bel canto dac 3 cd 2 owners

Chrissain, thanks for sharing your experience about the upgraded Bel Canto DAC3. Since I have the same DAC, I am trying to decide if its worthwile to upgrade it. I recently compare my stock Bel Canto against a ARC CD7, and I think the ARC was better (they are in different leagues). Did you compare the stock DAC3 against the ARC CD8 before the upgrade?, what did you think at that moment?. If I could match your experience, this upgrade would be a tall order improvement.

Thanks

sorry for taking so long to reply. I did not compare a stock dac 3 to the cd 8. I had all ready upgraded the dac 3 with the vbs at the time of the shootout. but in a very good system, revel studio 2s, top sim audio preamp , rogue Apollo monoblocks, the dac3 vbs was better, and all of us listening thought the same thing, it was unanimous. It [the vbs] is a big upgrade. good luck, chris

Chrissain, can you tell us if you are experiencing an
improvement in pitch and voice articulation.
Also, when you did a direct comparison with the regular
Dac 3, did you allow the old Dac 3 to settle in for
48 hours? I can attest that it does take about 48 hours
for the Dac 3 to settle in after shut down.

I am considering this upgrade. However, I hear that upgraded power cords will have no effect on the upgraded DAC 3 and I am using a Synergistic Research Hologram D power cord into a SR Powercell. This increased the sound stage and front to back layering to an amazing degree.
So, I am wondering if the upgrade would be any better
than what I already have. It may be worth it to me if there
is an improvement in the tone and pitch of the music.

scott, yes the dac 3 was warmed up , and the vbs dac 3 combo sounded more open , with better front to back separation, more low level detail, better bass ect.voices sound more real to me with the vbs by the way. going back to the stock dac three sounded more closed in and coming from the speakers so to speak, a little more rounded at the top and bottom, maybe a tad more warmth, but that could just be because its not as open and extended at the frequency extremes. I now have a dac 3.5 I am evaluating against my dac 3, will post what I think .

Thanks Chrissain,

Please do keep us posted.