Blackstar Beam Solo Now Supports NAM A2 Natively, Powered by TONE3000
The Blackstar Beam Solo is the first headphone amp in the world to natively run Neural Amp Modeler captures, powered by TONE3000.
The Blackstar Beam Solo just got a major upgrade.
Through a free firmware update, the Beam Solo now supports Neural Amp Modeler A2 captures natively, powered by TONE3000. That makes it the first headphone amp in the world to run NAM directly on-device.
You do not need a computer, DAW, or plugin. You can simply plug in your guitar, open the Beam app, and load real neural amp captures from the TONE3000 library.
What the TONE3000 Integration Means
When you plug into a Beam Solo, you are plugging into TONE3000’s massive and constantly expanding library of community-created tones.
Through the Beam app, you can browse and load NAM A2-Lite captures directly onto your Beam Solo, including tones inspired by vintage clean amps, boutique high-gain rigs, rare studio gear, experimental signal chains, and real amps captured by musicians around the world.
Every time the TONE3000 community creates and shares new tones, the Beam Solo experience gets bigger.
Why Native NAM Matters
Neural Amp Modeler is widely considered one of the most accurate amp modeling technologies available, capturing the sound, feel, and dynamic response of real analog gear.
Some products claim to support NAM, but convert NAM files into proprietary formats. Beam Solo does not do that.
The Beam Solo runs NAM A2-Lite natively, preserving the sound and feel of the original capture while keeping you connected to the broader NAM ecosystem.
That means the tones you discover through TONE3000 are not locked to one product or platform. They are part of an open format supported by a growing ecosystem of plugins, pedals, amps, and recording tools.
A Headphone Amp Built for Real Playing
The Beam Solo is already one of the most powerful compact headphone amps available.
It supports electric guitar, bass, and acoustic guitar, with a complete practice and recording workflow built into a pocket-sized device.
Beam Solo includes 11 amp models, 35+ effects, IR-based CabRig speaker simulation with In The Room technology, Blackstar’s patented ISF tone control, XpressFX, SpeedDial, Bluetooth music playback, a built-in tuner, multi-channel USB-C recording, a headset mic input with studio-quality preamps, and full Beam app integration.
With NAM A2 support, Beam Solo becomes much more than a headphone amp. It becomes a portable gateway into the world’s largest open-source tone library.
NAM A2 Makes It Possible
NAM A2 is the next generation of Neural Amp Modeler, developed to bring even better accuracy and efficiency to modern music hardware.
A2-Lite was designed specifically for processing-constrained devices like mini amps, headphone amps, pedals, and multi-FX units.
That is what makes this Beam Solo update so exciting. A category that once could only offer fixed onboard models can now run real neural captures of real gear.
The result is simple: the sound and feel of high-end amps, pedals, and rigs now fit in your pocket.
Powered by the TONE3000 API
This integration is powered by the TONE3000 API, our developer platform that lets hardware and software products connect directly to the TONE3000 library.
The API makes it possible for products like Beam Solo to browse, load, and support community-created NAM captures without forcing users through a clunky download-and-transfer workflow.
Instead of manually finding files, downloading them, unzipping them, and transferring them through a desktop app, you can discover a tone, load it, and play.
If you build hardware or software products and want to bring TONE3000 to your platform, you can start with the API documentation.
Availability
NAM A2 support for Beam Solo is available now as a free firmware update through the Beam app.
The Beam Solo is available now from authorized Blackstar dealers worldwide for $129.99 / £119 / €139.99.
For the TONE3000 team, this is another huge step toward our mission of making great tone universally accessible.
With Beam Solo, the world’s largest community of tones now fits in your headphones.
