Bel Canto Design DAC 1 Review: These Are the Days

These are the days

THOUGH many don’t yet know it, this is an exciting time for the audiophile because of higher resolution digital playback. With SACD and DVD Audio stagnant the sensible listener will turn his attention to upsampling digital to analog converters. With at least two models under $1,500 and that inevitable DVD player for no more than $1,000, one can spend half as much as the price of a Meridian 508.24 ($4,000) and get better sound quality. Now that’s progress; not more than one year ago many felt that the 508.24 couldn’t be beaten at anywhere near its price. And, one of the best aspects of upsampling is that it’s designed for your current CD collection. Existing SACD or DVD audio machines will strut their higher-resolution stuff only with super audio CDs or DVD audio discs, respectively. For what it’s worth, Bel Canto’s DAC 1 will process the 24/96khz DVD discs, known as DADs. There aren’t many such titles available and they cost $20 to $30.

The Bel Canto DAC 1 appears unassuming. It’s a small black unit that stands 9 ½” wide, 3 ½” shallow, and 3 ½” high. Its size permitted placement behind my DVD player; seeing equipment steals the magic. On its left side are RCA and Toslink digital inputs and a phase inversion switch. On its right side are single-ended RCA outputs and the power cord receptacle; I used the stock cord for this review. There is no power switch: the unit turns itself on from stand-by mode when it detects a signal. With this unit and with their digital amplifier (review forthcoming) Bel Canto offers solid and smart looking, yet inexpensive, equipment cabinets. Until I’ve got money to burn, that’s my favorite combination.

Bel Canto sent me a very enlightening FAQ [frequently asked questions] sheet. In it they mention that the DAC 1 is designed with an eye towards upgrading. An upgrade could involve changing one chip or replacing the entire digital conversion board. They soberly point out, however, that audio format changes are few and far between and so they don’t have any particular upgrade path in mind. As for 24bit/96khz DVD audio and SACD players, Bel Canto claims that the DAC 1 is up to the task. (Some DVD audio discs might contain 24bit/192khz recordings, for which the DAC 1 is not currently suited.) The problem with connecting either of these machines to the DAC 1 is their digital interface hasn’t yet been established. Presumably, if said interface isn’t Toslink or coaxial, which the DAC 1 already has, it could be added.

When I first heard the Bel Canto Design DAC 1 I didn’t know how much of the fantastic sound was attributable to it. I was at the 2000 Las Vegas CES and I couldn’t very well swap out the DAC 1 for another brand’s DAC. Yet, for all I knew any other DAC would do. Since having the DAC 1 in my own system and comparing it to the Meridian 568 DAC, while the latter was not in its upsampling mode, I now know that the DAC 1 is not your ordinary converter. It sounded substantially better than the 568, and the 568 sounds about the same as a Meridian 508.24! It seems that Bel Canto is part of a new order in digital to analog conversion. The Meridian 568, when upsampling, is part of this wave as is the Birdland Audio Odeon-lite reviewed in the last issue.[1]

Allow me to put the level of improvement in perspective. Most power line conditioners do not improve the sound as much as the Bel Canto did, the XS Technologies Strata 1000 notwithstanding. On the other hand, switching from cassette tape to vinyl record would be a larger improvement, as would be going from the free interconnects included with a CD player to a good $100 interconnect. The degree of improvement I heard is more akin to changing from a decent interconnect or a decent speaker cable to really outstanding examples of each. Given a system more revealing than mine, I’m sure that the Bel Canto would engender an even greater improvement.

Those wondering what the real deal is with the DAC 1’s technology should check out the DAC1 Technical Paper. For now, following is a summation of the DAC 1’s technical benefits from the DAC 1 FAQ. The technical paper is on Bel Canto’s site (www.belcantodesign.com) while the FAQ should be available if you contact them.

Upsampling data to 24-bits lowers the quantization noise of the converter to well below the thermal noise of a 20-bit system. An asynchronous up-sampling digital receiver eliminates high frequency jitter components, giving the DAC more sonic resolution and dynamics. A further advantage of upsampling is allowing the use of a 48khz slow roll-off digital filter that reduces the effects of time domain smear. The most commonly used digital filter is a brick wall digital filter. Brick wall filters create time smear that manifests itself as “digital harshness” and a lack of musicality.

What it sounds like

If you’ve ever heard the way in which one digital front end can sound superior to another than you already know how the Bel Canto beats a 16/44.1 DAC. Indeed, digital source components all seem to harm the signal in the same overall way. Therefore, moving up in any brand’s CD player line tends to make improvements in a similar vein. SACD’s and DVD audio’s improvements over current CD continue in this likeness. If you’re not familiar with this type of improvement I encourage you to educate yourself. Experiment with different CD players, DACs, or transports. Yes, even transports make a difference. I tried an early 90’s Sony 5-disc machine and it sounded course and grainy compared with the Sony DVPS7700 DVD player. Furthermore, a CAL DX2 used as a transport differed in sound, for the worse, from the same Sony DVD player and the Marantz DV18 DVD player. (In all three comparisons the DAC was the Meridian 568.)[2]

I’ve noticed a phenomenon with digital video, both motion video and still photography, that’s analogous to what I hear with 16/44.1 digital audio. On certain digital display devices, particularly plasma displays, a swath of subtly changing color or light (e.g. an unevenly lit white wall or a sunset) will be rendered coarsely. That is, one can see distinct breaks in shades of color or light rather than a continuous transition. Simply put, there aren’t enough shades of color or light to capture the original image. Similarly, one could say of standard 16/44.1 digital that it’s coarse. The affect is to render a less realistic sound, both in timbre and tone. Many would describe the lack of such information as “grain.”

Spatially, 16/44.1 digital audio suffers again. Just as video takes on a three dimensional quality once the resolution is high enough—HDTV video is very three dimensional—so does audio. Sounds take on a more rounded quality as the audio resolution gets higher. For instance, human voices and instruments are better rendered as they sound more like objects existing in 3 dimensional space.

In my system the DAC 1 replaced the grain with continuity and it gave sonic images more shape. Again, this was in comparison with the Meridian 568 without its upsampling feature turned on. In other systems the DAC 1 may do even more. Bass response may get deeper, tighter, and more pronounced. This was the case when I upgraded CD players from the California Audio Labs Icon II with HDCD to the Meridian 508.24. Also, a better digital front end often reveals more low level sounds. Violin bows, creaking chairs, and studio gimmickry that had been glossed over will be easier to hear. The sound of the recording venue can also become more apparent. I heard such improvements when I compared the Meridian 508.20 CD player to Meridian’s 508.24 CD player. Indeed, in many of my comparisons of digital products these same qualitative differences existed.

The overall end result of inserting the Bel Canto into my system, and I’m sure it would be replicated in most of yours, is that music sounded more natural. The extra information that comes through achieves a presentation which you just know sounds more like the real thing. This is the real beauty of the DAC 1. The component parts of this phenomenon, described above, are not nearly as impressive as the whole. Many changes one can make to a sound system require careful consideration before one can determine if the changes were for the better. (As a rule, I try to avoid making such changes.) So refreshing about the DAC 1—and the Birdland DAC and the Meridian 568—is that the improvement is plainly in the right direction.

Be sure you’re ready

Don’t lose sight of the goal, however, of maximizing your sonic bang for the buck. Bel Canto’s DAC 1, as with any other latest and greatest piece of gear, may not fill that role. In the case of the DAC 1, the rest of the system needs to be up to snuff to appreciate what it brings to the party. If you’ve got, at minimum, about a $1,000 preamplifier, a $600 amplifier, and a $1,000 pair of speakers, you should be ready for the Bel Canto Design’s DAC 1. This assumes that your equipment was chosen to maximize two-channel sound for the money and that it’s set-up properly.[3] If so, you bought high value. On the flip side, if you spent this kind of dough at your local mass merchant then I give you my condolences. A better DAC is one of the last things you need to look at.

Hey buddy, you want state of the art digital, cheap?

A DAC 1 and a Sony DVPS7700 DVD player will set you back $2300 including the digital cable, and you’ll have state of the art digital sound! As for less expensive transports, I can’t speak so assuredly. Still, with any transport I can’t imagine any non-upsampling DAC at even 4 times the price doing as well as the Bel Canto. My advice is to use the Bel Canto with whatever DVD player you decide to get. You’ll be way ahead of the curve.

[1] The Meridian 568 is a surround sound processor. The Meridian 508.24 is a CD player. You can read reviews of these products in our Back Issues section, and there is a follow-up review of the 568 in this issue. Also, you may want to check out Greg Kong’s review of the Birdland upsampling DAC, in the May/June 2000 issue. The Birdland costs less than the Bel Canto Design DAC 1 and, in my system, sounded the same.

[2] There is some debate as to whether DVD players make good CD transports. Following is Bel Canto Design’s comment on the subject, from the their DAC 1 FAQ.

There is sound technical support for why a DVD player works well. All DVD players have a minimum of 16MB of SDRAM used as a buffer in which digital data from the disc is stored. The digital information is then reclocked out of the buffer. This SDRAM acts as a large FIFO buffer eliminating low frequency jitter that could otherwise affect the sound quality…

[3] See this issue’s article on Room Acoustics.

DENNIS’s REVIEW SYSTEM:

XS Technologies Strata 1000 power line conditioner >> Sony DVP-S7700 DVD/CD transport >> Monster M1000D digital coaxial cable >> Meridian 568 surround processor >> Krell KAV-500i amp section >> TARA Reference Generation II single-ended interconnect >> Krell KAV500i integrated amplifier (as amp only) >> Tara Air 2 speaker cable >> Mirage M3si loudspeakers. All of the above electronics sat on a Salamander Synergy equipment rack.

Other equipment used:

Krell KAV-500i as preamp/amp Bel Canto EVo 200.2 digital amplifier

Power cables used:

Custom House Power Cord on 568, Stock cords on Bel Canto DAC-1 and Krell KAV-500i

* See back issues for reviews on the XS Technologies Strata 1000 power line conditioner, Krell KAV500i integrated amplifier, and the Tara Air 2 speaker cable.

This early upsampling DAC review connects directly with the later dCS Elgar Plus DAC account and our explanation of PCM sample rate and bit depth.