Belles Greatest Integrated ever! The Virtuoso

2chfreak..Well said. I miss the old Rotel line in the late 80's with their all black components with beautiful wood side panel's. Standard Hi-Fi, Seattle's first record store that opened up in 1941, now closed, was the first Rotel dealer in Seattle. I think their products back then were much higher quality and sounded better. The record store drove their wall hanging speakers with the Rotel gear. Denon was the same way back then. Their components at that time were gorgeous. I have in storage for the past three years my Denon GL-2560 SE CD player from 1992. It was rare to find in the states and was special order only. Price was at $1100.00. My Audio friend from China, now in Seattle bought one in Hong Kong and sold it to me brand new in the box for $600.00. Its a gold unit with rosewood panel's and has pitch control and weighs 38 pounds and has eight Burr-Brown DAC's under the hood custom designed by Denon. The good old days of digital. Look forward to my purchase of the Virtuoso in March. My final retirement system this Spring will be made up of the Virtuoso integrated, the Ascend Acoustics Sierra Tower with the NrT tweeter, the Marantz SA-8005 SACD player, and the I-Fi Itube2 tube buffer which will be hooked up to the Marantz outputs to the Virtuoso inputs. Marantz quality with tube sound. A great high value recipe.

audiozen - Thanks. It’s harder than ever to listen to even a small percentage of all that’s available, since there are way fewer hifi shops in business. The answer for people who live too far away from dealers is to take advantage of policies like Ascend has, where you can audition for a time period, and get a refund if you don’t like it. In the case of that particular brand, based on what you have conveyed to me, there aren’t too many speakers being sent back.
I bought a Rotel bx-840 2 integrated back in 1988 at cost, the dealer dropping the line because "no one has ever heard of it", and he kept his better selling NAD. He admitted that the Rotel was built better, and more reliable. I had it for almost 27 years. It was a great amp, never a malfunction, and sounded as good as new to me when I sold it 3 or 4 years ago. I bought their RCD 991 cd player in 2000, their best cd player at that time for about 1K, listed for $1300, had it for 15 years and sold it... part of my gradual upgrade process. The last speakers before the Vandersteens, some B&W "V" series small stand mounts, the entry level line of B&W at that time - very early ’90’s - were $300 new, had them for 20 years and they were damn good. Vinyl clad, 12 lbs a piece, had them on Sanus steel speaker stands and I always enjoyed listening to them. So now it’s Belles, Vandersteen, and a Rotel RCD 1570 slot load cd player that I bought last year. No TT, maybe in the future. I home dock Sirius sat radio through my amp, not great fidelity because it’s so compressed, but another listening option. I have Apple internet radio that I should connect to my amp, would really provide a ton of music. I agree, that older Rotel was built like a tank, pretty bullet proof. Sounded great for the price, for sure. The Rotel dealers always told me they loved it because returns were very rare.
Denon kind of faded away from the 2 channel scene, at least in the states. That got heavy into home theater, right? But yes, their components were nice. That old Denon cd player of yours sounds like a brute! 38 pounds is unheard of these days, unless you go with something really exclusive, perhaps Esoteric or similar brand perhaps. Those old Pioneer cd players were nice build quality, and were solid. If I didn’t get the Rotel cd player, I probably would have got a Marantz. They always sounded very nice anytime I happened to hear one playing at a dealer. This system you are piecing together is going to be very impressive, I have to believe. Do you already have the Marantz 8005, or is that on the to buy list? All I can tell you is that based on my time listening to the Aria, you are going to be in audio Nirvana when you fire up the Virtuoso. I love integrated amps; the good ones give up very little to separates, and I like the one box space saving, as well as fewer cables to buy. The Virtuoso will not disappoint if I know Dave Belles even remotely. I’ll be interested to hear how it sounds, once your plan comes together. I really enjoy your take on the audio world, and your enthusiasm!

Well said
((((For the most part, many Audiophiles are preoccupied with whats on the radar, in the mags, and their demigod reviewer's they worship. If your an Audiophile/Musicphile with an intense passion for music, and your ongoing search in recent years has not fully satisfied your quest, Belles maybe your final choice. A real keeper.))))

 Agree,
 It's always best to see with your ears then listen with your eyes?
 Best,
 JohnnyR

I actually have the Belles Aria Integrated paired with Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2's sitting on Ascend stands filled with black blasting sand.

I have been very satisfied with the sound, but am moving in a different direction on both my amp and speakers, and will be listing them very soon.

Could it be the Blasting sand is causing meno savy to be actually getting less savy and in the direction of Meno pause?