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| Exploring John's resident Home Theater system also meant entering his personal study - a good place to wrap up today's report with a few final questions about his company and where he's going from here. | |||||||||
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| Anchored by five Thiel Audio MCS-1s, the system uses a Runco projector, Pioneer Elite DVD player, a PRe6 hitched up to the source via the 5.1 analog bypass, three eVo2 and a REL Studio III subwoofer. John's daughter wanted to watch Amelie, a witty, visionary and utterly creative charmer of a French film whose subtitles -- I realized by getting their proper translations when the scenes demanded -- don't quite keep pace with the original's zaniness. Just as upstairs, this system cashed out big-time with a huge disappearing act. If you've been spooked into not-for-me defenses by excessive in-store demos -- designed to loosen dental fillings? -- I'm here to report that home theater done right is far better than most commercial movie houses. My free time is devoted to music, not movies. But were it different, I'd go after a serious-yet-underhanded setup as the Stronczer's enjoy. Giving me "the look" [above], John now ushered me to his desk to take a look-see at the brand-new PRe-PRo just pulled off the CEDIA display. |
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| Rather than feeling self-congratulatory, he simply quipped that the real work was just about to begin. Without any hiccups, the PRePRo had passed the acid test of a life tradeshow - which tends to invoke Murphy's Law just as surely as sending equipment to reviewers . But part of the pre-launch demo exercise was to solicit dealer/installer feedback. Did they require additional features? More socketry? Not-thougt-of functionality? Another more secretive purpose was performance testing. Identify areas where parts upgrades and clever tweaking might result in extra mileage points. You can only do that after a fully working prototype has proven basic functioning in the field. With a boyish grin of exuberance, John then took to pencil and pointed at certain circuit junctions that would benefit from minor "cleanup", certain resistors that would get the deluxe spa treatment, certain cosmetic revisions to spit-shine the final product. With understandable pride, he also finger-petted the Crystal Semiconductor 43122-KS EP DACs [black horizontal chips in upper half of board] that offer 122dB of dynamic range for all channels and are the best converters money can currently buy. |
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| Looking into the future, a single-box CD player based on DAC2 technology seems in the work. Even a universal player is definitely in the picture. But before that... | |||||||||
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| I know it seems silly based on the incredible acclaim of the eVo amps, but - do you perceive the need for a statement-level amplifier to break through the perception barrier that still separates you from the "Big Boy" territory of Krell and Levinson? | |||||||||
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Sadly, there's still some truth in that. Hence CES 2003 will see us introduce a 1000-watt monoblock. That, once and for all, should dispel any remaining myths or lingering assumptions that traditional Class A topologies retain any performance advantages over Class T. Admittedly, 1000 watts seems a bit silly. No normal home-based applications will ever come close to harnessing all of its power. But it enables us to make a massive statement and finalize its dedicated switch-mode power supply that we'll later simply scale down to incorporate into certain ultrahigh performance eVo models of more conventional power ratings. | ||||||||
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| Having followed your eVolution over a few years now, it seems that your company currently finds itself at the cusp of seriously taking off. The new cosmetics and models have grown into a complete line. Shortly adding source components like a CD or DVD player will actually turn you into a complete solutions provider - well, complete except for loudspeakers. Could you comment? | |||||||||
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| Standing at the cusp of something big mirrors my own feelings, indeed. Expansion and the solidifying of our operational base is in fact what 2003 will be all about for us. To facilitate this next stage, I'm currently interviewing for our new CEO position. We're now big enough to where we need professional executive leadership, to take this leap and allow me to concentrate on product development and finalize my core group of engineering talent. | |||||||||
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| (Real investigative journalists are ruthless, tenacious and without tact. I don't have it in me, but a little pretend-practice never hurts.) So - how big is Bel Canto? (How was that for sudden and tactless, eh?) | |||||||||
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| (Chuckles) Let's just say we're already worth more than other players in this town (God, I love it when businessmen talk dirty!) But more to the point, the kind of growth I'm referring to has just as much to do with the "intelligence factor" you touched upon earlier. For example, I've developed a fully functioning board for digital crossovers. Believe me, this is the future - perfect time- and phase behavior, frequency contouring, ultra-steep slopes, true linearity. It condemns even the best analog crossovers. They're dinosaurs compared to, say even a $129 CD player with its laser pickup and computer chips with superior S/N and distortion specs than achievable by even the most expensive conventional loudspeaker currently in existence. | |||||||||
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| Do I spot Bel Canto Design loudspeakers in your future? | |||||||||
| Possibly, but not necessarily under our own badge. Our core competency is digital and amplification. I could easily see us providing sophisticated digital custom solutions to existing loudspeaker companies. They already possess the engineering and distribution infrastructure in that arena. Tripath technology also lends itself beautifully to amplified speakers or subwoofers. Expand the concept of what a smaller company like ours can be, in terms of the scope of solutions we can provide. I won't give away more at this time, but I'm sure that you and your readers can extrapolate enough to get a reasonably close take on my plans. | |||||||||
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| Well put indeed. I shall take this as my signal to bow out. John, thank you sincerely for making so much of your time available during this busy show event. And, for introducing me to that stunning recording of Maria Callas teaching master classes at Juillard [EMI 5-65802-2]. | |||||||||
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(Laughs) She was quite the volcano, wasn't she? What a voice, what passion. She could let it rip on a moment's notice. Poor students. They had a hard time keeping up. Well, you're very welcome. Remind me to fill you in on further details when the time comes. | ||||||||
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Je suis fini. Which, as John's daughter corrected me with a huge giggle, doesn't mean "I'm finished" but "I'm dead". Not quite, but I'm sure most manufacturers, including the team at Bel Canto, felt like it post-CEDIA. Time to settle back for some good tunes and chill...
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designer's e-mail
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Bel Canto website
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