Bel Canto REF Stream Ethernet Renderer and DAC 2.7

Mike

Mike

Audioshark
Staff member
Joined
Apr 2, 2013
Messages
30,269
Location
Sarasota, FL
Bel Canto REF Stream Ethernet Renderer and DAC 2.7 | Stereophile.com

115ces.belcantoref_0.jpg


115ces.belcantodac27bac.jpg


I'm starting to see a bit of an Ethernet trend lately....hmmmm....
 
It's NOT Toslink it's ST Fiber output. Look at image below.

bcrefstreamb3.jpg


bcrefstreamb4.jpg


Belcanto RefStream

This is a new technology; Belcanto's Asynchronous Networked Media Renderer 'The RefStream' connects your networked audio to your DAC. The RefStream works with 3rd party software (JRiver, PlugPLay, etc.) to control audio media from a NAS or computer environment while reducing noise. The unit is mains driven (Using LNS technology) and has an Ethernet (LAN) input connection. With ST Fibre, SPDIF and AES output connections.

The Belcanto Ref Stream utilises ultra high grade clocking technology with just 0.07 Picosec (RMS) jitter noise which equates to a more natural, musical and digital grain free sound.

An ideal companion to the Belcanto digital to analogue converters or other any quality Dac's.A superb streaming solution for those looking for a ultra high quality file based source.

Belcanto Refstream Specifications

•Input.....................................................10/100 Ethernet connection
•Master clock noise.........................................0.07 Picoseconds RMS
•Outputs.......................... 75Ohm BNC / AES XLR 110Ohm / ST fibre
•Formats.........................................WAV/AIFF/FLAC/ALAC/DSF/DFF
• Supported sample rates................44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192Khz
•Supported word lengths..........................................24bit and DSD64

Further Information
•Power Usage.....................................................................On 10 Watts
•Power Usage.......................................................................Off 0 Watts
•Dimensions:....................................W216 mm x D318 mm x H88 mm
•Weight............................................................................................7Kg
 

Attachments

  • bcrefstreamb4.jpg
    bcrefstreamb4.jpg
    118.6 KB · Views: 13
Audioseduction said:
It's NOT Toslink it's ST Fiber output. Look at image below.

bcrefstreamb3.jpg


bcrefstreamb4.jpg


Belcanto RefStream

This is a new technology; Belcanto's Asynchronous Networked Media Renderer 'The RefStream' connects your networked audio to your DAC. The RefStream works with 3rd party software (JRiver, PlugPLay, etc.) to control audio media from a NAS or computer environment while reducing noise. The unit is mains driven (Using LNS technology) and has an Ethernet (LAN) input connection. With ST Fibre, SPDIF and AES output connections.

The Belcanto Ref Stream utilises ultra high grade clocking technology with just 0.07 Picosec (RMS) jitter noise which equates to a more natural, musical and digital grain free sound.

An ideal companion to the Belcanto digital to analogue converters or other any quality Dac's.A superb streaming solution for those looking for a ultra high quality file based source.

Belcanto Refstream Specifications

•Input.....................................................10/100 Ethernet connection
•Master clock noise.........................................0.07 Picoseconds RMS
•Outputs.......................... 75Ohm BNC / AES XLR 110Ohm / ST fibre
•Formats.........................................WAV/AIFF/FLAC/ALAC/DSF/DFF
• Supported sample rates................44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192Khz
•Supported word lengths..........................................24bit and DSD64

Further Information
•Power Usage.....................................................................On 10 Watts
•Power Usage.......................................................................Off 0 Watts
•Dimensions:....................................W216 mm x D318 mm x H88 mm
•Weight............................................................................................7Kg
Click to expand...

Who said Toslink?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Mike said:
Who said Toslink?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Mike, below is the first paragraph from the Stereophile's description of the unit and they said Toslink.

"Bridging the gap between your network players or NAS drives and your DAC, the new Bel Canto REF Stream plugs into your ethernet network, appearing as a node with IP, and then outputs SPDIF, AES or Toslink. "
 
wisnon said:
Ethernet, like USB is still packetized data. Acoording to the guys over at CA Forum, they are working on a better solution that fills up a buffer and dont call the data till needed to reduce RFI, etc. SuperDad and Jown Swenson are the ones pushing that.
Click to expand...

Normon, Is that something like what I'm doing with JRiver where I have it setup for it not to pass the data to the DAC until the entire music file has been processed and loaded 100% into memory?
 
Here is an extract from the seminal post found here: Mac Mini version of a CAPS music server - Step by Step - Page 10



I hope I can convey what is happening here, let's follow a pulse through an isolator between domains and see what happens. Let's assume a real "dirty" digital side, a lot of ground plane noise and power supply noise, and noise riding on top of the digital signal. Lets look at the isolator, it has power and ground connections on the "dirty" side that run the driver that produces the whatever crosses the "barrier" (light, magnetic field, radio waves, whatever). The noise also modulates the "threshold" looking at the input signal. These and the noise and jitter in the signal all add up to a pretty large amount of variation in the field crossing the barrier.

On the other side of the barrier you have a much cleaner supply driving the receiver circuit, but the noisy field is going to cause a current in the receiver. Thus noise on the dirty side is going to cause current noise on the clean side as well. The isolator designers try and make them so the physical properties of the receivers have some form of thresholding so this transmitted noise is decreased, but a fair amount still gets through, and it is greater at the low frequency side. But that is not all, the data, the signal you WANT to cross the barrier, also causes current to flow through the PS pins of the clean side of the isolator, and that signal has a lot of jitter on it by now.

When the packet noise on the dirty side of the barrier is low, the current noise of the isolator will be lower, when the packet noise is high, the current noise of the isolator will be high. So even though the power supplies are completely separate, packet noise on the dirty side can still make it through an isolator and show up as current noise on the "clean side". If the PDN is very low impedance over a very wide bandwidth this current noise will produce very little voltage noise. If the PDN is not so great, there will be some significant voltage noise. It usually will be reduced from what it was on the dirty side, but still definitely there.

Yes putting a whole tracks worth of data in ram, shutting down the packet interface, and grabbing the data out of ram at the audio sample rate should help this, but this is frequently done by a processor and it's memory, that processor is usually producing it's own set of current noise which can cross the barrier. To be really effective it would take a system where the source (whatever it is) fills up the buffer then completely shuts down, nothing drawing power AT ALL from then on, the only thing drawing power is the counter walking through the ram and the ram itself. You definitely would want a simple ram structure, not something like a DDR3 DIMM which has all kinds of stuff going on all the time. The data from the RAM goes over the isolator and on to the DAC chip. This would probably be a very effective isolation scheme, but I don't think anybody has actually ever implemented this.

I have been doing some more experiments on this in the last week and have some results to share. I was working with the USB regen Alex mentioned, with the first version I was able to clearly see the packet noise on a scope. I made a new version with an improved PDN, this seemed to work, I could not see any packet noise any more, noise was still there but I could not discern any modulation due to the packet frequency. It sounded significantly better. Later I did some crude PDN analysis and discovered there was a raising in the impedance over a certain frequency range. I figured out I could fix this by adding a single capacitor in the right place. I soldered in that cap and started listening and was startled in the magnitude of the improvement in SQ. The noise looked identical with and without the capacitor, the sound significantly improved.

So I think I am on the right track, but it looks like I have already gone beyond what the simple measurements I was doing could detect. Next is to do these tests with the spectrum analyzer, it will probably be able to detect the packet noise buried in the over all noise floor.

I hope that answers some of the questions.
 
I have for evaluation Bel Canto's 3.7 DAC and Streamer ... this is a super special DAC - amazing texture ... way beyond what I have heard from Bel Canto before! It is burning in :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top