Bel Canto Ref 1000 vs. Spectron Musician III Mk 2

One of the more telling things about the bass with the BC ref100mk2s is that everything I play is cleaner and more defined and dynamic top to bottom than most anything else I have heard. Even modern loudness wars CDs that contain a lot of energy throughout and often a lot of deliberately muscled up bass are delivered again most tightly and articulately. These and large scale classical recordings that are also delivered best with some muscle combined with refinement are the kinds of recordings that I notice the biggest difference in. Nothing rattles the BC on either of my two pair of OHM speakers. Same true on my smaller monitors, however there more the size of the speaker becomes the bottleneck in regards to overall bass impact and effect. many recordings like these that just never sounded quite right before do now. And the more relaxed acoustic types of music as well as both male and female vocals are still spot on as well. Really hard to find fault.....

Hello Kiwi,
About an year and a half ago, I also posted the same question as you did (my speakers are WATT/Puppy 8 soon to be replaced by Sasha, most power hungry speakers in Wilson line).

The same Ajackson urged me not to buy Spectron, the same Radicalsteve complained on Spectron with his new speakers (Apogee Scintilla and not what he claims today - but who cares, importantly he complained and Plinius 250 he likes is good amp for these who don;t care about its weight and heat).

These boys scared me and I decided not to buy Spectron first without home audition.

To make it short, I tried and fall in love with Spectron stereo then bought another one to run in monoblocks then got all Spectron upgtrades then got Remote Sense cable and finally, Joule-Electra preamp - I cannot be more happy then now. Absoutely in audio heaven.

I looked for many amplifiers and I have tried Bel Canto Ref1000 Mk2. Its good amplifier, don;t want to say a bad word BUT BUT BUT Spectron is in different class whatsoever - its effortless presentation, its midrange etc. I am sucker for midrange and I used to tube amps (last McIntosh 2102) - Spectron is better, more REAL.

Now, as you said Spectron has policy of 30 days home trial so I would use this opportunity - it may be your last amp.

BC ref100mkII is definitely not for those looking for very warm tube sound in an amp.

My experience is it delivers what is fed into it, ie if you use tube pre-amp and/or source, the sound of those will be delivered, but does not deliver any tube-like warmth in of itself.

Having said that, the midrange in my system is sublime along the lines of more neutral sounding tube gear I have heard but I would attribute the midrange to the combination of components not to the BC amp alone itself. it is not a substitute for those who must have a tube amp to be happy or to drive their particular speakers properly if those speakers are designed to work best with tube amps.

07-20-10: Mapman
BC ref100mkII is definitely not for those looking for very warm tube sound in an amp.

My experience is it delivers what is fed into it, ie if you use tube pre-amp and/or source, the sound of those will be delivered, but does not deliver any tube-like warmth in of itself.

IMO an amplifier is doing what is it supposed to when it delivers what it is fed - only with gain. That is the definition of accuracy i.e. the degree to which the output signal from a component or system is perceived as replicating the sonic qualities of its input signal

Your experience mirrors mine. Last year i auditioned the BC Ref 1000's with a Lamm Pre-amp. Indeed the character of the Lamm was passed through. By way of comparison I will be looking for the Spectron to do the same with my Cary Pre-amp.

07-20-10: Macdadtexas
the more I read on this sting, the more I think you neeed Sanders Sound amps

Hi Macdadtexas, the Sanders ESL amplifier is purpose built to deliver the high voltage such speakers need and based on an audition i did a while back with some Kingsound ESL speakers it performs well.