Bel Canto CD2 - a great CD player to emerge
I've been using the Bel Canto CD2 (£2400 in the UK) since April purchased from Coherent Systems. It replaced a Linn Majik player for I felt it had better definition across the frequency range and more bass heft. Generally I felt it was a more involving listen. The Linn in comparison sounded hazy at the top end and whilst a tuneful player, a little inarticulate at times. The Linn was also a bit of a lightweight at the bottom end.
What a great transport in the form of the Philips PRO 2 LF, which I believe is still in production mainly for the jukebox market so a rather solid piece of kit. However, this player is not without its faults. First of all it is powered by a a small 12v switch-mode power supply unit that does all the sonic nasty things that SMPSUs do. It makes the player sound rather digital with a slightly glassy presentation to the top end - well-defined, yes, but hard with it.
Upgrading with the accompanying offboard Bel Canto DAC 3 fixes this and raises the dynamics/resolution stakes to boot for an extra £2000. What you get with the DAC is the same shoebox-sized component to match the player and this matching pair can then share a shelf on your rack. Inside you get better DAC chips and a linear power supply to boot to feed them. I've no idea what these chips are but I do know that this is a worthwhile upgrade that takes the resulting combo to the resolution levels of some of the midrange Esoteric fare not to mention the DCS P8i with which it also compares costing a good £3000 more.
Another option is to replace the SMPSU with an off-board super-regulated linear transformer and this is the route I've taken so far.
I asked Anthony to do this for me and he duly obliged and came up with this:
I'll ask Anthony to come along to explain the technical stuff in more detail, but I can tell you that it has around seven times the current capability of the SMPSU and keeps a constant voltage regardless of the load variation presented to it by the CD player.
I plonked the player on the floor at Anthony's hooking it up via the SMPSU to his Soul amplifiers and Spendors. It sounded involving and even more beguiling for being amplified by the venerable Soul amps. Playing a Tears for Fears CD we then put the new PSU in. I could hear a big improvement after only two notes had been struck by the bass guitarist - more depth, texture and even better definition. The dynamics were lifted in a similar fashion across the frequency range. The top end lost its glassiness and the overall presentation was more insightful especially in terms of inflection and harmonic information, yet the nasties were smoothed out leaving a much more analogue sounding player. I was urged to turn up the volume but this done, the player was clearly crying out for a proper stand to sit on. Microphonic feedback via the speakers and floor made it sound characteristically jangly so I dropped the volume back down again.
I messed around with the different sampling rates, taking the player from the factory-set 96 to 192 - the highest upsampling rate. This seemed to smooth things over too much, slightly removing a little insight into the texture, timbre and harmonics of notes, so I quickly put it back to the factory default option. I guess that sampling rate is great for recordings originally captured at that kind of resolution, but upsampling to that level seems to add nothing but artificial gloss that gets in the way of ultimate clarity.
At home I've derived similar results with the player sounding even more 'together' as the new PSU has had time to warm up and burn in a little (still a long way to go there.) For anyone who either owns a Bel Canto CD 2 or is considering getting one, this AOS/Tube Distinctions PSU comes highly recommended at around £750. I can also turn the volume up now as much as I want.
Pictures of the internals of the PSU are available for mods/admin to view only.
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