Enjoying my Spark Mini - Early Thoughts
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My Spark Mini arrived today, with the Spark Control arriving the same day in a different package. No sign of the extra grill though. First thing I did was updated the firmware of the amp and make sure I had the app update from a day or two ago to match.
It really is very good for a small beast. You can feel it producing the bass when you touch it, quite impressive for the size indeed. Certainly goes louder than you expect for the size without losing the quality. My initial feelings are that it possibly has a better mid balance than the Spark 40, more bite for the dirty sounds, even if it doesn't have the sheer size and output.
The EQ Scenarios appear to be unique to the Mini. I hope we get the opportunity to make our own EQ Scenarios. If using the amp for only electric guitar, and music coming from elsewhere, the 'Rock' scenario does seem to benefit things, but when listening to both through the Mini I'm using 'Balanced'. The 'Bass' option does what you expect! Not tried the 'Acoustic' option with an electro-acoustic instrument as yet, that's for tomorrow!
If you want the bass frequencies to sound their best, then having a hard surface underneath it to enable the radiator to function at its best seems important. If you can put it on a desk and have the wall or the back of the desk behind it you get a significantly larger bass still. I know this would to some degree be the same for anything, but having the bass radiator increases these effects when compared with a box with no ports.
The other immediate request would be the option to have the line out operating with speakers on. I don't know if the amplifier section is used to produce the line out, but if it isn't then being able to use its speaker as a monitor while sending the line out to a recording or further amplification would be great.
I haven't worked out if I can transfer the settings and sounds made on my iPad easily to my iPhone, but syncing those would be very good if possible.
I've been playing guitar professionally and semi-professionally for decades, had many different amps and systems. This is immediate portable fun with enough flexibility to keep me playing. Very happy so far.