BEL 1001 amps. Specs and ordering

It's interesting the responses the BEL amp gets. For me, I've had to live with each upgrade for at least a few days before I can appreciate the enhancements made in the sound. The amp just resolves more and that can make it hard for us listeners. It challenges what we're used to hearing and more clearly shows us what our front end is doing. It can also show up engineering faults in speaker designs.

In any case, Narrod is 100% correct. Everyone needs to listen for themselves. With this amp, you should be sure to plan more than a brief listen too. I've compared it to Ayre and McCormack, etc. They all have a wonderful sound, but they also had their own sound. As I've said before, this amp really lets you hear what your preamp sounds like. It's forced me to make several upgrades there as a result of lots of listening. Only after listening to the VTL 7.5, Aesthetix Calypso and Theta Gen VIII was I finally able to understand what what happening. (Thus the Gen VIII in my system.)

Bottom line: It doesn't matter what I hear or think. It's your money so make your own opinion up. ;-) Like fine wine, everyone has a different palate!

Happy Holidays all and thanks for the adult level thread! It was very refreshing.

Sincerely (if too long),

To Mikej,

Well said. If only all the discussions here were of this level and tone. Merry Christmas to all.

Wendell

Well, I know I am going to take a shellacking for this, but here goes: A "great" amp, properly designed and built, tube or SS, should not be "sensitive" to cables. C'mon, guys, people are taking your money.

Let's please not get into a cable discussion. No one, believer or skeptic, is going to be convinced.

Regards,

Wendell

Thanks everyone for all of the imput about BEL and thanks especially to Mikej for answering all of my questions offline.
It is interesting how many different opinions there are about these amps. I think I may try an and older version in stereo first to see if I like the sound.
I'm really looking for a great amp at a somewhat reasonable price (up to $4000 used), but I'm probably kidding myself as my amps sound pretty darn good. If anyone can think of a must hear amp in the under $4000.00 used price range please let me know.

Cytocycle:
I'm going to take your advise and listen to a BEL if at all possible before buying.
I also agree that the preamp is very important. I have a really good one. It's a Symphonic line tube pre. I've compared it to several other well regarded preamps and I like the Symphonic Line much better.

A couple of people mentioned cables and I used to think that as long as they were decent, it didn't matter much which brand you choose. Now that my system is good I hear differences in all of the different cables. I'm currently using NBS monitor 4 interconnects and Audience Au24 speaker cables.

Enough rambleing from me.
Thanks again for all of the input and if anyone knows of a great, relatively reasonable amp to try in my system please let me know.