Stellar M1200 Mono Beta Test

Audio Components Amplifiers
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It’s that time again! Since the last public beta, Darren Myers has been hard at work in the lab with yet another analog circuit. This time, the Stellar M1200 Mono Amplifiers.

His goal was to build a power amplifier without bounds or compression on even the loudest of musical passages, yet equally at home reproducing the subtlest of details.
Watching the progress first hand was an honor to say the least. Throughout this last year, Darren would come over to my desk and explain the tweaks he had made overnight.
I would let him explain for a bit but after a while, I’d cut him off “Let’s just go listen!”

These are nothing short of stunning! Effortless dynamics with shocking realism.

Darren and the rest of the PS Audio family are very excited to introduce the new M1200 amps! This is where you will find impressions from our Beta testers.

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Good afternoon jamesh, I am wondering if you can give me a time line as to when the M1200’s will be available for purchase?

Or can you tell me when the Beta program started and or when it will end so PSA will go into selling the amps to the general public?

I am like a lot of enthusiastic audiophiles who have drunk the koolaide and are waiting for its general release with lots of excitement.

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Headroom should not be an issue

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Units for the beta test will begin shipping later this month! We have a lot of people on our list and if you were in contact with some of the folks here, you should be hearing from us later this week or early next.

It’s first come first serve for the beta program. True M1200 launch is set for Early May.

Hold your breath, these puppies are worth the wait!

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Party on!

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I already found these M1200 amps listed on sale here in Finland,estimated delivery time 4-14 days. And they are priced 6999€ per piece or 14K pair. So closer to BHK300 monos than BHK250. In this context they should be much better sounding than BHK250,though my understanding is that that is not the case.

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We haven’t yet built and M1200 amps and won’t until the end of this month. Those will be Beta units going to specific beta testers. If someone is offering M1200s for sale it’s likely not real. Be careful.

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I seen the same thing and thought what the heck is that all about. I’m pretty sure that what I seen was in England though.

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Yes, I’d be skeptical of that. A handful of beta amps are being shipping internationally to our distributors exclusively. These are for the distros to play around with and give us feedback. As mentioned above, if all goes well, M1200 launch won’t be until around May.

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No problem and that info showed up on our trusted importer`s homepage. I am aware of current state of their production,was merely wondering how they can be listed for sale already.
It´s going to be long waiting time for anyone ordering them now :grin:

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Gotcha, confusing part to me is why they’d put estimated delivery of 4-14 days. That’d make me think, “sweet, I can hear a pair next week.”

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For sure it helps to pull the trigger.But I don´t think many will do that without hearing the product first. Must be some kind of misunderstanding error putting them up for sale already.

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lol
https://high-performance.dk/ps-audio-stellar-m1200.html

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They are also being listed in the UK by main dealers. The list price is £6,000, surely that cannot be right?

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They are $6,000 the pair here, so I don’t know how that equates. Maybe they are looking for preorders?

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Used to £=$ pretty consistently, certainly when I bought.

Now
M700 £2,700 $3,000
M1200. £6,000. $6,000
BHK250 £8,400. $6,000

From the same main dealer, another USA power amp, a pair of bridged Benchmark AHB2 are £6,400, compared to $6,000 in USA.

So the BHK250 seems RELATIVELY overpriced. Very odd to have two products the same price in the USA but one 40% more expensive over here.

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It fits with our tax and VAT and duties - Denmark 7884,29 USD

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As one of the lucky beta testers, I’ll be reviewing my newly purchased Stellar M1200’s.

For those interested, my systems and rooms are as follows:

I’ll be breaking in the M1200’s and giving out of the box impressions as they break in - that’s part of the fun, isn’t it? I mean, don’t you want to hear how your gear comes to life as it breaks in? I sure do.

The Stellars will be driving my Alexia’s to begin with direct from my dcs Rossini. I don’t want anything extraneous in the signal path. After that, I’ll introduce the Boulder Preamp and give impressions down the road. I’ll also bring them upstairs and plug them into the B&W System and the DirectStream DAC and do a shootout with the famous John Curl Halo JC-1s.

Not sure if it’s reasonable to try and compare it with the Boulder amp, but it may be depending on what I hear. I will tell you that my DirectStreamDac (DSD for simplicity for a bit here), blew a my group of audiophile buddies away when I set it on the shelf above my Rossini and asked them which one was playing (of course the displays were covered). Shockingly 40% of them picked the Rossini - out of 20. They liked the DSD so much, that 3 went and bought one within a month, and I’m still getting others telling me that I must have played shenanigans because there’s no way it sounds that good. So we’ll be having another shootout this next month if the Gov’t will let us assemble w/out anyone getting Corona Virus (not joking).

Anyway, just an introduction of myself and wanted to say hello to everyone. I’ll be posting when it get’s here!!

Critical Listening Room:
Basement -
The Room - 24" Concrete form walls padded out and floated acoustically. Room is 17’x32’ (Green glue, floating floor system used along with excavation of another 4 feet below in order to “build up” to isolate the flooring from the room. The room has an Atmos 7.4.2 System with in-walls and is independent of the 2 channel system at the front of the room which is where all the magic happens.

The Gear:
Boulder 2060 AMP
Boulder 2010 PREAMP
dcs Rossini w/Clock
Wilson Alexias
2x Velodyne DD12 Subwoofers
Wireworld Platinum Cabling everywhere

“Fun System”
Room: Normal room, not acoustically treated other than drapes and such
B&W Nautilus 802 Speakers
PSAudio Directstream DAC w/Network Bridge - about 5 months old now.
Krell S1200U 3D
2x Parasound Halo JC-1’s
1x Parsound Halo A31
B&W Nautilus HTM1 Center Channel
B&W SCMS Surrounds
2x Velodyne DD12 Subwoofers

(Edit: Just added a photo of the front end of the system)
(Display is a projector)

Front1
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Welcome, bryanallen!

Excellent post and a fun read.

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Welcome Bryan! Thanks for joining the team. Can’t wait to get these to you and to hear your impressions!