined level of configuration.
As already mentioned, the eight converters that equip the DAC, are totally configurable through the setting of the powerful and flexible Driver ASIO Ravenna that allows the setting of each of them.
In this way, the possible uses for this machine can be multiple, making it extremely flexible.
For example, for the eight audio converters (equipped with a single and independent "line" output on D-SUB 25 connector) it is possible to assign a specific task, as the multi amplification; the high quality performance for the digital crossover application; as well as for a refined use in multi-channel configuration and other.....
For my needs, in my  two-channel Hi-Fi system, I hade configuration the DAC,  assigning for the Left and the Right channel a group of four converters that work in parallel.
In this way we obtain greater and more precision, dynamics, definition sound, resolution, warmth and MUSICALITY. All in favor of a huge PLEASURE OF LISTENING!
I repeat, in my opinion, nothing in the Hi Fi market has in common, so refined, flexible technology and audio quality if we consider its purchase price.
The listening evaluations have been obtained in different systems characterized by electronic and loudspeakers quite different from each other by type of construction and design philosophy where Hapi is the official converter in a stable plan in the systems that you will find later described just to give you a idea.

The Hapi inserted in each of these systems has always shown great compatibility at the level of electrical interfacing. Only in a specific case out of five has there been a need to change outgoing sensitivity. Simple thing to do through the menu available through the small OLED display of which the converter is equipped or through the control interface and setting via computer. Thanks to it, it is possible to choose two output levels; +24 dBu or + 18dBu. Sufficient output levels to be coupled to the vast majority of analogue preamplifiers and amplifiers on the market.
What strikes me most about this converter is the absolute transparency and the way in which it is able to reconstruct the soundstage.
Precise, firm, natural, full-bodied with finely chiseled and credible tools and voices. If the records contain micro environmental information, the Hapi is able to return them in their total completeness, also returning the most hidden bit to the clear advantage of a vertex holograph. The depth and width of the stage is extraordinary. The sounds seem to come beyond the physical limits of the room in the three dimensions giving the illusion that you are virtually in the environment where the audio shot was taken.
The low range is able to go down to the maximum allowed by the host plant. The male and female voices are characterized by a realism hardly found in converters of the same cost and / or higher. The high and very high range instead is simply refined and very balanced.
This converter does not favor any kind of music. Everything that he is asked to convert is returned in an exemplary manner without ever breaking down, without ever interpreting and with great transparency. With certain musical genres, where the sound plot is characterized by an important complexity such as symphonic and / or orchestral music, we immediately realize that we are dealing with a machine of great value.
It could not be otherwise, since these converters are used in the best recording studios around the world where transparency, precision and sound quality are an essential parameter for a sound engineer who must be able to understand what happens in the delicate process of acquisition of the sounds and relative conversion.
The listeners in 90% of the cases were conducted listening to files, extracted from my Compact Disc collection, using very high quality ripping software. So losless files, in Red Book format -16-bit resolution and sampling frequency 44.1 kHz- converted on the fly This technique, used by many demanding audiophiles around the world, requires veri high quality computers.
In order to achieve great sonic results, a no compromise  Software Player is request as HQplayer 
 

[improvedsound]

On 3/16/2019 at 11:48 PM, matthias said:

 

Please can you share with us your complete hardware and software set-up?

I am particularly interested in your equipment upstream to the Hapi.

Thanks

 

Matt

Pre Ampl: Audio Research LS 25 MK II
Amp: Krell FBP 300
Loudspeakers: Usher AC10
Line cables: ART Millenium & Custom Made
Head less custom Made Music Server (powered by low noise linear power supplie)  based on Xeon processor, Dual GbE LAN based on Intel® i210-AT; IPMI remote

Custom  made Ethernet cable

Software player: HQplayer

The Merging Hapi is powered by linear power supplie

[improvedsound]

On 4/2/2019 at 3:20 PM, LewinskiH01 said:

 

 

@improvedsound

Are you feeding you Hapi DSD or PCM? 

I'm feeding my Hapi through Hqplayer by 44.1> DSD 256, native DSD and oversampling 44.1>DXD