[Review] Bel Canto Evo 2i

Of course I refer to PCs... :shame:

I will be using it as you mention you would like, my Amators eat watts for breakfast... :JPS:

 

Antonio,

Peronsaly tried about 20, from Acoustic to Zu Cable, Just for Tones (snake oil hat off, purely personal experinaces here)
Good results were had from, A/Z Tsunamia, better with the Krakatoa, the Cardas golden Ref, offered something none of the others did in terms of texturous mid range sounds, good bass too.
Shunyata 's Tipan was ok, the anaconda was better (but not cheap ), KS audio's silver one was pretty fair too, more openiness and detail but not at the expense of the subjective speed, kimbers Palladin was to be honest (a bit naff)
BMI shark/Whale were good bargins offing a lot of the shunyata at a far better price.
The bigger Eupen had an adverse effect on the belcanto, made it slow and lumpy like trying to strain ma's gravy for sunday lunch.
I have also used an elrod Sig, great cable but almost unuseable if in tight corners, it's almost solid bar flexible to a point.
If you wish to know what I use, please check out My kit page one cheers Tone

 

The owner/founder of Bel Canto uses this one:

Eichmann eXpress

The Eupen on my system does remove some of the treble, or noise as Michael puts it...

The Mainsstream is livelier, so I will go on and get another one for the Bel Canto... :MILD:

Thanks...

 

Got the extra Mainsstream for the Bel Canto, it is runing-in so I dont get harsh sound to mask the new power...

I also ordered a new 8 way power bar from Audio Agile, to replace my two 6 way Audio Designs, as I have less components now, to tidy-up cables a bit... :MILD:

I also noticed that the owner of BC only uses mains filtering for the low level gear, none for the eVo powers, other than the Eichman PC...

He also uses Audio Analysis cables, wich from reading tests, should sound quite open, like my cables do, too long wait, too much time to think... :shame:

 

Hello all. I've only recently discovered this forum and realised what I've been missing. Time to catch up!

I'm considering importing an Evo 4 or 6 from the States and was wondering whether changing the input voltage to 240V is going to be as easy as what HenryT described. Are there 110V/240V labels next to the corresponding connectors on the board?

Many thanks!

Henry

 

GF,

Depends on territory destination, so Evo's only have one set of voltage sockets, in which case you will have to remove the baord and resolder them in the corrisponding voltage slots.
Not to difficult a job. Wm

 

Thanks WM. Just done the deal on a nearly new Evo 6. If it involves soldering can I send it to you please?

By the way I've ended up with your EE Minimax and rather like it.

 

For anyone interested the Evo will be joining the following system:

Source: Audio Synthesis Transcend
DAC: Audio Synthesis DAX Decade BG Balanced
Pre: Direct, Minimax or Proceed AVP2
Poweramp: Bryston 9BSST being replaced
Speakers PMC TB2+ fronts, DB1+ rears (x2)

I plan to use the Evo 6 in bridged mode to power the front three, and use a lesser amp for the rears for the time being. The main reason for replacing the Bryston is its tendency to be a bit lean and dry which is great for AV but less so for my kind of music (almost exclusively classical). Adding the valve pre into the chain helped a lot (compared with direct connection), but I really want the direct connection to sound better.

 

GF,

That will be no problem.
The Little MM is nice little unit, and is musical.
The boxster driver gentlemen decided to move it on then!!!
With the right equipment it makes some pleasaat noises, though it couldn't hold a candle compared with running direct on the SE

 

What's the SE? Sorry you can tell I'm a bit of a noob around here!

 

welcome Godfather, are you he of same name at avtalk?

as you can see, we have similar set-up.

 

Thanks for the welcome. That's me of the same name on AVT and AVF.

Can't wait to get my Evo 6!

 

I had an Evo 2i GenII at home as well

I wrote about it on Pinkfish. These things are readily available and pretty cheap on Audiogon. I found a local buyer, who wanted only $1600 for the amp, and let me bring it home for a trial first.

I wrote about this in more detail on Pinkfish, but much to my shock, I had a strong preference for my current Naim 112/150/Hicap over this amp. It had more power for sure, but it just lacked life, and wasn't enjoyable or very musical. Probably a case of poor system matching, but back it went.

This really colored my approach to my next demo, but luckily, the YBA Passion is much more to my taste, and staying.

Bruce

 

Bruce,
I feel maybe a synergy issue as 'Lacking life' is not how I would describe them. Wm

 

?synergy. I put it down to lack of synergy in light of all the great comments in the mags on fora. I suppose it's also possible it just wan't to my liking. Nothing terrible, but it juts didn't blow me away.

 

Might have been my fault for creating expectations which weren't quite met.
I replaced an 82/hicap/200 combo (which is a LOT better than a 112/150 combo) with an Evo2i and thought the Evo was a big improvement.
Just goes to show how different people want different things.

 

Mr. S. (or Mike I think),

You're right, your reviews were one of the things that sent me to the Evo, but you were not alone. Most folks love it, and it is by most accounts a wonderful amp. That's why I almost bought one blind! Now we only had it home for the weekend, but it just didn't float our boat in the long run. However, given the generak opinion of the amp, I am putting it down to personal preference, system matching, room etc. My room is BIG and BOOMY, and maybe that was one of the problems.

I wouldn't have even bothered with thus thread, but I was thinking about the Evo this week as I was deming the YBA. The other amp I tried during the period was a Unico SE. I also liked that amp a lot, and would love to be able to compare it to the YBA (sonic memory is short-lived, at least within my cranium). It was a little warmer than the YBA, but a little mushy as well. The latter fact was highlighted by comaprison to my Naims.

I'm really amazed that I like the 112/150/Hi as much as I do in these head to head comparisons, since I started looking around when I decided that I needed something new! In fact it all started when I brought home a 202, and realized just what it would cost to go up to where I wanted to be on the Naim ladder, so I decided to try to get off. This move to a used higher power integrated is quite affordable, and will let me change my speakers (Virgos) and source (CD5/Hicap), which is where I really want to head. I just thought the 50W of the 150 would be too limiting as I look for something that does a better job of filling my room (35 ft X 15 ft) than the Virgos.


Bruce

 

Bruce,
The fact that we all like different things is a good thing in my opinion. Be a bit of a scramble of the "perfect" woman otherwise.
Good luck on finding the "right" solution, and let us know what you chose.

 

I'm going to stick with the YBA, and polish up the Naim to bring back to my dealer.

 

the evo4 (poweramp) certainly does not come across unmusical in my set-up, directly fed from Dax Decade; might it be that the weakness, if there is one, is from the pre in the evo 2i - or perhaps its the bridging over the evo4 compared to evo2.

[ .. but that takes us back to Henry's first post in this thread ]
Wm, I'm sure you have a take on this...