I'm a big fan of your first listed choice, the Bel Canto Black EX integrated. It's what I run in my own system. Disclosure: I'm a Canadian dealer.
The Bel Canto Black EX isn't analytical sounding at all. The signature is neutral to just slightly warm with powerful, deep and controlled bass. My ATC SCM40 speakers haven't sounded this powerful at the bottom before. Mids and upper end are very smooth. The DAC section is really the key to this piece. World-class DAC section including full MQA decoding from TIDAL. You'd have a very simple system. I feed the Ethernet input on the Bel Canto Black EX with a Melco N1A/2 via a Wireworld Platinum Ethernet cable and the combination is incredible.
Sure, the Black separates would be a step up, but at considerably more cost and you'd need a really good XLR cable between. With that said, the Black EX integrated is a very high end performer on its own and plays in an elite crowd.
The Hegel amps are known to work very well with KEF and I'm a fan of the H360. Excellent value. But, if the Bel Canto is in your budget, it definitely plays at a higher level, which it certainly should as per the price difference and fits the qualities you're looking for.
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We haven't had it for a very long period of time,so I haven't tried it with a wide variety of models. Love it with the ATC SCM40. Also tried it briefly with Dynaudio Special Forty and Alta Audio Lelantos. Performed very well with all three. |
Yes, I believe the Wireworld Gold Eclipse 7 XLR would work. I'm a huge fan of the GutWire UNO-S XLR myself. The best I've used.
In regards to the T+A R1000E, I'm sure it would work nicely, but not in the league of the Bel Canto Black EX. It is less money though, but the Bel Canto Black EX integrated still fits within the listed budget. As a side note, I used the T+A PA 2500 R with the T+A DAC 8 DSD before the Bel Canto. This is a higher end combo that the R1000E, but even then, the Bel Canto is a nice step up in my opinion. |
Agreed that the T+A PA 2500 R is a great sounding piece, but I personally feel the Bel Canto Black EX integrated sounds a chunk better for sure. The Bel Canto has more body and fullness with the same level of resolution and drives the bottom end with more authority, but is still very well controlled. Plus, the Bel Canto has the benefit of a superb built in DAC with PCM, DSD and MQA capability. A lot of the Bel Canto quality comes from their superb DAC in this piece and Ethernet input. Not knocking the T+A at all, it is an excellent piece, but I just find the Bel Canto exceptional. Before moving to the Bel Canto Black EX in my system with the ATC SCM40, I was using the T+A PA 2500 R with the T+A DAC 8 DSD and the GutWire UNO-S XLR interconnect between them which is an incredible cable. The T+A integrated with a very good DAC and cable will definitely cost more than the Bel Canto integrated. Of course, this can be taken with a grain of salt, as should be the opinion of anyone, but this comes from living long-term with both in the same system. With that said, I haven't heard the Bel Canto Black EX with the KEF Reference 1, but I can't imagine the combo not working well.
Note: as much as I'm a Bel Canto dealer, I have nothing to gain by mentioning this as keoliphant has his own Bel Canto dealer. Just lending my 2 cents as someone with extensive experience with both products. |
The Bel Canto ACI600 is $25K USD, but I'm talking about the less expensive new Bel Canto Black EX at $14,990 USD. Definitely a fair comparison. |
audiotroy, no sour grapes at all. Carrying T+A as a brand didn't work out for either of us and that's fine. And, to be clear, I'm not knocking T+A at all. I highly respect T+A as a quality brand. In fact, on another forum in the past few days, when someone was looking to add a particular T+A piece to his system, I highly encouraged it as I felt that particular piece was absolutely spectacular for the money. I just call it the way I see it. Someone else may disagree and I'm okay with that. The DAC 8 was fed the exact same files via the Melco N1A/2 as the Bel Canto Black EX. Some redbook, some high-res PCM, some DSD, but not comparing MQA as the DAC 8 DSD doesn't have MQA decoding. So, no, I wasn't running something like DSD512 via HQplayer. But, still, I'm comparing $15K USD gear versus $15K gear and you don't need a high quality XLR cable with the Bel Canto or an extra power cable.
As a side note, the Bel Canto Black series is in a whole other league compared to what you may know about Bel Canto. It is definitely playing in the big leagues. You should hear it sometime.
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keoliphant, Bel Canto has told me that the Black EX separates will play to a higher level than the ACI 600 as long as you make sure you're using a very high quality XLR cable between them. |
georgehifi, I completely agree that the Bel Canto REF600M sound nothing like Icepower. By the way, I certainly don't remember seeing any review of the 600M by Clement Perry. audiotroy may be confusing with an older model. The 600M are a Ncore implementation that is customized by Bel Canto.
And then, on top of that any of the Bel Canto Black products take it to another level and is much higher end than their e.one series. Plus, with Bel Canto Black, such as the integrated amps, you also get a superb DAC and firmware updates too via Ethernet. Their Ethernet implementation is outstanding and makes for a simple solution for the customer that also sounds incredible. Plus, I find the Bel Canto Black EX integrated to be just slightly warm of neutral, analogue sounding, detailed, very powerful and musically involving. Nothing has driven the ATC SCM40's in my room to their level of current performance as the Bel Canto Black EX integrated. The T+A PA 2500R before that did a pretty good job, as it is a nice piece, but not in the league of the Bel Canto Black EX. Others that have heard both in this system completely agree. |
I wasn't talking about the DAC 8 DSD. I've also heard the T+A PA 2500 R with a different front end. A very nice sounding piece, but still, my definite preference to the bel canto black as it drives difficult speakers better, sounds great and is much quieter in operation. I'm the only one that has apparently heard both. Anyways, I'm not interested in this back and forth any more as it serves no purpose. It's just my opinion versus yours and we'll agree to disagree. It's all good. I'm bowing out now. Cheers |
As much as I said I was bowing out, I just want to chime in quick and thank audiotroy for being open minded about Bel Canto Black. I promise that you will not hear the digitization of analogue at all and their phono stage built in is very good as well. Bel Canto has displayed their Black gear with analogue front ends plenty of times and have always had great press about the sound quality. Bel Canto will do DSD64, but not natively. They opted for the MQA route and it does full MQA processing. You should definitely consider it for NYC. I'm not sure if there is a Bel Canto dealer in New York or not. I think it would be great for that market. Cheers. |
