TEST: Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit Head

It seems like the search for the holy grail, what guitarists have been promised again and again by the industry for decades and yet never delivered. We are talking about the eternal desire to finally part with the comparatively sensitive, maintenance-intensive, expensive and heavy all-tube amps, which represent an anachronism par excellence, but still manifest the non-plus-ultra in terms of sound from a certain quality level. Only the sampler technology of a Kemper amp sometimes scratches the bark of the protagonists, while the transistor-based amplifier range has established itself primarily in the inexpensive practice amp market. Aware of this, the Saarland company with the Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 media and marketing-technically to a very big blow out, which can wake up because of the full-bodied announcements again a wishful thinking, which would be once again too good to be true. Or perhaps nevertheless?

Saarland and other

Hughes & Kettner is doing well. Probably even very well, if one reviews a short résumé of the last product releases. The Grandmeister series is doing extremely well in the working musician market due to its dimensions and sonic performance, the Era series is jumping from a standing start to #1 among the best acoustic guitar amps in the world, and with the 6-channel Triamp MKIII, the company has a high-end all-tube head of the absolute top class. So what else could be done to give the portfolio an extra coat of paint to put an astonished look on the face of even the competition from overseas and Brexit country?

Typically German, one might say, as far as engineering performance is concerned. However, the fact that Hughes & Kettner, of all companies, is dedicated to the transistor theme is no coincidence, since decades ago they were one of the first to dare to switch to pure transistor technology, admittedly with rather modest results in terms of sound. It was precisely this joy of experimentation that for a long time caused the company from St. Wendel to be rather smiled at in music circles, before they brought one sensation after another onto the market in recent years. To face this challenge again now, it really takes a lot of "cojones".

The construction of the Hughes&Kettner Black Spirit 200

A quick look at the exterior appearance of the Hughes&Kettner Black Spirit 200 reveals its parenthood very easily. Very much in the style of the Grandmeister 36 and Deluxe 40, we are dealing with a typical briquet, which has, however, been kept a bit smaller in dimensions, with the chrome side handles and knobs of its predecessors giving way to a metallic black. If one takes the Hughes&Kettner Black Spirit 200 for the first time in the hand, one is almost frightened by the almost ridiculous weight. In contrast to the nearly 8 kg of its role models, the Head weighs in at just under 3.5 kg, only about 45%, which almost brings tears to the eyes of the traveling musician.

I myself have been doing my air shows for years with a Grandmeister 40 in my regular luggage, but I always have to be careful not to break the notorious 21 kg mark together with the footswitch, cables, stage clothes, etc., otherwise there is a risk of excess baggage. With a Hughes&Kettner Black Spirit 200, this undertaking can be approached much more relaxed, you could even pack it in your hand luggage. By the way, in contrast to the Grandmeister, the Black Spirit also has a multi-voltage power supply, i.e. even the voltages that are around 110 volts at foreign shows, e.g. in the USA, Japan or partly Brazil, can now be played with this amp. Wonderful!

Who has once dealt with the Grandmeister series, also comes very quickly with the Hughes&Kettner Black Spirit 200 to cope. This head can also be programmed as a 4-channel amp in stompbox mode, or in conjunction with a suitable foot switch, for example, the FSM-432 MK III to 128 memory locations. Also the Boost switch was taken over, which increases not as usual the Gain portion, but more in the classical sense the function of a Treble Booster of the first generations takes over, whereby here in contrast to the Grandmeister more the low mids are pushed. Nice for solos and short "thick pants" passages.

A double assignment of the Gain, Volume, Bass, Mid, Treble and Noise Gate controls gives you access to an internally installed digital effects unit, which covers the effects Reverb, Delay, Flanger, Chorus, Phaser and Tremolo. However, you have to accept a few small compromises in the flexibility of the effects. While the delay can still be operated classically with three controls, you can only manage the intensity and speed of the modulation effects. Typical extensions such as the resonance control in the flanger area have unfortunately fallen by the wayside, but this says nothing about the quality of the effects. Otherwise the standard like Presence and Resonance for the power amp, Mastervolume and a switchable FX loop.

Depending on the cabinet connected, you can choose between a power of 200 watts, 20 watts or 2 watts, which gives the amp a very high flexibility from large open air stage to quiet bedroom operation. The 20 watt circuit is particularly suitable for 1x12" vintage cabinets, which can be quickly blown at 200 watts. P.S. I tried the 200 watts in full load on a 412 cabinet once in the test, you don't want to have this volume on any stage without massive hearing protection :-)

The special features of the Hughes&Kettner Black Spirit 200

So, now into the nitty gritty! So what have the Saarlanders done to get as close as possible to the all-tube sound? The first magic word is "analog", the second "Bionic Tone Generator". Analog means that nothing was modeled or sampled here, but the individual components work purely analog. The Bionic Tone Generator, on the other hand, is a potted circuit board, about the inner workings of which H&K, as expected, remain silent and which sits enthroned as an optical eye-catcher next to the amp in classic blue in subtle glowing red on the front. It is precisely this circuit board that is supposed to produce the typical tube sound and was developed with great effort in recent years.

The amp has Bluetooth permanently installed, which allows both the feeding of music and, as with the Grandmeister, remote control via an iPad app. However, the external interface still required with the Grandmeister is omitted here. Line levels can also be fed in via the rear AUX-in and headphones can be connected on the front.

Power amp saturation or what?

Oho, now it gets interesting. The eternal argument of all-tube players (yes, mine too) in terms of sound culture is the famous output stage saturation, accompanied by the artificial word "sag", which describes the collapse of an amplifier's tonal linearity at the power limit. About discreet "rattle" of driver stages, compression of power tubes and return currents of loudspeakers there are countless publications on the market, which all end with the headline "transistor amplifiers can't do that". Exactly this (typically German ...) H&K has now undertaken and built an eight-stage Sag controller, with which one would like to achieve just this sonic behavior. But we are curious about the practical part.

Which loudspeaker would you like to have?

I myself first came across the Red Box in 1986 in the Horussound Studio in Hanover, which at the time was clamped between the amp and the cabinet and made it possible for the first time to pick up guitars without a microphone. Since that time, the product has been a perennial favorite in the H&K portfolio, but in recent years has been massively improved in terms of quality. In the Hughes&Kettner Black Spirit 200, you can now choose between 8 different cabinets and you have the option of using a switch on the back to play the amp in full-range mode directly into a monitor equipped with a notorious tweeter, without the razor sound sawing your eardrums.

The Hughes&Kettner Black Spirit 200 in practice

I admit it, rarely have I been so excited about the sound of an amplifier as I was during this test. After just under 1 hour of screwing, turning and testing, it is clear that the result is sensational! This is by far the best sounding transistor amp I have ever heard. But that's not all, almost 50% of all tube amps, some with three times the retail price of the Hughes&Kettner Black Spirit 200, can also pack their bags here. But everything nicely in order.

Already in the clean range, you can clearly see that H&K has succeeded with the Sag controller a very big hit. With increasing control position, the manufacturer comes very close to a collapsing all-tube amp, even the almost perceived as a fuzz inharmonic range at full load, the Saarlanders have succeeded very well. As with an all-tube amp, the best values are achieved when the power amp is tickled, but not driven to the limit. The best values I could achieve in the range 4 - 6, here the amp sounds incredibly dynamic, without the output stage dominates the preamp sound too much.

If you want to create a really "broken" sound, you should switch a fuzz in front of the amp and set the Sag control to the right stop. In this case you come very close to a ring modulator. If necessary in room volume! Simply great. With increasing distortion, the Hughes&Kettner Black Spirit 200 has to face a transistor phenomenon that has so far set most tube amps apart from transistor design in terms of quality.

We are talking about the "busy" sound, in terms of freshness and liveliness. I'm not talking about the Treble and Presence controls, but the overtone response, which adds a few extra waves on top. Here the Black Spirit shows a clear improvement. In the A/B comparison to the Grandmeister, the basic sound of the Black Spirit also seems a tiny bit busier, but no comparison to earlier realms.

With increasing gain, however, this difference is cancelled out, until finally in the high gain range no more difference can be heard. Especially the extremely difficult area of compression is very well done by H&K. If you didn't know that semiconductors were doing a job here, you would hardly believe it. In combination with Sag and Boost control, the amp allows a variety of sounds that is unparalleled.

Conclusion

With the Hughes&Kettner Black Spirit 200, the Saarland company has succeeded in creating a real sensation! Sonically, the small and extremely lightweight amp manages to provide a lot of eyes and ears, especially since the amplifier is not to be surpassed in versatility. The amp can be used with almost any cabinet up to a wedge, sounds official even at 2 watts via the power throttling and also offers the possibility of a good direct feed into the console with an 8-way Red Box.

I dare to predict that this amp will outstrip the Grandmeister, which is already running excellently, and will in fact be the standard for almost every working musician on stage in the future. Such a sonic flexibility of the upper class with such dimensions is currently unique.

Great cinema! Top mark!

Additional informations:

Hughes & Kettner is a renowned German manufacturer of high-quality guitar amplifiers and effects pedals. The company was founded in 1984 by Hans Stamer and Lothar Stamer and is located in the town of St. Wendel in the Saarland region of Germany.

From the very beginning, Hughes & Kettner set out to create innovative products that would push the boundaries of what was possible in guitar amplification. One of their earliest breakthroughs was the invention of the "Tube Safety Control" feature, which allows guitarists to switch between different output power levels without sacrificing tone or dynamics. This technology has since become a standard feature in many of the company's amplifiers.

Over the years, Hughes & Kettner has continued to innovate and develop new technologies for their amplifiers and effects pedals. One of their most recent breakthroughs is the "Spirit Tone Generator," which is a digital technology that is designed to replicate the sound and feel of real tube amplifiers. This technology is used in the company's Spirit Series of amplifiers, which are highly regarded for their versatility and tonal range.

In addition to their amplifiers and effects pedals, Hughes & Kettner also produces a range of guitar accessories, including footswitches, speaker cabinets, and even a line of guitar strings. The company's accessories are designed to complement their amplifiers and pedals, and they are built to the same high standards of quality and performance.

One of the things that sets Hughes & Kettner apart from other amplifier manufacturers is their commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility. The company has implemented a number of eco-friendly practices in their production facilities, including the use of solar power, rainwater harvesting, and waste reduction initiatives.

Another key aspect of the company's philosophy is their focus on customer satisfaction. Hughes & Kettner takes great pride in the quality of their products and the level of support they provide to their customers. The company offers a 5-year warranty on all of their products, and they have a dedicated customer support team that is available to help customers with any questions or issues they may have.

In summary, Hughes & Kettner is a highly respected German manufacturer of guitar amplifiers, effects pedals, and accessories. The company's focus on innovation, sustainability, and customer satisfaction has helped them to establish a reputation for producing some of the finest guitar amplifiers and effects pedals in the world. Whether you're a beginner guitarist or a seasoned professional, a Hughes & Kettner amplifier or pedal is sure to provide you with the tone, versatility, and reliability you need to take your playing to the next level.