The Aqua La Scala is a wonderful DAC. Both the DAC1 and LaScala check that musical foot tapping, get lost in the music box.
If you want my opinion of the differences, feel free to email me or PM me. james@choiceaudio.com They are both great, a lot depends on your associated equipment, if you have tubes already, you might want to lean towards the DAC1, if you are 100% solid state and want a little tube feel sprinkled in, then maybe the La Scala.
Here is a quote about the DAC1 mk1 from one of my customers in MN.
“I sold my mojo audio mystique v3 over a year ago and have been on a constant search trying to replace it. I’ve tried many dacs, many more then I care to admit and finally found a dac that just plays beautiful music. No fatigue, no bloat, no fireworks, just good warm and at the same time detailed and dynamic music. No MQA, no DSD just 16/41 to 24/192. It’s the Swiss built Merason Dac1.
The dac has a huge soundstage deep and wide, never ever bright with the perfect amount of detail. Bass is full sounding which helps to provide a great foundation of the music. This dac is very large sounding with plenty of meat on the bones.
If anyone is shopping for a dac in the $5000 to $6000 range this is a great very musical fun dac to audition and own.
Some of the dacs I’ve tried are the Denafrips Terminator, Holo Audio May kte, Sw1x tube dac, Sonnet Morpheus, Metronome Le Dac, Aqua La Scala Optologic, and a couple more lesser dacs.
The Merason Dac1 is a better fit in my system to my ears than any of these and of course others mileage may vary.
Blaine”
Cheers,
Choice Audio