Bel Canto Design Factory Tour
by Marc Mickelson

Located in downtown Minneapolis near the Metrodome, Bel Canto Design's 4800-square-foot office-and-manufacturing space looks retro-modern. It's located in a weathered brick building that's been renovated and has room for other businesses, including what seems natural for such a space: a coffeehouse. As I stepped through the doors, however, I couldn't help but think that in many ways this building echoed Bel Canto's beginnings and paralleled its modern-day reality: something old, something new.

SoundStage! first reviewed a Bel Canto component in late 1998. That product, the SETi 40 integrated amplifier, was firmly rooted in Bel Canto's product line at the time because of its use of vacuum tubes. Back in 1998, Bel Canto was a tube company, like its neighbor on the other side of the Minneapolis area, Audio Research. I wrote the review of the SETi 40, and I enjoyed using it. Its sweet sound was addictive and made me curious about other Bel Canto products, including the company's tube preamp and mono amps.

Bel Canto continued to produce tube products through end of the 20th century, but at some point before the beginning of Y2K, something interesting happened. Bel Canto president and head designer  John Stronczer went digital. His DAC1 was one of the first digital-to-analog converters to upsample the digital bitstream, and it did so at a very reasonable price. Thereafter, Stronczer began experimenting with a new digital-amplification technology that had not been used in any high-end-audio products at the time. Called class T, this new technology from Tripath used two N-channel MOSFET switches between the power-supply rails, which accounted for the more commonly used name for digital amplifiers: switching amps. I still remember talking with Chad Baures, Bel Canto's PR person at the time, about some "very interesting new products" that we'd soon hear about -- and hear. "We're shocked at how good they are," was his take.

Shortly thereafter we received one of these new amps, the eVo 200.2, for review. Chad was right -- it was a very interesting product. We named the eVo 200.2 a Reviewers' Choice and gave it our Innovation in Design award for 2002, along with Bel Canto's four-channel eVo 200.4. Both amps ran cool, turned power from the wall into power for the speakers with little waste, and output enough watts to drive just about any speaker in existence. In fact, the eVo amps quickly became the favorites of audiophiles with power-hungry speakers, the four-channel eVo 200.4 often used for biamping instead in strict home-theater applications.

Today, Bel Canto's product line shows plenty of forward thinking. In addition to third-generation versions of the eVo amps -- many companies are now just discovering the allure of digital amplification -- Bel Canto produces stereo (Pre2 and Pre2P) and multichannel (Pre6) preamps, a stereo integrated amp (eVo2i), a pair of multiformat digital players (PLayer PL-1 and PLayer PL-1A), a home-theater preamp/processor (PRePro), an outboard phono stage (PHONO1), and a well-regarded DAC (DAC2). The common thread that runs among all of Bel Canto's products is cutting-edge technology and circuit design in the service of music, with multichannel products designed with two-channel purity in mind. Bel Canto has certainly come a long way from its tube-based origins.

The build area. Metal racks on both sides hold equipment during assembly.	Where Bel Canto products are tested.
The audio/home-theater demonstration room at Bel Canto's facilities.	An inside view of the PRePro.
A Pre2P preamp being assembled.	John Stronczer was especially proud of the Pre2P's phono stage. The preamp can be ordered as a line stage only.

Bel Canto's downtown-Minneapolis digs are cozy and unpretentious. The space is just large enough to house design, production, and shipping, along with offices for sales and support staff, a space for storage, and a room for auditioning products. Offices line one side of the long, narrow space, with production directly across and storage off to the far left side. The cleanliness of this space is perhaps its most unique feature. I was able to get the ubiquitous pictures of various products in stages of creation along with stacks of cardboard boxes and bins for holding parts. Nothing new there. Most of Bel Canto's products are built here, although the PRePro and PLayer are built in California. The demo room is smallish but more than adequate for testing products.

Most of my visit, however, was spent at John Stronczer's home, which, by no coincidence, is within walking distance of the factory. Here is where the big rig resides and where Bel Canto products are put through the most rigorous evaluation process. The system here is what one would expect -- along with one surprise. A Bel Canto Pre2P stereo preamp was mated to a pair of eVo2 amps used as monoblocks and a PLayer PL-1A as digital source. Analog was handled by a Micro-Seiki turntable, with power conditioning via a Shunyata Research Hydra Model 8. The speakers, however, were not the sort you will often see outside the studio. TAD is known among audiophiles for its pricey Model 1 speakers that use proprietary esoteric drivers. Stronczer's two-way TAD Exclusive Model 2404 monitors also use TAD-designed and -manufactured drivers, but in their case the fabricated wooden horn steals the show. The speaker's 15" woofer has a pleated surround, which allows great excursion. The speakers are the largest two-way stand-mounted speakers I've ever seen, and they made for a unique presentation.

Stronczer's home is tucked into a peaceful, wooded residential area and seems lifted from the pages of a glossy magazine on modern architecture. Inside there is a lot of grainy wood and glass amidst the extreme quietude. Stronczer's audio system could enhance the peace, sounding terrific a low levels, or play loud enough for the neighbors to hear. What was unique about his TAD speakers was that, amidst the extreme speed and dynamic capabilities of their horn-loaded design, they displayed none of the honkiness or directionality of even the most audiophile-approved horn speakers. They simply didn't sound like horns. This system portrayed strings with glorious individuality and luster, and with vocals, where most horn-loaded speakers fail miserably, they shone. They reproduced piano with rare acuity, something that Stronczer would know well. Off to one side of the listening space was a Yamaha grand, which Stronczer was learning to play.

However, the sonic highlight did not come from the audio system. It occurred when Stronczer's teenaged daughter, Roxanne, played a short piece from the movie Amelie on the piano. This was a slow number that was defined as much by the silence between the notes as the notes themselves, and Roxanne played it with insight and emotion. I only wished we could have recorded it -- it would have been interesting to play it back on Stronczer's audio system and use it for demo purposes.

My visit to Bel Canto Design was light on touring offices and dusty back rooms and heavy on listening to music -- exactly what I would have wanted. Bel Canto may have begun making audio products with tubes, but it has progressed to where it is now -- leading the high-end-audio industry down technological paths that were recently unexplored, and making beautiful music in the process.

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To find out more about Bel Canto Design, visit www.belcantodesign.com.