Wouldn’t know, man. Not really affiliated in any way with Dejan’s business, we’re just buddies, that’s how.
Introducing My System
- Thread starter Thundersnow
- Start date
Yep, four wheeled vehicular transport is very useful in these circumstances.
My point was more getting Dejan's attention to start. But I guess if you're buying his flagship amps...
My point was more getting Dejan's attention to start. But I guess if you're buying his flagship amps...
So I as advertised, I owe a short summary of the NAT Magma Evo sound.
First a bit of history. After using the Dan D’Agostino M400 monos for a couple of years, I decided to take the plunge and give NAT’s Magmas a go. The first amp I tested was the Magma M HPS which used the Russian GM30 tubes. The sound was mesmerizing from the get go, but the D’Ags being my only point of reference, I felt that the Magma M with the GM30 tubes performed slightly too colored for my taste in the high power mode, while sounding magnificently in the higs and mids on the low power mode. The low power mode sadly lacked bass, so I decided on using the high power mode. At that point, however, I wasn’t sold on the whole concept as D’Ags still had some advantages over Magma M’s with GM30s while obviously certain aspects of the sound were superior with the NATs.
After a while both @Ron Resnick and then later Dejan told me about the Eimac tubes. So this was my next experiment. At this point, things started leaning heavily towards the NAT Magma M amps as compared to D’Ags. Eimac’s at high power mode had less distortion a better damping factor for the bass and had more control (read “speed in sound”) than the D’Ags. I never really bothered with the low power mode and the Eimac’s because they performed so well in high power mode.
Fast forward several months later and now I’m the owner of the NAT flagship Magma Evo amps. To be quite honest, I was a bit skeptical at first as to what to expect — given how happy I was with the Magma M/Eimac tube combo, but Dejan assured me testing out Magma Evos would be worth my while.
My initial test of the Magma Evos with the colossal GM100 tubes started in low power mode. This is roughly around 50W per channel — pure single end class A tube muscle. Immediately, it was apparent that even in the low power mode, the amp had tremendous control over my Coltrane 3 speakers. The difference in control (compared to Magma M/Eimac) was as similar as when I moved up from a D’Ag stereo amp to the M400 monos.
Startling control really of the Coltrane 3 speakers given the “modest” 50W per channel. The tone was more fleshed out and palpable, the imaging was more focused and there was more of that illusion of 3D space around the instruments. The Magma Evo in low power mode would never skip a beat — not even on the most complex pieces of music. And believe my, I threw everything at it, from massive symphonies to Metallica to Yello, Hans Zimmer live and who knows what else. The heat emission also is way lower in the low power mode, so at that moment, the amp seemed to tick all the boxes for me. Another thing, the low power mode had way more control of the bass drivers than the Magma M/Eimac combo in high mode. In short, this beast of an amplifier is pretty much superior in every way to the Magma M/Eimac combo.
Another extremely important note is that the Magma Evo has significantly less distortion in the sound which is manifested in a crystal clear tone that — though being highly extended — feels sweet at the top and never fatiguing. I am a sucker for great highs (hence my love for the Accuton diamond tweeters) and Magma Evo delivered this in such a way like I’ve never heard with my Coltrane 3’s before.
Being curious, I of course switched on several occasions to the high power mode. Oddly enough, the warmer and fleshier sound of the high power mode would fail in delivering the transparency and “purity“ of the low power mode and even the scene would collapse somewhat — counterintuitive to what you’d expect to get from more watts pumped into your speaker — and similar to how the GM30 tube performed. With one major difference obviously and that‘s the fact that GM100 in Evos low power mode is superior to every other setup I’ve mentioned in this write up.
What this tells me is that the GM100 tube is glorious as long as it’s driven more conservatively. The Eimac tube on the other hand had no such issues and would perform better in that sense (being pushed close to its operating high). Granted, let’s not forget my conclusion in the previous paragraph.
So there you have it, things are never totally cut and dry. Here to give you my 2 cents as this may help someone down the road.
In closing, for the first time in my hi-fi career I am seeing a pair of amps as “lifers”. And in my case that’s the NAT Magma Evolution. It just hits that elusive ethereal thread of speed, clarity and resoluteness of top of the line solid state, while seducing with those glorious even harmonics in the highs. Truly the best of both worlds. And I can live with the heat, it’s really not as bad as I had feared.
First a bit of history. After using the Dan D’Agostino M400 monos for a couple of years, I decided to take the plunge and give NAT’s Magmas a go. The first amp I tested was the Magma M HPS which used the Russian GM30 tubes. The sound was mesmerizing from the get go, but the D’Ags being my only point of reference, I felt that the Magma M with the GM30 tubes performed slightly too colored for my taste in the high power mode, while sounding magnificently in the higs and mids on the low power mode. The low power mode sadly lacked bass, so I decided on using the high power mode. At that point, however, I wasn’t sold on the whole concept as D’Ags still had some advantages over Magma M’s with GM30s while obviously certain aspects of the sound were superior with the NATs.
After a while both @Ron Resnick and then later Dejan told me about the Eimac tubes. So this was my next experiment. At this point, things started leaning heavily towards the NAT Magma M amps as compared to D’Ags. Eimac’s at high power mode had less distortion a better damping factor for the bass and had more control (read “speed in sound”) than the D’Ags. I never really bothered with the low power mode and the Eimac’s because they performed so well in high power mode.
Fast forward several months later and now I’m the owner of the NAT flagship Magma Evo amps. To be quite honest, I was a bit skeptical at first as to what to expect — given how happy I was with the Magma M/Eimac tube combo, but Dejan assured me testing out Magma Evos would be worth my while.
My initial test of the Magma Evos with the colossal GM100 tubes started in low power mode. This is roughly around 50W per channel — pure single end class A tube muscle. Immediately, it was apparent that even in the low power mode, the amp had tremendous control over my Coltrane 3 speakers. The difference in control (compared to Magma M/Eimac) was as similar as when I moved up from a D’Ag stereo amp to the M400 monos.
Startling control really of the Coltrane 3 speakers given the “modest” 50W per channel. The tone was more fleshed out and palpable, the imaging was more focused and there was more of that illusion of 3D space around the instruments. The Magma Evo in low power mode would never skip a beat — not even on the most complex pieces of music. And believe my, I threw everything at it, from massive symphonies to Metallica to Yello, Hans Zimmer live and who knows what else. The heat emission also is way lower in the low power mode, so at that moment, the amp seemed to tick all the boxes for me. Another thing, the low power mode had way more control of the bass drivers than the Magma M/Eimac combo in high mode. In short, this beast of an amplifier is pretty much superior in every way to the Magma M/Eimac combo.
Another extremely important note is that the Magma Evo has significantly less distortion in the sound which is manifested in a crystal clear tone that — though being highly extended — feels sweet at the top and never fatiguing. I am a sucker for great highs (hence my love for the Accuton diamond tweeters) and Magma Evo delivered this in such a way like I’ve never heard with my Coltrane 3’s before.
Being curious, I of course switched on several occasions to the high power mode. Oddly enough, the warmer and fleshier sound of the high power mode would fail in delivering the transparency and “purity“ of the low power mode and even the scene would collapse somewhat — counterintuitive to what you’d expect to get from more watts pumped into your speaker — and similar to how the GM30 tube performed. With one major difference obviously and that‘s the fact that GM100 in Evos low power mode is superior to every other setup I’ve mentioned in this write up.
What this tells me is that the GM100 tube is glorious as long as it’s driven more conservatively. The Eimac tube on the other hand had no such issues and would perform better in that sense (being pushed close to its operating high). Granted, let’s not forget my conclusion in the previous paragraph.
So there you have it, things are never totally cut and dry. Here to give you my 2 cents as this may help someone down the road.
In closing, for the first time in my hi-fi career I am seeing a pair of amps as “lifers”. And in my case that’s the NAT Magma Evolution. It just hits that elusive ethereal thread of speed, clarity and resoluteness of top of the line solid state, while seducing with those glorious even harmonics in the highs. Truly the best of both worlds. And I can live with the heat, it’s really not as bad as I had feared.
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So, are Nat planning to run multiple iterations of the Magma, or is there just going to be one or two alternatives?
Excellent comparative review, and fascinating that low power is higher fidelity than high power.
Are the Magmas auto biasing for both the GM100 and Eimac tubes?
Excellent comparative review, and fascinating that low power is higher fidelity than high power.
Are the Magmas auto biasing for both the GM100 and Eimac tubes?
For the first question, I can ask Dejan, but again, I tend not to meddle in his biz decisions (and that’s an understatement, I don’t even talk to him about that — feels out of place as I am a happy consumer only). If you ask me, and it’s sort of apparent from my write-up Magma M/Eimac is the biggest bang for the buck, but if you want top-of-the-line, the answer is clear — Magma Evo. So maybe that’s how I‘d pitch it in terms of the product gamma, but this is just my opinion in no way related to NAT. Another idea that one could deduce out of testing these amps is that I’d literally just make Magma Evo have one mode of around 70-100W. I am certain this would drive a multitude of speakers without breaking a sweat, keep the heat emission very tolerable, while etching out more watts out of GM100 and keeping it happy and with minimal distortion.
As for the second question, I believe so, but I’d have to double-check. Not 100%.
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Thank you, Thundersnow, for this very interesting report!
With both Magna Eimac and Magma GM100 in high power mode, how would you compare their midranges and high frequency ranges on simple vocals. What do you think would be the sonic advantages and sonic disadvantages of each of them on simple vocals?
With both Magna Eimac and Magma GM100 in high power mode, how would you compare their midranges and high frequency ranges on simple vocals. What do you think would be the sonic advantages and sonic disadvantages of each of them on simple vocals?
Looks like the Magma Evo is replacing the Magma new. All are HPS. That means two levels of HPS Magma, the cheaper M and totl Evo.
Auto biasing is surely a must, Nats are scary beasts, Magma the scariest of all.
Is the Magnetostat still your preamp of choice?
My Nat SE2SEs run at 70W on parallel SET 211s. Drive my 101dB eff Zus in this 6000 cub ft room with ease.
Low power Magma Evos at 50W would be just fine here.
Auto biasing is surely a must, Nats are scary beasts, Magma the scariest of all.
Is the Magnetostat still your preamp of choice?
My Nat SE2SEs run at 70W on parallel SET 211s. Drive my 101dB eff Zus in this 6000 cub ft room with ease.
Low power Magma Evos at 50W would be just fine here.
Based on nothing I doubt there are going to be four ongoing Magma models. I think Dejan just does not update the website very often.
Logical follow up question, Ron. In keeping the answer as simple as possible Magma Evo edges out, you’d be fooled more into hearing that singer in your room with the Evos in high power mode — both in terms of driver control (in the context of imaging) and tone. BUT, the difference is not night and day.
Were you to hear Evo in low power mode (against literally any other amp I’ve owned including all iterations of Magma), you’d be quite simply blown away. Hope this helps.
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I agree with you, spirit. Hopefully, it’s a matter of updating the site as Ron said, plus from a purely business standpoint, makes no sense to have that many models and risk cannibalizing sales by not being able to clearly market to and target your consumers.
Oh yea, Magnetostat remains just as much of a ”lifer” preamp for me as Evos are on the amp side.
Great stuff. Your current amps are surely my on bucket list. Just hope I don't kick the bucket first, lol.
Seriously, Utopia pre and SE2SE 211 monos from Nat remain hugely compelling here, a taste of what you're experiencing.
Can you mention what the Evos and Magnetostat SE run to, price wise?
Seriously, Utopia pre and SE2SE 211 monos from Nat remain hugely compelling here, a taste of what you're experiencing.
Can you mention what the Evos and Magnetostat SE run to, price wise?
I wish for all of us to hit the bucket list before we kick the bucket!
On a more serious note, I’ll ask Dejan for the retail price and if he‘s good with it I’ll post it here. Last him and I talked about it, he still wasn’t 100% sure on the Evo retail price. Was a month or so ago though.
On and another thing, system related, forgot to mention this but a good buddy of mine brought over his dcs Rossini Apex and clock to test it out against my Lampizator Golden Gate 3 (armed with two KR PX25 tubes and the Takatsuki 274b recti).
We spent some time to first set up the myriad of options that the Rossini Apex offers in order to make it favor simplicity and as close to the native digital reproduction as we could muster — given the DAC’s many filters, upsampling options etc. We, of course, compared each combo of options in terms of SQ and settled on the simplest one (in the technical sense) and incidentally the one with the best SQ,
The dcs was fast and musical, having the extension and the noise floor of a truly top of the range DAC product.
Alas, it took one track of Musica Nuda Live at the Fip, after having returned the Lampi GG3, to realize how much more life and naturalness in the singer’s voice we could hear with the GG3.
What then blew us away also was how much better the Lampi GG3 could recreate the ambient of Roger Water’s Live in Amsterdam concert.
This is not to say that Rossini Apex (with the clock option) was not good in any way — on the contrary it was fantastic — but the Lampi just plain old brings more life to the sound.
(If you are dcs distributor or a die hard fan — for all intents and purposes I am mad and def and have the memory of a horny lemur in a cage full of lady lemurs. So no reason to hate me or call me out on my mini review
We spent some time to first set up the myriad of options that the Rossini Apex offers in order to make it favor simplicity and as close to the native digital reproduction as we could muster — given the DAC’s many filters, upsampling options etc. We, of course, compared each combo of options in terms of SQ and settled on the simplest one (in the technical sense) and incidentally the one with the best SQ,
The dcs was fast and musical, having the extension and the noise floor of a truly top of the range DAC product.
Alas, it took one track of Musica Nuda Live at the Fip, after having returned the Lampi GG3, to realize how much more life and naturalness in the singer’s voice we could hear with the GG3.
What then blew us away also was how much better the Lampi GG3 could recreate the ambient of Roger Water’s Live in Amsterdam concert.
This is not to say that Rossini Apex (with the clock option) was not good in any way — on the contrary it was fantastic — but the Lampi just plain old brings more life to the sound.
(If you are dcs distributor or a die hard fan — for all intents and purposes I am mad and def and have the memory of a horny lemur in a cage full of lady lemurs. So no reason to hate me or call me out on my mini review
So TS, with my easy as pie to drive Zus (101dB/1m), low power mode on the Magmas Evo HPS, should be no trouble at all?
I'm still not totally sure what you're saying about the GM100 v Eimac choice in the Evo in low power mode.
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