Aqua hifi La Voce s3.....anyone audition it yet?

I have not compared to la Scala Optologic but I had the S2 and upgraded to the S3 last year. To my ear, it's a very noticable overall improvement in terms of level of transparent and music dynamic. However, I felt that between the S2 & S3, they are also somewhat "different" sounding. S2 is more laid-back and warmer sounding DAC while S3 is a cleaner (compartively speaking) with more details and punch DAC. Overall, I'm loving my S3. 

Same here and my assessment of the differences is the same.Takes a really long time to break-in even for the upgrade but a great DAC when it does.  

The La Scala is a unique beast in the Aqua line up. It is the only one of their three dacs to use tubes in the output stage.

The La Scala does throw a bigger soundstage than the La Voice series and the midrange is a bit warmer and fuller. If someone is looking for a very analog like presentation the La Scala is the better dac.

With that being said the La Voice Mk III reperesents the newer more balanced Aqua sound. 

The La Voice hits a beautiful balance of having a touch of midrange warmth, a very big sound stage and a very organic flowing presentation.

THe newer MK III versions of the La Voice helps rebalance the presentation from being overaly warm and masking a bit of detail.

One of the strongest endorsements we can give is the fact that Aqua is a product you can purchase one time and be done. 

There are very few manufacturers that build a product like Aqua does, most dacs are built on one to three boards, usually a power supply, a main board and a streaming board or digital input board. to upgrade you usually have to replace the main board or trade in to the newer platform.

Open up an Aqua dac and you will usually see, 8-12 separate boards every part of the dac is compartmenanized into a discrete board, power supply, analog board, digital processing, filtering, digital input etc.

We know of very few companies which offer continuous and affordable upgrades to their platforms via both FPGA and hardware upgrades.

So if you prefer a very organic dac with good resolution, superb build qualityand an ever morphing upgradable design, look to Aqua to be a once for lifetime digital purchase.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Aqua Hifi dealers