Phono Preamplifiers

Even if he hadn’t founded Bel Canto, John Stronczer’s career in electronics would have been distinguished. After graduating from the University of Minnesota/Institute of Technology in 1983, he worked on advanced semiconductor design and testing at Honeywell, in R&D funded by DARPA (the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency). ‘It was a great training ground,’ he says, ‘teaching me to find and synthesise answers to the critical questions for a given design problem. I formed Bel Canto in 1991 just as funding for the kind of DARPA research I was involved in was starting to dry up.’ The Bel Canto range has since crystallised into three ranges: the Black ‘Ultimate Amplification System’ based on a novel application of the Hypex nCore Class D modules [see HFN Feb ’17], the Black EX series of DAC, integrated and power amp, and the more affordable e.One range of compact separates. The e.One (Evolution One) series is longstanding, with some ten legacy items listed in its online product archive.