Bellari Audio Bellari SE560 Sonic Exciter - Sound Enhancer, Red

This is a really impressive piece of gear, it really does sound like taking the pillows off of your speaker/headphones. Audiophile purists might not like that this deliberately adds distortion and phase effects to your sound, but if you understand what it's doing it's a lot of fun to listen to. It adds clarity and separation and improves the bottom end. Sounds a lot more like a "live" sound to me, and improves every genre of music I've thrown at it. If you are thinking of adding an EQ to your setup this might actually do a better job of getting you the sound you are looking for.Combine this with something like a Schiit or JDS Labs Atom stack and forget about chasing tiny sound changes with better dacs and amps, just go straight to an amazing sound. I put this between my dac and headphone amp/pre-amp, set the Bottom and Definition knobs to about 2-3 o'clock and the volume knob about dead center and it sounds great. Equally fantastic through headphones or out my pre-amp to my receiver and speakers.

This red, shiny unit looks like something out of the 50s and I adore it. It's compact and yet has a good weight to it.With the 'Active' switch off, the 'Sonic Exciter' button operates as a simple volume control and a phono preamp. I was able to crank it all the way up without any audible unexpected noise. It will also give you a brutally honest passthrough signal from your turntable at line level, which is a great place to start.From there, the magic happens when you press that white button. My records went from muddy and lacking on the low end to dynamic and rich. I'd say the sound is almost as clean as a digital recording, yet more tunable and lively.The only thing I have to say is that if you're looking for analog 'warmth', this is not really that. But if you want true high fidelity sound with shimmering highs and a great low end, I'd strongly recommend this. It especially brings older recordings to life in a way I wasn't sure was possible.

It does allow you to add sparkle or some extra rumble to your signal. I have this unit inline between my multichannel receiver, going out of the Zone 2, and feeding to a headphone amp that I use for gaming when I do not want to disturb others. It doesn't take too long to experiment and dial in the tone that you prefer, and it is nice that you can take it out of the signal path and do A/B testing until it's just right. It has no power switch, so it always on, and yes the blue LED can be a bit bright at night, not a major issue. But my unit has a small channel imbalance. The main volume pot has a channel imbalance, very noticeable once you get below halfway on the volume pot. There is simply too much gain to keep the volume pot any higher than halfway or it starts to clip the headphone amp. Not a major issue since I can adjust the channel balance from the receiver, but these are clearly not audiophile potentiometers being used. Fun little unit overall with a good price.

After using miniature audio components for years I've learned the good and the bad about these devices. I use this as a preamp for my M-Audio BX8 Studio Monitors. What this has replaced is a BBE 282i Sonic Maximizer and a Bravo Audio Class A 12AU7 Tube Headphone Amplifier/preamp. The tube in the Bravo is getting on 10 years old and I was considering replacing it. Until I saw this. Sonic Maximizers and/or Exciters add depth that isn't present in studio monitors. You can literally tune in the sound of the type of speaker system you like, easier than any other way. The Bellari SE560 Sonic Exciter is a Sonic Maximizer/Exciter AND a preamp in one unit. In my old setup I had to connect the Maximizer/Exciter to the amp with an RCA cable. That cable is eliminated. But what is also eliminated is the cheap headphone jacks and switches and associated wiring my old Brava preamp has. There is no on off switch which some might not like. But that is also, usually a very cheap component which will go out with any amount of use. I've always turned my system on with power strip switches to avoid wearing out the cheap switches on cheap devices. This unit does not have any additional wiring, which greatly limits the possibly of noise in your system. It is a clean quiet very high end functioning device.

On the positive: balanced sound with great dinamics when working as a stand alone preamplifier. With controls on, it adds punch and subtracts transparency a little, besides shortening the stage. But which tone control doesn't? However, it seems to make something different from ordinary tone controls. It does seem to add some degree of excitement, working great with bad recordings, be it attenuating or increasing presence or bottom. In my system, though, it's better to leave the controls off when listening from reasonable to good recordings. It really works great as a single hifi preamplifier, presenting low noise, good balance and dinamics, as I'd already mentioned above.On the negative: volume control leaks a bit on the minimum position, never muting the sound completely, besides showing a little unbalance on the initial volume positions. Is it so by design? A bad pot? A flaw in my unit? All in all, this situation doesn't bother much once you get used to it. I must however subtrac one star from the rating.

I had Schiit Loki for several months and upon browsing YouTube reviews there it was, little red BellariAmazon delivered it so fast I didn't expect so I replaced Loki and man wasI happy with the sound.Didn't have to compare but simply put it put me in a happy mood and I still enjoy the music much more with Enhancer on.

Oh my lord, night and day. I have 2 turn table setups. I guess I have to get another one of these for upstairs.