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any love for Belles Aria - this side of the pond ?

Hi wpm,

I heard a Belles Aria in my system last week and have ordered one as it was that good.

The Exposure amps I currently use, are no slouch and have a good reputation, but don’t hold a candle to the Belles.

The sound is so much more natural, controlled and really opened up the soundstage of my Focal loudspeakers.

I’d certainly recommended one.
 
mikemusic said:
I have
Belles VT-01 MK II Pre Amp
Belles MB200 Mono Power Amps

The Belles will be a huge jump up from the Nait 5 and the top piece of kit in the system
Click to expand...

must agree there , the vt-o1 had wonderful texture and the monoblocks were a real step up from my bel canto ref 1000 . they are extremely rare though .

i have recently had the supernait 2 running with a harbeth shl5plus and it was extremely good , really musical . i am actually selling mine becuase i am getting some valve monoblocks but its highly recommended

https://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/naim-supernait-2.213814/
 
pjdowns said:
Hi wpm,

I heard a Belles Aria in my system last week and have ordered one as it was that good.

The Exposure amps I currently use, are no slouch and have a good reputation, but don’t hold a candle to the Belles.

The sound is so much more natural, controlled and really opened up the soundstage of my Focal loudspeakers.

I’d certainly recommended one.
Click to expand...


pjdowns,

the belles aria integrated ?

how do they compare in speed to the naim or exposure ?

am auditioning the pre power this week

regards
wpm
 
hifinutt said:
must agree there , the vt-o1 had wonderful texture and the monoblocks were a real step up from my bel canto ref 1000 . they are extremely rare though .

i have recently had the supernait 2 running with a harbeth shl5plus and it was extremely good , really musical . i am actually selling mine becuase i am getting some valve monoblocks but its highly recommended

https://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/naim-supernait-2.213814/
Click to expand...

about 3 days ago i heard the SN2 fronted by an NDX but the demo room was no good but once can feel the SN2 though...

The Belles Aria integrated almost has the same power of the SN2 but i wonder how would the Aria Integrated stack up against the SN2 ( if price were not a consideration )

The belles pre power hardware ( except Aria pre + stereo power amp ) are simply out of budget for me

regards
wpm
 
The Belles Aria would wipe the floor with the Naim full stop.

My Exposure’s are quite a bit better than the SN2 and the Belles bettered them.
 
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its brilliant to see more exposure of belles amps , tony at coherant who i have dealt with for a good number of years has been selling them for years . i am very pleased to hear you are so impressed with it . i am wondering what the retail is on them ?

i bought my sn2 to see what it was like and because it has av bypass , i also found it has a brilliant remote . the remote is extremely important to me, i find many of them are too fast and hard to control . that is the primary reason i did not get the belles vt-01

the sn2 remote is precise , extremely easy to control . one review in hifi critic vol 7 /no 4 2013 says "frankly it sounded rather more powerful and of higher quality than many other substantially more expensive amps and happily drove my wilson sophia `s as if made for the job . ..where integrated amps have generally scored a an average of 25 marks ....however a run in supernait 2 slammed in at 77 , which in my view is genuine audiophile territory ..."

sn2 are plentiful , well known and decent ones start at below 2k s/h .
 
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I believe the retail is £2400 for the Belles Aria, and it is Tony of Coherent who brought it over for the demo. His knowledge of system setup is immense and he suggested so many tweeks that cost me nothing but made a huge difference, it was amazing, I’d highly rate him.

I have compared my Exposure's to both the Naim SN2 and Naim 202/203 combo and the Exposure’s were better. The Belles was even better than the Exposure’s so a win win as far as I’m concerned:)
 
oh yes indeed , tony is first class , i used to go to both his place in malvern and ripple and he has been here to my house a few times . 2.4k is much lower than i would have thought , are you sure about that ? sounds rather too good to be true
 
hifinutt said:
oh yes indeed , tony is first class , i used to go to both his place in malvern and ripple and he has been here to my house a few times . 2.4k is much lower than i would have thought , are you sure about that ? sounds rather too good to be true
Click to expand...

I believe so yes, I can double check with Tony when I speak to him next.
 
wpm said:
Hi

been running with the Naim Nait 5i-2 for about 5 years now and am considering a change.

Nothing is wrong with the sound at the moment but i guess i want to look at a different amplifier now.

The source is a Philips CD 750 / Philips CD 960 and A Lenco L75 ( under construction ) and Akai AP D30 with a MP30 cart

The source will remain where they are and so will the speakers - Merlin TSM Black Magic

In theory if i could consider

naim SN2
Sonneteer Alabaster
Exposure 3010 S2D
Rega Elicit R
Dayens Ecstacy 3

and i see a new amplifier

David Belles Aria Integrated ( lists at USD 2000 )

any of you heard the David Belles Aria ?

Smoother , fuller sounding amps will be nice for my speakers and me.

100W of SS Amplification is the max my speakers can take

I will try and audition as many as i can but the Dayens and Belles are not available for audition here.

Best
wpm
Click to expand...

I would look at the CD source too
 
I will look at the source as well - when the opportunity and funds are available.

I bought an ex demo ( 50 hours ) Naim SN2 since i got a very nice deal on it.

Thank you
 
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