Listening the Bel Canto e300S power amplifier:

The Bel Canto 300S is one of the many power amplifiers made with the Bang & Olufsen IcePower class D modules. The maximum power is rated at 150W on 8Ohm or 300W on 4 Ohm. The body is nice to see and in particular it is very small and light to be a 300W power amp! A major part of its weight is given to the thick front panel. I was never able to made it warm, so it runs really icy...

The external connections are of good quality and inside there is also a big ferrite ring around the AC main cord.

When you open it... well you can see just the two IcePower class D modules and the needed connections. In fact, the IcePower modules includes a switching power supply, so they are connected directly to the main AC supply. The only sign of trick made by Bel Canto which I was able to find was some white foam around the coils and the big electrolitic capacitor.

When I plugged it into my system I was immediately surprised by the feeling of high resolution associated with unlimited power. The bass was very strong and the highs were apparently full of informations, with a decent soundstage too. So, the first impression was of a free lunch: for a reasonable price you get all the power you can desire, you don't lost any high res info and you have also a good control on the bass response.

Unfortunately, after more days of listening I changed my very positive first impression, because I started to have listening fatigue. The high-res highs seems to me not so high-fidelity as with better amps. I was able to play music very aloud, but it never comes really “alive”. It is not so easy to explain. It is not like an excess of distorsion, but there is something in the mid-to-high region that stop the music from being involving and pleasing. That was in particular evident with female voices and solo violin. I guess that it is due to the low-pass filter in the output of the class D IcePower module, but I'm not sure of that.

In conclusion, the Bel Canto e300S (and probably many IcePower based amps) seems to me a good deal if you are looking for a power amp which can deliver much power, no heath, good resolution and bass impact at a reasonable cost (even if I think that the nominal price of ~1.5 kEuro is mainly due to marketing reasons, and that is why you can find the similar, but Far East made, products like the Murano monobloks for less money). But for all of us who enjoy to listen every nuances that recorded music can deliver... it is better to look at more expensive, heath-producing (that means with lower energy efficiency) and bigger/heavier power amps. Sigh!

Oh, last advise. If you have a tri-amp system (3-way loudspeakers) consider the Bel Canto as good contender to drive the bass way, if its impedance is not too small. The same holds if you have a passive subwoofer, which impedance never goes below 4 Ohm.

After listening the Bel Canto, I had the opportunity to re-listen the very small “chip-based” (Panasonic) Audio Sector Patek power amp. Well, there were some limitation, like not really hi-end resolution or shining highs as using other good amps (like my CJ MV60SE), but the sweet and warm mid to bass response produced a much more enjoyable music that the Bel Canto did, at least to my old ears...