40 Kilos of Hot Steaming Magma, Available from NAT Audio

Well, they say that spring is the season for falling in love but it's mid-November and I am in love. Truly, madly, deeply, I'd say. It's not a girl (not even my motorbike, ha-ha) but the all new tube amplifier from NAT Audio, the Magma. After all, I guess you don't even have to be an audiophile or audio enthusiast to get excited seeing such a marvelous piece of acoustic technology looking that pristine and sporting such an overwhelming simplicity and knowing that it has been built for musical bliss.

The NAT Magma is a tube amplifier among so many more...indeed but it has proclaimed itself "the most powerful single-ended tube amplifier on the market" and by all means I have all the reasons to believe that despite its fragile and almost brittle look, the Magma can drive as much as 160W RMS in 4 or 8 Ohms impedance.

Now, think about the world's most brutal guitar all-tube amps that rarely pass above the 300W threshold and are built for the biggest stages...and compare a Randall or a Marshall with the Magma. It is even funnier that the Class A specs are almost all the time relating to extremely high fidelity at the cost of a lower efficiency; it seems like the NAT Magma was sworn to make a statement and by all means it has!

This amplifier runs on a generous 10Hz-100kHz frequency range and was built to last: it runs on long life, military grade 6N1P-EV and 6N30P-DR tubes for driver purposes and an industrial type direct-heated Eimac 450TH triode, everything run through a bias mode allowing to switch between 40W and 140W modes. Magma sports a 105dB signal to noise ratio and a fixed phase, sporting a 22.5dB gain for an 8 Ohms load.

Before conjuring you to check out more specs on NAT's website, I'll just add that the Magma weighs 40kg (88pounds) and a pair (for obvious stereo) will drain around $55,000 from your budget. But damn it's beautiful!

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