Just before the Holiday's, I noticed on several authorized Belles websites, that certain separates went out of production which is a pattern that would indicate new products are forthcoming, and sure enough a new Integrated popped up on the Belles website last week, which appears to be his greatest integrated amp to date. The Virtuoso, putting out over 200 watts per channel into 8 ohms, HT bypass, Processor loop, MM & MC phono stage, and power meters on the front panel. The unit will be released in March at a price tag of $6495. Given David Belles reputation during the past 30 years, who has always been at the top of his game as perhaps the best solid state engineer designer ever in the states, since musicality has always been his first order of business, it wouldn't surprise me at all that the Virtuoso will fly out the door and winds up on the back order list. Its a real looker. Very handsome unit. Well done David! Its what we've been waiting for.
Phusis Spoke to Dave Belles tonight All Good The man is blowing and going, making amps and busy all summer Don't know where you got your rumors from probably a competitor. Aria Monoblocks and integrated took a few years to design the right way when the virtuoso is ready it will be ready not rushed. Best, JohnnyR
It's always good to be cautious. On the other hand, if you LISTEN to a Belles Aria and still make this same comment....... I would be surprised. Best, JohnnyR Belles dealer
You bought a Lenco from Chris! Very nice! I spent hours on the phone with Chris Thornton back in 2011/2012 when he was first getting off the ground. He would go on speaker phone and chat while he did his metal work. He is the undisputed King of turntable restoration for the world. Their is no other restorer better than Chris regardless of location anywhere. "Rolls Royce" truly applies to his work of genius. Chris is so brilliant that he can modify the internal brace structure of his plinth's to the type of sound you like. Whether you want playback warm, bright, or neutral. The man was born with a gift. Thank God he's still young so we can look forward to his work for many years.
Since I am a vinyl guy I can agree with you that the Technics will be one of the top tables available. I have a Artisan Fidelity Lenco table that blows me away each day. Keep us posted with the Technics.
bobheinatz..How weird! This morning I happened to go back on the thread from 2011 you refer to and must admit my behavior from my posts at the time were absolutely goofy. 2011 was a very bad year for me just getting over my younger brother's untimely death who was a great metal guitarist in New York. Had his own band for five years and did a lot of outdoor concerts. Have his best work on CD's from his studio session's. My sister and I still have in storage his Fender Strat, his Gibson Les Paul, his Gibson SG guitar and his Gibson SG bass. I was a vinyl freak back in 1980 with my Dual 701 table and my Shure and Ortofon cartridges. I loved MoFi's half speed cut master albums which were $25.00 a pop at the time. The cannon's from the 1812 Overture blew out my tweeter's in my Advents. Times have changed since 2011 and nowadays Belles is the only solid state gear that I have interest in and the Virtuoso phono board is why I'm purchasing the Technics.
Audiozen, What is it? Belles or Accuphase with NASA quality. You seem to jump on various brands as the best but yet you don't support this brands with ownership. When your hard earned dollars are spent on a product until then your are all talk. Btw I see you are excited about a turntable what's next?
UPDATE ON THE BELLES VIRTUOSO. My Belles dealer was informed by Dave Belles this morning that the release date of the Virtuoso has been pushed back to mid-April. Drat! The unit will weigh 55 pounds which is what I was hoping for, indicating large power reserves which Dave is known for in his top units.
@audiozen ...thank you! Appreciate your response to my inquiry. Looks like I’ll be looking to get another Aria or perhaps even the Virtuoso soon. Best.....
carmenc..You contacted me by email asking if Belles is really that great, based on your ownership of the Soloist-1 and Aria. David Belles is in a league of his own, designing both tube and solid state components for 30 years. Hes' currently 57 years old so he still has a lot of mileage. He has a total of only 11 dealer's, both domestically and internationally and has stayed off the radar all those years. People usually find out about Belles by word of mouth. He has a very strong cult following in China and England. Really that great? You betchum. His components constantly sell every month so he has no need to advertise, due to their remarkable organic musicality. I predict that his Virtuoso integrated, which I will be purchasing next month when released, will go down as one of the greatest solid state musical treasures to date, and will be recognized as a true reference statement piece for all others to measure against.
audiozenOP694 posts01-12-2018 8:43pmTone Controls?..Eek!! Tone control's as we are all aware of, are for trimming
certain frequency bands to tame bright, shrill or strident sound
problems resulting from poorly designed electronics. David Belles
components are masterpieces, so refined and so rich sounding that you
won't even think about tone controls. So the Accuphase and Luxman are..........Eek. I had opportunity to listen Aria Integrated amplifier. It's not.....Eek but very close. You dealers (and their friends) should stop lying to people. "Masterpieces".....Eeeek!!!
menosavy..To bad you are moving on from the Sierra's. The Aria integrated does not have enough power under the hood to bring the Sierra's up to their full potential. Amplifiers rated between two and three hundred watts per channel would be a better fit. David Fabrikant of Ascend Acoustics comes from Miller & Kreisel, known for some of the very best speakers for recording studio's back in the 80's. David's designs are very similar to the best studio monitor's and can easily handle high powered amps.
Greetings Meno Didn't mean to rub ya anyway It was just the trigger word meno I ran with poetically speaking. Glad to hear the Blasting sand fill value tip works well. Tubes are sometimes just whats needed. What speakers are you now thinking? Best JohnnyR
Why the apparent rub Johnny to my user name and choice of moving in a different direction away from Belles Aria and Ascends. Blasting sand been used by many as a drier alternative to common play sand and compares well to Lovan's Black Gold at a much more affordable price.
As much as I like the Aria, I am much happier with my new Primaluna Dialogue Premium HP. Not "pausing" ( how clever) at all ... Full steam ahead!
Well said ((((For the most part, many Audiophiles are preoccupied with whats on the radar, in the mags, and their demigod reviewer's they worship. If your an Audiophile/Musicphile with an intense passion for music, and your ongoing search in recent years has not fully satisfied your quest, Belles maybe your final choice. A real keeper.))))
Agree, It's always best to see with your ears then listen with your eyes? Best, JohnnyR
audiozen - Thanks. It’s harder than ever to listen to even a small percentage of all that’s available, since there are way fewer hifi shops in business. The answer for people who live too far away from dealers is to take advantage of policies like Ascend has, where you can audition for a time period, and get a refund if you don’t like it. In the case of that particular brand, based on what you have conveyed to me, there aren’t too many speakers being sent back. I bought a Rotel bx-840 2 integrated back in 1988 at cost, the dealer dropping the line because "no one has ever heard of it", and he kept his better selling NAD. He admitted that the Rotel was built better, and more reliable. I had it for almost 27 years. It was a great amp, never a malfunction, and sounded as good as new to me when I sold it 3 or 4 years ago. I bought their RCD 991 cd player in 2000, their best cd player at that time for about 1K, listed for $1300, had it for 15 years and sold it... part of my gradual upgrade process. The last speakers before the Vandersteens, some B&W "V" series small stand mounts, the entry level line of B&W at that time - very early ’90’s - were $300 new, had them for 20 years and they were damn good. Vinyl clad, 12 lbs a piece, had them on Sanus steel speaker stands and I always enjoyed listening to them. So now it’s Belles, Vandersteen, and a Rotel RCD 1570 slot load cd player that I bought last year. No TT, maybe in the future. I home dock Sirius sat radio through my amp, not great fidelity because it’s so compressed, but another listening option. I have Apple internet radio that I should connect to my amp, would really provide a ton of music. I agree, that older Rotel was built like a tank, pretty bullet proof. Sounded great for the price, for sure. The Rotel dealers always told me they loved it because returns were very rare. Denon kind of faded away from the 2 channel scene, at least in the states. That got heavy into home theater, right? But yes, their components were nice. That old Denon cd player of yours sounds like a brute! 38 pounds is unheard of these days, unless you go with something really exclusive, perhaps Esoteric or similar brand perhaps. Those old Pioneer cd players were nice build quality, and were solid. If I didn’t get the Rotel cd player, I probably would have got a Marantz. They always sounded very nice anytime I happened to hear one playing at a dealer. This system you are piecing together is going to be very impressive, I have to believe. Do you already have the Marantz 8005, or is that on the to buy list? All I can tell you is that based on my time listening to the Aria, you are going to be in audio Nirvana when you fire up the Virtuoso. I love integrated amps; the good ones give up very little to separates, and I like the one box space saving, as well as fewer cables to buy. The Virtuoso will not disappoint if I know Dave Belles even remotely. I’ll be interested to hear how it sounds, once your plan comes together. I really enjoy your take on the audio world, and your enthusiasm!
2chfreak..Well said. I miss the old Rotel line in the late 80's with their all black components with beautiful wood side panel's. Standard Hi-Fi, Seattle's first record store that opened up in 1941, now closed, was the first Rotel dealer in Seattle. I think their products back then were much higher quality and sounded better. The record store drove their wall hanging speakers with the Rotel gear. Denon was the same way back then. Their components at that time were gorgeous. I have in storage for the past three years my Denon GL-2560 SE CD player from 1992. It was rare to find in the states and was special order only. Price was at $1100.00. My Audio friend from China, now in Seattle bought one in Hong Kong and sold it to me brand new in the box for $600.00. Its a gold unit with rosewood panel's and has pitch control and weighs 38 pounds and has eight Burr-Brown DAC's under the hood custom designed by Denon. The good old days of digital. Look forward to my purchase of the Virtuoso in March. My final retirement system this Spring will be made up of the Virtuoso integrated, the Ascend Acoustics Sierra Tower with the NrT tweeter, the Marantz SA-8005 SACD player, and the I-Fi Itube2 tube buffer which will be hooked up to the Marantz outputs to the Virtuoso inputs. Marantz quality with tube sound. A great high value recipe.
audiozen - I was one of those people that was obsessed with the audio magazines, the reviews, scouring the internet to find that elusive hidden gem of an audio component that I just knew was out there - I just had to find it. After a good long while, I was hitting the wall, burned out from the chase, and decided the only way to cut to the real chase was to go listen to some stuff and let my ears make the decision. I enjoy reading reviews, and always have, but in retrospect I realized that I had wasted an awful lot of time that could have been better spent listening to music on a great system, and be done with it. Done for the time being; you know how this "musicphile" addiction is! The only brand that I owned for a long time was Rotel, and I really enjoyed their electronics for many years. An integrated amp, a small receiver back years ago, a very nice cd player and even an analog tuner that I still own. You get used to what you have, but you don’t know what your missing until you start surveying the audio landscape and allow your ears to take a test drive. Many of the magazines are afraid to publish a bad review, not wanting to offend the manufacturer and lose their ad dollars. You aren’t getting an honest assessment, and often the conclusion of the article is not positive or negative.... closing with the likes of " though it may not be for everybody, this amp, speaker, whatever deserves to be heard, and might be just the ticket for your audio needs." Vague and no feathers ruffled. The Belles Aria sounds amazing to me. My Vandersteen speakers sounded very nice with the Rotel amp, but the Aria brought them to life, and put me front and center in front of the orchestra. The improvement over the Rotel was not subtle. Having met and spoken with David Belles on several occasions, I can attest with certainty that he is incredibly talented, cares deeply about his customers, and as you stated, audiozen, he prioritizes musicality over all else. He emphasized this goal when I heard him speak about his products, and every time I listen to this amp I’m reminded of just how successfully he has achieved his goals.
I won’t tell you that Belles is the best, but it has been great for me, a great match for my speakers, and to my ears offers a level of audio performance that is simply staggering, at a price that will put a smile on your face.
For the most part, many Audiophiles are preoccupied with whats on the radar, in the mags, and their demigod reviewer's they worship. If your an Audiophile/Musicphile with an intense passion for music, and your ongoing search in recent years has not fully satisfied your quest, Belles maybe your final choice. A real keeper. During the past several months I spent considerable time looking under the hood of many Belles components and was stunned by the very high quality parts and low noise circuit boards in their units, that are typically found in components in the $10K to $20K range. I'm not aware of any other company that has these type of high quality parts in their units in the same price range. I went to the Belles address from their website on Google images and it takes you directly to Dave's house, which is a modest middle class home. He keeps his production factory completely off the radar. His high quality parts remind me of Spectral. The quality of sound from his recent Aria line, is his best work ever. Resulting in a truly perfect balance of the richness of tube sound and the slam of solid state. Belles products are musical treasures, not designed for the commercial side of the high end industry. Products that are produced in smaller numbers, for a limited group of very passionate music lovers. Thats Daves' only purpose.
I like Audiozen’s passion for Belles products. He has found a product line that he loves that is somewhat affordable. Yes Audiozen is a huge Belles fanboy but certainly not the first to proclaim over the top praise for a particular brand. If he feels Belles is the best good for him. Certainly I don’t agree that one brand is the best but we all have our reasons on how we spend our money.
“A percentage of Gon member's are in the same camp. Buy just for show. I just don't get it. They would be better off investing in a car collection or coin collection.”
Was this comment really necessary? I have not heard any of the Belles products and have no reason to believe they are not as excellent as they’re being described. That been said, comparing its sound to a tube sound may or may not be a great selling point. There are a lot of folks who prefer a more balanced sound and the so called tube midrange bloom is not always a preference. Many if not most of the all tube - amp and preamp, systems I’ve heard put the vocal singers ahead of the other musicians on the soundstage even when the singer is physically standing behind some of the other mucisians on the platform. But I digressed... Unfortunately this is yet another great piece of gear that I can not afford, at least at the moment.
I see their doing free commercials now the Gon. Who doesn't like a free plug. Now back on topic, all that greatness for under $7k. Sounds like a deal to me.
audiozen - I went to the ifi site, checked it out, pretty ingenious little device. I like that 100,000 hr life span on the tube! Thanks for the heads up with the speakers, buffer. etc.
2chfreak - Heres another gem I'll throw atcha. One of the very best tube buffers under $1K on the planet. Hand made in London. Its a portable box unit you can hold in your hand with inputs and outputs with a single NOS GE 5670 tube that has a life of !00,000 hours. Put it between your CD player and Preamp, or between your Preamp and amplifier. It has three different sonic signature settings. Classic, Push-Pull and SET. It will transform the sound quality of your current system to a higher level. It is the ifi-iTube2. Retails for $ 375.00 on Amazon. Heres the link.
audiozen - I checked out the review>soundapprentice>CBM-170SE. Sounds like a real wolf in sheeps clothing speaker. I'm not about exotic finishes and 12 coats of paint and gloss - more about sound quality than cosmetics. If I get a chance to hear any Ascends, I will give a listen. The manufacturer contacting a purchaser and setting up a listening session is a great idea. That's two for two impressive reviews that don't sound like hyperbole. Thanks for the link, and for the advice.
For those in Great Britain reading this thread discovering Belles for the first time, here is the address of the Belles Distributor in England, Nu Nu Distribution LTD.
kclone..Belles has been very consistent regarding the back of their amps using on every component very high quality Tiffany RCA inputs and outputs and high quality speaker connector's. Look at the back of many of their units on Google images.
It does not imply that at all. Any one with common sense knows what I wrote was an "example". You are right though about my rant with Tekton which I've decided not to buy and have deleted all those threads after hitting myself in the head with a brick. Why in Gods' name is Eric Alexander making the Pendragon SE at $20K a pair when he strongly claims on his site that his speakers at $3K a pair are the best in the world regardless of price. Somethings wrong with that picture. Eric also claims that during the past 20 years he has designed speakers for other companies but refuses to mention on his site who those companies are and what models he designed. He is not a well educated engineer as Dave Fabrikant is at Ascend Acoustics who is also a speaker/driver designer. Eric Alexander got his training from Ray Kimber. Big deal. Kimber Kable does not build or sell speakers. Ascend Acoustics are much better quality speakers than Tekton. His Sierra Towers with their bamboo cabinet structure and their state of the art custom drivers are the best speakers I have ever heard at their price point during the past thirty years.
Well, not a lot to say at this point. It doesn’t get released until March. All we know now is it’s features and that it is a beautiful looking integrated. I do wish they would post images of the back side though.
I'm not a cynic about Belles, I can't be as I've never heard his stuff. Likewise, I knew you didn't own a Belles amp from your prior response; however, you however that you pick up the phone call a dealer in California and have Belles gear shipped to you. that wording implies that you own Belles gear; guess maybe you need to watch what you write. Additionally, you have a proclivity for making nonsensical statements such as "
All the other companies can only survive with their ongoing magazine ads, and constant audio establishment reviews or they would die on the vine." . Any time you have an interest in a product (Belles, Ascend Acoustics, Tekton) you go off on these rants and act like you are the "all knowing one". Not quite!. Enjoy your new amp if you get it.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
