Wes Phillips Reviews Perpetual Tech P3A

wes phillips seems to love *everything* he reviews, imho...

Amen,Sedond!

In Wes' defense, the reason it may seem that he always gives glowing reviews is because he's reviewed some very excellent gear. I don't recall reading a bad review of either the Bel Canto DAC-1 or the Perpetual Tech P-3A, so there seems to be a consensus among reviewers (and even among audiophiles) that these units offer great bang for the buck. Personally, having enjoyed the Bel Canto in my system and now owning the P-1A/P-3A combo with the Monolithic P3, I have to count myself among those that are mighty impressed.

Plato:
Please share your experiences of having Bel Canto and perpetual units.
Thanks

Sol, you had asked me couple months ago about Bel Canto DAC1
I now have a new unit from 1/2001 with new upgraded power supply and improved board. My older unit never did work right in my system, DAC would loose digital signal and reset, compatability issue with my gear. Newest units seem to be fine, no problems at all, with improved sound to boot. The combination of upsampling with slow roll-off filtering in DAC 1 does a great job of removing edge and hardness from treble of many CD recordings. Improved 3D capabilities and enhanced fine detail resolution also present. I think most people with close to nuetral sounding solid state gear will love the BC DAC1, if you have a warm mosfet or class A or tube set-up you may like Perpetual Tech or MSB gold link dac which have even greater clarity, but not as smooth a top end. BTW if you go Bel Canto DAC1 I would definitely get a new one with the improvements, over older used one. I am using Musical Fidelity A3CD - HT Cyber Platinum RCA Digital - Bel Canto DAC 1 - Musical Fidelity A3CR preamp. Shunyata Sidewinder cord for BC DAC 1. Hope this helps, Sam

Frank Alles just did review of compltete P1A/P3A/Monolithic set-up at www.stereotimes.com 1/16/01 and came to the same conclusion as Wes Phillips.

Sam:
Good memory!! I'm still planning to go to upsampling but will wait a little for trying to get more info vs the Link Nelson update vs BelCanto...It's interesting to note the low preference that Sphile has given to Bel Canto compared to MSB and Perpetual.... in spite of having got an innovation award from Stereo Times (not sure if it was Times) My amp is AB mosfet and my preamp is solid state too, so based on your input I might have a winner with BC
What do you think?

Sol, the reviewer from Stereophile had a Cary tube system,
so I am not surprised he liked the MSB full nelson, which has a leaner sound. If you go to Perpetual site they sell the P3A DAC direct with the Monolithic P3 power supply, with full return trail peroid, 30 days? Also if you buy direct from Bel Canto they have full return trail peroid,
but not as long. BTW I have not personally tried the Perpetual P3A unit, if you can afford it you will not be dissapointed with the newest BC Dac 1.