Dear Magma, Just wanted to let you all know the new chassis is a winner. Plug and Play! Had it up and running with 10 minutes to spare : ) Gotta love live TV. Thank you all so much Ariel and Nate for your time and help! Sincerely, Chris Shepard American Mobile http://americanmobilestudio.com read more

I've never been treated so poorly by a company in my life, after spending over $2,500.00 on an expansion chassis. Back when I purchased my chassis (model PE6R4), the big issue was that they had very loud PSU fans. As do most people that use this product, I use my chassis in a recording studio. You can imagine how awful it would be to have a loud fan blaring all day when you're trying to record music. From the moment I started using the chassis in 2007, I complained to their sales department about the "loud fan" and begged them to switch the fan for a quieter one. At that time I had no idea that the noise was actually coming from the PSU fan, and not the main fan. I just assumed the chassis had only one fan... a LOUD one! Now, you would think that since THEY are the manufacturer of the chassis, that THEY would know exactly where the fan noise was coming from - the PSU. And in fact, I found out later that they DID know this, as the loud PSU was a widely known issue which countless customers were blogging about. But instead of just sending me a new, quieter PSU, they proceeded to give me the runaround for almost 4 years!! One of their sales reps, Jill Nelson, repeatedly told me that there was no alternative fan option and that there was nothing they could do for me. So, for 4 long years I dealt with this noise, which significantly interfered with my work, all the while getting no solution from Jill. However, back in December of last year, an associate of mine purchased a new, updated version of my chassis, on which the fan noise was virtually inaudible. Still at this point I had no idea that the PSU fan was the culprit, or that the chassis even had more than one fan. I got in touch with Jill again, and asked her to replace my fan with the new, quieter one that they use in the newer chassis. She was unwilling to do anything to rectify the situation, except "sell" me a new fan for $90 dollars. I reluctantly agreed. Well, after spending 2 hours disassembling my studio rack, and installing the new fan, the noise was as loud as ever! I called Jill again to tell her that the noise was still loud, and that it seemed to be coming from the PSU, not the newly replaced fan. After 4 years of wasted time and frustration, why was I the one who had to figure out that the noise was coming from the PSU and not the main fan?? Shouldn't Jill have informed me of this by now?? Instead she refers me to Ariel Aquino, their so-called "tech support" person. Ariel would barely give me the time of day, but told me I could go out and purchase "any" PSU and install it myself. Really? ANY PSU? He couldn't be bothered to give me any specifics, or perhaps he is just utterly inept. Either way he proved to be useless. So I went out and searched the web for a PSU I thought might work, emailed him a link, and he said it "should be fine". Based on his approval, I ordered the $80 PSU. Once I received it, I disassembled my rack for a second time, and opened up the chassis to find out that the PSU Ariel said would be "fine" was not compatible! It was not the correct wattage, and did not have any connectors that were compatible with my chassis. I then sent an email to both Jill and Ariel asking them why they gave me this completely incorrect information. No response. So I decided to take it upon myself to get some answers. I did a little research and found a company called PC Power & Cooling. Spoke to the engineer over there, to see if they could do a custom PSU that would be compatible with my chassis. He proceeded to tell me that Magma hired them several years prior, to do a custom PSU modification for their chassis, SPECIFICALLY TO FIX THE NOISY PSU FAN ISSUE!!! Can you believe this?? Ok so this was absolute proof that Magma intentionally kept me in the dark about this issue, and probably countless other customers, so that they wouldn't have to replace everyone's PSU's. I immediately hired PC Power to do the same modification they did for Magma. I installed it. It works perfectly, and it is COMPLETELY INAUDIBLE! Dead quiet. Next step was to try to get Magma to compensate me in some way. I got in touch with VP of engineering Julia Elbert. She was actually very smart, very understanding, and was baffled as to why I wasn't given a new, quiet PSU from the very beginning, as she had been aware of this issue for quite some time. She referred me to Bill Shem, VP of Sales so I could request a credit. In so many words he called me a liar, and literally hung up the phone while I was in the middle of a sentence. Seriously?? This is how the VP of sales treats his customers? Well I'm glad to know that maturity is not a prerequisite for holding an executive position at Magma. Simply put, Magma is unwilling to take responsibility for its wrongdoings, and has no interest in keeping its customers happy. Steer clear of these bozos! read more

Magma is one of the smaller companies in the PCI and PCI Express business, which gives them a much more personable orientation towards their customers. I understand they went through some Management changes within the last two years, especially based on customer feedback, so I'm hoping that they have improved customer relations since then. I, for one, was certainly impressed by their friendly and easy-to-work-with staff. I'd like to applaud the marketing efforts of Magma, as they have put forth some of the most creative and well-developed marketing campaigns I have ever seen in this specific tech industry for PCI Express. Now you have to understand, most of the industry for PCI Express is dominated by a much older, male demographic, so the marketing efforts of many PCI Express companies are often dull and drab. Upon speaking to Victoria Kohlhorst, the Senior Marketing Manager at Magma, I learned that Magma very recently revamped their marketing department and is very excited to bring new and innovative marketing ideas to the market. Magma is one of the few PCI Express technology companies who actually promotes a reputable social media profile. Magma maintains active profiles on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, and even LinkedIn. I think this is very important for the constantly changing industry of technology, and Magma does a great job of staying in touch with their customers. Magma also has an informative and creative e-mail newsletter, called Magma Expresso (a mix of their popular product the ExpressBox and the much popular coffee "espresso"), which is a great way to maintain good customer relations and keep customers informed of new product releases and updates. Magma has also been heavily promoted alongside reputable companies, such as Apple and Intel, as they are one of the certified partners in developing products compatible with the new Thunderbolt technology. I am very impressed that such a small company is able to work with technology juggernauts like Apple and Intel. I have also read about Magma appearing at many trade shows, such as NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), AES (Audio Engineering Society), and CES (Consumer Electronics Association). Magma also works closely with large names in the Audio industry, such as AVID and Universal Audio, as well as in the Video industry, such as RED Digital Camera and Blackmagic Design. On a consumer level, I'll go through each one of their departments during the entire order process and overall customer experience: 1) Sales: To purchase a product, you can either call the Sales team or you can browse their website and customize your product based on backplane, cable length, and connection type. Their new website (which they just released in July of 2012) is very user-friendly, allowing you to view high-quality images, read through product specs, download datasheets and installation guides, and even view videos and tutorials for each product. Their website makes it easy to find what product you are looking for and perform your due diligence in researching exactly which product will best fit your needs. Magma certainly offers a wealth of knowledge about each of their products on their website, which definitely made me feel more confident as a consumer. Any questions not addressed on the website can be answered by a quick call to their knowledgeable Sales team. 2) Shipping: Very fast shipment - by FedEx. Their website allows you to log in and track your orders, which is a great tool for customers. 3) Support: In addition to the plethora of video tutorials they have on their Vimeo and YouTube, Magma has an in-house Support department that can help you step-by-step with any support issues you encounter. You can reach support either by phone or by submitting a support request on their new website (which they will respond to usually within 24 hours). Ariel is the head of Support, and he's great to talk to on the phone, and he was happy to direct me to the drivers and updates I needed to download for my product. Overall, I think Magma does a great job in producing high quality products, marketing their product lines, and offering great support and customer service. The price is sometimes higher than their competitors, but many professionals in the industry will agree that Magma products have a very long shelf life that will pay off in the long-run, compared to the cheaper options that you will have to replace 2 or 3 times in the lifetime of one Magma product. I have friends that have been using their same Magma 6 slot PCI expansion system for 8 years, and it is still working great. Now that's HIGH QUALITY, especially for a technology product! Kudos to you, Magma, for standing out from the competition and really bringing creativity and innovation to an otherwise drab market. read more

I recently purchased the EB1T from Magma and couldn't be happier with the product and the service. I'm using it to house a Universal Audio UAD2 Octo card with my MacBook Pro - this chassis was actually recommended to me by the Universal Audio rep. I ordered mine fairly early on in the production so they were still built to order. Nate in the sales department called me as soon as it was ready and since I live in San Diego where Magma is located I drove up there to pick it up. Nate was professional and friendly throughout the whole process. When I arrived to pick up the chassis I was offered a tour of the facility... Which was really cool. During the tour I meet Ariel who is the head of support and he personally walked me through all the features of my EB1T. Although I've only had the chassis for a couple months I have to say my experience with Magma has been fantastic. As soon as I get my Pro Tools HDX card I'll be upgrading to the EB3T. Rock on guys! read more

Sorry to hear about your experience Ryan, but I wanted to just share that so far I have had great dealings with the folks at Magma. When rumblings and rumors started to appear about their 3T Thunderbolt chassis I started correspondence on a REGULAR basis ( read being a pest) via e-mail, message board, and by phone as I was VERY interested in the product. Mind you, this was months, and I mean months before release, but everyone I dealt with was more than willing to answer any questions, discuss configuration possibilities, really anything that I cared to talk about. And when the product was close to the testing stage they actually contacted me to see if I would like a pre-production unit to check out! Needless to say I did, (paid for it, of course) and have nothing but great interactions with the company to this day. I'm waiting on the production card for my 3T box, but understand the backlog due to the popularity of this new device. Overall, great company to deal with from my experience, and fantastic expansion products for the audio / video professional. read more