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Bel Canto REF1000M vs. Simaudio Moon 400M

During the past year Simaudio has come out with a class A/AB mono amplifier, the Moon 400M, which appears to have the virtues of class D amps. It puts out 400 watts rms into 8ohms and peaks at 56 amperes, runs cool to slighty warm and weighs 25 lbs. Cost is $ 6500.00 a pair. Very few reviews, and the Soundstage review is outstanding. The Bel Canto REF1000M puts out 500 watts rms into 8ohms and peaks at 45 amperes. Cost is $ 6000.00 a pair. The Moon 400M has a larger power supply. Has anyone listen to both of these models and how do they compare to each other? I suspect the Sim Moon is better but I haven't listened to the 400M. Has Bel Canto finally met its match?
audiozen
audiozen OP
831 posts
 
Zuigisland..before you jump on the Esoteric bandwagon, consider the MPS-3 or MPS-5 players from Playback Designs.
The designer of these machines is Andreas Koch, the King of digital engineering. He designed the original SACD technology for Sony when he worked for them back in the ninetie's, and he built the worlds first outboard D/A processor in 1982. No digital engineer can top Koch, not even Mike Ritter with Berkeley Audio. He worked for EMM Labs and Ed Meitner but was ticked off at Ed and left due to the lousy analog stage that Meitner designed in the EMM players. Andreas designed the digital stages for all the EMM players. The Playback Designs machines will smoke or equal any other brand regardless of price due to the algorithm, rail array topology that is exclusive to Koch. No other SACD/CD player in the world has advanced engineering that can equal Koch.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,304 posts
 
It appears a bit larger and heavier being Class A/B rather then Class D. That would probably account for larger power supply. Also probably not as energy efficient I would expect.

I've not heard the Sim so cannot compare the sound, other than to say the BCs are really good in the right system with the right speakers. Same probably true of the SIm. On paper it would seem to be competitive with the BC ref1000m and fairly similar in specs otherwise. Not totally an apples/apples comparison though.

zugisland
42 posts
 
Audiozen thanks for the feedback, will be grabbing a pd mpd3 dac for audition today, dont need thr transport as I am now streaming so
Will report bavk, the 5 btw is out of my range but may stretch for the 3 if its killer
thanks
audiozen OP
831 posts
 
Mapman..for the power that the Sim Moon 400M puts out, which peaks at a whopping 56 amperes, the amp is light and very efficient. Sim recommends keeping the amp on at all times. In idle mode the amp runs on a low 22 watts. Each mono block weighs just 33 lbs. Due to their advanced Renaissance circuit technology, they are the lightest high powered A/AB amps on the market. The whole idea with class D amps years ago was to make a light efficient amp. Now Sim has achieved the problems with class A/AB amps where a class D amp is no longer necessary, and no class D amp will ever equal the superior musicality of a class A or A/AB amp.
zugisland
42 posts
 
Im in for the 400,s thanks
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