Like many of you I've gone through a LOT of amps over the years. Always looking for the perfect blend of sound, features, gigability, and weight. Fender, Mesa, Marshall, Peavey, Orange, PRS.....you name it. They all have their own character/voicing and excel at certain things. I've also tried some of the newer digital offerings from Headrush and Boss, but tbh while the sound was OK I felt the interface was too complex on both of those devices for use on a dark stage.
As a weekend warrior gigging in small to medium sized clubs I often find myself making last minute adjustments to suite the venue, and a complex interface is generally the last thing I want to deal with 10 minutes before sound check.
Enter the Black Spirit 200. All analog tone, with digital switching capabilities. If you are playing this live the H&K FSM footswitch is an absolute Godsend.
The sound: All of the channels are fantastic. I really love the crunch channel set to the edge of breakup with the sag turned up to about 50%. The lead channel is very Marshall like, and the ultra channel is reminiscent of my old Peavey XXX's Ultra channel. Think slightly scooped late 90's to early 2000's nu-metal.
The effects are all very good. My only complaint here is that there are no time division settings (dotted eights, etc) on the built in delay, which causes me to keep a Strymon Dig on my board for the one song in our set list that requires it.
I've not yet tried the iPad app, but it looks like a way to save the presets that I spent a lot of time tweaking, so I will be taking a look at that soon.
Edit: Been using the iPad app for a while now. It's great because I already use an iPad for set list and notes. It gives me another way to control the amp without crouching and squinting. Allows users to save (and even email) your saved settings and patches. Haven't experienced a single bug or crash yet.
Mind you I'm still in the honeymoon phase with this amp so please take all of my gushing with a grain of salt. That said, this amp looks like it will easily become my number 1. I'm using it with both an Orange 2x12 loaded with Eminence Swamp Thangs, and also with two PRS 1x12's stacked vertically. It sounds great with both. I've not yet played with the Redbox out straight into our PA (currently just mic'ing the cab with a shure sm-57). One of my goals is to see if I can plug direct into the PA and go cabinet-less (we use IEM's) for those times when I'm feeling especially lazy and don't wanna lug my cabs to a small venue. I will update this review after I've had some time to evaluate the Redbox out capabilities.
Edit: After using the Redbox at band rehearsals I can tell you it works pretty good with the clean, crunch, and lead channels. I typically stick with the British 4X12 setting. It does NOT however do a very good job with the Ultra channel. Additionally, while patch switching is immediate using a cabinet, there is about a half second delay using the Redbox, which makes it completely useless for switching patches mid song during a live setting. As such I'll be sticking to micing my cabs for live use.
Overall a fantastic amp. It's light, small, and looks great on a dark stage. Better yet, it sounds fantastic. Has a ton of features like bluetooth connectivity to connect your phone/mp3 player to the aux in, Redbox, silent recording, and a nice iPad app.
My only concern with this amp is durability. Because there are a LOT of features, there's a lot to go wrong. I've owned a few pieces of H&K gear in the past, and it has all being solidly engineered and built. Hopefully this will be too.
If you are on the fence, do not hesitate to buy. Make sure you have enough green for both the amp and the FSM controller, or buy the floor version with the controller built in.