Belles Greatest Integrated ever! The Virtuoso

@2chfreak.......great post.  I’ve had both the Soloist 1 and the Aria.  The Aria has more natural soul.  Thanks.....

carmenc - I'm new to this forum, and between you, audiozen, and of course JohnnyR, not to mention others... I'm feeling less alone in my appreciation for Belles. Like so many other things in life, people tend to ignore true quality, and too easily give in to the hype, to glitzy advertising and all the other nonsense that attempts to sway us from our own intuition, our gut feeling. It's easy to get caught up in the exclusivity and status of many of these audio products, but there is not necessarily a correlation between price and quality/ performance. Those 3 page, glossier than polyurathane ads in the audio rags cost a ton, and I personally prefer manufacturers who put the money into the product. Trust your ears is the best advice I've heard so far.
Belles and Vandersteen are just two examples; there are countless others for sure. "If you build it, and build it really well, they will come" type of approach, to paraphrase the old adage. Nothing beats word of mouth promotion and enthusiasm, and if I buy your product and it mesmerises and delights me and literally makes a powerful emotional connection with me than just as sure as hell I'm going to acknowledge the fact with gratitude and admiration. Music is a big deal, in my opinion the most powerful form of communication and entertainment there is, and to have it rendered and interpreted as beautifully and accurately as possible is one of life's great pleasures. Millions of people seemingly don't care, which bewilders me but different strokes for different folks, as they say. This is and always will be a niche interest, hobby, whatever you want to call it. Too many people have no idea what good music is, and really have no idea what good audio is all about. I love this stuff, and have for as long as I can remember. 

Been reading your comments, carmenc, and really enjoy your insight and perspective. Listening to others opinions is where it's at, and this should be a fun endeavor. Everybody's input is valuable, whether I agree or not. 

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.

audiozen - thank you audiozen (and carmenc) for the kind words. I've been all over this forum in the short time I've been registered, and I feel like a kid in a candy shop! In most cases I would be suffering from information overload, but this audio topic I find fascinating... have always been intrigued by it and I have never been able to shake the bug. Not that I want to! People can watch reality tv, play video games, or grow progressively more stupid while worshiping their smart phones; I'm perfectly content to chill out while listening to my music, basking in the splendor of it all. 

We "musicphiles" - I really like that term so much more than "audiophiles" - know deep down that our lust for fine audio is not just a vanity production. Maybe for some audiophiles it is, but getting lost in the music and forgetting about the electronics and cables and speakers is the end game unless you are a showoff trying to impress people with your processions. Like $40k look what I have guy.
 
 My main form of entertainment is listening to my 2 channel stereo, and since I upgraded the whole thing in the past couple of years I am enjoying it more than ever. I wanted to take the sound to the next level, and the Belles Aria with the Vandersteen 1's rescued me from languishing in mid fi limbo.
I remember the Sansui AU series, really nice cosmetics and from the era when amps and receivers actually had style. Having a good sound system was what many people aspired towards back then, but those days are over. Now it's about mobility, convenience, portability and listening in private with ear buds and the almighty phone. People probably think that moving up to an Echo with Alexa is entering the realm of hi end. It might be as close to hi end as they will ever get, and that is sad.

 I had some Advents too for a couple of years... all the rage for a while. Yeah, the 70's and 80's, when hifi shops were ubiquitous. For you kids, that means they were all over the place. Google it.
 
I met Dave Belles a couple of times last year, and he is an incredible guy. 
I had heard about the Belles brand for years, but never knew very much about it. I had about 2k to spend on an amp, and I saw a tiny ad for the Belles Aria in the back of one of the magazines. The HiFI Choice review was stellar, and I drove 3+ hours to Audio Connection in NJ. JohnnyR played some cool tunes, and it was a done deal. It takes me 15 minutes to pick out a head of lettuce; this decision took 15 seconds.
 I share your enthusiasm for Belles, to say the least. After reading a hundred reviews, and driving myself crazy, I finally ditched the reviews and let my ears be the final arbiter, for the amp and speakers. The Rutan factor didn't hurt either. He really tells it like it is, and he has an affable way about him that puts you at ease, making the decision process anxiety free. 
I think that with the new Aria line, and with the soon to be released Virtuoso, Dave Belles is going to make a lot of people think twice before they fork over that big, fat money clip. The quote attributed to Leonardo da Vince... "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" sums up Dave Belles to a tee. In an industry that more than ever caters to the wealthy and privileged, Dave Belles has decided to take a different approach. Namely, produce "music first" audio products of superior quality, price them fairly, derive immense satisfaction knowing that you made many people happy, and stay honest and humble and true to your vision no matter what the other guys are doing. This makes him an icon in my opinion. I feel very lucky that I discovered Belles, and it will take an awful lot of convincing to persuade me to switch to another brand after this massive an upgrade and the value proposition that it represents. I don't think you can do better for the money. I might be wrong, but my ears tell me I'm not!

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.