Belles Greatest Integrated ever! The Virtuoso

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.

Audiozen,
Before we crown this the greatest reasonably price integrated ever no one here has heard it.  I might be interested in purchasing the Virtuoso if the mc/phono section is really outstanding.  We need to have some feedback from people in the field on their opinions. Audiozen track one down and give us your impression. Again this is of interest to me.

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.