30 Australian
ON TEST
the company in 1990, all his amplifi ers used
valves), the compact size of the chassis has
design benefi ts beyond the obvious ones of
efficiency, material usage, shipping costs and
aesthetics. ‘The compact size imposes a focused
design aesthetic where the chassis is stripped
down to its essentials to achieve our performance
and function goals. The compact, strong, rigid
chassis also brought about benefi ts in mechanical
performance, reducing the resonant profi le of the
chassis without resorting to expensive and mas-
sive construction,’ he told journalist Nandita
Kapadiaxx. ‘At one point, we tried aluminium
and found that the sonic signature changed with
notable upper midrange prominence. We traced
it to a mechanical resonance from the lighter and
less rigid aluminium. We went back to the original
steel construction and immediately heard our
signature sound balance restored.’MONO POWER AMPLIFIER
Bel Canto REF600M
But it’s not only manufacturing costs. An
expensive chassis has high on-costs (distribu-
tor margins, dealer margins, taxes and so on),
all of which increase the cost of that chassis
at consumer level. Bel Canto’s ‘think smarter’
trick with its tooling is that it uses only two
different types of chassis to house almost
all its models. There are eleven products in
the e.One Series, for example (of which the
REF600M is one), and all use exactly the same
chassis.
That chassis is just 216mm wide, 88mm
high and 305mm deep. The front panel is
solid aluminium, into which the name ‘bel
canto’ is deeply engraved (it being Italian for
‘beautiful singing’) while the remainder of
the chassis is formed from heavy-duty black
steel. According to Bel Canto’s founder, John
Stronczer, (weirdly enough, when he foundedB
el Canto seems to be extending its
product range almost by the month,
which is no small achievement for
a small high-end audio outfi t that
builds all its products in Minneapolis in the
USA. The model number of its latest amplifi er,
the REF600M, takes its numerals (600) from
its rated power output into 4Ω (600-watts).
The following character (M) indicates that the
amplifi er is mono, so you’ll need a pair for
stereo. Currently, there is no ‘S’ model—nor is
there ever likely to be, for reasons that should
shortly become obvious...THE EQUIPMENT
Being a small company means having to think
smarter with tooling, because otherwise the
cost of a chassis alone can become a signifi -
cant part of the overall manufacturing cost.