Bel Canto DAC vs. Perpetual Tech P3A?

Wes Phillips has an informative review of the Bel Canto DAC on his website: www.onhifi.com (click on "hot product"). He plans to review the Perpetual P1/P3 combo in November and compare it to the BC. He liked the BC DAC a lot.

Well I feel very comfortable comparing these two units. I have given my comments on the PT unit on other threads and there is no point in belaboring my impressions. The Bel Canto is MUCH more like music than the P-3a although the P-3a is on the right track so far as resolution and dynamics. Tonally it is all wrong and really doesn't compare. DO NOT take my word for it, listen for yourself, it is a no brainer. The Bel Canto is MUSICAL. I got listener fatigue in short order with the PT unit and sent it back. PT DOES give a 30 day no questions asked in home trial period so there really is no reason not to listen for yourself. The Bel Canto isn't as successful as it is for no reason. It is a great product at a real world price. Good luck.

In response to Tubegroover's comments, I would like to add the following. I recently sent my P3-A bach to Perp Tech to fix a documented problem with the Crystal chip set. I bring this up because the tonal characteristic (which was amazingly smooth AND musical) right out of the box suddenly turned harsh and fatiguing - this happened immediately after I heard "clipping" sounds from the system. I was told by the Technical Director of PT, Jon Lane (an extremely helpful gentleman) that this was because of the problem with the Crystal unit which had just then been documented. They expect a fix within the first week of November. OK, the reason for this long-winded passage - Tubegroover, your experience MAY be due to this problem. I do agree that the BC is amazingly musical - I just feel, that based on my experience with the P3-A BEFORE it clipped, it sounded amazingly smooth and non-fatiguing - and I have solid state electronics as well as metal-dome tweeters - in other words a pretty forward-sounding system to begin with.

ok all ewe bel-canto lovers, i have no experience w/this, but bruce wenger, a local toob-roller & equipment mfr (czech out his www: http://www.bws-tube.com/), sez he has a mod for the bel-canto dac that puts it into the $4k+ performance category. mite wanna give him a buzz... doug

Srama I have no doubt on the chip being the problem. It is the only plausible explanation for what I heard. What is strange is that I E-mailed Perpetutual Technology’s Mark Schiftner explaining the problem thinking there was something wrong with the unit. He E-mailed me a response back a week later. By that time I had sent the unit back to the dealer. He had no explanation on what I was hearing and stated that it was an isolated case and couldn’t imagine what the problem might be. When I purchased the unit from the dealer I was told me the sound was metallic out of the box and would take 100+ hours of break in. After the first week I suspected what I was hearing was more than a break in issue. When PT didn’t respond immediately I didn’t know what to think so I sent the unit back. I had a hard time believing that a product could sound the way that unit sounded without something being wrong but my concerns were never fully explained. My dealer thought the unit was better than the Bel Canto so now with your explanation of the bad chip I suspect there was something wrong with the unit.