Bel Canto ACI600 vs Black EX Sepates

@yyzsantabarbara :
great memory on the wife acceptance factor. She’s all in on the looks of the Bel Canto system but I’m too nervous to spend so much without hearing first coupled with such little community/forum feedback.

So I’m thinking I’ll change gears and try to limit spending to 10k for a permanent office piece with no plans to take home in the future. That makes the forthcoming Hegel integrated a perfect pairing with the KEF Reference 1’s....brand new, does MQA. Should be sweet but don’t want to wait!

that Mola DAC looks very interesting. Looking fwd to hearing it. That might be perfect with the new Luxman.

If I had the cash ready today I would be severely tempted to buy the Luxman 509x that WC put up for sale. I would use it in the office and likely move my office electronics to the future big rig in the living room.

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis916dd-luxman-l-509x-integrated-the-best-integrated-from-luxman-...

I have heard the KEF Blade 2 with the Hegel 360 and it was surprisingly good driving the much bigger Blades. Your REF 1 would sing with the 360 and not need the extra little bit from the 590.

Totally agree the 360’s more than enough but want to have an integrated with internal dac that plays mqa.....the 590 will, the 360 doesn’t.

I have auditioned the full Bel Canto Black system at my dealer. I thought the system sounded very good when playing through Wilson Alexias. The name “black” describes it well as it is a naked, crisp type of presentation that is extremely transparent. I did think the vocals were a little recessed in the sound field though. At the time of audition I was actually considering the ACI 600 but the dealer no longer had that available. Long story short, I ended up purchasing an Audio Research system because I like its natural sound. The Black system in person looks really nice and exceeds the build quality of any equipment I have seen.

I have not yet heard or  seen any EX products first hand but I am considering the EX DAC as an upgrade for my Linn streamer. I am not really sure if the Bel Canto UX/UI is as good as the Linn from the streaming/app point of view. I would definitely want to give it a try first. 

I know this isn’t probably very useful information. Just wanted you to know that someone has heard, and likes, this system : )

We own the Bel Canto Black EX. It is $1K more than the ASC 600, but I like the added inputs. The Black EX DAC is SOTA, including Ethernet input. Its filers easily allow intergration of a subwoofer, if you go that route.