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My Journey
into Sound: Part One
Living with Behold’s BPA768 amplifiers and APU768 preamplifier
 It
began in 2004, at the winter CES, in the
Acoustic Signature/Isophon room, where I first
gazed at a static display of two new German
digital components, the Bi-Amping Power
Amplifier BPA768, and its controller, the
Audio Processing Unit APU768. Both have a
sampling rate of 768 kHz. Both are
manufactured by German newcomer Behold
GmbH—whose parent company, Ballman
electronica
GmbH, builds some of the worlds best network
analyzers. Moreover, this is the only
amplifier I have seen besides the Tact Audio
designs which use a true digital input
connection at the amplifier. When I peered at
the backs of the BPA and APU, my curiosity
turned into envy. The back of the APU is so
simple, yet elaborately laid out via its
inputs and outputs: each with corresponding
blinking lights that indicate signal lock. It
is obvious, especially when one looks inside
the chassis, that this is a company with a
computer background. And since they’ve been
designing some of the worlds most elaborate
network analyzers over the past 20 years, I
wouldn’t designate Behold as exactly a “new”
company; rather, they’re an old company with a
new direction and aim.
Neither Class T, D or ICE Powered
 Based
on the sheer size and weight, the
digitally-based BPA768 certainly wouldn't
qualify as a typical 100 - 150 watts per
channel digital amplifier, such as the smaller
ICE based Bel Canto or NuForce. Behold's
BPA768 specs read like those from a comic
strip of your favorite super hero. "Look, up
in the sky...it's a plane...no it’s Behold!”
What most distinguishes the BPA768 is the
output stage: 300 watts per channel into 8
Ohms, 600 into 4 and 1200 into 2, of pure,
unadulterated old school Class A power, with a
regulated (sliding) bias control to conserve
energy and keep your neighbor's lights from
going dim. Essentially, the BPA768 runs like a
typical Class A design except its digital bias
control allows it to consume power along the
lines of a typical Class A-B design. The
BPA768’s circuitry is very complex, employing
8 high quality cascaded DACs per side (16 in
all) designed to manipulate the analogue
signal in ways never previously implemented.
 Fast
forward to high End 2004, the M.O.C. in
Munich, Europe's equivalent of the Las Vegas
CES. Impressed by the dozens of show rooms
that were well setup and thought-out, my
fascination for Munich in general and its
sights really grew on me. It was while
luxuriating in one great sounding room after
another that I stumbled into the best room
I've heard in three years of attendance: the
Isophon Europa/Behold GmbH room.
Coincidentally, this was the very same room
that five months earlier at CES had showed
their static display, except this time they
were up and running. It was short work to
sense how special the sound was. I've not
heard anything during my four days there
that's sounded more impressive and realistic.
I kept finding myself running back to the
Isophon Europa/Behold room, having begun to
doubt what I had heard only hours before. And
each time I took someone else with me in the
expectation they’d tell me the sound of this
room was not as good as I thought. I couldn't
find anyone to tell me otherwise. Franck
Tchang, the man behind the amazing Acoustic
Resonators, was one of those folks I dragged
into the room and he too thought it produced
the best sound at the show (without his
Resonators!). Don Dixon and I spent countless
hours in the Isophon/Behold setup. Don
informed me confidentially that he thought
this was the only room that actually sounded
better than my system at home. I was a bit
hurt by this remark but when something sounds
this good, such remarks are to be expected.
Reminded me of my trip to the International
Sight and Sound Show in Singapore back in
2000, when I first discovered the sonic merits
of an amplifier I awarded Best Sound at Show.
That product has since garnered some of the
highest recommendations, and measurements
(according to John Atkinson) in recent memory,
was the Halcro dm68. Equally interesting was
the now defunct Arial 10T that was used with
the Halcro monoblocks once upon a time served
as my reference loudspeaker.
Same with the Isophon Europa. For the life of
me, I couldn't understand how this loudspeaker
could sound this good. How good, you ask? It
made the Ascendo System M, playing right next
door, sound distinctly like the ‘less
expensive brand’ (And note that the Ascendo
System M lists for $36,000, while the Europa,
another excellent German-made floor stander,
can be had for about $12,000.) In my home, the
Ascendo certainly sounded better than at this
show, and at their nearly three-times-the-cost
price tag, they better well had (although
their designer, Roland Gauder, didn't think so
upon his visit
here earlier that year).
After hearing the Europas with the Behold
electronics, I returned home and for the first
time second guessing whether or not I had
screwed up in buying the Ascendos (I've since
learned I had not).
At the 2005 CES,
the folks from Acoustic Signature/Isophon had
the entire Behold system driving their smaller
model loudspeakers. I looked forward to
getting everyone I knew into this room to hear
what captivated both Don Dixon and me back in
Germany. And of course, it wasn't what I
expected. It was a much smaller room and I
wasn’t really too impressed. Disappointed?
Yeah, I guess you could say that.
How could something so good sound so bad?
The 2005 High End Show, held again in Munich,
was a letdown of major proportions. Let me
explain. I had stayed in touch with designer
and architect Ralf Ballman, who possesses a
brilliant mind (remember he builds network
analyzers for a living). After a constant
stream of email and telephone correspondence,
Ballman finally got a chance to hear the
Ascendos in his own home, and he thought they
were as good as my review had said. He liked
them so much, in fact, he decided to show them
in Munich with his electronics. Of course I
sounded the audiophile alarm. I remember
screaming "Ascendo plus Behold? Game Over!
Game Over."
Nothing went as
planned. Because Behold had parted with
Isophon and Acoustic Signature, they had to
seek their own show room. In doing so at this
late juncture they got the least desirable
room available. The good rooms (like the ones
where I first heard Behold) were booked many
months in advance. And the show's growth
forced some exhibitors to work out of
prefabricated box-like structures made of
nothing more than sheet rock nailed onto wood
frames. But the rooms at least looked the part
in that they were inviting. The Behold group
had a way of giving this box a nice aesthetic:
dark scenery accented by plants and spot
lights. The circular, soft glow from the
amplifiers gave an imposing message that said
"This isn't the amplifier your dad used to
play with.” But as soon as the music
started, so did the room. It shook, expanded
and echoed the entire three days I attended.
Worse was the effect it had on the system.
Everything sounded boomy and tinny at the same
time. And of course, once again I had to eat
crow. I personally wanted to shoot the people
responsible for building dozens of these awful
rooms.
One could perhaps understand the less than
enthusiastic "Sure" response I gave Ballman
when the opportunity finally arrived to review
the entire Behold lineup which included two
BPA768 amplifiers, a fully loaded APU768
preamplifier, their new CD-Player, and the
MCA768 moving coil phono cartridge, Master
TQ-1 linear tone arm attached to a Clearaudio
Anniversary Edition turntable.
 The equipment arrived in the sturdiest of
aluminum shipping crates to insure a safe trip
and return. Due to a new pair of DALI
Megalines replacing the Ascendo System M as my
new reference, I had to rethink how to set up
the Behold system now that an external
crossover (used in the Megalines) entered into
the audio equation. First things first. I
wanted to hear the difference the Behold
system would make, so I ran it first into the
incredibly affordable Hyperion 938
loudspeakers to see how difficult operating
these intimidating electronics would be.
Everything worked like a charm. The system was
fully setup and running within 45 minutes - 30
of which were spent setting up the Clearaudio
rig.
DeHavilland monos driven by an Audiomecca
Mephisto Mk II used as a transport (into the
George Mark Audio DAC/preamplifier) sounded
beautiful, and had a sense of ease, but it
couldn't convey the body and incredible
life-like imagery of the Behold setup right
out of the box. In fact things started to
become a bit embarrassing for me. All the talk
around the house when the fellows came through
was "When are the Beholds going upstairs?"
This is where my reference DALI Megalines and
Tact Audio Boz line of digital amplifiers
reside.
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