Phd, your short review (and other's impressions) certainly indicate that many listeners find the Belles a great amp & an impressive value. My own experience with a Hot Rod 150a was far less positive. I found it to be almost no improvement over a old Adcom 125 watt amp in the context of my system. I say this not to dispute your impressions or evaluation, but rather to point out that I've found system synergy elusive and hard to predict. In my case, replacing the Belles with a PS Audio HCA-2 gave me the audio magic carpet ride. It could be that the Belles didn't react well to the 4 ohm resistance of my Magneplanar 1.6's. To further complicate impressions, I found that changing the output gain from my Music Reference preamp also drastically changes the sound. Using 3db of output gain sounds vastly better than higher gain settings. It's such a question of luck (or a good dealer) finding the combination of components that work well together. I would also have to mention in passing that I had a very sour experience with Belles warranty repair service. I had to send the amp back for blown mosfets and when it came back from that repair, it still wasn't working. Had to send it back again at my expense. It was out of service a long time, and shipping was expensive.
Belles 150A Short Review
I'm going to chime in about this amp because I think it's that good! My comparisons are based on other SS amps & not tube & mostly to power amps in the $2,000.00 range & under. This amp was definitely designed for the critical audiophile. Sounds excellent with all types of music but really excels at high quality recorded material, very well refined at its price point, with good depth. It doesn't have the bass slam of a Krell, but from top to bottom, it's very well balanced. One of the things that really stood out was the height of the soundstage. While listening I felt as if I shrank in size & my speakers grew to twelve feet tall, amazing acomplishment for a solid state amp. Some SS amps I have heard that can come close to this, suffer at the expense of a large soundstage, not this one. Excellent midbass, & the midrange is very well acomplished for a SS amp more so than previous amps. A slightly warmish sounding amp (no listening fatigue here) but with superb detail, not the state of the art in transparency but very good never the less. This small discrepancy is easily over-shadowed by what this amp does so superbly right. By the way, I am using the amp with the spectacular ARC LS-1 tube preamp, which is a killer bargain in its own right. Trying different interconnects is crucial for deriving the best sound ( but not necessarily based on costs). I used some Groneberg interconnects (not extremely expensive) but the same ones recommended by Klaus for Odyssey amps. Spectacular improvement over the Audioquests, but this equation can change from one amp to another. Everytime I fire this amp up I'm amazed at what it can do & the amount of enjoyment I get from just listening, very musical! David Belles deserves a standing ovation for this fine power amp. One can only imagine what the Hotrod version sounds like but from what I understand the only difference would be the addition of strategicaly placed damping material & gold binding posts. I strongly recommend this amp!