I have a S2 La VOCE. Compared it to my Wadia 860x with Great Northern Sound Mod, as well as other models with the USA importer. And compared it to the MSB Analog DAC full stack and also against a PS audio direct stream senior DAC running Aspen and a few other older firmware.
Comparisons were made with red book, 24/96,24/192 PCM files.
Without power conditioning the La Voce loses to all of the above
certain quad rate DSD files with the PS AUDIO were very hard to beat but we are talking very few songs.
In the PCM world all things changed when the combo of MIT Z powerbar (or a z duplex 20a outlet) were used in conjunction with the Wells Audio power conditioner. Only the Wadia in this case emerged as the winner over La Voce . My thoughts are the internal electrical noise suppression in the La Voce is not anything amazing, but when the combo of this power conditioning was used you could hear the potentional of La Voce. I needed up preferring it to their other models.
The system was Chapman T-7 loundspeakers , Nordost white lightning speaker wire, E.A.R. 890 Tube amp using JJ 6550 tubes (affordable and surprisingly good in this combo), optical cable , Apple TV 3rd gen revision a1469, iPad Air 2 , Tidal Hi-fi. Volume control was done at the amplifier input potentiometer knobs . Power conditioning was MIT Z Duplex 20A outlet, Wells $6k power conditioner . DH Labs Red Wave power cable to wall to power the Wells , Shunyata Alpha 2 for the E.A.R. 890 amp, and the stock La Voce cable was actually the best choice for La Voce .
soundstage was amongst the clearest I have ever heard. An amazing poor mans audiophile giant killer system. Voices were believable to an extent when you could not imagine this was JUST a stereo. Class A amplification helped as well as the bass strong signature of the Chapman T-7 to make up for an 80wpc Tube amp.
