Classe M600 impressions
 

Like so many other B&W owners, the new classe m600 have attracted my attention due to outstanding reviews. Unfortunately I have yet to hear them in a private setting. So if anyone out there could please help me satisfy my need for more personal views and tell me more? What is its strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly how does it compare to other amps you know very well?

Please :)

I'll try and let you know,as soon as I can !
Lol

Fairnuf, but a good number of people must have auditioned them? They are fairly well distributed world wide, and have been reviewed as being of outstanding value. The question is whether that is an opinion that is also agreed to outside of the reviewers rooms. :)

I'm not sure if this is a fair comparison, but I own the CA-2300 which is essentially one CAM600 split into a stereo amp (according to Classe). I absolutely love it. It is fast (super fast), neutral and detailed and revealing. Acoustic guitars have this incredible natural tone. If one is this good, I can only imagine how good two must sound.

Mike

I have had my new CA M600's for about a week now. They are still breaking in,but I can already tell you that they're not going anywhere.
These amps are truly amazing,very powerful, they have a death grip on the Salon2's,telling the speakers exactly what to do.

I'll try and do a write up in a few weeks,I hate writing reviews,I'm just not good at putting my thoughts down on paper. I wish I could have Dan,or Michael be the ghost writers for me :D

Mark

Thanks for the update. I will be waiting for your write up. I don't care how polished the write up is , I am interested in your impressions of the amps and how they work with the Revel Salon2's. The Classe amps have been on my list for several months. :yes: I have the Salon2's but they seem to need more power than what I am giving them.

If I still had my Salon 2's, I wouldn't think twice about getting the CA-M600's - especially if heat was an issue. The CA-M600's run cool which is nice. Do note that they need a couple of weeks of 24/7 break in. I have the baby brother to the CA-M600's, the CA-2300 and its delightful. The speed of these Classe amps is down right addictive. Everything is so tight and fast.

I can't speak for that Classe' amp but i do have these.

Hadyn, These amps have absolutely no problem driving the Salon 2's.
in fact, they will play so loud, and so clean, that you find yourself playing them at much higher volumes than anyone should listen at !!
I got my SPL meter out and double checked the levels, I found that I was playing them at over 100db, way too loud for safe listening.

I turned them down to my usual levels @ around 85-92db, but they didn't seem as loud as the amps I had before. I finally figured out that there is absolutely no background noise,just blackness behind the music,very clean !!

Hi Mark,

I am glad you are happy with those wonderful Classe amps. We look forward to more of your thoughts over the coming weeks/months. It's a great feeling to settle in on gear that makes you happy. A few tweaks here and there, and you are all set.

As far as the volume goes, I experience the same thing with my Cornwall III's. I found I was really getting into the music and after a while I'd change songs/cds and realize how loud I was actually listening. Amazing.

Enjoy!

Thanks Joe, it is amazing when the sound is so clean,you don't realize how loud it really is !!

At a certain point of obtaining high end gear you have to be seriously careful about this. Without distortion to warn you, you may listen at dangerous levels for too long and suffer permanent hearing loss. I know a fellow (*cough* Ivan) who keeps a sound pressure level meter on in his two channel room to stay safe.

Did someone make a comparison between the CAM-400s and the newer CAM-600s ?

I have a pair of CAM-400s for the main stereo channels and find them amazing.

I also have the CA-5200 for multi-channels, the SSP-800 and the CDT-300, and I'm VERY happy about Classé gear.

Are the CAM-600s significantly better than their predecessors for justifying upgraditis ?

Randy, you couldn't be more correct. To be completely honest,when I was listening that first evening,I had it so loud that it was starting to hurt my ears. I'm so glad that I got the sound meter out !!!

I don't need my Tinnitus to get worse :no:

+1...I'm in the same boat.

BTW, congrats to MDP for the CA-M600! Are the fans audible at all?

-Hedwig

My amps are located in a wall unit,I can hear the fans if I open the doors to the unit. I don't think they are very loud at all.

I only hear the fan on my CA5300 when it starts up and "revs"...mine is sitting 15 feet from me with nothing covering it...I have never heard the fan(s) during playback or even sitting idle.

Agreed. I can't hear the fan on my 2300 or 5300 unless its dead silent and I go very close to the amps. Even the faintest music and you don't hear the fans. It's a small price to pay for a super cool amp!

That's great to know about the inaudibility of the fans. Mind you, everyone said the same about the Oppo BDP-95's fan and mine drove me nuts.

-Hedwig

I just got done with an "in home" demo of the 2300 and the M600 monos with the CP-800 with my 2 month old 802 Diamonds. All of the Classe gear was broken in and all was Canadian production.

Prior, I had auditioned (not in my room) Parasound JC1 monos and JC2 pre and McIntosh 600 monos and 450 stereo amps. The Classe and McIntosh are still in the running for upcoming upgrade, I would say the Para is not.

I ruled out the 2300 right away, just didn't do it for me and the highs seemed a little bright and I wasn't really over-enthused or impressed.

The M600s were very powerful, clear, accurate, and the bass was outstanding. I am currently using Rotel gear, and at about 85db and up, depending on the music and recording, things can get a little rough and fatiguing. I cranked the 600s up around 100-125db+ and they just laughed at me, no fatigue at all.

I have to demo some McIntosh amps again before I make my upgrade decision, but the M600s are definitely in the running and seem to be a great amp.

Speaking of the fans....surprisingly they were audible, but only when no music was playing. I didn't expect to hear them at all, but that was not the case. I would expect silence from a "hi-fi" product with a $7,000.00 msrp, bit this alone would not keep me from purchasing them if I decide to upgrade to Classe.

The Classe M-600s are fantastic amps.

+1

Interesting about the fan. Before I bought my Pass X600.5 amps I was looking at the Classe M600, but I could never get a straight answer from owners as to whether they were audible or not. Even if I only heard the fan between songs, it would still bother me.

In my view, passive convective cooling is the way to go at these levels.

After auditioning both the 600 and the 300 monos in neither case was the fan noise intrusive. I bought the 300's and I have to go right up the amps before I detect the fans running. When going onto standby the fans continue to run for a while and can just be heard nearby the amps. I'm very fussy about any extraneous noise and find no problems at all from the sweetspot. Hope that helps.

Hello everybody,

This is my first post and I hope I placed it in a proper thread.:confused-2:

I am an owner of CA-M600 and I wonder what is the max power consumption for these amps.

The only available info is that for the US model the power consumption is 440W @ 1/8th of power into 8 ohms and for the European (230V) model the power consumption is 823W @ 1/8th of power into 8 ohms.

Thanks a lot....:D
Regards,
Ioannis

Ioannis - welcome to AA..I saw your post.....that's the only information that I can see from several reviews/writeups. I'm not sure that's a specification you'll be able to find unless you contacted someone at Classe or put it on a test bench. I don't think that spec would be listed in a run of the mill audio review.

- Buck

Hello Buck,

Thanks for your welcome and reply…

Unfortunately you are absolutely right; I couldn’t find anywhere this spec. For the new Delta amp of Classe though, the power consumption is 715VA at full power into 8 ohms according to Stereophile.

The reason that I am asking is because I have the impression that my amps will benefit if a power line cleaner / filter is connected between the wall socket and the amps. Of course, this is not an easy project for such high power units, because the power line cleaner must be adequate for the high current demand and the preservation of the dynamics of the music.

Any relevant experience would be very helpful!..

I have a dedicated electrical panel and power supply for my hifi system with 3 schuko plugs. I did a few tests with the monoblocks connected to the electrical network of the house, the dedicated schucko plugs for the hifi and my old power line cleaner / filter. I received the best result when the power line cleaner was connected, where there was a significant drop to the noise floor. Unfortunately, the two high current outlets of my power line cleaner can deliver 3680W in total for 230V (equivalent to 1760W for 110V), which I think is insufficient for my Classe CA-M600.

The diameter of each cable from the panel to the schuko plugs is 3 x 2,5 mm2, which is approximately equivalent to 13 AWG.

Regards,
Ioannis