I have not heard the 800 as some others on the forums (reporting extremely good results) have but I can tell you that I owned the 2-box CP-700 for a 2+ years and found it amazing. I had to move a long way up the scale to find sonics that won over the 700. It's a hell of a pre-amp for the money. When I was looking at it to match my SSP-600 HT surr-proc, I was debating taking the plunge and going for a new or used Classe Omega MkIII (or IV I think) and many people told me that while the Omega was a great pre-amp, that the 700 was such that its design had benefited from the lessons learned on the Omega line and that I should go for the CP-700...what's your budget?
Classe preamps - CP-700 vs Classe CP-800?
Hi, I'm choosing between Classe CP-700 and the new CP-800 for Classe CA-M 600 and B&W 800 Diamond system. Frankly I don't care much for all this media player stuff so my main concern is traditional old school audio from CD/SACD player through XLR ICs. Is the new 800 preamp better than the good ole 700? I think I can buy a used 700 for the same price as the new 800 only 700 was made in Canada while 800 is China made. And I'm afraid that as a tradiation preamp through XLR CP-800 would be much inferior.