I received my M700s last Friday. Upon receiving them I installed them in the rack, powered everything up and was immediately impressed. Since popular opinion is they benefit greatly from a couple hundred hours of break in time I did just that. Any time I wasn’t listening to them I just let the radio play through the system at a modest volume. By the time the following Wednesday had arrived I knew they staying in the system so I ordered 2 after market power cords for them. The power cords arrived on Saturday. By Sunday morning the amps had been playing 24 7 for about 200 hours. I powered everything down, installed the new power cords and turned the system on to listen to it. I’m very impressed with these amps. I thought my Magnepan 3.7i sounded good before but wow! The amps deserve all the praise reviewers and folks on this site have given them.
Not knowing where else to put this on the site I want to say a few words about my first PS Audio experience. I do not have a dealer near by so I purchased them directly from PS Audio. My dealings were all with Kevin Jackson. Kevin was very helpful and spent the time with me to answer questions before the purchase. The amplifiers arrived much sooner than expected, which was nice. I think the M700s are a solid value and that’s before the generous trade in program is factored in. It’s hard to imagine that I could be any more pleased with the amplifiers or the entire purchasing experience.
That’s awesome David, so glad these amps are giving you such pleasure.
I also want to note that I’ve received a lot of assistance in 2017 from Kevin Jackson, he’s an excellent representative of PS Audio and does an awesome job.
Welcome and thanks for posting your experience. Matches mine with the M700’s, and with the company. Stick around and keep us posted on your experiences.
Welcome David. I have been all over the net praising my M700’s with DirectStream DAC w/Bridge II powering my 3.6 Maggies. I’m surprised there haven’t been more reviews than just Stereophile. I’ve had a lot of amps pushing the 3.6’s but nothing like the M700’s. By the way, I have 1.7’s on the sides (custom Stratos amp) CC3 in the middle and MC1’s in the rear (NAD). My next move is complete room treatment with Nyal Mellor’s help. I run the the 3.6’s in stereo using DirectStream DAC and Surround using Oppo UDP-205. Switch box lets me use the M700’s for both stystems.
@oneartist You are using the DirectStream DAC / Bridge II directly into the M700’s with no preamp?
Also, have you compared the M700’s to any other Class D amplification (i.e., NCore, W4S, etc…)
Yes. To achieve a split stereo/surround using the M700's to power the 3.6 speakers for both systems, I use two passive splitter boxes. For stereo I use a Y RCA cable from the DS since it is not recommended to use both the RCA out and the XLR at the same time. One RCA has a 50hz high pass filter through the M700's to the 3.6's. The other RCA goes to two GR Research W/Frame OB subs. This gives a strong bottom to the 3.6's. For surround a Oppo UDP-205 is routed through the switch boxes and also uses the 3.6 speakers for the FL and FR speakers. A separate sub is used for LFE.
For comparisons, I’ve had a Butler stereo amp, A McIntosh 205, a very hot class A amp, tube amps and a custom built Odyssey Stratos powering the 3.6 speakers. Before the M700’s, the Stratos was second best. I have no experience with other Class D amps other than what I’ve read. From what I’ve read though the McIntosh, Butler and Stratos would have won over the class D amps I’ve read about. Even Darren Myers said he did not care for the sound of class D amps, until he discovered how to blend a class A cell into the mix with an ICE amp. I’m sure David with his 3.7i Maggies would back up me in saying the M700’s are a perfect match for big Maggies. The M700’s move the big planars effortlessly and bring out all the Maggie Magic.