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Review: CM Labs 914 Amplifier

Category: Amplifiers

Long before Levinson,Krell,Threshold,and others there was CM Labs of Danbury,CT. This little high end company produced some of the most musical solid state power amps.The build quality is robust,and is a total mil-spec amp. The 914 is one of the first,if not the first of the high speed power amps. The power output is 125 Watts RMS into 8 ohms,with less than 0.1 percent THD,at any freqency from 20 to 20,000 Hz. 175 watts RMS into 4 ohm. IM Distortin less than o.1 percent up to rated power.Frequency response +- 0.1 dB from 20 to 20,000 Hz at full power.Damping factor better than 500 at 8 ohms!!Circuitry is fully differential,full complementary common-emitter output.Is built to MIL spec A8625C,Type 2.More important than all the above impressive specs,is the sound quality. This is without doubt one of the finest and most musical power amps I have owned. Clearly in the same league as Threshold,Levinson,and others in the high end spectrum.Seldom seen in for sale or auction. People that have then just dont get rid of them--Thats how good they really are in the real world of high end audio. But if you ever get a chance to acquire one,Grab it fast

Associated gear
Acoustat Speakers,HK T-60 TT,Threshold Preamp

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ferrari
apocrypha
1 posts
 
Hello!

My name is Rafael Garcia!

I am an owner of a CM Labs 914 Power amp too. I live in Venezuela, and I bought my amp in an similar auction like ebay.com, I spent aproximately 200$ for: Cm Labs 914 Amp, McIntosh C-27, Nakamichi 1000 II Deck, Sansui SE-7 Eq and other thigns. This is my best buy of all my life, I was thiking to buy this amp, but I change my opinion...

Thank you for the information...

If there are other people who can give me pics o more information about this brand, please send me an Email to: Audio_apocrypha@hotmail.com

Rafael Garcia
ferrari OP
617 posts
 
Congrats to the last respondent of this thread. You have one great amplifier and the rest of you system looks very good as well. I started this review and the above specs listed was all that CM Labs ever released. That were not much on specifications, but decided that the music mattered more than meaningless hype in numbers. Enjoy it is special indeed.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
I had a CM Labs amp and pre at one time; my first high end pieces. Pre was a CC-3, I think. Amp was a big monster with dual VU meters. Maybe a 917, not sure. Think it was 150 wpc. It was a rocker, that's for sure and I loved it until a lightening storm took it out and I replaced it with a Moscode 300.
ferrari OP
617 posts
 
Swampwalker the CM Labs you had was a 912. Extremely rare new and very hard to find today. Only amp they made with VU meters on the amp. Damn - wish I could find one of those thats operational. The 912 was special order only.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Ferrari- Yeah, that's right. I bought the pair used a local dealer in CT.
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