Amplifier of the Year over $20,000
Amplifier of the Year over $20,000
It’s hard to imagine greater contrast between the McIntosh on the previous page and the ACI 600 from another American amplifier brand, Bel Canto. There isn’t a single knob or button to be seen on the expansive front panel — and it’s certainly expansive since the ACI 600 is 483mm wide, though only 97mm high. The decision is surely aesthetic, since there can be little other excuse (we’re rejecting cost, given the RRP of $36,900) for putting the 6.35mm headphone socket on the back.
Indeed aesthetics factor into the whole concept of this integrated offering from the company’s ‘Black’ line. Essentially what Bel Canto has done is take three of its top-of-the-line individual components, and put them all in the one sleek chassis, under the control of a sophisticated electronic controller. This is a smart move by Bel Canto, because some people don’t like ‘stacks’ of components, while others don’t like the small form-factor chassis the company uses for components in its other product lines. Buyers get a single great-looking component that ‘does it all’ and can be upgraded to accommodate future developments in audio.
Nor are there giant heatsinks flanking the ACI 600’s width, despite its rating of an impressive 300W per channel continuous into eight ohms, and 600W into four ohms. The minimal accounting for heat dissipation is partly down to the type of power on offer, which is provided by N-Core modules manufactured by Dutch Class-D specialist Hypex (these are, says Bel Canto, custom designs that are manufactured exclusively for Bel Canto).
Of course the mere mention of Class-D has long caused many audiophiles to turn up their noses. But this is part of Bel Canto’s great achievement here — the company (and Hypex) has been instrumental in proving that Class-D done right can deliver magnificent performance, along with the inherent benefits of efficiency, which have never been under debate.
Yet for all the power and fire of the bass, the midrange was gloriously rich, superbly linear and wonderfully delicate. As for any thoughts of high-frequency Class-D sound being brittle, the treble from the ACI 600 shimmered like threads of gossamer in the moonlight, according to our poetically-inclined colleagues at Australian Hi-Fi. Indeed they summarised its high frequency performance in one word: ‘perfect’.
The rear panel has an American flag (this ia genuinely ‘Made in the USA’) and in input terms it has two line-level inputs and a phono input (yep, in a modern high-powered Class-D amplifier! — and you can adjust the sensitivity through four different gain settings and five different load impedances to suit both moving-magnet and moving-coil cartridges). The digital section has one each of optical, coaxial, USB-A, USB-B and AES-EBU; the USB-B is good up to 24-bit/348kHz, including MQA, and DSD to DSD128.
It’s not for making Class-D sound this good that we give this award, but for such a superb amplifier regardless of type. More info: www.absolutehiend.com
JUDGES’ COMMENT “It’s not for making Class-D sound this good that we give the award, but for such a superb amplifier regardless of type. The ACI 600 is a near-faultless high-end design.”