bel canto dac 3 cd 2 owners

Thanks Bill.

Say, do you have the REF VB Cable?
The big question is, which is better. The REF VB Cable
or the mk2 upgrade. They both cost the same. I am sure they additive. However, my main concern is musicality. If I have to sacrifice musicality to get better sound staging, then I do not want it. For my system a Synergistic Research Hologram D with a Galileo MPC was the ticket to get this dac to sing.
Now it is much more fluid with no digital glare. The hang time of decay trials
are like nothing I have ever heard before.

Glad to help, Scott. I do have the VB Ref cable and was very surprised at the significant improvement it made over the standard cable. It certainly does not sacrifice musicality, but just makes an across the board improvement. I now see that BC includes it in the Ref DAC Control System package when it used to be an optional upgrade.

I haven't yet heard the Mk.II upgrade so I can't comment on how the two options compare, but here's a quote from the BC product announcement at CES: John Stronczer is always thinking how he can make things better. The DAC 3.5VB MK II upgrade delivers an improved analog supply that better isolates the PCM1792 DAC and a new low-phase-noise main clock oscillator. These changes reduce the already extremely low noise of the DAC3.5VB delivering a more engaging, musical and communicative sound. John enthuses, “We’ve taken the DAC3.5VB to the next level of performance!”

Thanks a million Bill. Valuable info. Wish I could find a used VB Ref cable. I hate to pay retail when latter down the road they offer the upgrade for the same
price. They now do this with the ST fiber light link. I am going to have to get
one. As for the MK II upgrade, more engaging, musical and communicative sound is exactly what I am been try to achieve with the 3.5vb. I will have to
upgrade this summer when I do much less listening.

Thanks again and let us know your impressions of the MK II once you have it
fulling run in.

The price of the Ref DAC Control System was raised accordingly once they began to package the VB Ref cable with it, I did not mean to imply otherwise and apologize for any confusion. I expect to post my impressions of the Mk. II upgrade later today.

If I had to find one word to best describe the differences that the Mk.II upgrade of the BC DAC3.5VB has made in my system's overall performance it would have to be "stunning".

Well engineered recordings now exhibit an effortless realism that I find very rarely achieved. On acoustic recordings the reproduction of individual instruments are beautifully rendered with a much better sense of the acoustic space around and between the instruments. This greatly increases the realism of the musical performance, as it transcends the typical hi-fi sound and is now much more realistically portrayed.

I can further say that from a return on investment perspective this upgrade's sonic improvements far exceed the $500 charged for it, and I commend Bel Canto for making the upgrade available to its existing customers rather than only incorporating it into a newer model.