THE BLACK BY BEL CANTO- NEW REFERENCE


The new Bel Canto mono blocks that just came out, called BLACK BY BEL CANTO, weighing in each at 45 pounds, may be the amp I mentioned in a thread two years ago that had bee delayed for release back in 2013. The mono amp that John was working on back in 2012 was a Class D amp with no switching module replaced by a very large DC power supply. Reading the info on the website, would conclude this is it. Its also using a Ncore power supply as well. The large main power supply John designed would account for the heavy 45 pounds each. These new mono amps are part of a new three piece system. The amps are $15K each. Go to the Bel Canto home page. Scroll down to the very bottom right and click black face plate option and this will open up the new pages for the Black system. Has anyone out there heard these amps?
audiozen

Showing 6 responses by guidocorona

I agree with you Mapman... As sweet as REF1000M is, with the new modules, a REF1000M equivalent is bound to sound even better than the original.
I listened to a pre-production unit of the entire Bel Canto Black system at RMAF 2013. It was a very sweet and musical sounding system, with very fine resolution and no glare.

Per my undrstanding of a brief chat that I had with John Stronczer at that time, Black monos appear to sport custom modules from Hypex... But it was not clear to me if such power conversion modules were derived from NCore NC1200 parts, or they were derived from upper end UDC modules with some NCore extensions.



Some information about the Black system can be found at:

http://www.belcantoblack.com/Bel-Canto-Black-MPS1-Powerstream.html

G.
Audiozen, I see no evidence on the system description page of NCore power supplies.... I see a reference to an NCore power processor, which I interpret to be a power conversion module of some kind...

"The analog signal passes through custom discrete Bel Canto balanced amplifier stages for current conversion and voltage amplification. Each PowerStream Mono Block holds a Bel Canto nCore Discrete Power Processor stage that can supply 1200Watts and 40 Ampere peaks to the loudspeaker with 128 dB of dynamic range."

Admittedly, the above is a bit confusing... I will call up Mr. Stronczer when I have time and will try to get a better description.... Will post it here.

Saluti, G.

G.
Drubin, as far as I know, the new NAD may be using a Hypex module derived from NC1200, targeting OEMs for lower power applications. It would be interesting to hear it. G.
Hi Audiozen, what is clear is that Black is far from a basic NCore implementation... NCore is part of a sophisticated design... And if my quick impressions of the whole prototype last year are any indications.... It is a pretty fine sounding system.
Hi again Mapman, I looked up the NAD M22. Fascinating device at an "entry level" audiophilic price point... Lots of technology inside, NCore being only part of it. Seems continuous power / 8 Ohms with nominal THD is 250W with a peak current of a whapping 50 Amps. On 4 Ohms, peak power is about 600W. There seems to be a little discrepancy between the damping factor stated on the devices home page (120) and what the manual says (800). Device is already available from Crutchfield. Here is the amps web page, where you will also find a link to user manuals in several languages:

http://nadelectronics.com/products/masters-series/M22-Stereo-Power-Amplifier
If anyone is looking for an amp that will not break the bank, whith probable high potential, M22 should be one to look at seriously.

G.