Enter audio. That's how we sometimes feel in this HiFi journey when challenged by a new piece of equipment. By perseverance or sheer luck, we've managed to dial our systems to sound for the time being at least and pre next upgrade just so. Right and dialed. To our biases. Then our relentless pioneering spirit (or greed or lust depending on your perspective) awakens. Again. Our restlessness is revitalized (in the case of reviewers, the new assignment at hand) and we introduce a new preamplifier or CD player or interconnect to our rig. In today's case, the new Bel Canto DAC 3 was to disturb my hard-fought stereophonic equilibrium.
Balanced perturbed with the DAC 3 at hand and staring at the abyss below, would the aid of the balancing pole (cables, tube rolling) save me from tumbling into the cushioning safety net of my resident DAC 2?
Men in tights The DAC 3 is an evolutionary step from the now classic and highly respected DAC 2. In keeping with the new Bel Canto house aesthetic, the DAC 3 is a half-width component of far superior build and cosmetics than its predecessor. The package as a whole has the feel of a sturdy product that has been designed and engineered with efficiency and quality as priorities. The layout in my opinion is also far superior, the DAC 3 having a more conventional and therefore practical connection bay as opposed to the DAC 2's rather awkward two-sided orientation. The DAC 3's heavier mass is also preferable when using stiff and heavy connecting cables. The DAC 2 gets levitated when mated to such cables unless weighted down.
The DAC 3 sports a thick aluminium face plate with the marque Bel Canto deeply etched into it. In the centre of the recessed face you'll find a clear and large numerical and textual read-out that informs of the various settings and functions at hand. Just to the right sits the large rotary multi-purpose control which is used to select sources, navigate, change volume and power up or down. Around back a comprehensive array of connections starts with the IEC power inlet and continues with a USB input, Toslink, S/PDIF with RCA, S/PDIF with BNC and AES/EBU with XLR. For outputs, the DAC 3 provides balanced XLR and single-ended RCA.
As for the technology behind the DAC 3, Bel Canto's John Stronczer and his designers accomplished further refinements in design and thinking. The main attraction is Bel Canto's use of an Ultra-Clock master reference clock and dual stage de-jitter architecture for a claimed jitter reduction performance up to 50 times better than other clocks and a quoted figure of 1 picosecond RMS with a superb frequency accuracy of 0.0001%. There is an on-board 24/192 DAC, separate power supplies for the digital and analog stages, class A biased fully balanced audio circuits, 4 layer PCBs and select grade audio components throughout. All digital inputs are transformer coupled so as to isolate and shield against noise. Even the USB input is transformer shielded to protect the DAC 3 from the noisy computer environment. For further information on the multitude of technical features used in the DAC 3 and a very interesting white paper, I would encourage you to visit the Bel Canto website.
As an added feature, the DAC 3 can be used as a digital preamplifier when the rear switch selects the variable output position. The digital volume is controlled by the rotary switch which turns smoothly in 0.5dB steps numerically displayed on the central information panel. This of course is a great feature for those who want a simplified system. The DAC 3 eliminates an external preamp for claimed improvements in transparency and dynamic contrast.
I first tested the DAC 3 as a substitute for my usual DAC 2 between the superb team of Supratek preamp and NuForce amplifiers via Cerious Technologies digital and analog interconnects and Bocchino XLR interconnect. This would compare old guard to upstart, my system's bias toward the DAC 2 notwithstanding. From the get go, listening sessions demonstrated profound differences between the two converters.
Now I can tell you that the main sonic signature of the DAC 3 is total neutrality as far as that concept is identifiable or indeed honestly recognizable within any system. As already indicated, that includes my system. No frequency band stands out in relief. In fear of overusing the term, the DAC 3 is utterly balanced. In comparison, the DAC 2 is accentuated in the upper bass/lower midrange, giving it a sense of added warmth as opposed to the DAC 3's precise evenness. And there's the rub. My system was tuned to the warmer sounding DAC 2, with ancillaries that diminished that unit's walk on the darker side of neutral.
In theory, this mode of operation holds great promise as the interface between computer hard drive and DAC promises vanishing levels of jitter no optical transport and DAC combination can match. Bel Canto hasn't added the feature as a half-hearted token attempt to keep up with technological trends. On the contrary, John Stronczer appears to have gone to considerable lengths to ensure that the USB connection is of equal quality and can fulfil the same potential as the other inputs on board. Apart from my standard listening procedures, I was also able to directly compare the laptop/USB playback with my CD transport simply by switching inputs with the DAC 3's remote while playing the same music. This was a great way of conducting comparisons as I could listen to the transport combo and by starting the USB combo a few seconds later, could A/B at the touch of a button the identical piece of music in the other format.
Comparing USB to S/PDIF, the former sounded marginally constricted dynamically and showed far less separation between vocals and the backing instrumentation. The vocal was also placed further back in the mix and with less presence. In my system, the CD combo had greater dynamic contrast, a wider and deeper soundstage, again more flesh on the bone in terms of body and presence and more powerful and deeper bass. Dimensionality left to right, up
Bear in mind too how this assessment is based on the mediocre native Windows driver and my vintage laptop. Had time and funds allowed for the purchase of a superior audio driver and a more up-to-date computer, the results may have been quite different. In fact the comparison may have been between two high-end stars. I hear the bee's knees of drivers is the ASIO which Bel Canto highly recommends. Sounds like Australia's version of the CIA. Improvements can also be had by using outboard interfaces such as the Squeeze Box or those available from Empirical Audio and Trend Audio. These interfaces convert the USB signal into a digital stream either Toslink or S/PDIF which then is fed into the DAC 3's input. Computer audio aficionados also talk about upsampling within the computer and tapping the DAC prior to its own upsampling circuitry. I guess it's still early days for the USB avenue, with promise of advancements and user simplification ahead in the not too distant future. [It should also be added that the primary advantage of computer audio is playback from hard-drive, i.e. magnetic data retrieval, rather than using the internal CD/DVD drive in optical mode - Ed.]
So, to summarize, what does this technically complex component bring to the table? The Bel Canto DAC 3 is a nicely built piece of kit and aesthetically simple and pleasing. It is tremendously versatile in features and connectivity and functioned flawlessly. The DAC 3 has an incisive, detailed and fast sound that maintains tonal neutrality and superb resolution. Run as a preamplifier in a single source system, it shines in the areas of transparency and dynamics whilst maintaining its other strengths as shown via its DAC section. That it lagged behind the valved Supratek in terms of body and bass power is no embarrassment considering the latter's standing as one of the planet's best preamps.
The USB feature showed tremendous promise given the fact that I was stuck with the poor native Windows driver. So there's potential for notable sound quality improvements on the USB front. As far as the comparison between the two DACs, I would have to say that in a lean sounding system, the DAC 2 would take the honors. In a system coated with a golden hue and saddled with a loose and muddy bass register, the DAC 3 would be the hands-down winner. In a system where all is in balance, it'll be down to your sonic bias - the resolute, airy, detailed, fast and dynamic sound of the DAC 3 or a large dollop of the same with a smidgen of warmth thrown in and the fatter bottom end of the DAC 2.