bel canto dac 3 cd 2 owners

Hi Chrissain,

I've owned a DAC3 and I absolutely loved it. The only reason I traded it in was because I did a serious upgrade to an MBL 1611F DAC. I thought the Bel Canto sounded great with the stock power supply. I'm not familiar with the upgrade that you mentioned, however I agree with you that improving power supplies usually helps, you may be able to improve your "power delivery situation" in other ways, though.

Your used DAC3 is worth about $1600, so I don't think that I would invest another $2000 into it, you'll never be able to recover your investment. I would personally rather put that money into a Music Server or Logitech Transporter.

If I were you, I would leave the DAC3 as is, because I think it's great, and then when you're ready to jump into the Higher Resolution Audio Formats 24bit/192kHz, you could sell the DAC3 for $1600 and then add your $2000 and see what you could get in the Music Server/DAC $3000-$4000 range that can handle 24Bit/192kHz Audio.

If you want to spruce up the power to the DAC3 now, then I would invest in a nice used power cord for a couple of hundred bucks, and consider a dedicated AC-Line, that can also make a big difference.

Are you not happy with the way it sounds now?

What's the rest of your set-up like, maybe there are other areas that you could improve on?

Rich

hi, the power supply is in another box that is the same size and shape of the dac 3, but its filled with caps and ac filters, it converts ac to 12 volts dc, they take out the power supply board in the dac 3 and put in a new 12 volt board. then both the dac 3 and the cd 2 plug into the new separate dedicated power supply. I was told by belcanto that it lowers the noise floor by orders of magnatude, and is quite a sonic upgrade. I have all of my gear pluged into a shunyata hydra 8 [the new one] with good powercords, I live in a 1920s built apartment so a dedicated line is out of the picture. I have done power supply mods to my Rogue audio m150s , and that was a big upgrade in sound, so I am hoping that this would also be a nice upgrade. thaks for the input, chris

oh , I forgot to add, i love the sound of my dac 3, and dont have any intention of replacing it any time soon, but you all know about the upgrade bug, it itches and itches untill you scratch it !! I will upgrade my speakers [revel f32] sometime also ,but the dac 3 cd2 and rogue m150s are staying for a while. thanks , chris

Is this upgrade done by Bel Canto?

My DAC3 had an exceptionally low noise floor, with great resolution, using a Kubala AES/EBU Digital Cable, which I thought was great.

What is the rest of your system like?
Digital Cable type and brand?
Do you have more than one digital source plugged into the DAC3?
Are you using a Preamp or the DAC3 Volume Control?

What are you not happy with with the way your system sounds now?

Rich

OK, I'm with ya..., Certainly good Stuff!

I posted some questions awaiting moderator approval, but I see that you've answered some of them already. If you could answer some of the others forthcoming, I may have some other possible suggestions for you.

I love the DAC3 too, but what do feel you're not getting out of your system, that needs improvement. Black background, resolution, detail? Depth?

Digital cable brand/input type? How many inputs are plugged into the DAC3?
Are you using the Variable Volume or fixed volume on the DAC3, or external preamp?

Rich