[Review] Bel Canto Evo4 v Tact SDAi2175

Bel Canto Evo4 v Tact SDAi2175

Well, it was a bit of a David and Goliath contest and it would be churlish of me to declare Goliath didn't win. Of course he did.

Ditton very kindly leant me his recently acquired BC Evo4 to compare against my Tact SDAi2175 for a few days. The playing field was not level.... Ditton uses his AS Dax Decade straight into the Evo4 with no preamp, whereas in my situation I had to rely on the balanced pre-amp outs of the Tact SDAi to drive it. So quite possibly that was holding it back a bit.

Some facts and figures:
Tact SDAi - power output 200w@8ohms, 380w@4ohms price - £990

BC Evo4 - power 400w@8ohms, 600w@4ohms price - £3500 new

Other equipment - Marantz SA-11s1 SACD player, ATC SCM12 speakers.

The preamp was fed from the source by vdH second RCA, then nordost Red Dawn balanced to the Evo4.
The Evo4 was always run in bridged 2-channel mode using balanced connection.

main music provided by:
Brahms - op118 6 pieces, Julius Katchen on decca
Brahms - Sonata no. 1, Marie-Josephe Jude on Lyrinx (SACD)

Radiohead - Ok Computer
Red Hot Chillis - By The Way

Schoenberg - Gurrelieder prelude, Chailly Berlin RSO
Mahler - Sym 6, Scherzo by Bernstein VPO, Tilson-Thomas/SFO SACD, Abbado/BPO (SACD but actually 24/48 PCM)
Bruckner - Sym 9 Guilini VPO, Harnoncourt VPO SACD

Immediately noticeable was one thing. The Bel Canto hisses... there is clearly audible background hiss coming out of the speakers when no music is playing, even from the relatively insensitive ATC SCM12s. This is more noticeable on Ditton's Epos ES22s. By comparison the Tact SDAi is completely silent.

Ok... to cut a long story short the Bel Canto is a superb power amp. On the smaller pieces above (the piano music and the 2 rock/pop listed) it was clearly more natural and organic (a favourite term of mine) than the Tact SDAi. The Brahms 1st Sonata was somehow presented more logically and more easy to follow the complex argument of the music than with anything I have heard before. However, with this came a bit of cuddliness, a sort of feeling that the sound was a bit too warm.

The Radiohead - mainly tracks 5 & 6 of this superb album - was again more wholesome and more sense of space around the music. Very enjoyable.

The Red Hots by contrast were shown up to have a pretty poor flattish recording and neither amp flattered this. To be frank I enjoy this album better in the car than on a real hifi.

Onto the big orchestral stuff... now this is where I was surprised. On all of the Mahler Symphony 6 recordings, I really believe that I would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the amps, the presentation seemed to be almost identical.

This was less true of the Schoenberg piece, here the Bel Canto once again provide a more natural airy sound than the Tact. I was reminded of how this piece sounded through my Quad 988s powered by the Graaf 5050.... tears nearly followed.

As before the Bel Canto is damn good, and coupled with an appropriate pre-amp (which it probably was not here) then it might be even better. If money was no object then it would be on the want list without a doubt. But I have to seriously question its UK new price of £3500. The matching preamp is something like £2500...ouch ouch ouch! From looking around classifieds I see the evo4 can be had 2nd hand around £1900 and the pre around £1200... a lot more realistic. But still an awful lot more than the Tact at £990.

The Tact SDAi2175 is more upfront and a bit brighter sound, of that there is no doubt. This may help integration with the slightly dark sound of my ATCs better than with the Evo4, avoiding the warmth I detected on the piano recordings when played through the Evo. The Tact also seems a bit more mechanical sounding in smaller scale music. But in the big stuff - where most of my listening is - the difference narrowed a lot. Therefore I wil be sticking with the Tact... But, if I get rich suddenly the Bel Canto may get listened to again (but a bit worried about that hissing).

 

Alan, did you try changing the single ended/balanced switches?
That helped cure a lot of the hiss on mine.

 

my evo4 doesn't hiss. penance what switches are those?. i use it with a balanced connection though don't remember the switches though - ouch

 

John,
On the rear are two switches, one per channel, one position is audio ground to mains earth and the other lifts the ground from earth.

 

found it - silly me. there in the right position now. Looks like i'll spend the rest of the morning convvincing my self it sounds better this way - hang on i think it does!

 

blimey it really does

 

i think the lesson here is a RTFM

although hey it's a free upgrade

 

You should hear what they do sound like once they are sorted Alan rather special

 

I think Ditton has tried the switches mentioned with little change resulting. The hiss is more noticeable with his more sensitive speakers, I could probably live with it and it was not worse than I used to get from the PS Audio HCA-2... Ditton thinks a transformer upgrade has been mentioned somewhere before to fix this?

 

nice one Alan.

I had a small A/B atAlan's when we took the Evo4 from chez moi to chez his. And yes it does hiss, altho I cany recall hearing it at Alan's - it does hiss through the epos es22s. This means that silence is not complete silence.

As indicated, I run my AS Dax Decade straight into the Evo4 with no preamp, using RCA single-ended interconnects (I have AS SilverBlue, vdh Second, and use of Nordost Valahalla).

Electricity comes from its own socket but via fairly standard lead - the only longish one I have, need 1.5 to 2m.

The sound is very natural, especially fed from Ncode'd Transcend and Black-Gated Dax Decade. It has all the PRaT I can envisage. OK, it adds more warmth than my AudioLab 8000S, but hey! I like to think that it blends the Dax & epos. its also very open, and does real wonders with the smaller scale music I enjoy (accoustic folk, jazz, world; vocals, etc) while allowing me to learn more about the larger scale orchestral material that I'm now getting into.

(now awaiting feedback from Dunkyboy on that Croft Vitale SC pre-amp ...)

 

Well are you using single ended connections?, if so STILL switch in the XLR dips, hopefully you are running it Bridged mode also.
IF you still have hiss try a different I/C to the Belcanto.
If you can run the source off a different spur then try that, then try the B/C off the seperate spur (run an extension from upstairs or the garage if you have)
Transformers won't cure hiss (IMHO) Theproblem lies elsewhere

 

tony

what does 'sorting' it involve?

 

To start with decent mains, conditioner/cables its a really big thing with these B/C's there preformance can be brought on in no small order. Then a internal sort out (power supply rebuilding, board mods, redesigning of the dsp power supply, output stage mods. totally transforms them for being just good, into to being rather special. T.

 

Same for the Tact IME. Indeed I find it less than inspiring without treatments but add them and you have one smooth neutral amplifier

 

Sorry guys, I've not read the whole thread properly so I've probaly got the wrong end of the stick, so I'd like to apologise in advance, but what's the point of comparing a £990 amp with one costing £3500? Is anyone really surprised that an amp costing three and half times another one is better than the cheaper one? Also the hardware setup was different in each case.

 

Because when it comes to digital amps, TacT and Bel Canto are the names generally most recognized and reviewed in mags etc.

Tact is sold direct from the manufacturer or their agents, not from dealers and so is sold for a much lower price for what you get. If the Tact SDA amps were sold through normal dealer channels it would probably cost an awful lot more, maybe £2 - £2.5k so would start to enter into Bel Canto territory. The current UK price is apparently an introductory price that may rise considerably once they think they have established the brand in the marketplace.

Additionally the Bel Canto is US made and so the usual Atlantic crossing price multiplier applies to it. I don't know what prices Tact gear sells in USA or but I imagine they are much closer in price there (Tact is made in Denmark).

Once you start to bring these factors in, the amps are much closer price wise.

If somebody could compare the SDAi2175 v the Belcanto Evo2i, or the SDA2175 power amp v the Evo2 power amp - in both cases direct competitors, that would be a very interesting comparison indeed... I still suspect Bel Canto would come out on top but very close.

Its true the comparison here was not equal but it was one I was interested in because if the Bel Canto had been more clearly superior, in every scenario, to the Tact that I have, I might have started looking for one.

 

heard both "i" versions though not side by side. the tact does some things very well - bass, imaging and clarity but it isn't musical. the bel canto is far more involving and engaging yet still manages to hold its own or out do the tact in the other areas i mentioned. if you listen to music, not even close (and you can pick a 2i up from the US for around £1400 or less).

 

Thanks Tony - i'll bear the major surgery in mind. out of interest what sort of money are you talking about?

i have it in mind to sort out some decent 230v though. there's a reasonable chance i'll get around to it

thanks John

 

John,

Sort the mains first, this makes a more than subtle difference, as Merlin says too it lifts the TACT a fair margin too, helps with a lot of the forwardness and does indeed smooth it out.
The internal mods are in 2 levels, please PM for details.
Have heard all the amps mentioned with/without conditioning, and all go up a notch or 2 in preformance.
The B/C evo 4 can be acquired for around the £2k used, serious bargin imho