Bel Canto Ref 1000 ice monos- heard/compared to??

I had the earlier Evo series and a PS Audio HCA-2. Neither of these have "similar topology", and neither do the others you mentioned as they are not ICE modules. Personally I felt the PS Audio was greatly overrated, thin sounding and kind of grainy with much lower resolution that the Bel Cantos, just my opinion for those who like the amp so no flames please. The Evo was and is a great amp, the Ref1000's I replaced it with are not as much of a leap forward. They are however even more dynamic that the briged Evo6 I had which was 380wpc, sound ever so slightly more laid back, and are much smaller if this makes a difference which for me it did. A huge difference, no...but as I said the Evo was a great sounding amp so it takes a lot to better it.

thanks- very helpful...

I see no one has posted yet, so I'll chime in. I know your question related to the comparison of these amps, which I cannot answer. However, I can say that I recently purchased the Bel Canto M300s and love their clarity, bass extension and dynamic soundstage. A great amp for the money, and the 1000s are supposed to be even better. Good luck in your search.

Tgrisham- thanks for chiming in- I felt the same things about the Ref 1000's...

I have two Acoustic Reality eAR 1001 ICEpower based mono amps, which I slightly prefer above the Accuphase A-50V class A stereo amp. It is weird, but the Accuphase is almost 10 times the price of the eAR amps when new! I wonder though if the eAR amps (or similar amps like the Belcanto Ref 1000) are really that good. I mean, it is almost absurd that the very expensive super hi end amp is not superior to this sub $2k amp.

Chris

I think it will come down to mating these types of amps with the right speakers. They are fantastic with my Dynaudios which run at a steady 4 Ohms and are relatively "tight". Once they are more commonplace, we may find their limitations, but I already prefer them to typical solid state; tubes are another matter. If they hold their own, SS amps will have a hard time competing. I wonder where the technology will go next?

Tgrisham- agreed- speaker mating important- the Dynaudios are probably a fab match- I use Coincident Victory speakers in that system- 97db/14ohm- more meant for tubes, however with a 1 year old who is mobile now, I am shying away from 'hot' tubes and need a simpler, yet pure-sounding solid state solution (the system also doubles as 2-ch home theater).

As another point of reference for you, I've got the REF1000's driving Zu Druid (101 dB, 12 ohm). Best amps I've heard. And the speakers definitely like them. And they don't heat the room way up. At first I thought it was nuts to pair up 1000W with a 12-ohm wide-range speaker, but after enjoying the music for a while I really don't care how it looks. If I'm a nut, at least I'm a happy nut.