New Bel Canto REF600M using NCORE
This is the first review I've seen of them. He seemed to like them, although not enough to push his Anthem's out the door. http://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/930-bel-canto-design-e-one-ref600m-mono-amplifiershttp:// |
Thanks for posting the link to the Soundstage HiFi review of the Ref 600m. I find the reviewer Roger Kanno's following statement a bit curious: "And as good as the REF600M was, it couldn’t equal the sound quality of the more expensive and more powerful Anthem Statement M1." I know that is quote mining and Mr. Kanno DID enjoy the 600m, but I find it curious because Kalman Rubinson of Stereophile reviewed the Anthem and ultimately concluded, "... in its present state I cannot recommend the M1. It imposed a tonal signature on the sound that was simply not neutral. Many successful audio products fail to meet this criterion, and some are perhaps designed to do so, but I don't believe that this was Anthem's goal." http://www.stereophile.com/content/anthem-statement-m1-monoblock-power-amplifier-page-2#S6oZGsORYp7A... I actually think that might be one of the harshest conclusions I've ever read in Stereophile. Take all of this with a grain of salt and throw in a dollop of "whatever floats your boat". I just find it interesting. For me, Stereophile is my most trusted resource outside of simply listening myself. I'm still riding the Ref 600m hype train and looking forward to auditioning soon. |
I listened to a promo pair of these a few months ago, and I was finally impressed with the sound of Class D. But they were driving expensive two ways with an easy load, and in particular the ribbon tweeter was a nice flat 6ohm load impedance and flat small negative phase angle, which can to my ears make Class D sound not so good if it wanders too much in impedance and phase angle. So I wasn't sold, and have no opportunity to hear them on something more taxing to Class D. in the HF From what I gather they do stray from just the off the shelf NCore design, as I believe that Belcanto have do their own output filtering which is tricky, and from what I gather it's a few series up filters so they can still push the power though them without blowing them, yet get a sharper rolloff to get that nasty switching noise killed off without effecting the audio band too much. But then series'ing up filters has it own set of problems, eg ringing again?? At least their trying. Still to me the best way is to increase the switching frequency at least 5-10 times higher than what technology can do now. Then in the future when the technology allows this to happen, just a single filter will do the job of killing the switching frequency noise without it's artifacts being anywhere near the audio band. Cheers George |
