I’ve heard quite a few DACs and ended up with the Aqua Formula xHD with my first choice being the TotalDac 12 (but out of my current budget). The La Voce has the same Aqua house sound, detailed, natural, effortless with a massive 3D sound stage (better than TotalDac btw in this regard). I’ve also heard the PSAudio Directstream with the latest FW in a friend’s system and while it’s full bodied and has quite good PRAT I didn’t care for the artificially lush sound which might have masked some of the detail. The friend’s DAC was a Soekris which was a bit more detailed and accurate (not lush, not too thin). Another DAC I recently heard at a local dealer / friend is the LessLoss DAC which I believe uses the Soekris RtoR boards, and is a very natural, detailed, overall quite beautiful sounding DAC - recommended. Another RtoR to investigate (mentioned above) would be TotalDAC. Similar to the Aqua sound in some ways (effortless, very natural timbre, great PRAT) but different in that the TDs are a bit more lush but not as airy/3D as the Aqua. Both are excellent.
Also, to whomever commented that "RtoRs are all sounding the same", simply not true. Is there a theme whereby there is an effortless and naturalness inherit in most designs, yes. Do they sound the same, no. Listen to TotalDAC, Aqua, Aries Cerat, Soekris, Lessloss, etc. and you’ll hear significant differences but all stellar DACs.
Final note - whatever your short list becomes I highly recommend demoing the DACs in your system. Only you can decide and your system will play a significant role in how the DAC integrates to your liking (or not). Happy Listening!
