Initial Spark Mini Report
-
I was SO CLOSE to cancelling due to the endless shipping delays and the rough initial reports from those who already got their Mini's in the first round of shipping... but I must say... I'm glad I hung tough and waited. First came a quick charge just to be sure it had enough juice, then came the firmware update. All went smoothly, until I fired it up and tried to get some music playing through it from my iPhone. Nada!!! Nothing from the Spark Mini's built in tunes either. The guitar tones sounded promising, though. So I tried the hardware reset and... Success! Thank you Positive Grid! This Mini just officially replaced my ancient and no longer supported Bose Soundlink v.1. The sound quality is VASTLY improved over my Spark 40, which I now hope to trade for a much needed guitar pedal or two. Thanks for that, as well! I have hope the deep dives into the Spark app will satisfy as well. Time will tell.
-
@cgil155 I've been having an issue where the audio volume from the app/music on my phone or PC came through extremely quiet. I thought it wasn't working at all but when I cranked both the device and the amp's music volume up to maximum, I could JUST hear it with my ears up to the speaker. Perhaps I need to try th is hardware reset as well?
As an amp by itself, it's working great. I'm using it with an electroacustic hurdy-gurdy (not a guitar) and it sounds fine! my gurdy is fairly loud by itself so the amp doesn't make it dramatically louder but it does amp it up a noticeable amount, so it serves my purpose here. But I was also excited to use it as a speaker and I'm having the above issue. :(
Edit: the factory reset solved the problem! Thanks for your post :)
-
@grant-dotter Glad to hear about your success with the hardware reset. That should be a highlighted "Must Do" step in their firmware update instructions.
I apologize for not investigating my new Spark further. My immediate to-do list includes new guitar strings. And hunting down my wired earbuds. Although the new Mini does have more top end definition, I still couldn't quite sense the fine nuances between, say, the Two Rock and the Dumble. For me that definitely required headphones on the Spark 40. I'm hoping this Spark Mini can pull it off with the cab speakers. So yeah, I definitely gotta change those crusty guitar strings now. And I'm itching to see how it performs plugged into my tube amps.
Here's another trick that's gotta be checked out: where I sit in a corner seat with windows to the left and right, and the amp at footstool length with a wine bottle in front of it. Then we'll see how well the slight cab angle for those stereo speakers work. Used to do that with my Bose Soundlink and what now seems like an endless succession of multiFX pedals... it was fairly amazing. -
Same issue here as cgil155 , no audio out of the Bluetooth audio after the firmware update. Factory reset fixed it.
-
DON'T PANIC!!! Good advice. Could've used it earlier tonight... Took my new Spark Mini over to a visit with my audiophile DJ buddy (the guy who convinced me to get my Spark 40). Once I managed to get my phone streaming music the Spark Mini, and setup an awesome patch, he freaked over the vastly improved audio quality coming out of such a tiny little thing. I tried to save the patch I had created, but somehow screwed up and suddenly we had nothing from the Spark! Now it was my turn... I freaked! After 15 minutes I gave up and did a hardware reset. Still nothing! More freaking out. 15 minutes later we discover it was his guitar cable! Okey, now we got guitar sound. But no audio tracks? More freakin'. Tried to reset the Bluetooth connections. Connected. But nada! Turns out I was so frustrated I had pressed the Bluetooth PAIR button too long and put it into tuner mode. DOH! Don't do that!
So anyway, here's a cool patch to try... Noise Gate - off, compressor - off, Klon Clone OD - all controls at 5, OD50 Dumble amp model - every control dimed, MXR Blue Chorus - speed and depth @ 3, Echo and Hall reverb to taste. Turn your guitar volume down a little and pick softly for magical harmonic richness of in-between cleans and crank it up and dig in for awesome dirt; and don't forget that guitar tone pot now has its own magic rolling off the highs. It's like having access to multiple amp channels just with a tweak of the guitar's pickup switches and knobs, and takes picking dynamics to a whole new level.
