Bel Canto Ref 1000 vs. Spectron Musician III Mk 2

Hi Macdadtexas,

Thanks for your comments. Whats your take on the Bel Canto Ref 1000 vs. The Cary MB 500's you are presently using?

Hi Dob,

Thanks for your comments to. I'm not US resident so doubt home trial of the Spectron will be an option. Good observation on the challenges of driving ESL's.

Kiwi, I since you have an SLP-05 I should also tell you that I tried many, many amps before I ended up with my current amps, the Cary Audio CAD 500 MB. I use them with Maggies, so how they react with your ML ClX's could be different.

These are the amps I used/tried in the order I ranked them:

1) Cary Audio CAD 500 MB

2) Innersound ESL (now Sanders Sound)

3) Bryston 7Bsst (not the new 2 version)

4) Parasound Halo JC-1

5) Bel Canto Ref 1000 (not the new version)

6) Bryston 4bsst (great sound, but not enough power for the Maggies)

7) Spectron Musician III MK2,

8) McIntosh 501's (great amp, but didn't match with Maggies, they sound great with a buddies 802's)

There were actually a couple more, but they these are the ones I spent the most time with.

I have not had the Wyred4Sound mono blocks, but I hear nothing but great things about them, and I have also heard from similar planar/electrostatic users that the new Sanders Sound amps, while similar to the Innersound amps are actually even better.

Good luck, lots of good options.

Hi,

I also own Spectron Musician III Mk2 Monoblocks with all options and remote sense cables. I have to say they are very impressive. My oldest brother plays guitar and has been in a few bands in the past. He and a couple of his friends heard my stereo and were very impressed. They commented that what they heard sounded so real. I take that as very high praise. I can say that the Spectrons take a long time to break in and it only gets better as time goes on. Please take a listen, you will not be disappointed.

Joe

IMO, all of the ICE based amps have more similarities than differences.
The Spectron, which I've not heard offers the best chance of change....for better or worse TBD.

4bsst not enough juice for Maggies? OUCH! at 500x2 into 4ohms, I'd suspect there are other problems....maybe an over damped room? And, Bryston will deliver into all sorts of weird loads. Which the Maggie certainly is not.
I know that Bryston makes some monster Monoblocks which if given there own circuit, each, should 'bout do it.

Kiwi,

I owned the Spectrons (monoblocks with bybee and v-caps) with my CLX's. They were very nice with my ML ReQuests, but with the enormous resolving power of the CLX's I found the Spectrons were brittle, lacking in depth and sounding strained. With my dealer we did a side by side comparison with my Plinius SA-250 and frankly is was no contest, the Plinius won hands down, especially in weight, nuance and texture.

We thought that the Spectrons were challenged to deliver current across the impedance curve of the speakers, although the CLX's are not that hard to drive. I used to be a big supporter of Spectrons, and they sound very transparent at first blush, but after a while I realized they lack substance when driving electrostatics or ribbons.

Now my dealer has Bel Canto's with Soundlabs at home (he needs to get the CLX's!) and that combo is very nice - and based on that listening experience I would reank the Bel Canto's ahead of the Spectrons.

In any event, I would not recommend the Spectrons with CLX's, you will either sell the amps or the speakers!

Steve