Magnum force and beauty.

With this amount of chrome on view, perhaps the Magnum IA170 should come with a free cleaning cloth. Its appearance owes much to the Far East penchant for all things silver (Magnum has been concentrating on the export market in recent years), but you shouldn't mind giving it the odd rub down, because it's not just its appearance that sparkles.

After leaving the Magnum to run in over a day or so, it repays you with a sound that's dynamite for dance and pop music. It has the kind of excitement and energy that leaves others behind. Listen to Duran Duran's "View to a Kill", for example and it performs in a lively manner with a tight and powerful bass and fresh attacking vocals.

The naturalness of the sound is admirably displayed on classical pieces. The excellent clarity draws you right in to performance with its detail and driving sound. In fact its only drawback is the lack of phono stage [not stristly true as phono stage is available as option] although you get five line inputs, two sets of speaker terminals a headphone socket and mute button. It's possible to monitor a source when recording to tape and to adjust balance between left and right.

This amp is one of the best in its field and will provide healthy competition for the likes of Aura VA-80 and Rotel RA-970BX. It's available black or "chrome" and with its crisp authoritative sound it's sure to pick up many buyers.

Rating: *****