Belles Musical Trio
The Musical trio emerged from the embryonic thoughts of Dave Belles with regards to the conundrum of thermionic sounds.
A great many folk are in touch with their 'Valve' side yet do not wish to participate in the biasing, swapping, rolling, valve replacment. Or suffer 30 minute plus warm up times, the excess heat generation and big box sizes. All these are are issues that are to be avoided for a great number of music lovers.
So was born the VT-01 Gen II valve hybrid pre amplifier, using a fully discrete input stage and dual cathode follower output section. This imparts the Belles VT-01 Gen II pre with a full bandwidth (100Khz+) top to bottom linearity.
Whilest retaining the incredibly musical fluid sound that a high quality valve preamp is capable of.
The VT-01 Gen II has the valve characteristics without the 'hassle' of valves yet reatining the best traits of both solid state and valves.
A choice of two amplifiers in this series that match perfectly with the VT-01 preamplifier are available (Though the VT-01 Gen II will work with just about any amplifier you care to mention thanks to its 30V output).
The choice splits into two distinct camps, a pure class 'a' 30Wrms amplifier with superb mid range presence and texture and very sweet upper frequencies plus bass control and dynamics that have almost no equal in the class 'A' solid state arena, certainly not at this price point or way above it.
For those seeking a genuine valve sound without the any glowing tubes, then the VT-01 Gen II and SA-30 Gen II is a must audition combination HFN enthused "Majestic is the word that keeps popping into my head", "It's astonishing bass and dynamics belie it's power rating, the freedom from grain marks it as a thoroughbred.", "As a pair the VT-01 and SA-30 are truly magical".
The final piece in the superb musical trio is the SA-100 Gen II a class A/B 100Wrms stereo amplifier (dual mono configuration).The listener to this amplifier is treated to a pure open window again totally grain free, superb transparency, large sound staging and a musical flow that will captivate. In contrast to the SA-30 Gen II the purity of the sound is more evident, for those seeking more realism and greater clarity yet retaining the high involvement factor a serious high end amplifier that can hold its head with pride we compared to the very best available, yet making music sound beautiful. HFC collections wrote "pointers like pitch and timing are handled with particular grace, while bass is deep and beautifully controlled", "The Belles combination was very easy to hear through with the guileless transparency".