Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200

Solid-state never sounded so good: meet H&K’s latest ultra-versatile head

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While smaller amp manufacturers can afford to specialise in digital, analogue solid-state or valve, the big-volume guys need a stake in all three to be truly successful; now Hughes & Kettner has distilled its considerable all-round experience into a new amp that might replace all of the above. The Black Spirit 200 is a compact, digitally-controlled analog amplifier, producing its sounds from something H&K call the Black Spirit Bionic Tone Generator, and delivering them via a whopping 200-watt power stage that can be tamed to 20 watts or even 2 watts for offstage use.