30 Australian

ON TEST

the company in 1990, all his amplifiers used valves), the compact size of the chassis has design benefits beyond the obvious ones of efficiency, material usage, shipping costs and aesthetics. ‘The compact size imposes a focused design aesthetic where the chassis is stripped down to its essentials to achieve our performance and function goals. The compact, strong, rigid chassis also brought about benefits in mechanical performance, reducing the resonant profile of the chassis without resorting to expensive and mas-sive construction,’ he told journalist Nandita Kapadiaxx. ‘At one point, we tried aluminium and found that the sonic signature changed with notable upper midrange prominence. We traced it to a mechanical resonance from the lighter and less rigid aluminium. We went back to the original steel construction and immediately heard our signature sound balance restored.’

Mono Power AMPlifier

Bel Canto REF600M

But it’s not only manufacturing costs. An expensive chassis has high on-costs (distribu-tor margins, dealer margins, taxes and so on), all of which increase the cost of that chassis at consumer level. Bel Canto’s ‘think smarter’ trick with its tooling is that it uses only two different types of chassis to house almost all its models. There are eleven products in the e.One Series, for example (of which the REF600M is one), and all use exactly the same chassis.

That chassis is just 216mm wide, 88mm high and 305mm deep. The front panel is solid aluminium, into which the name ‘bel canto’ is deeply engraved (it being Italian for ‘beautiful singing’) while the remainder of the chassis is formed from heavy-duty black steel. According to Bel Canto’s founder, John Stronczer, (weirdly enough, when he founded

Bel Canto seems to be extending its product range almost by the month, which is no small achievement for a small high-end audio outfit that

builds all its products in Minneapolis in the USA. The model number of its latest amplifier, the REF600M, takes its numerals (600) from its rated power output into 4Ω (600-watts). The following character (M) indicates that the amplifier is mono, so you’ll need a pair for stereo. Currently, there is no ‘S’ model—nor is there ever likely to be, for reasons that should shortly become obvious…

The equipmenTBeing a small company means having to think smarter with tooling, because otherwise the cost of a chassis alone can become a signifi-cant part of the overall manufacturing cost.

31avhub.com.au

Bel Canto ref600M Mono Power Amplifier ON TEST

Readers interested in a full technical appraisal of the performance of the Bel Canto REF600M should continue on and read the LABORATORY REPORT published on page 34. Readers should note that the results mentioned in the report, tabulated in performance charts and/or

displayed using graphs and/or photographs should be construed as applying only to the specific sample tested.

Lab Report on page 34

LAB REPORT

Bel Canto ReF600M MOnO POwER AMPLiFiER

Brand: Bel CantoModel: REF600MCategory: Mono Power AmplifierRRP: $3,990 eachWarranty: One YearDistributor: Absolute Hi Endaddress: PO Box 370 Ormond ViC 3204

(04) 8877 7999 info@absolutehiend.com.au www.absolutehiend.com

• Power, power, power• Form factor• Sound quality

• Standby mode

In the centre of the front panel, as you can see from our photograph, is an expanse of dark Perspex, behind which is a single green LED. As you’ve probably guessed, the Perspex is there to keep the ‘look’ of the product the same, so you can match the REF600M (or, rather, REFM600s) with other of Bel Canto’s e.One Series products, such as a DAC, or a CD Transport, or a Network product, all of which do have displays hidden behind their Perspex panelling.

The rear panel has both balanced (via XLR) and unbalanced (via RCA) inputs, which must be switch-selected via a pushbutton.

The speaker terminals are WBT ‘Next-Gen’ types. A large power switch that operates horizontally (so no American/Australian/Brit-ish arguments about whether off should be ‘up’ or ‘down’ then!) is positioned at the left of the rear panel, above a standard three-pin IEC 240V mains socket. The only other fea-ture on the rear panel is a single d.c. trigger input, so that the REF600M can be remotely switched in and out of standby mode. (When the REF600M sees a d.c. voltage of between 5 and 12 volts at the trigger input, it will cease amplifying, turn off the front-panel LED and put itself into a low-power standby mode. Remove the voltage and it switches out of standby.)

CirCuiTryInternally, the Bel Canto REF600M starts with a custom, fully-balanced input/driver stage designed by Stronczer himself to have very high common-mode rejection. According to Bel Canto, this circuit (which it calls an ‘Im-pedance Optimized Input’) is critical to the amplifier’s performance, with Stronczer say-ing: ‘it ensures that the refined dynamic qualities of the recording are preserved.’ This circuit drives a Class-D nCore NC500 output stage devel-oped by famous Dutch manufacturer Hypex. Everything is powered by an NC1200/700 switch-mode power supply, also developed by Hypex. Stronczer obviously believe in re-inventing the wheel, nor does he appear to have a problem with ‘not invented here’ circuitry. In the past he’s also used Class-D modules from Bang & Olfusen (so-called ‘ICE-power’ modules) as well as Class D modules from Tripath, along with switch-mode power supplies sourced from other SMPS specialist manufacturers.

in use and LisTening sessionsBecause there is no physical stand-by power switch on the REF600M, and you have two of them, switching them on and off manually via the mains power switches on the rear isn’t very practical, so I’d suggest any equipment you use with the REF600M should have a 5/12V d.c. trigger, so you can use the circuit provided. The speaker terminals are WBT’s SBT-0703 types (mostly made of plastic), which Stronczer said he uses ‘because they impart minimal sonic signature to the sound, remaining open and grain-free up throughout the audio frequency band.’ I have to say I am not a big fan of this particular WBT Next-Gen terminal, because I personally find it a bit fid-dly to get a good connection when using bare wire, because there’s not a lot of metal in the design. However, it does work really well if your speaker wires are terminated with either spade connectors or banana plugs, in which case you’ll achieve the de-signed contact resistance of less than 0.14mΩ. (Note, too, that because

WBT makes eighteen completely different types of ‘NextGen’ speaker terminal, most of them completely different from each other, the word ‘NextGen’ is hardly a descriptor of the terminal type.) Because the REF600M amplifiers are Class-D, they never get more than ‘barely warm’ no matter how hard you push them, so placement and ventilation are not issues: you can stack them, place them sideways, hide them in a drawer… basically, you can put them anywhere you want!

OMG! How powerful are these new ampli-fiers? Enormously, overwhelmingly power-

New

po

rt T

est

Lab

s

Power Output into 8-ohm, 4-ohm and 2-ohm non-inductive loads at 20Hz, 1kHz and 20kHz. [Bel Canto 600M Mono Power Amp]

OMG! How powerful are these new Bel Canto REF600M amplifiers? Enormously, overwhelmingly powerful is the answer, and it’s instantaneous, super-clean power…

32 Australian

ON TEST Bel Canto ref600M Mono Power Amplifier

lAB rePorT on PAGe 34

ful is the answer, and it’s instantaneous, super-clean power that is available from the instant you turn on the amplifier—no warm-up time required here! That means that the Bel Canto REF600Ms were able to drive my most power-hungry speakers which, with a measured sensitivity of just 81dBSPL, are ludicrously inefficient, to volume levels that were ‘way more than anyone is going to need in a domestic situation.

Equally important, even though the am-plifiers were working moderately hard just to deliver ‘average’ sound pressure levels due to the inefficiency of the loudspeakers, there was no sense of compression or clouding of the sound, and no distortion that I could hear. Musical transients were delivered with immediacy, clearly rising above the music and punching through in a manner entirely consistent with the musical programme.

Because of this I was able to joyously crank up the volume on Coldplay’s latest, ‘A Head Full of Dreams’. If you cooled on Coldplay after the ‘Ghost Stories’ and ‘Vive La Vida …’ albums, it’s time to pony-up and buy what I reckon is Coldplay’s best album ever. Sure you’ll hear it’s eclectic, but it’s all up-beat, and with pop such as Birds (an absolute stand-out), and tracks that mash R&B, soft rock and head-bangers, plus guest artists including the likes of Beyoncé and Noel Gallagher, totally exciting.

There are a few naff moments, one such being the heartbeat-like bass line Berryman plays on Adventure of a Lifetime just after Martin has sung the line ‘I feel my heart beating’ and some might say the album is a tad ‘manufactured’ or ‘calculated’, but that hasn’t stopped me playing it continuously ever since it was released.

Aware that in the past some Class-D ampli-fiers have turned out to be relatively load-sensitive, I thought I’d put the REF600Ms to the test by wiring up a second pair of speakers in parallel, effectively dropping the overall load impedance below 4Ω and reaching very close to 2Ω in the upper bass region, where there’s a lot of musical energy. The second pair of speakers I then isolated in another room, so I could hear only the main speakers. I was pleased to hear the sound from those main speakers was unchanged: the new demanding speaker environment in which the REF600Ms found themselves didn’t faze them one iota. I was still able to drive the speakers as loud as I dared (the REF600Ms could obviously have provided more power… it was the speak-ers’ power-handling capacity that was the limiting factor here) and not only was the tonal balance completely unaffected, with the relationships between the volume of the bass, midrange and treble identical, but also there was no increase in distortion… or rather, since I couldn’t hear any amp-related distortion in either set-up in the first place, the REF600Ms continued to not have any audible distortion.

I checked for the purity of the sound using the Ensemble La Reverdie’s beautifully-recorded album ‘Musica Antiqua’, which traces the heritage of Celtic womanhood in the Middle Ages. It’s a very revealing disc soni-cally, not least because it’s naturally recorded in a natural acoustic without any compression or equalisation, but also because it features

(some) easy-to-source instruments (C descant, G treble and C tenor recorders) for ready tonal comparisons. Then there are the clear voices of sisters Claudia and Livia Caffagni and Ella and Elisabetta de’ Mircovich, and (also sisters, but Ella is no longer with the ensemble, hav-ing been replaced by cornettist Doron David Sherwin).

When a voice was solo, I was always able to tell which of the four women was singing, and when two sisters were singing, the REF600M’s clarity was such that the almost-similar voices were kept as separate entities, rather than melding together, yet while maintaining the intended musical effect.

The acoustic of the venue, the slow pace of the singing and the clarity of the record-ing allowed a kind of ‘music vivisection’ that highlighted all the Bel Canto’s many musical strengths, including one I have not mentioned so far, which is how noiseless the amplifier is... so quiet that I could ‘hear’ the ambience of the recording venue, and so quiet that on record-ings where ‘digital black’ had been engineered between the tracks, I could not hear anything at all in the listening room, save for my own breathing.

ConCLusionEnormously powerful, very quiet and with a sound quality so tonally accurate that it’s a constant delight to the ears, Bel Canto’s REF600M is an outstandingly good power amplifier. Frank Wright

Enormously powerful, very quiet and with a sound quality so tonally accurate that it’s a constant delight to the ears … an outstandingly good power amplifier

34 Australian

Bel Canto REF600M Mono Power AmplifierLAB REPORT

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32

Laboratory test resuLtsNewport Test Labs measured the power output of the Bel Canto REF600M while it was be-ing driven into 8Ω, 4Ω and 2Ω loads. Into 8Ω loads, the REF600M delivered 338-watts continuously into 20Hz and 1kHz loads, and 328-watts continuously into 20kHz loads. Driven into 4Ω loads, the Bel Canto REF600M proved the veracity of its model number by delivering 600-watts continuously at 1kHz, and 645-watts continuously at 20kHz. How-ever when driven with a 20Hz test frequency, power output fell by 0.4dB to 557-watts continuous. When Newport Test Labs loaded down the Bel Canto REF600M’s output with a 2Ω load it delivered 650-watts at all three test frequencies, at which point the amplifier’s internal protection cut in, presumably as a result of the current draw, which would have been just on 18-amps.

The frequency response of the Bel Canto REF600M is shown in Graph 6. The black trace shows the response into a standard non-inductive 8Ω laboratory test load, while the red trace shows the frequency response into a

load that simulates that of a typical two-way stand-mount loudspeaker (the same one developed by Ken Kantor, but with a Zobel network added across the input terminals). You can see on the graph that—unusually for a Class-D amplifier—the traces are almost identical, meaning that the sound quality of the Bel Canto will be the same, no matter what loudspeakers you connect to it.

The almost-identical responses into the two loads also suggest a high damping factor, which proved to be the case. (Newport Test Labs measured damping factor at 1kHz as being 133, which is an excellent result, and more than will ever be required, though it falls somewhat short of Bel Canto’s specifica-tion of 1,000.) As for the frequency response itself, you can see that at low frequencies the trace is 3dB down at 6Hz and 1dB down at 11Hz, while at high frequencies, it’s 1dB down at 22kHz and 2dB down at 32kHz (the graphing limit). It turned out to be 3dB down at 66kHz. All of which meant the Bel Canto REF600M easily fulfilled its manufacturer’s specification of 20Hz to 50kHz ±3dB, with a measured result of 6Hz to 66kHz ±3dB. Across the audio band, the response was even flatter, with the graph showing a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz ±0.3dB.

Distortion was very low at all power levels and into both test loads. At an output of one watt into 8Ω, overall THD+N was measured at 0.005%, well below the capacity of the human ear to determine it. Spectrum analysis (Graph 1) showed only three harmonically-related distortion components, a 2nd harmon-ic at –108dB (0.00039%), a third harmonic at –88dB (0.00398%) and a fourth harmonic at –118dB (0.00012%). When the test load im-pedance was halved, to 4Ω, distortion levels dropped even lower, with a second harmonic

0.00 Hz 4000.00 8000.00 12000.00 16000.00 20000.00-140.00

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Graph 2: Total harmonic distortion (THD) at 1kHz at an output of 1-watt into a 4-ohmnon-inductive load, referenced to 0dB. [Bel Canto 600M Mono Power Amplifier]

Newport Test Labs

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Graph 1: Total harmonic distortion (THD) at 1kHz at an output of 1-watt into an 8-ohmnon-inductive load, referenced to 0dB. [Bel Canto 600M Mono Power Amplifier]

Newport Test Labs

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Graph 4: Total harmonic distortion (THD) at 1kHz at rated output (600-watts) into a 4-ohm non-inductive load, referenced to 0dB. [Bel Canto 600M Mono Power Amplifier]

Newport Test Labs

0.00 Hz 4000.00 8000.00 12000.00 16000.00 20000.00-140.00

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Graph 3: Total harmonic distortion (THD) at 1kHz at rated output (300-watts) into an 8-ohm non-inductive load, referenced to 0dB. [Bel Canto 600M Mono Power Amplifier]

Newport Test Labs

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-2.50

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-1.00

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Graph 6: Frequency response of line input at an output of 1-watt into an 8-ohm non-inductive load (black trace) and into a combination resistive/inductive/capacitive load representative of a typical two-way loudspeaker system (red trace). [Bel Canto 600M Mono Power Amplifier]

Newport Test Labs

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Graph 5 Intermodulation distortion (CCIF-IMD) using test signals at 19kHz and 20kHz, at an output of 1-watt into an 8-ohm non-inductive load, referenced to 0dB. [Bel Canto 600M]

Newport Test Labs

at –100dB (0.001%) and a third harmonic at –107dB (0.00044%). This is exceptionally good performance.

When the amplifier was driven at its rated power, distortion levels increased, but still remained very low, with the overall THD+N result being measured by Newport Test Labs at just 0.014%, a level low enough it would not be detectable by the human ear. Spectrum analysis of overall distortion into an 8Ω load is shown in Graph 3. You can see second- and third-order components at around –85dB

In sum, I think this may be the best-performing Class-D amplifier I have ever seen…

35avhub.com.au

LAB REPORT

(0.00562%). The fourth, fifth and sixth harmonics are all more than 110dB down (0.00031%) with a seventh harmonic at –100dB (0.001%). There are some higher-or-der harmonics, but all are more than 100dB down. At 600-watts into 4Ω loads, distor-tion was lower again, as you can see from Graph 4. There’s a second harmonic at –82dB (0.00794%), a third at –84dB (0.00630%), then effectively only four higher-order com-ponents, all of which are more than 110dB down (0.00031%). Considering the power level involved, and the low impedance, this is an excellent result.

You can see from Graphs 1 through 4 that overall noise levels are not quite as low across the audio hand as I’d expect from a ‘traditional’ amplifier design, and there’s a significant increase in noise at low frequen-cies. However, if you discount low-frequency noise, noise was generally more than 120dB down across the audio band, which is excellent performance and about on par with Bel Canto’s A-weighted, band-limited specification. As for wideband noise, Newport Test Labs it as 87dB unweighted and 92dB A-weighted when referenced to an output of 1-watt, and as 96dB unweighted and 100dB A-weighted when referenced to rated output.

Intermodulation distortion was very low, as you can see from Graph 5, which shows CCIF distortion, using 19kHz and 20kHz test tones at –6dB. You can see there’s almost no regenerated difference signal at 1kHz, which is excellent. (It is present, but it’s 100dB down). There are some sidebands either side of the test signals, the two high-est, at 18kHz and 21kHz, are around –75dB

(0.01778%), the next pair more than 90dB down (0.00316%), then the next more than 100dB down (0.001%). Again, excellent performance.

Square wave performance was exemplary, though assessing it is made difficult because Newport Test Labs has not filtered out the Bel Canto’s carrier frequency (though it’s almost invisible on the 100Hz wave due to scaling) from the oscillograms. You can see that there’s no phase shift on any of the graphs, plus good low-frequency and high-frequency extension, and the underlying shape of the 1kHz square wave is excellent.

You can also see that when the ampli-fier is driven into a highly reactive load, it is completely stable… though there is consider-able ringing present. It would seem that Bel Canto is only doing minimal filtering of the carrier, reasoning that it’s high enough in frequency that it would be totally inaudible, and low enough in level that it would not bother any tweeter.

Input sensitivity was satisfactorily low, with 126mV required at the unbalanced input to cause an output of 1-watt at the speaker terminals, and a 2.3V input required to deliver rated output. This means most devices you could use with the REF600M will have sufficient voltage present at their out-put to utilise the amplifier’s full rated output. As you’d expect of a Class-D design, it’s very energy-efficient, requiring only 28.9-watts to deliver 1-watt of audio, and only 396-watts to deliver rated output (into 8Ω).

In sum, I think this may be the best-per-forming Class-D amplifier I’ve ever seen. Steve Holding

Bel Canto 600M Mono Power Amplifier – Lab Test ResultsTest Measured Result Units/Comment

Frequency Response @ 1 watt o/p 11Hz – 22kHz –1dB

Frequency Response @ 1 watt o/p 6Hz – 66kHz –3dB

THD+N 0.005% / 0.014% @ 1-watt / @ rated output

Signal-to-Noise (unwghted/wghted) 87dB / 92dB dB referred to 1-watt output

Signal-to-Noise (unwghted/wghted) 96dB / 100dB dB referred to rated output

Input Sensitivity (CD Input) 126mV / 2.3V (1-watt / rated output)

Output Impedance 0.06Ω OC = V

Damping Factor 133 @1kHz

Power Consumption N/A / 8.37 watts (Standby / On)

Power Consumption 28.9 / 396 watts at 1-watt / at rated output

Mains Voltage Variation during Test 235–253 Minimum – Maximum

Bel Canto 600M Mono Power Amplifier – Lab Test ResultsChannel Load (Ω) 20Hz

(watts)20Hz

(dBW)1kHz

(watts)1kHz

(dBW)20kHz

(watts)20kHz (dBW)

1 8 Ω 338 25.2 338 25.2 328 25.1

1 4 Ω 557 27.4 600 27.8 645 28.1

1 2 Ω 650* 28.1 650* 28.1 650* 28.1

Note: Figures in the dBW column represent output level in decibels referred to one watt output.

*Protection circuit cuts in at this output level.

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Reference 3.1 (300B)

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88 AV Centre

Input Impedance : >56k ohm (RCA/Direct In) 47 ohm (MM Phono In)Output Impedance : 0, 4, 8, 16 ohmOutput Power : 21W x 2 (Triode-Class A Push-Pull)Damping Factor : >5Frequency Response : 20Hz~30kHz±1dBT.H.D. : <1% 20Hz~20kHz (Ref. Output)Input Sensitivity : >200mV, 3~5mV (MM Phono In)S/N Ratio : >80dB (Hum Noise<3mV)Vacuum Tubes : 300B x 4, 6N8P x 2, 12AX7 x 4Dimension : 475 x 405 x 215 mm (DxWxH)Weight : 28.7 kg (N.W.), 34.6 kg (G.W.)

Output Power: 60W/Ch.Output Impedance: 4, 8 and 16 Ohm.Input Impedance: RCA>100K Ohm, Bal-600-22K Ohm.Input Mode: RCA or BalancedFrequency Response: 20Hz-20KHz -1dBT.H.D.: <5% 20Hz-20KHz (Ref. Output)S/N: >87dB (Hum Noise<2mV)Weight/CH.: 31.5kg (N.W.)/ 37.5kg (G.W)Vacuum Tubes/CH.: 300Bx4, 6N9P(6SL7)x2, 12AX7(ECC83)x1, 12AU7(ECC82)x3.

Power One (300B)

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Audiospace Australia P/L

449 High Street, PrestonVIC 3072, Tel (03) 9478 8120

8 Summerhill Rise, BundooraVIC, 3083 Tel 0419 772 188

U&S Audio Visual KC Audio McLeans1/41 Victoric St, East GosfordNSW 2250, Tel: (02) 4324 2511

Western Australia (08) 9337 2041 sales@simplyhifi.com.au

Simply HiFi

12 Field St, Adelaide 5000Tel: (08) 8321 8668

88 AV Centre

Input Impedance : >56k ohm (RCA/Direct In) 47 ohm (MM Phono In)Output Impedance : 0, 4, 8, 16 ohmOutput Power : 21W x 2 (Triode-Class A Push-Pull)Damping Factor : >5Frequency Response : 20Hz~30kHz±1dBT.H.D. : <1% 20Hz~20kHz (Ref. Output)Input Sensitivity : >200mV, 3~5mV (MM Phono In)S/N Ratio : >80dB (Hum Noise<3mV)Vacuum Tubes : 300B x 4, 6N8P x 2, 12AX7 x 4Dimension : 475 x 405 x 215 mm (DxWxH)Weight : 28.7 kg (N.W.), 34.6 kg (G.W.)

Output Power: 60W/Ch.Output Impedance: 4, 8 and 16 Ohm.Input Impedance: RCA>100K Ohm, Bal-600-22K Ohm.Input Mode: RCA or BalancedFrequency Response: 20Hz-20KHz -1dBT.H.D.: <5% 20Hz-20KHz (Ref. Output)S/N: >87dB (Hum Noise<2mV)Weight/CH.: 31.5kg (N.W.)/ 37.5kg (G.W)Vacuum Tubes/CH.: 300Bx4, 6N9P(6SL7)x2, 12AX7(ECC83)x1, 12AU7(ECC82)x3.

Power One (300B)

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Audiospace Australia P/L

449 High Street, PrestonVIC 3072, Tel (03) 9478 8120

8 Summerhill Rise, BundooraVIC, 3083 Tel 0419 772 188

U&S Audio Visual KC Audio McLeans1/41 Victoric St, East GosfordNSW 2250, Tel: (02) 4324 2511

Western Australia (08) 9337 2041 sales@simplyhifi.com.au

Simply HiFi

12 Field St, Adelaide 5000Tel: (08) 8321 8668

88 AV Centre

Input Impedance : >56k ohm (RCA/Direct In) 47 ohm (MM Phono In)Output Impedance : 0, 4, 8, 16 ohmOutput Power : 21W x 2 (Triode-Class A Push-Pull)Damping Factor : >5Frequency Response : 20Hz~30kHz±1dBT.H.D. : <1% 20Hz~20kHz (Ref. Output)Input Sensitivity : >200mV, 3~5mV (MM Phono In)S/N Ratio : >80dB (Hum Noise<3mV)Vacuum Tubes : 300B x 4, 6N8P x 2, 12AX7 x 4Dimension : 475 x 405 x 215 mm (DxWxH)Weight : 28.7 kg (N.W.), 34.6 kg (G.W.)

Output Power: 60W/Ch.Output Impedance: 4, 8 and 16 Ohm.Input Impedance: RCA>100K Ohm, Bal-600-22K Ohm.Input Mode: RCA or BalancedFrequency Response: 20Hz-20KHz -1dBT.H.D.: <5% 20Hz-20KHz (Ref. Output)S/N: >87dB (Hum Noise<2mV)Weight/CH.: 31.5kg (N.W.)/ 37.5kg (G.W)Vacuum Tubes/CH.: 300Bx4, 6N9P(6SL7)x2, 12AX7(ECC83)x1, 12AU7(ECC82)x3.

Power One (300B)

Rugged stainless steel chassisHigh quality EI transformer and componentsInnovative tube circuitry with choke coil300B tube can be usedCan be fine tuned with different regulator tubesDual outputs (cathode follower and anode direct)Full remote controlSwitching between high and low negative feedback

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