Belles Greatest Integrated ever! The Virtuoso


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.
audiozen

Showing 39 responses by audiozen

I would put Belles engineering genius way above the works of Pass Labs,
Accuphase and Boulder. David Belles is not into big profits and has always had the opportunity to move that direction. His deep passion for designing gear for serious music lovers is like a religion to him. Best sounding solid state gear I've ever heard during the past 30 years. His rich sound quality is the closest you will ever get to that 3D holographic midrange produced by tube amps from his solid state designs. 
For what you get from David Belles, 6K+ is dirt cheap. The very high quality caps, transistors and resistors in his units are typically found in $20K electronics. You will not find these high quality parts in units from Parasound, Hegel or other components manufactured in China in the same price range as Belles. His products are a steal for the price.
Tone 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. 
The basis of my statement is this. I have been an Audiophile for 40 years and have heard all the brands I have mentioned above and have owned in the past PASS gear. The Belles gear is far better sounding than the other brands I've mentioned and heres why. During the past forty years there has been repeated attempts by solid state amp designers to get as close as possible to that magical midrange floating holographic quality that the best tube amps are known for. Since David Belles has had a history producing solid state and tube designs, his solid state designs come closer to that magical midrange of tubes than any other solid state amp on the market. He doesn't advertise, he doesn't need to due to having the strongest word of mouth reputation in the country. He designs gear specifically for music lovers, the Musicphiles, not Audiophiles.
facten..I was turned on to Belles four years ago by a local audiophile friend who I've known for twenty years who I met at the Washington Audio society monthly meetings years ago. On several occasions, I had the pleasure of listening to his Belles Hot Rod amp hooked up to his Spectral DMC-10 preamp. The sound swept me away. Having owned many amps during the past 30 years from the likes of Carver, Counterpoint, Parasound, Early Nuforce SE 9's, None of those units grabbed my soul like the Belles. The one sonic character the Belles has over many others, is the remarkable rich smoothness in the midrange and high frequencies, as well as bass to die for.
Pure Class A? I doubt it. But it really doesn't matter if its Class A,B,C,D,E,F,G...Why? Once you hear a Belles amp, game over. The sound will seduce you like the Siren's from Greece. I MEAN Really seduce you. I was originally planning to purchase the Belles Aria preamp
hooked up to a pair of Bel Canto amps and during the past eight months was frustrated why Belles doesn't come out with a 200+ watts per side
integrated, and sure enough, it has arrived from the Mother Ship. My first system in 1978 was a Sansui AU 7900 integrated hooked up to a Dual 701 turntable and large Advent speakers. You could fry an egg on the rear heat sink. And now that I'm retiring coming back full circle to an integrated amp from Belles, the Rolls Royce of solid state.
Click on this link and it will take you to the Belles home page with the pic of the Virtuoso.  www.powermodules.com

" The sound is luscious and sweet...if you like the smooth liquid delivery of tube amps but wish they had more grunt, listen to the Aria."
  HI-FI Choice online magazine.

The Aria is the little brother to the Virtuoso putting out 75 watts per channel. I was told by AudioWaves, a Belles retailer, that the Aria outsells
all brands of integrated's at their store.The important point to make here is the special tube like liquid midrange that Belles is known for. I cannot recall any other high end solid state amp during the past 30 years regardless of price and build quality that sounds like tubes. The early pieces from Spectral in the mid 80's and early 90's, when designs were done by Demian Martin only came the closest to the Belles sound.
When Keith Johnson took over the designs starting with the DMC-12, things went downhill at Spectral. Amps from Boulder, Levinson, Ayre, Pass, McIntosh, Spectral, Krell, or the best class D amps all do great things, but their engineers never have achieved what Belles has accomplished, getting the closest ever to that tube liquid midrange from a solid state amp.
bobheinatz..I'm not sure if any beta units turned up at CES last week, but heres what I would suggest until the unit is released. Find out if there is a Belles dealer in your area. The newest Aria series designs come with MM/MC boards depending on which version is available at a retail store to listen to. The Aria integrated, comes in two versions, with MM phono
or with both MM/MC boards. See if the Aria integrated is on display with the MC version and go in and take a listen. This will provide you just how well his phono sections performs, and the Virtuoso, over three times the price of the Aria, I'm certain will up that game.
bobheinatz...There are very few companies whose audio products I would purchase without hesitation with no concern to listen first before I buy. For one reason only, reputation. Belles is one of those companies. One other company that comes to mind that I would purchase from without a listen, who makes the world's finest SACD/CD players, is Playback Designs. Their upcoming to be released next month, the MPS-8 SACD/CD player, which retails for $25,000.00, is the finest player in the world. Checkout the MPS-8 at www.playbackdesigns.com
2chfreak..I second carmenc's opinion that your post is great. You nailed it in spades. And your absolutely correct that millions don't care about music anymore. There are many audiophiles that buy high end gear just for show, on a endless carousel buying and selling constantly. A former audiophile friend of mine, who I no longer deal with, always has an average of $40K worth of gear in his rec room. He has never owned more than twenty CD's and has never heard of Bob Dylan or Joan Baez. 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.
2chfreak..Haven't heard any of the current Vandersteen models, and it appears he has taken on engineers that has improved his designs in recent years but that was not the case back in the 90's when all his model's were the open frame design with the sock over the frame. His speaker's back then sounded absolutely horrible. Why did he get such high praise back then?
Because of big bucks going to Stereophile. During the late 80's and early 90's Richard Vandersteen had the largest annual advertising contract with Stereophile. For four years + he had a full page ad on the back cover every month. Most of the ads were the 2 CE. In the summer of 1998 I decided to check out the 2 CE's and called my friend Keith from the Washington Audio Society and asked him to go down to Tacoma with me and listen to the CE's at Advanced Audio. We arrived at the store, and the owner, Curtis, took us into the sound room where he set up a system to the 2 CE's. The gear used was an Audible Illusion's Modulus 3A preamp, an Ayre amplifier and a Wadia CD player. I brought some master CD recordings with me and started off with Copelands' Rodeo. The spectacular opening of Rodeo with its powerful timpani's and crashing symbols sounded flat and dull. The bass was loose and flabby with a narrow soundstage with no hall effect and poor imaging. Keith and I looked at each other and were shocked how bad the speaker sounded especially the bottom end that had low SPL capability. For two hours we threw everything at the Vandy's, Brubeck, Zeppelin, Beethoven. It just couldn't deliver the goods. Two days later I called and spoke to Richard Vandersteen and asked him what the maximum SPL/weighted decibel level the speaker could reach before breaking down. His response was.."What do you mean by weighted?" I explained and he went dead quiet, then replied loosing his temper and yelled at me saying, "I don't have time to answer technical question's" and slammed the phone on me. I mentioned my experience with senior member's of the audio society and they burst out laughing and told me that Richard is well known in the industry for his bad temper. If you ever decide to move on from Vandersteen, I will turn you on to a true treasure speaker that I would call the "Belles" of stereo speakers from a small boutique company. Their best floor stander cabinet is made from bamboo. The strongest natural fiber panels available. Bamboo is 500% stronger than MDF which everyone uses to make speakers since MDF is cheap. Bamboo also weighs 50% less. The guy who makes these speakers is just like Dave Belles. Makes speakers for music lovers. His top floor stander only cost two grand and you would be hard pressed to find a better speaker anywhere under $10K that could best it. Its the speaker I have finally decided on that is a match made in heaven with the Virtuoso.
The problem was the 2CE speaker. Not the amp and preamp. Several times during the listening session we switched back and forth with a Genesis floor stander. The sound from the same gear coming through the Genesis was spectacular. Aaron Nevilles' voice floating in front on the speaker with remarkable 3D imaging was remarkable and the bottom end was outstanding. Believe me, I'm the last person on earth that needs and education on the technical values matching gear regarding impedance,
capacitance, or resistance values between components, matching cables or interconnects. Curtis made no mistake. Nice try.
2chreak..The current Vandy's look really good. Better crossover boards and better drivers. The speaker I'm referring to that I'm purchasing when the Virtuoso is released is designed by former top speaker engineer at Miller & Kreisel. Their professional pro line back in the 80's was overkill
and their speaker's were used in just about every pro recording studio coast to coast. The designer is David Fabrikant. Hes off the radar just like Belles and his speaker's are killer. Absolute killer. He only sells factory direct and is one of the most decent, friendly, enjoyable audio engineers to chat with, and he has the best customer service I have experienced in thirty years. His company is Ascend Acoustics. And his killer Sierra Tower is one to beat at $10K and under. He is also a speaker/driver designer.
He co-designed his NrT dome tweeter with SEAS which took two years.
The speaker is the Sierra Tower.  Check out this review on the EnjoytheMusic website, which is for Musicphiles, not Audiophiles. This past November, I sold by Ascend CBM-170 SE's with my Mira integrated
and Sony SACD player and I must say those little CBM bugger's are some of the best little bookshelf's I've heard during the past 30 years.
David likes staying off the radar and works 12 to 15 hours a day to satisfy his customers. He is a true music man that builds speakers for music lover's, the musicphiles.

 www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0312/sierra_tower_htm

            www.ascendacoustics.com

The enjoythemusic link has expired, but you can access the review on the Ascend Acoustics website.
oem-wheels..Hard to say. Shoot Dave an email. He responds quickly.
Hes full of surprises. But I would doubt it. My seasoned instincts tell me that the Virtuoso will be so spectacular musically, that separates will be the last thing on your mind. Don't think about, just buy it. And once you do, you will never sell it unless you hit hard times, and you will covet it like no other, and wind up hiring an armed Security Guard to guard your home.

Important point..there are just over 4000 speaker companies' worldwide. Only 20% of those companies' manufacture their speaker's in house. Out of those 20 percent there is a small percentage of those that don't just manufacture loudspeaker's, they go beyond conventional thinking and design their speaker's as musical instruments. This applies to the Ascend Acoustics Sierra Tower which is true musical instrument treasure which is Dave Fabrikants' intended purpose. The same philosophy applies to electronics. Dave Belles amplifiers are designed as musical instruments as well.

audiotroy..Boy, you have missed the boat. You need to eat some brain food. " If Belles products were so remarkable why are there next to no dealers?"  WHAT A LOAD OF HOOEY!!!

More than any other company, Belles has alway been the biggest threat to the retail industry, always clobbering mass mega-bucks electronics sold at the audio establishment retail stores. Belles does not need to be hooked up to a long string of retailers'. Their products sell constantly all year around since they have the strongest word of mouth reputation in the country amongst Musicphiles. All the other companies can only survive with their ongoing magazine ads, and constant audio establishment reviews or they would die on the vine. Not Dave Belles.
I could care less about a retailer here in Seattle carrying the Belles product line. I just pick up the phone, call the Belles dealer in California, and have gear shipped by blue label. And no tax!! Easy Peasy! 
JohnnyR at AudioConnection in New Jersey appears to be a solid decent retailer that caters to both Musicphiles and Audiophiles and operates from a high ethical standard. I know exactly what game your playing, trying to convey a false misleading perception that a high end product is only good if its available everywhere at the top high end retailers in every major city. For those younger, newer Audiophiles/Musicphiles ignore this bunk from audiotroy. And if you happen live in the New Jersey, central east coast area, give JohnnyR a call at AudioConnection if your in buying mode, JohnnyR can give the run down on the magnificence of Belles, the Rolls Royce of solid state.

   

Better than anyone else? Nope. Just that Belles sounds better. Truth can be painful. No, Belles won't have the high profit margins as the big mega buck amps costing $20K to $50K. The core reason why many high end retailers don't carry the Belles line, is that these retailer's do not want Belles in their stores, since their amps would embarrass the big boys and jeopardize their high profit margins. And these retailers will always lie and mislead you, trying to convince you that Belles is just another average high end brand on the same level as everyone else, while Belles in the meantime sits quietly on top of Mount Everest.
2chfreak..The one thing I like about the Sierra Towers is that they weigh only 44 pounds! The lightness of bamboo. Since bamboo is 500% stronger than MDF, it can take on much higher levels of distortion, resonance, and internal turbulence from low frequencies resulting in much better bass performance.
2chfreak..Check this out. A review you will thoroughly enjoy of the same
speaker I just sold in November. The Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 SE.
Click on The Sound Apprentice link. On the home page to the right, there is a list of "topics and brands" in individual boxes. Click on the one that says Ascend Acoustics, it will open up the review of the CBM-170 SE which concludes the speaker sets the standard against any other in its price range. Mind you that this is their budget small bookshelf much below the Sierra Tower, and the review is outstanding. Theres a method I use from time to time to check out gear in person during the past twenty years thats not available in my area. I'll call the manufacturer of the gear of interest, tell them I want to purchase, and ask if they have customer's in my home area that have purchased, and ask if they could call the customer, give them my contact info, to see if they wouldn't mind coming over for a listen. The results have always been positive and you wind up making a new Audio friend. Call Dave Fabrikant to set it up.

          www.thesoundapprentice.com
facten..Well aren't you the cynic. I never once said I own a Belles amp or a Belles component. Basis in fact? THATS EASY....Belles has been in business for thirty years always under the radar as his products constantly sell without all the marketing hyperbole BS with no need to advertise. Word of mouth reputation. I employ you to name one other high end component American company making solid state gear that has been in business for thirty years that has stayed off the radar and has survived solely from word of mouth reputation. Dave has a very strong cult following in England. The Brits love his gear. I made it very clear that I'm buying the Virtuoso when its released in March. You need to hit yourself in the head with a brick and re-read this thread to discover that I never owned a Belles, only that I've listened to one. 
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.
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.

     Here ya go mates...

                                      www.nunudistribution.co.uk



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.

                                        www.ifi-audio.com


Link does not work. Try this one...

                    www.ifi-audio.co.uk
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.
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.

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.  
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.
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.
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. 
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.