Any owner thoughts on the Belle 350A amp?

belles is true plug & play (100k-ohm input impedance, so no problems there)---will work w/ ANY speaker. very organic, great imaging, excellent bass (really, excellent throughout the freq spectrum).

ultimately i sold mine for 2 reasons: 1) i got a CTC BBQ for less money (its a legitimate superamp retailing for $7k), and 2) the belles' biggest fault was stage depth, particularly when music got complex. the stage depth would collapse & run together. a problem w/ symphonic music, but for jazz, vocals, R&R, folk, the belles is a great amp.

but really, the reason i sold was b/c of #1. CTC gear is amongst the best in the world; belles is good/great, but not BEST.

oh, the 350 puts off NO heat. and physically small. also considerations worth noting.

i think marty at BoundForSound had a very good review of it.

rhyno

I've used the Belles 350A for some time now and am very pleased with it in every respect. My Belles drives a pair of JMLabs Mezzo Utopias. As Rhyno notes, the amp runs very cool and cozies up to nearly any speaker you can name.

I respectfully but energetically disagree about the collapse of sound stage depth with complex music. I routinely listen to highly complex orchestral music and have NEVER noticed this tendency. On the contrary, one of the features of this amp that appealed to me during the selection process was its ability to disentagle Mahler and keep all the players in their correct seats and not bouncing around the stage or falling into a muddy lump. I would have to question whether the difficulties he experienced resulted from another component in the signal path or some dyssynergy or other.

Good luck and good listening.

will

actually, i foudn the staging issue was resolved with the CTC amp. listen as the dynamic gradations run up & down from quiet to loud...the stage collapse does happen.

its still better than anything else out there for $3500 retail easy...i really liked that amp, but the CTC i got for the same money is in a different league.
best

rhyno