Krell FPB 400CX, Bel Canto Ref1000 MkII


Hey Guys,

I just got a new pair of Revel Gems and was wondering what amp you thought would be a better choice in my system. I have a placette passive linestage, wadia 7 transport going into a levinson 30.5 DAC and hopefully a nice turntable soon, oh and a Revel B15 sub. I know these amps are pretty different Krell is huge class A and the Bel Cantos are tiny(in size not power) class D.

Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks
chauncey

Showing 2 responses by simontju

Bel Canto Ref1000 MkII is simply outstanding amplifier. At $6k/pr it provide unbeatable performance.

I don't like Placette passive preaamp, I owned it and it does not have enough dynamic range and bass extension as compared to excellent active preamplifier.

Thank you
"32lbs my Krell is..200w/ch into 8ohms it will do"

...for you, I am sure and its good. For many of us such light weight means nothing bad but absense of heave heatsinks and heavy transformers. This obviously imply on the diminished concern with heat generation and identifies this (very good) amp as being heavily biased in class B.

You have excellent price per performance ratio here. However, its not class A Krell amplifier we all know.

Regarding the light weight of Bel Canto - again there is no concern about heat generation - but only because this class D amplfifier is highly efficient and less then 20% of its power converted to heat.

Next, it does not have heavy transformers simly because its power supplies are switching. May be they are good or may be bad - you can argue from morning tull evening - in either case they are...light.

You would be much better off by doing sonic comparison in these audio amplfiers

Thank you