Bel Canto Balanced Mono Amplifiers ??

Question. For the Martin Logan CLX, what advice would you have as regards matching them with the Bel Canto e.One REF 500M Balanced Mono Amplifiers... or with the e.One REF 1000M of the same. Any thoughts, suggestions? If I went in this direction, the amps would be driven by the new Bel Canto e.One REF DAC3.5VB D to A Converter. Is Bel Canto a reasonable match with the CLX, and what is the best amp level, 500M, 1000M, other?

rob823vb said:

Question. For the Martin Logan CLX, what advice would you have as regards matching them with the Bel Canto e.One REF 500M Balanced Mono Amplifiers... or with the e.One REF 1000M of the same. Any thoughts, suggestions? If I went in this direction, the amps would be driven by the new Bel Canto e.One REF DAC3.5VB D to A Converter. Is Bel Canto a reasonable match with the CLX, and what is the best amp level, 500M, 1000M, other?

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Hola Rob...electronics is a matter of taste. What I like you might not. But all good brands, like Bel Canto, or Conrad Johnson, Levinson, VAC, Plinius, Jeff Rowland, krell, Aire, Audio Research, Blue Circle, Halcro, Pass Labs, Classe, Vincent, just to name a few high grade top electronics, will drive the CLX easy. Just trust your ears, and choose the one that you liked most. Here in Costa Rica, we are using Conrad Johnson and Audio Research to drive our CLX...happy listening,
Roberto.

rob823vb said:

Question. For the Martin Logan CLX, what advice would you have as regards matching them with the Bel Canto e.One REF 500M Balanced Mono Amplifiers... or with the e.One REF 1000M of the same. Any thoughts, suggestions? If I went in this direction, the amps would be driven by the new Bel Canto e.One REF DAC3.5VB D to A Converter. Is Bel Canto a reasonable match with the CLX, and what is the best amp level, 500M, 1000M, other?

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First, the obligatory CLX bow...:bowdown: Not bowing to you my friend, but to the CLXs that own you

Second, I would be curious why you are even considering ICE power? Convenience? Size? The power-dollar ratio?

Reason I ask is that I own a pair of Summits - so commenting about CLXs is already making me feel like a fraud. But I have my Summits mated to BelCanto Reference 1000s. I like them a lot for my multi-purpose room (7000+ cubic foot, open on two sides to two other large rooms). I am a multi-purpose listener as I play jazz, folk, rock and vocals daily at low volumes, watch movies on weekends, and throw 2-3 parties a year where the volume is seriously cranked up.

For the above purpose, and the above room, I like the BelCantos a lot because: a) they are small and dont take away from the contemporary decor of our family room; b) the kids can (accidently ) touch them without getting burnt; c) they sound very, very good, especially when mated to a tube pre-amp; d) They put out SERIOUS power without distortion. trust me - we have thrown big parties at concert level volumes and my room sounds better (or as good) as any high end nightclub; e) can guilt-lessly leave them on all the time

That said, if I connect the bel cantos directly to my digital pre-amp, or digital DAC, the sound is a tad bright, a little grungy and dry. Adding a tube-pre amp makes a ridiculous amount of difference (for the better) which has convinced me that ICE power has a natural tendency to sound brighter, dry-er.

My net takeaway: if amp size, amp heat, playing ultra high volumes, fear of kids touching et all were not considerations for me, I would not have ICE power running my Summits. I would have mated them to Pass, Plinius, Dreadnaughts or, more likely, tube amps.

Since the above were considerations for me, I made the trade off of placing a tube pre-amp between the source and the ICE amps - and I feel like I could not possibly have made a better decision

Despite being a happy owner of BelCantos, I personaly feel like mating them to CLXs would be a bit like buying a Ferrari, and using it to tow your boat. You might possibly find yourself complaining later that the Ferrari doesn't handle as well, and isnt as much of a babe-magnet, as you had imagined

Given what I heard from Bel Canto at RMAF, I would say they are definitely worth an audition. I was very surprised how good the Bel Canto gear sounded. At the same time, I can think of a lot of great electronics to match up with the CLX, so ultimately your tastes and ears and budget will have to decide.

I run requests and clarities with evo2's in mono and they do an admiral job. I can attest to them being dry and briteish, the ice powered moreso than the old tripath amps. That being said, with stat panels, more power is always better to bring out the finer details in whatever music you choose. Underpowered panels tend to "compress" the soundstage IMHO. I also love their DACS, good choice.

Bel Canto Monos for CLX's

rob823vb said:

Question. For the Martin Logan CLX, what advice would you have as regards matching them with the Bel Canto e.One REF 500M Balanced Mono Amplifiers... or with the e.One REF 1000M of the same. Any thoughts, suggestions? If I went in this direction, the amps would be driven by the new Bel Canto e.One REF DAC3.5VB D to A Converter. Is Bel Canto a reasonable match with the CLX, and what is the best amp level, 500M, 1000M, other?

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You might be interested in reading a review of the mating of Bel Canto E.One REF 500s with the CLXs. It appeared in ToneAudio Volume 23. (www.tonepublications.com). The reference amplifier comparison is a Pass X350.5. These amplifiers have sufficient power to drive your speakers. You would not gain a great deal from going up to the 1000M Mk II's unless you listen at ear-bleeding volumes. Of course the ideal is to try to borrow a pair to audition before you buy.

babydoc said:

You might be interested in reading a review of the mating of Bel Canto E.One REF 500s with the CLXs. It appeared in ToneAudio Volume 23. (www.tonepublications.com). The reference amplifier comparison is a Pass X350.5. These amplifiers have sufficient power to drive your speakers. You would not gain a great deal from going up to the 1000M Mk II's unless you listen at ear-bleeding volumes. Of course the ideal is to try to borrow a pair to audition before you buy.

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Just read it - very nice review. The reviewer validated a but of my suspicion that while wonderful, if absolute perfection is your desire - a Pass or a heavyweight Tube will do more justice to the CLXs (and even the lowly Summits).

Likely a stupid question, but when I went to the "index" of the magazine, it told me the issue where a certain review is, but did not actually show the electronic review? Is that how the magazine is setup? Do I have to download the .pdf everytime I want to read a review? Also, the index did not actually mention a review for Bel cantos...
I have started going to the tonepub website because tone pub is a regular here...

Hi Rob,
I have the Bel Canto Ref1000 driving a pair of Spires and I like them very much. Great amps!
My only comment is that the IcePower amps have difficulty driving low impedances at high frequencies. With the Spire this is not a problem and the amps never shut down. I had a pair of CLS's in the past and with recordings having intense high frequency information I managed to get them to shut down a few times. I cannot comment on the CLX but suggest that you try them before you buy. See if they have a problem with the CLX.

Hope this helps,
Ronenash

adanny said:

Just read it - very nice review. The reviewer validated a but of my suspicion that while wonderful, if absolute perfection is your desire - a Pass or a heavyweight Tube will do more justice to the CLXs (and even the lowly Summits).

Likely a stupid question, but when I went to the "index" of the magazine, it told me the issue where a certain review is, but did not actually show the electronic review? Is that how the magazine is setup? Do I have to download the .pdf everytime I want to read a review? Also, the index did not actually mention a review for Bel cantos...
I have started going to the tonepub website because tone pub is a regular here...

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We're actually in the process of redoing the index section. By Summer we will have all the gear reviews up on the web as separate files. But considering it's free, and a download takes about a minute....

There might be something else in the issue that intrigues you.

tonepub said:

We're actually in the process of redoing the index section. By Summer we will have all the gear reviews up on the web as separate files. But considering it's free, and a download takes about a minute....

There might be something else in the issue that intrigues you.

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No argument with that. Only downside is that instead of spending 5 minutes reading the Logan/Canto review, I ended up spending 25 reading the entire mag! It is quite nice actually. I am even going to try and upload it on my Kindle.

BTW, do you have a paid subscription to your mag as well (recognizing this is going off topic...)

Lowly Summits?

Now that's the FIRST time I've heard the phrase "lowly Summits"! Never thought a pair of $10K MSRP speakers referred to as "lowly" before. :ROFL:

Spike

adanny said:

No argument with that. Only downside is that instead of spending 5 minutes reading the Logan/Canto review, I ended up spending 25 reading the entire mag! It is quite nice actually. I am even going to try and upload it on my Kindle.

BTW, do you have a paid subscription to your mag as well (recognizing this is going off topic...)

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I can tell you now, it won't work on the Kindle. The Kindle does not allow you to zoom up and read the type. However, when we offer TONE in Ebook format come March to coincide with the iPad, it may work more efficiently there.

No paid subscriptions. If you get on our list, you get an email when the new issue is out and once or twice between issues when we upload some new web content. And we don't take any personal info, just your email address.

Glad you are enjoying it!