What about the Belles SA-100?

My 150a ref v2 took roughly 850 hours to reach it's peak. As good as it was about every week I was happily suprised that new nuances of sound for a more positive and natural presentation would rear it beautiful head.I don't know if most wait long enough on these to rear them at their best. But from about 200 hours mine was about 90%-95% there. And at that point even the amp was a stellar performer. I have had a few models of audio research, jeff rowland, and listened to many others in well broken in systems bat, cj, threshold and others and with the belles it is right there with these others or very very close in a properly matched system. Now I would like to try the sa 30 or sa 100. Nice to hear from you guys these amps also are something special.

It is interesting what you are saying. Earlier I have had JR monoblocks, but as good as these were, they could not even stand in the shadow of the Belles. The SA-100 is such an open window for every kind of music. But also needs a proper match and time to open up to reach its peak. If you have the opportunity to audition one, then you should.

I agree. Thanks Noortje.

It is interesting what you are saying. Earlier I have had JR monoblocks, but as good as these were, they could not even stand in the shadow of the Belles. The SA-100 is such an open window for every kind of music. But also needs a proper match and time to open up to reach its peak. If you have the opportunity to audition one, then you should.

I guess you are right that marketing may play a role here; unknown, unloved. When I was looking for a new amp my dealer suggested to audition the Belles SA-30, even while my speakers have a difficult load. I decided for the SA-100 as that was the one available for a demo while I was visiting him. I instantly loved it, though it took quite a while to run in the amp. And I still have the feeling that it is getting better every day. So similar to your experiences with the SA-30, this is phenomenally good amplifier, second to none. It is a true gem.
Not sure about the politics, but perhaps these amps are too cheap...?

Noortje --

I certainly did circle the SA-100 as well before deciding on the SA-30, but in the end based my decision without auditioning the former; it had not yet arrived at my dealer, and when I borrowed the brand new SA-30 it soon became very clear - even without being run-in and merely few hours of use - that something very special had entered my setup, and that it was there to stay. A little later when the SA-100's ended in my dealers hands I opted to inquire on his impressions and what he thought about it (I've known my dealer for some years now, and very much share his sonic preferences as his ways to describe them), mainly because I wanted to learn whether the SA-100 as a class A/B amp (and a smaller electrical bill) could deliver likewise compared to the pure class A SA-30. To the best of his hearing abilities it's a close run between the two, to be expected, with the SA-30 perhaps being slightly warmer (in more than one sense) and with a bit more "meat and blood" to the sound. This being so could also have something to do with the fact that the SA-30 had more playing-hours in it compared to its sibling, but that being said I wouldn't be surprised if the SA-30 - by sonic design, so to speak - had a richer tonality. A main reason for deciding on the SA-30 has to do with my speakers, which are fairly sensitive at ~93dB, and a possible future speaker upgrade (not until after a year or so) would be to even more sensitive alternatives (read: 96dB), so there's plenty of power at hand in the SA-30 - even with my existing speakers. First and foremost though the SA-30 couples wonderfully with my hORNS Mummy speakers, which uses drive units from the pro-sector.

Whether the SA-30/SA-100 is too cheap, I'm inclined to yell out "No, no no no!" There's the rationale with some (in no way directed towards you, Noortje) who are drawn rather slavishly to the (unspoken) mantra "the more expensive the better/more desirable," but they have plenty of alternatives. Let the rest of us enjoy excellent sound where it is more affordable and more reasonbly priced in relation to its qualities :)