It's been an interesting weekend! Comparisons tomorrow

Right then, massive thanks to Chris for lending me his lovely Amptastic mini-1. I currently have a Roksan Kandy L3, bought second hand 1 year ago, so bear in mind this is a review of nearly 10 year old 2nd hand amp against a slightly used newer one.

It's important to note that the mini-1 was running from its OE power supply. Everything I've read points to a significant upgrade by using a linear one.

Kandy L3's are still pretty highly rated I believe and its certainly built to last, one comparison where its knocks socks off the mini-1. It's built like a tank and certainly has more rack presence - could be a good or bad thing depending on viewpoint.

The mini-1 is certainly not poorly built, nice brushed fascia and smooth volume control. The speaker terminals look to be of high quality as well.

User friendliness - major downside to the mini-1 for me, no remote control. I like to flick between albums/genres and forever getting up and twiddling the volume to the same level for each album got a bit tiresome - maybe I'm just lazy!

Sound - First thing to say is how amazed I was when I hooked up the amp for the first time. How can something so small and light sound so good?! Plenty of detail, plenty of good tight bass and if needed it would go much louder than my other half or neighbours could bear! So if you have an average sized lounge or listening room it will go plenty loud enough for you.

Comparisons to Kandy - It actually has more bass at low volume than the Roksan. Not what I was expecting at all but it certainly does. But the Roksan just has more 'quality' to the sound. Everything is just that touch more precise and yet smooth at the same time. And it just gets better the louder it goes. Listening to 96/24 Elvis live at Maddison Square Garden and the mini-1 does a great job, giving a real impression of musicians dotted a across a stage, but the Roksan melds this detail into a more cohesive whole somehow. Difficult to describe but it's a sound I prefer.

So in conclusion, Kandy wins! Not night and day, and judging by the difference in price (I think the Kandy was around £600 new) the mini-1 can only be describe as a bargain. I paid £230 on the 2nd hand market for mine and I would still say the mini-1 is better value.

I've seriously considered buying 2, with a dedicated 2 output power supply, as I believe the sound would jump several notches, but I'm afraid I value the build and convience of a good integrated to highly.
So the Kandy is staying for now. I'm on the lookout for a Unison Research Unico to head in a different direction, but I'm certainly glad and thankful to Chris to allow this little experiement!

James

I'm not surprised the Kandy won, but very useful comparison so thanks for that.

Well written review . Is this the original Amptastic Chris . If so the Mini-1 is quite a bit better than the original . If you feed it with a decent PSU , turn the Mini-1 into a power amp , and put a Beresford Capella in front of it as a preamp , the Amptastic jumps a couple of notches in terms of SQ . Also the upgrade combinations for this type of set up are numerous and excellent VFM in terms of improvements in SQ . I'm hoping to explore many of the upgrade options in the coming year

Well, with the 300B valve amp awaiting return, I continue to use my pair of Mini-1's coupled to the Beresford upgraded Caiman II and Capella as a pre amp. I really love this combo and am gobsmacked at the sound quality considering the cost.......IMHO, every students dream sound system.

Recently it has been further improved with a specifically built Nick Gorham (Long Dog Audio) Linear PSU to feed both Beresford units and the sound has taken another jump forward. Personally, I much prefer this option over the standard Beresford SMPS supply and also battery options. The LDA PSU brings so much more authority and fullness to the sound.

I have a kit of parts to build a PSU for the Mini-1's, but I need to find time to get this worked on, including the need to order in several more parts. The Mini-1's don't require a linear supply, but the more smoothing with caps etc after the rectifier is the objective. I have a PCB originally sourced through PFM, a case, most of the caps, but need to buy in transformer, diodes, connectors and resistors. I'll get there in the end.

Not withstanding, just loving economical sound I have at present.

Respect to James for his review and comparison. As Brian said, the Mini-1 is a significant improvement over the Mini-T. Thereafter, channel bi-amping brings further steps forward to sound performance. Much more punch, authority and detail to the sound. At a cost of £100 per amp unit, seems a no brainer to me.

For me this has been a massive change of direction equipment wise albeit I have not yet concluded if I want to stay this way in my main system. Until I get my 300B back, I will need to wait and see to make the comparison. Gut feeling is the 300B will win, but until I can compare I will remain open minded on this. Of course, the Mrs would love me to prefer the Amptasic option. I could get all the hi-Fi units into the TV support and remove the ugly Target rack, which also appeals to me.

Everything is 'under construction'. Updates will follow.