You’re welcome Mr. House:) (and gdnrbob!) So as to your questions, La Voce is probably in the 3000.00 US range retail and if you get a 15 percent discount or so, that means maybe 2650.00 US. As for the Gungnir Multibit, I bought mine new from Schiit for 1249.00 US. So this is a REALLY impressive thing that a 1250.00 DAC plays on the same field with a DAC that’s at least twice as expensive. That means Gumby is No Joke; a superb value-for-money product! By the way- read my comments about it being ’forward’ or more insistent in the mids or treble ONLY in comparison to La Voce; NOT in an absolute sense! It is also relatively slightly ’thinner’ tonally (but La Voce may be ’thicker’ than many). But Gumby is a superbly balanced product in absolute terms and built like a tank! I just think it lacks a frisson of the sonic ’magic’ that for ME (and it’s just here my own sonic preference) La Voce gets. (This may just be the slight warmth and expansiveness I’m addicted to). And this is primarily with classical/opera and jazz because I listen to very little rock or rap etc, though some stuff like Cat Power or The Radio Department during Sunday brunch. (God, listen to me-- I sound sooooo elitist- but if that were true I’d have a DCS stack! Not La Voce and Gumby;)
La Voce has hundreds of hours of play time and Gumby has probably (I’m guessing here!) more than 200 hours but less than 500? It has been left on continuously though for many months in my headphone system (where it sees occasional 2 to 4 hour plays), prior to being moved to the speaker system. Though, when I first got it I played it continuously for a four or five days to burn it in (which I 100 percent absolutely and unequivocally believe in! All my audio gear benefits from burn in- or break-in, as I call it. I’ve almost never heard a piece that didn’t get better with some play time on it). Incidentally, someone whom I trust has just told me that the USB inputs on La Voce and La Scala may sound better than the XLR input I enjoy due to ’proprietary I2S signal transfer’. I’m not in any way shape or form an engineering type so zero clue what that means, and I’ve yet to hear the DAC that didn’t benefit from a great USB converter (like the Yellowtec PUC Lite or Singxer F-1 I use), but I will go back and try using the USB input on La Voce just to see what’s up...
I have certainly tried using USB on Gumby and I feel there is not enough extension in the highs and bass/dynamics are slightly truncated as compared with BNC or RCA inputs and a good converter. This is WITH using my ifi USB 2.0 or ifi ipurifier2 or Wyred Recovery! As for IC’s, I am using Skywire 1400 Interconnects which were the favorites (long ago) of Bound For Sound magazine (what in hell happened to them??! They disappeared and I loved them!!). They are pretty neutral as compared with other favorite cables I’ve used such as Audio Art SE’s and Nordost Heimdal (both of which may be just a touch more lit up/’exciting’). I am using a Chord Silver Plus USB cable at the moment and I’m running a good generic CAT 7 ethernet cable (Tera Grand- nice improvement to my ears despite my disbelief over my old el cheapo Cat 5) into my SOTM SMS-200 renderer powered by Sbooster 12V Linear Power supply (best most natural front end I’ve ever used! Yes- there WAS a step up over my mac mini though I didn’t believe there would be, bits being bits and all:) Definitely more ’organic’ sounding and less digital!
La Voce has hundreds of hours of play time and Gumby has probably (I’m guessing here!) more than 200 hours but less than 500? It has been left on continuously though for many months in my headphone system (where it sees occasional 2 to 4 hour plays), prior to being moved to the speaker system. Though, when I first got it I played it continuously for a four or five days to burn it in (which I 100 percent absolutely and unequivocally believe in! All my audio gear benefits from burn in- or break-in, as I call it. I’ve almost never heard a piece that didn’t get better with some play time on it). Incidentally, someone whom I trust has just told me that the USB inputs on La Voce and La Scala may sound better than the XLR input I enjoy due to ’proprietary I2S signal transfer’. I’m not in any way shape or form an engineering type so zero clue what that means, and I’ve yet to hear the DAC that didn’t benefit from a great USB converter (like the Yellowtec PUC Lite or Singxer F-1 I use), but I will go back and try using the USB input on La Voce just to see what’s up...
I have certainly tried using USB on Gumby and I feel there is not enough extension in the highs and bass/dynamics are slightly truncated as compared with BNC or RCA inputs and a good converter. This is WITH using my ifi USB 2.0 or ifi ipurifier2 or Wyred Recovery! As for IC’s, I am using Skywire 1400 Interconnects which were the favorites (long ago) of Bound For Sound magazine (what in hell happened to them??! They disappeared and I loved them!!). They are pretty neutral as compared with other favorite cables I’ve used such as Audio Art SE’s and Nordost Heimdal (both of which may be just a touch more lit up/’exciting’). I am using a Chord Silver Plus USB cable at the moment and I’m running a good generic CAT 7 ethernet cable (Tera Grand- nice improvement to my ears despite my disbelief over my old el cheapo Cat 5) into my SOTM SMS-200 renderer powered by Sbooster 12V Linear Power supply (best most natural front end I’ve ever used! Yes- there WAS a step up over my mac mini though I didn’t believe there would be, bits being bits and all:) Definitely more ’organic’ sounding and less digital!