DACs and bass response?

Hi yes you are right the tighter the bass the better. Remember tighter bass usually means more accurate also.

Jitter affects bass quite a lot. Especially as most DACs have a phase lock loop that creates low frequency jitter. Bass should be neither tight nor muddy but articulate. Tight can be a jitter effect - it can be unwanted overtones. Jitter can easily be misconstrued as detail to the untrained ear.

Looking at the inside of the Aqua La Voce, it’s looks to me as it has a capacitor coupled output stage, as many owners are doing cap change mods to it.
Being an opamp based output stage on it from what I saw, it is very possible with a tech who knows what he’s doing to trim out any dc offset to make this a direct coupled output stage, remember for everything not just for bass the best cap is no cap.

Cheers George

Seems like my choice of words is not skillful. With the COS, the bass, whether electric or acoustic, was very evident. Although it varied from one cd to another, I never had to struggle to hear it. And it was well-focused, not dispersed with too much bloom as I used to hear from my old Jolida tube integrated.  With La Voce, the bass was simply not very present on the majority of cds I played. It seemed to be buried in the mix or recessed. I don't really know how else to describe it.