On the way from Musical Fidelity is a new monobloc power amplifier based on the DNA of the company's outrageous £20,000 Titan amp, but in a somewhat more room- and wallet-friendly form.
Delivering 700W per channel into 8ohms, and 1300W into 4ohms, the M8-700 will sell for around £8000/pr when it goes on sale in March, and is said to deliver almost all the power of the Titan while having what the company calls 'a less challenging visual'.
(Just for reference, here's a reminder of that 'challenging visual'.)
Musical Fidelity's Antony Michaelson says that, while the Titan has been acclaimed by reviewers, '[it] is very large and very expensive. The size and price are a function of its massive power and amazing design and finish, but they can be a problem.'
Hence the M8-700, which has 'about 1.25 dB less power. Otherwise it is pure Titan'. The company claims extremely low distortion, at 0.001% at 1kHz, and still below 0.005% at 20kHz, while 'the distortion at 50 kHz (a ridiculous and unreasonable measurement, but revealing of the total amplifier performance nonetheless) is 0.02%.
'At 100 kHz, it is about 0.06%. These extraordinary measurements, and the extremely low high-frequency distortion, are highly significant sonically.'
The amplifier uses fully balanced circuitry, with both XLR and single-ended inputs and 'daisy-chain' outputs – should you fancy using a pair of them to biamp suitable speakers! –, and has two sets of speaker terminals to simplify biwiring.