There isn't much in the British press with regards to Bel Canto kit review, although there is a mine of reviews available over the internet, but having lived with my new gear for a month or so I thought I would put my views on the forum in case anyone else was considering a Bel Canto purchase.
The Bel Canto e.one range consists of a CD Player, DAC/Pre amp, Pre amp, and a range of integrated amps, power amps, and mono blocs. All share the same design of half width boxes with nice aluminium facias making the kit look neat yet purposeful. The LED displays for the CDP / DAC / PRE are big, bold, and bright green with only basic information displayed and a limited number of characters. This can make things a bit confusing as there is a limit to the amount of information the display can show. But this is a minor quibble really.
The rear of the DAC 3 has lots of inputs and a choice of balanced / standard outputs. I use the spdif input for my SONOS box, and the XLR outputs to link up with the M300 monoblocs. The M300s have a single blue light in the middle of the facia to indicate that the boxes are powered up and ready to go. The M300s provide 150w of power into 8 ohms and 300 into 4. That's a very useful amount of oomph, and a big step up from the A28. I am using the kit through my EPOS M16 speakers.
The M300's are Class D. I'm not really sure what this means other than they are very efficient, and have no need for large power supplies onboard. I am told that Class D amplification has it's own particular sound..... I'm not sure as to what this means, but I will describe my findings with the Bel Canto below.
Having previously owned an ARCAM A28 / CD17, the first thing to note about the Bel Canto gear when it is in use is the increased range in the sound. The bass is much more extended, with great depth and a fantastic level of control lending a 'discreet' quality to it, being easy to distinguish from the rest of the sound stage. This was a very nice improvement over the ARCAM sound. With the Easy All Stars album Radiodread, the CD17/A28 gave a very pleasant reproduction- but it sounded as if it was drained of it's bass-depth.... which is of course key to this style of reggae/dub music, but put through the Bel Canto it sounds like it should- deep, weighty and rhythmic.
The ARCAM kit gave lovely reproduction of vocals- especially on stripped down acoustic tracks making proceedings sound warm and intimate. Putting on the new Warchild Heroes album, and listening to Duffy's version of Live and let die, the Bel Canto takes things to a whole new domain. You can pinpoint every breath, every nuance, and the vocal clarity and intimacy just sends a shiver down the spine. It really is wonderful.
Moving on through the genres, I loaded up Metallica's Master of Puppets. Living as i do in a semi-detached house, one of the key considerations for me was that quality should not deteriorate at lower volumes. While Master of Puppets sounds utterly incredible at high volumes through the BC setup, another really pleasing aspect is that none of the detail is lost when played at more neighbour-friendly levels. This is a really nice aspect.
Perhaps the biggest surprise came when I put on Mahler's 7th. This symphony is distinctive for it's use of non-standard orchestral instruments ranging from cow bells to mandolins. The Bel Canto seperates all of the instruments offering a real insight into the components of the symphony, and provides amazing clarity to the sound. It is nice to report however that the Bel Canto doesn't force you to sit up and take notice. If you don't wish to be overly analytical and you just want to let it all wash over you the Bel Canto will offer a coherency that encourages listening to the music rather than just picking out individual instruments. It's quite wonderful.
Downsides? Well sometimes the clarity in the upper-mid range can sound a bit 'steely' perhaps. But never sibilant or overly bright. The kit isn't exactly cheap. the DAC 3 is around £2000 which sounds very expensive indeed- but in combination with my SONOS, I no longer need a CDP or a pre-amp, and the quality that the SONOS / DAC 3 delivers would only be bettered by CDP / preamps of much greater expense. In this context the DAC 3 begins to look like a pretty cost-efficient option. The mono-blocs are around £1400 for the pair, and I think this puts them as natural competitors to Cyrus's range. I have had a home demo of comparable Cyrus kit, and in my opinion, the Bel Canto offers a much more pleasing overall sound retaining the accuracy and speed of delivery of the Cyrus kit but also adding greater bass extension and warmth to the mid ranges and below. Another downside is that i think my speakers are now very firmly the weak link in the system and so will think about getting some other options in for demo.... I don't really know what speakers are likely to suit the Bel Canto kit, so any suggestions would be very welcome!
Slow day in the office as you can tell from the length of this post!
The Bel Canto e.one range consists of a CD Player, DAC/Pre amp, Pre amp, and a range of integrated amps, power amps, and mono blocs. All share the same design of half width boxes with nice aluminium facias making the kit look neat yet purposeful. The LED displays for the CDP / DAC / PRE are big, bold, and bright green with only basic information displayed and a limited number of characters. This can make things a bit confusing as there is a limit to the amount of information the display can show. But this is a minor quibble really.
The rear of the DAC 3 has lots of inputs and a choice of balanced / standard outputs. I use the spdif input for my SONOS box, and the XLR outputs to link up with the M300 monoblocs. The M300s have a single blue light in the middle of the facia to indicate that the boxes are powered up and ready to go. The M300s provide 150w of power into 8 ohms and 300 into 4. That's a very useful amount of oomph, and a big step up from the A28. I am using the kit through my EPOS M16 speakers.
The M300's are Class D. I'm not really sure what this means other than they are very efficient, and have no need for large power supplies onboard. I am told that Class D amplification has it's own particular sound..... I'm not sure as to what this means, but I will describe my findings with the Bel Canto below.
Having previously owned an ARCAM A28 / CD17, the first thing to note about the Bel Canto gear when it is in use is the increased range in the sound. The bass is much more extended, with great depth and a fantastic level of control lending a 'discreet' quality to it, being easy to distinguish from the rest of the sound stage. This was a very nice improvement over the ARCAM sound. With the Easy All Stars album Radiodread, the CD17/A28 gave a very pleasant reproduction- but it sounded as if it was drained of it's bass-depth.... which is of course key to this style of reggae/dub music, but put through the Bel Canto it sounds like it should- deep, weighty and rhythmic.
The ARCAM kit gave lovely reproduction of vocals- especially on stripped down acoustic tracks making proceedings sound warm and intimate. Putting on the new Warchild Heroes album, and listening to Duffy's version of Live and let die, the Bel Canto takes things to a whole new domain. You can pinpoint every breath, every nuance, and the vocal clarity and intimacy just sends a shiver down the spine. It really is wonderful.
Moving on through the genres, I loaded up Metallica's Master of Puppets. Living as i do in a semi-detached house, one of the key considerations for me was that quality should not deteriorate at lower volumes. While Master of Puppets sounds utterly incredible at high volumes through the BC setup, another really pleasing aspect is that none of the detail is lost when played at more neighbour-friendly levels. This is a really nice aspect.
Perhaps the biggest surprise came when I put on Mahler's 7th. This symphony is distinctive for it's use of non-standard orchestral instruments ranging from cow bells to mandolins. The Bel Canto seperates all of the instruments offering a real insight into the components of the symphony, and provides amazing clarity to the sound. It is nice to report however that the Bel Canto doesn't force you to sit up and take notice. If you don't wish to be overly analytical and you just want to let it all wash over you the Bel Canto will offer a coherency that encourages listening to the music rather than just picking out individual instruments. It's quite wonderful.
Downsides? Well sometimes the clarity in the upper-mid range can sound a bit 'steely' perhaps. But never sibilant or overly bright. The kit isn't exactly cheap. the DAC 3 is around £2000 which sounds very expensive indeed- but in combination with my SONOS, I no longer need a CDP or a pre-amp, and the quality that the SONOS / DAC 3 delivers would only be bettered by CDP / preamps of much greater expense. In this context the DAC 3 begins to look like a pretty cost-efficient option. The mono-blocs are around £1400 for the pair, and I think this puts them as natural competitors to Cyrus's range. I have had a home demo of comparable Cyrus kit, and in my opinion, the Bel Canto offers a much more pleasing overall sound retaining the accuracy and speed of delivery of the Cyrus kit but also adding greater bass extension and warmth to the mid ranges and below. Another downside is that i think my speakers are now very firmly the weak link in the system and so will think about getting some other options in for demo.... I don't really know what speakers are likely to suit the Bel Canto kit, so any suggestions would be very welcome!
Slow day in the office as you can tell from the length of this post!
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram