Expensive Tube Amplifiers

@lewm, yes it is a crazy looking tube! My previous amps were the NAT Audio 802 Generator mono blocks. I recall they were rated about 130-135 watts per channel but they were a push pull configuration with two 802 tubes per mono block. They also had three smaller tubes on each chassis. The chassis design looks similar but the Magma M’s are larger, have much bigger transformers and are much heavier. The Generators weighed about 80-90 lbs. The Magma M’s weigh 135 lbs each mono block.

The sonics are noticeably improved from the Generators. Don’t get me wrong, the Generators sounded really great! The only reason I replaced them was because one of the mono blocks stopped working and my tech advised me to just move on instead of trying to repair them. He said it was possible but would take a lot of effort.

It was explained to me that there isn’t the usual distortion that push pull tube amps have because of the single output tube. Apparently with push pull there is distortion when one tube hands off to the other tube.

You’re talking about crossover distortion, which is vastly overrated as a problem.  I have nothing against SE amps, and the Magma is certainly an interesting, if extravagant, design.  If you want a world class amp, you could also look at David Berning’s push-pull 845 amplifiers, which I can say from personal experience are astounding.  And speaking of "world-class," you could hardly do better than a competently restored pair of Heathkit W2 amps, a Williamson knock-off with Peerless output transformers.  A smoother, sweeter, more musically satisfying pair of 20 wpc amplifiers would be hard to come by.

Traditional SE amps exhibit much higher levels of harmonic distortion than do push pull (PP) amps. Also, output impedance tends to be higher which made me wonder about the claim the Magma can drive a 1.5 ohm speaker. Anyway, if you love it that’s all that counts.

@dogearedaudio 

This is truly the 1st time I've ever read Heathkit and world-class in the same sentence. 

I'm not unfamiliar with Heathkit as I have a couple of their products in my house, including an oscilloscope I restored myself.

@lewm  Indeed, they seemed to have pulled off some remarkable tricks, and if they have, kudos to NAT.  I have no doubt that it’s possible to achieve exceptional things with smart designers and a cost-no-object design.  The Berning 845 PP amp is a good example.