Peavey Max 700 Head

This amp was made in 2004 but I purchased it brand new 2 months ago from a leading Sydney music store. I play mainly rockin' roll and it is totally cool. It keeps up with the guitarists Marshall amps. The EQ is ok but I'm thinking of a rack mount unit to make it sound great.This amp is loud. I use a Peavey 4x10 with it.

I use a Geddy Lee Jazz Bass with the rig and it sounds great. Playing rock and sometimes prog rock, this amp is the best. Very loud and a deep bottom end.

This amp has always fired up and not let me down.

No need at this stage.

Playing for 10 years + and have a small Brady drum kit for practice. I have looked at a brand of light weight Cabs and Amps but would prefer to have a bad back and have a reliable big bass sound every time. Go the Peavey!

I have this amp for two years now. This amp have been used to feed rather an SVT 810 or two house build sub filled with Emminence Kappa Pro 15 LF drivers.

The EQ is pretty conbentionnal with variable countour. bass, trabble and semi paremetric mid. I like the on board x-over, I used it with the 15" drivers as a sub amp.

Lots of options, and well built.

The sound is rather clean and well controled. It doesn't have a strong personality, meaning it's rather transparent yet the low end is great. Both countour and and semi parametric mid gives you enough to get the tone you need.

This amp have been used to feed rather an SVT 810 or two house build sub filled with Emminence Kappa Pro 15 LF drivers. In both case it's been working very hard and never budge. Of course I never turned off the soft clipping. Well Peavey is a serious instrument and amp manufacturer.

I giged a lot with it without the need for any backup.

Never had to use it.

Overall excellent value. Easy to cary, it likes to go out. For a budget amp, this amp is hard to beat.

One channel solid state head with 700 watts at 2 ohms, 475 at 4 ohms and 275 at 8 ohms. EQ isnt fantastic but adequate. I used to use this amp to run a 4x10 cab and 1x 15 and there was more than enough low end grunt to annoy the drummer!
Its got a tuner out, passive and active switch, bright switch, effects loop on the front panel and a very handy speaker protection system that saves any blown cones. I play in a function band so i can be playing anything from Bobby Darin to Green Day and this handles it with ease.

I use a Ricky 4003 with a Zoom B2 and a BBE sonic maximiser and it doesnt distort at high volumes but saying that i havent had the chance to run it at 700 watts so i couldnt really comment. Ive been running it at 475 watts. The only thing is the fan can be quite noisy at low volumes.

Im afraid I wouldnt gig this amp without a backup as it chews fuses and has been back to Peavey 4 times in as many months. Not good. But saying that my amp may be a one off and it was fine until a few months ago. In the UK you get 24 months warranty so Im taking full advantage!

Support has been great from Peavey and you always get thru to them within a couple of rings and they always put you thru to the right dept. My amp always comes back well packaged and they ring you before they send it back. Mines been there so many times that it must have its own workbench by now.

I love its so loud but hate the way it keeps breaking down when Im about to play a gig. If it were stolen I would jump for joy and go buy a Trace Elliot!

This is a revision on the previous review. After better testing this thing on real gigs and comparing it with the SVT-IV, I've changed my opinion on a few things.

After deeper testing, I realized that:

- Deep low is tighter and more prominent than the SVT-IV
- It could drive only one SVT-810 (not two as I thought) But it drives it really well, something an SVT-III cannot do. I realised that at the level I like, it runs very well, but the Dynamic Compression kicks right a way. It doesn't matter, I don't need more power at this time. My guitarist plays a Peavey Classic 50, and my drummer plays at medium level.
- It does indeed play really loud for my needs. But it could probably not compete with a full stack guitar rig.

At the end, I prefer this one over the SVT-IV. The more I play with it, the more I like it.

I even start considering getting rid of the SVT-IV and use this one for both Jazz and R&B, and maybe getting a SUN or Fender Bassman 300 for rock and any Vintage sound requirement.

Once again, for the price, a thumb up for peavey. It's driving me away from my beloved Ampeg.

Bought new a week ago.

I wanted a reliable but non expensive backup for my Ampeg SVT-IV with a moree session kinkd of sound. I was looking at Gallien & Krueger but they are more expansive and not as reliable as the peavey.

Peavey is also a PA amp manufacturer. I believe this is one of their PA amp boxed with a minimalist Bass pre amp and some convenient features. That doesn't discredit Peavey at all, a lot of bass players use a fancy stand alone bass pre amp combined with a PA amp for modern clean sound. It runs cold evenwhile driving an SVT 810 cabinet very loud...

Has same EQ as SVT, a bright switch, Bass knob, High knob and parametric mid adjustment. The countour does the same as the Low Switch on the SVT. I keep at Max (10) all the time, unless I use a Metal Distortion pedal. In this case I reduce it a bit. Gain knob, Master know, active pickup atenuator switch, buffered tuner out, XLR out with level knob, adjustable crossover and all the necessary connection for bi-amp, effect loop and bypass.

I only deplore 3 things: lack of a mute switch, lack of a speakon connector and Countour know has effect only between 8 and 10. The fan is a bit noisy, which reduce the enjoyment at low volume. But that's not a flaw, it's a safety net and hey, that thing is design to play L O U D. Considering the price and sonority of this thing, these little flaws are not affecting my rating.

All the patch connectors and XLR out are in the front, I believe to simplify the circuit and keep signal path as short as possible (goud design), but I would prefer to have them in the back for aestetic.

I use it with an Ampeg SVT 810, an American Precision 70, and an American Jass 2004, with a BOSS ME50B multi-effect. I believe I could drive two SVT 810 with it, considering that I could gig with the volume know at 12 o'clock and it's way loud enough.

As everybody said, this thing sounds very loud and thick for the price. It competes completely with my SVT-IV. It pushes 475 watts /4 ohms and the svt pushes 1200 watts/4 ohms. It doesn't mean anything, since both consume 1200 watts from the outlet and Peavey runs cooler. So if you do the matts, the Peavey seems to give more power to the speaker and leas heat to your room.

It's easy to get a good tone without any effect, leave everything flat, crank the countour to the max... That's all you need.

Let me elaborate a bit here. The sound is clear and crisp as a solid state can be. It's less noisy than a GK. It's actually a good session sound for Jazz jams. Personnaly, I prefer the tube preamp tone for most of my need, but I was also looking for this kind of clear solid state sound in a second amp. I can get some tube simulation with the ME50B anyway. Actually, the ME50B does a better job with this amp than the SVT-IV, probably bedause id doesn't add much of caractere to the sound.

The sound is very tight, clean and loud. It is less muddy than the SVT and it's up to your speaker to cut through the mix. I did not loose the low end growl I love so much with the SVT 810.

Seems like the Ampeg has a little more extreme bottom when bridged at 1200 watts, but the Ampeg also clips very quickly.

The sound is also much more agressive and slightly distorted in the high frequencies than the SVT. That's cool at low volume. I've noticed that with all full solid state amp I've tried. The tube sound is usually more polished in the highs, and sounds cleaner when I crank the high.

It is also slightly more noisy than the SVT, but the SVT is most quiet amp I've evet tried. All cheap solid state users complain about noise, but the Peavey doesn't fall in this category. It's still a VERY QUIET amp and the preamp doesn't generate any noise even with a passive Jazz Bass. I use Spectraflex by the way. That resolved all noise problem I could ever have.

About Cable...
If you spent money on an Expansive Monster Cable, well tough luck. Monster Cable is a piece of crap, just an expansive lamp cable with cute wrapping. No science or real stage or studio experience behind it. Spectraflex is a real professional cable and is cheaper than Monster Cable.

It seems well built. I've choose this one for it's reliability reputation. We'll see.

Unlike several other manufacturers, they don't try to pack zillions of watts in a light box the size of a pack of cigarettes. This is a full size, mid weight and not overrated wattage package. I would even say it's oversized for it's power rating. That's a good sign for reliability.

It's a credible package and it runs cold by the way...

I had some problems with my SVT-IV. I love the SVT, but it doesn't seem to love me back very much. I hope Peavey is more reliable.

Usually when you see 10 all over the place, you can be sure the review is from an employe of that factory and it's not credible.

In this case, considering the quality of sound for the price, this piece of equipement deserve a 10 for Overall rating.

I'm really happy with. It's loud and simple and sounds good without any effect.

If you consider vintage tone as muddy, and you're into powerful modern sound, go for it.

I will use it in house for Jazz sessions, as a stage backup, and also as a dedicated bi-amp pumping lows to a 215 cab, with the SVT-IV driving the SVT-810 full range. That will be awesome.

(If the SVT-IV ever comes back from repair)

Hello this is a one channel amp, with an active/passive switch. (-10db) when in active mode. It has a 3 band active EQ, a Contour knob, and a midshift. The amp also has a tuner out, effects loop, and a built in Xover, so that yo can biamp it as long as you have another amp. The amp also has a circuit breaker , a ground polarity switch in the back, a line out up front, with a ground lift, gain, pre or post eq switch. Bright switch. A detachable power cord.
I know I am forgetting something this amp has some features. The amp is stable down to 2 ohms, at 8 ohms it supplies 275 watts, at 4 ohms it supplies 475 watts, and of course at 2 ohm it gives you 700 watts. It has a jack for a one button footswitch to bypass the effects loop, I wish Peavey woul;d just supply yo with the pedal but yo have to get it from the dealer or website for like 15 bucks.

I use a varity of basses with this amp 2 active ones and one passavive at teh moment. it is very clean, and when you start cranking the contour it just makes yo want to slap, I do not use the gain as a means to get grit I runs pedals for all of that but I did try it for a few minutes to make my guitarist happy and he loved it. The fan is quite, when I power up it powers up smooth no harshness. I really like this amp it is so simple in control thta it is easy to get it to sound good. I beleive that something simple is better. I am running this head into a Peavey 410 cab running it ap against a 150 watt Mesa Triple retifier and a 100watt Lee Jackson both with 4 12's I am turning up to 3 on master and 3 on gain and I am still a lot louder and it cuts throught good I run alot of mids that might be why, but I really like the sound it remind me of a GK kinda. I am rating this a a nine because yes it sounds great yes it works great but you know everyday something new comes out and yo are always comp[airing LOL. BUt this amp sounds great it is very clear and bell like I really like it.

Peavey has great warranty, 5 years and American made rocks, but no matter teh warranty, no matter where it was made you have to rember there are MOndays, and there are Fridays LOL. Peavey stuff very raley breaks. Before I seledt Peavey as my rig. I contacted a very large and repiable repair shop on Chicago and asked them about differnt amp brands man was supprised at what I found out. Anyway the shop told me they very rarely see Peavey stuff he said they make good clean stuff. He gave them thumbs ups. I would not take a back up rig I take a DI box for just in case

They rule, you call and guess what you get a HUMAN BEING, average wait time like 2 oir 3 minutes.
Good Place

I have been playing off and on for years and I mean years but I don't want to feal bad about my age. In the 80's I hated this company with a passion. I was all about teh BIG NAME BRANDS no mom and pops for me , I hated teh look the sound everything. but some where around the earlier 90's like 90 or 91 I started to change my tune. THis company does alot of for music makers every where my only fear is that they will no longer be the mom and pops company I have just reacently started to love