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Published October 1, 2000

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Bel Canto Design DAC1 Digital-to-Analog Converter

It’s the 21st century (almost) and we’re all so terribly modern -- even those of us who still listen to analog have sizable CD collections. And we’re constantly being bombarded with hype and spin about the next big thing, whatever that’s going to be. SACD? Sounds good, but the public demand seems parked at somewhere below nil. DVD-Audio? Love that bandwidth -- but it ranks even below SACD on the mass-market’s must-have meter.

But what if I could reap the benefits of these advanced technologies without committing to either of them? What if I could buy a piece of kit that would improve the sound of all those CDs I already have? You know, upsample them to 96kHz and add in a nice, gentle roll-off digital filter, too. Sounds almost too good to be true, eh?

Well, that’s the premise behind Bel Canto’s DAC1 -- and brace yourself Brigit, it really is all that.

If you have great talents, industry will improve them

I can’t speak for anyone else, but what immediately impressed me about the DAC1 was its extreme simplicity. No matter how fancy the DAC1 might be inside, on the outside it shows only a single two-color LED (to connote digital lock), coaxial and TosLink inputs, a pair of RCA jacks for analog output and an IEC mains jack located at either end of its longish, narrow chassis. No switches or controls, not even an on/off switch, mar its functional minimalism. Its chassis is diminutive at 3.6"H x 3.6"W x 9"D, and can be easily placed near -- even next to -- a digital source, even on a tight shelf.

Yet for all of its Spartan air, it is definitely solidly built -- its deep black metal sidewalls and hefty connectors aren’t flashy, but they sure are butch. But don’t let this fool ya -- its innards are packed with fancy-schmancy high-quality parts (Caddock and Roederstein resistors, Wima caps and suchlike).

The DAC1’s chief glory is its sampling-rate converter (SRC), which adds 8 bits of dither to the incoming 16-bit digital signal. This increases the apparent data depth to 24 bits. The added dither pushes the DAC1’s quantization residue without adding to the recording’s noise floor -- a side-effect of other resolution-enhancing processes. The DAC1 processes 16-bit 32kHz, 44.1kHz, or 48kHz data at 24-bits/96kHz. No additional dither is used in processing 24-bit/96kHz DADs -- Bel Canto says that the noise floor of the original recording or microphones "will effectively provide dither of the last few bits of any 24-bit recording." The DAC1 also minimizes jitter by making the DAC clock a local Crystal oscillator, which drives the digital filter/DAC directly. The digital filter’s buffered output is returned to the input sample-rate-converter circuit, where it is compared to the incoming data, setting internal registers that monitor the relationship between the incoming S/PDIF data and the DAC clock. Since there’s no VCO control port, jitter cannot enter the circuit and D/A conversion is performed in a "jitter-free environment," according to Bel Canto.

While the DAC1 doesn’t use Pacific Microsonics’ PMD-100 digital filter (which means it doesn’t offer HDCD decoding), Bel Canto claims that its proprietary 48kHz slow roll-off filter has a similar effect to the PMD-100’s superb digital filter when used for normal CD playback or for 24/96. It also has a far tighter transient response than a "brick wall" type filter, which causes time smearing on transient information, and thus reduces imaging accuracy.

Bel Canto’s detailed white paper on the DAC1 can be found at: http://www.belcantodesign.com/whiteprint.html.

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain with grammar, and nonsense, and learning

Before I proceed to the meat of the review, I need to address two issues that are particularly galling because they don’t make sense in the strictest "bits-is-bits" reductionist worldview. The first is that I tried the DAC1 with a variety of transports and it sounded different with each of them. Not radically, but as different as different stampers of the same mastering of an LP. CDs played on my Pioneer DV-525 DVD player through the DAC1 sounded slightly lightweight compared to CDs played on my Musical Fidelity A3CD or the Levinson No. 39. Why this should be, I cannot fathom -- but I heard it consistently.

The other thing that had me puzzled was the difference between using TosLink and coaxial S/PDIF. When using the DAC1 to decode CDs from pretty much any transport, coaxial sounded better -- brighter and more focused. TosLink, in comparison, sounded sweeter -- honeyed would be the word, implying a slightly amber coloration to boot. This changed, however, when decoding 24/96 DADs from my DV-525 with TosLink -- those sounded explosively lifelike and dynamic. Wow!

Then I ran into my cousin by marriage, Ernie Meunier, at a memorial service for my father-in-law. After the service we went out to dinner and began talking about audio, as we audiophiles are wont to do. I mentioned how much I was enjoying the DAC1, and Ernie said he’d read somewhere that it "liked" TosLink in lengths greater than a meter. "I heard two meters works better than a meter -- something to do with internal reflections," Ernie said.

Hmmm. That’s a cheap enough mod for a guy with a closet full of cables, so I tried it. Damn! It worked. The difference with CDs was (I can’t help myself) illuminating -- very little coloration remained. Well, just a hint. And with DADs? Oh mama -- papa like!

No, I can’t explain any of this. Yes, I find it frustrating. And no, don’t bother writing and telling me it’s impossible -- listen for yourself, if it bugs you.

All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income

In the last few years there has been such progress in the $3k-$5k CD-player arena that I actually posited a theory of shrinkage in variation during a series of reviews of such players. It’s not that there aren’t differences between players in that range -- it’s just that the differences are extremely minor in nature and indicate just how good the entire field has become. That said, there still remains a gulf between the performance of those players and the truly state-of-the-art designs, such as Krell’s KPS-25sc, Mark Levinson’s Nos. 30.6/31.5 combo, or the Linn Sondek CD12. The essence of that gulf is exactly what the Bel Canto DAC1 brings to the table.

Don’t get me wrong -- an inexpensive transport plus the DAC1 does not equal the performance of those top-end players, but the magical presence, coherence and essential sweetness of those S.O.T.A. players is brought to mind by the presence of all of those qualities in the DAC1. You get more than a taste of the best that digital has to offer with the Bel Canto, but the best remains an expensive proposition, dag nabbit.

The glorious mono sound of Miles Davis’ Relaxin’ [JVC XRCD VICJ-60125], like the lily, don’t need no gilding. And it doesn’t receive any from the DAC1 -- at least, it doesn’t get any "hi-fi" sound. Davis’ limpid, reticent trumpet flashes like quicksilver as it darts in and out of the melodies. ‘Trane’s presence is almost physical, and Paul Chambers’ bass and Philly Joe Jones’ drums sound startlingly sharp and clear. This music was captured in the air nearly 46 years ago? No, it’s news just in -- as surprising and delightful as when it was first minted.

Good as this disc sounded when I auditioned it upon release just five months ago, its sense of nowness collapsed disappointingly when I removed the DAC1 from the circuit. (And keep in mind, this is the Musical Fidelity A3CD player I raved about and still love -- except it sure sounds better driving the DAC1.) I couldn’t re-connect it fast enough and I never would have removed it again, except out of a sense of my reviewerly duty. The sacrifices I make for my job.…

The brand spankin’ new four-CD Little Feat retrospective, Hotcakes & Outtakes [Warner Archives R2 79912], got a lot of play with the DAC1 -- with 57 newly remastered tracks and 25 demos and rarities, how could it not? The big thang with Feat, especially the original quartet and early sextet (not the synth-driven later records from the original lineup), which are my personal favorite configurations, was the group’s unique timing. As good as the post-Lowell George bands might have been, they never matched that gloriously off-kilter lag behind the beat that was George’s signature -- friends have argued with me about my lack of respect for the later incarnations of the band, but lacking that easy, greasy timewarp, they’re just not the same. (I’m the same way about the Rolling Stones -- it was that slightly oriental twang that stemmed from Keith Richards’ and Brian Jones’ inability to play perfectly in tune that defined the Stones' sound for me, and no matter that the band has produced a few great records since Jones’ death, it ain’t the band I loved.)

Well, let me tell you that, when it comes to timing, the DAC1 has two degrees in bebop and a PhD in swing. It captured that shudder-step lag in Lowell’s slide lines, as well as the forward romp of Paul Barrère’s lead. The Bel Canto locked into Kenny Grabney’s deep funk bass like nobody’s business -- it was earthily solid and as deep as a mineshaft. And detail? Man -- I’ve been devouring Little Feat recordings for almost 30 years, and the combination of these new masters and the DAC1 was pulling details out of these songs I’ve never heard before. The delicacy of the decay of Lowell’s slide guitar was simply stupefying. And the sweetness of his upper-register slide work speaks volumes about the Bel Canto’s extension and beautifully gradual filtration. The notes are sweeter than a mint julep and hang in space like wash on a clothesline on a sunny Monday.

Then there’s the experience of listening to 24/96 DADs through the Bel Canto. Keep your nitro pills or asthma inhaler close to hand, because whatever ails you, the experience will set off an attack. (A note: If you have a Pioneer, as I do, you must be sure the unit is outputting 24/96 or it will truncate the signal internally and output 16/44.1, which is not what you want.) When I originally reviewed Classic’s reissue of Muddy Waters’ Folk Singer [Classic DAD –1020], I didn’t have the DAC1 and concluded that the 24/96 remastering wasn’t essential if you had access to any of the previous reissues (or the original). Well, I was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. I’d never heard the record before, it turns out -- not like this! Muddy’s alive and he’ll come to your house if you’ll buy a DAC1 and a copy of this DVD. Wow!

First off, Muddy’s physically in the room with you -- and Buddy Guy’s guitar is throwing off liquid overtones that are as solid as watermelon seeds. The acoustic of the session surrounds and enfolds you -- maybe Muddy’s not the one that’s been transported after all. Listening to Folk Singer is an instant ticket to 2120 South Michigan Avenue -- I’d recognize that reverberation signature anywhere. Its almost too much information to process, but if it hurts, it hurts sooo good.

The art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises

OK, you get the idea -- I really like the Bel Canto DAC1. I do -- I would not voluntarily remove it from my system, but I have other upsampling processors already queued up for review -- including the MSB, Sonic Frontiers D2D, and the Perpetual Technologies PA3.

Does the DAC1 have any shortcomings? Well, it’s a shade lightweight tonally, compared to the Mark Levinson 30.6/31.5 combo or the Linn Sondek CD12, but it’s light years better fleshed out than most affordably priced contenders. It did wonders for my Musical Fidelity A3CD and will do even more for less up-to-date units. And I’m puzzled over the differences in transports and cables I heard -- these may well also occur in the other units I have yet to audition or they might point to design glitches in the Bel Canto’s interface. That has yet to be determined.

But I’m not too concerned over such niggles. If I had a CD player that was showing its age, and I didn’t want to commit to something really costly until I saw how the market for new technologies shakes out, I’d seriously consider buying the Bel Canto. It will make every CD you have now sound much better and it opens the door on the spectacular-sounding world of high-sampling-rate digital -- which is a huge thrill. While the $1295 retail price is not exactly cheap, it works out to a scant few coins per disc if you have a large CD collection. And that makes the DAC1 a bargain to be reckoned with.

...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com

Bel Canto Design DAC1 Digital-to-Analog Converter
Price: $1295 USD
Warranty: Lifetime

Bel Canto Design, Ltd.
212 3rd Avenue North, Suite 345
Minneapolis, MN 55401
Phone: (612) 317-4550
Fax: (612) 317-4554

E-mail: info@belcantodesign.com
Website: www.belcantodesign.com

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