Bel Canto Ref1000 MK2 Or Ref 500m ?

Thank you Giuseppe, yes I am as Italian as they go. . . now living in not-that-particularly-warm Texas.

The 250 ASX2 appears to be an interesting device. At least in principle, it is bridgeable to mono. Whether this remains true for the Ref 500S implementation, is something I will attempt to find out from Bel canto.

One cautionary note: the fact that the 250 ASX2 is a smaller device than the 500 ASP is not necessarily an indication that ASX2 is a 'lower' level series. The more likely explanation is simply that ASX2 -- being a much newer design than ASP -- uses a higher degree of function integration and smaller geometries than ASP. . . hence yielding that 'shorter signal path' that so many audiophrenes are obsessing over. For one thing, ASX2 appears to be implementing a form of 0 voltage 0 current switching power supply technology which may be new to the ICEpower standard toolkit.

I'll try to post an update later today.

Saluti, G.

Timrhu, if you send me the picture I can drop it on a server and post the link.
But only if this will not go against the forum policy.
my mail is my nick @me.com

Guido,

The ASX series is a half-bridge design so it is brigeable. The ASP series is a full-bridge design so it cannot be bridged. Or to put it another way, it is already bridged. Hope that helps.

Henry

Thank you Henry, you are absolutely correct. I have since called Bel canto and asked further information about differences between Ref 500M and Ref 500S.

* Both amplifiers make use of the ICEpower 500 ASX2 modules in bridged configuration. They do not use ASP series parts.

* the Ref 500M uses additional power regulation over the 500S, hence it actually yields slightly higher power: Unless I am getting this all wrong, approx 250W over 8 Ohms for Ref 500M and 200W over 8 Ohms for 500S.

* the BC Ref 1000M is the only Bel Canto amp to utilize the older ICEpower 1000 ASP module, because there is no ASX2 module to yield the power rating of 1000M.

* Unless the very high throughput of 1000M is required for proper control of particularly power hungry speakers, the Ref 500M may yield the most refined sound of the lot.

Ciao Guido,
Thanks for the precious clarification. As described in the ICE Power web site, the ASX2 is the 3rd generation technology, so what you said about sound quality make sense.

from the Ice Power web site: "The advancements include extended bandwidth, improved dynamic range and exceptionally low distortion, achieved through our novel and proprietary HCOM amplifier topology."

I have in audition a couple of ref100 MK2, powered from 2 days, and I wander how much better it will sound the 500M.

Ciao e grazie.
Giuseppe