A few days ago we finished PS Audio's speakers. The amplifier side was embarrassing: one row, the Sprout100, which PS Audio does not even sell any more.
That is fixed. Eleven amplifiers went in, across all three of their current lines, so PS Audio is now seventeen products here and every one of them can be put next to anything else we hold.
PS Audio Stellar BHK and PMG amplifier lines
Quick facts
- Eleven amplifiers added: three BHK, four Stellar, four PMG. Twelve PS Audio amps in total.
- Only four amplifiers we hold make 600 watts or more into 8 ohms. Two of them are now PS Audio.
- The Stellar M700 costs 5.00 dollars a watt. Of the 280 amps where we hold both figures, only eight are cheaper.
- The PMG S200 costs 79.99 dollars a watt. Same brand, sixteen times the price per watt.
- Monoblocks are listed per unit here, so double the price if you need stereo.
Two of the four biggest amplifiers on the site
Across the 292 amplifiers we list, only four make 600 watts or more into 8 ohms. Two of those are PS Audio, and they arrived on the same day.
The odd thing is what they cost. The BHK Mono 600 is 14,999 dollars each. The Stellar M1200 makes the same 600 watts into 8 ohms for 3,499 dollars each, and doubles to 1,200 into 4 ohms.
Both use a vacuum tube input stage. The BHK follows it with a MOSFET output and the M1200 with Class D, and that is most of the four-fold price difference right there.
The same brand at 5 dollars a watt and at 80
PS Audio Stellar M700 monoblock pair
The Stellar M700 is 1,749 dollars for 350 watts, which works out at 5.00 dollars a watt. Of the 280 amplifiers where we hold both a power figure and a price, only eight beat it, and every one of those is a budget receiver or a small streaming amp. Nothing else near that price makes anything like this much power.
At the other end, the PMG S200 is 7,999 dollars for 100 watts a channel, or 79.99 dollars a watt.
That is not PS Audio being silly. The PMG amps run the first 10 watts a channel in pure Class A, and the M400 and M800 run 30 and 60 watts that way. Class A is enormously wasteful of power and heat, and you pay for the heatsinking, the supply and the chassis. The M800 weighs 43 kg. But it does mean one brand covers a sixteen-fold spread in what a watt costs, which is worth understanding before you shop by the number.
Now they can be matched to their own speakers
Here are four of the new monoblocks side by side:
| FEATURE and SPECS COMPARISON | |  |  |  |  |
| Model | PS Audio Stellar M700 | PS Audio Stellar M1200 | PS Audio BHK Mono 600 | PS Audio PMG M800 |
| Type | Power Amplifier | Power Amplifier | Power Amplifier | Power Amplifier |
| Amplifier Class | Class D | Class D | Class A/B | Class A/AB |
| Power into 8 ohms | 350 watts | 600 watts | 600 watts | 400 watts |
| Power into 4 ohms | 700 watts | 1200 watts | - | 800 watts |
| THD | under 0.02% at 1kHz, 1W into 4 ohms | under 0.005% at 1kHz, 1W into 4 ohms | under 0.002% at 1kHz, 1W into 8 ohms | under 0.002% typical, 20Hz to 20kHz at 1W into 8 ohms |
| Signal to Noise Ratio | 105 | 112 | 100 | - |
| Built-in DAC | | | | |
| Analog Inputs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Phono Input | | | | |
| HDMI Input | No | No | No | No |
| XLR Input | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Headphone Output | No | No | No | No |
| Bluetooth | No | No | No | No |
| Wi-Fi | No | No | No | No |
| Handheld Remote | | | | |
| Height | 76.2mm | 95.3mm | 284.5mm | 203.2mm |
| Width | 431.8mm | 431.8mm | 434.3mm | 444.5mm |
| Depth | 304.8mm | 304.8mm | 355.6mm | 679.5mm |
| Weight | 5.90kg | 12.20kg | 49.00kg | 43.40kg |
| MSRP | 1749 USD | 3499 USD | 14999 USD | 14999 USD |
| Check Current Price | Amazon, B&H Photo | Amazon, B&H Photo | Amazon, B&H Photo | Amazon, B&H Photo |
The useful part of having both halves is that you can now check PS Audio against PS Audio. Their own Aspen FR30 is 88 dB sensitive, 4 ohms, and asks for 100 to 600 watts. Drop that into our amplifier and speaker matcher and you can see which of their amps actually clears it, and what happens if you bring something else entirely.
Would you take the M1200 and put the difference into speakers, or is the Class A bias on the PMG amps worth the money to you?