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D for dumb. Flaunt it if you've got it. 'tain't bragging if true. Such was the progression of my head space. Jumping in at the deep end to answer a personal question, the main-in feature bypassed everything but the balanced driver stage and ICEpower outputs. From there I ran the puny mINT as standalone power amp off my regular front end into my usual big acoustic-suspension 12-inch 3-ways. Given the cost of APL Hifi's NWO-M player alone—which was used as a 32-bit x 20-chips/channel converter into the ModWright LS-100 preamp fitted with Psvane CV-181T and a Mullard GZ34, an Audiophilleo 2 upgrading Alex Peychev's own hiFace-based USB input—the notion of dumb came natural. Who else would ever hear the mINT under such idealized circumstances?
Having just reviewed the equally ICEpower'd Eximus S1 already dispatched again to elude a direct A/B, I was simply curious. Class D guru Bruno Putzeys is adamant. Switching circuits involve as many permutations and design decisions as traditional ones. Different drivers for otherwise similar latest-gen ICEpower stages should thus be very audible. With my Eximus review as guide to retrace my steps against the vagaries of auditory memory, my questions were how audible - and audible how.


D for diabolical. The Korean $5.000/pr monos are based on the bigger 250ASX-2 boards in bridged mode to then output 500 watts into 4 ohms. Quite unexpectedly they had exhibited a clear preference for their own DP-1 DAC/headfi/preamp stable mate. It had led me to first eliminate the NWO-M as DAC, then the LS-100 as preamp. Where the Eximus-squared combo rocked, the prior associations had lacked spunk. They felt energetically distanced and microdynamically homogenized. Pleasant but rather too civilized. I wanted more grittiness and gumption. Eliminating tubes from the signal path moved me progressively closer to the microphones (as did bridging the amps). While the end result still wasn't as immediate, quick or lit-up as my favorite FirstWatt SIT-2 nor its treble as sophisticated and informed, it was closer.

When the mINT required no such elimination machinations to convey spit, crackle, rasp and croak for those microdynamic actions of vocal emphasis, hair-on-string or hands-on-skin layers, I naturally wondered. Had Bang & Olufsen's smaller boards a rise-time advantage? Was E.J.'s preceding driver more resolved? Impossible to say. What mattered was that Volkan Konak's so very particular voice and the accompanying semi-flageolet 'dirty' Middle Eastern violin had the requisite inflective energy and inside-out pressurization.

The jazzy ney riffs on Yildirim Leven'ts Neverland Fusion rode heated air currents filled with upper harmonics. Shri Subhankar Banerjee's fantastic tabla exploits with Ramon Lopez on Western drums/cajon and Gopa Deysarkar and Kundan Saha on percussion backup for densely layered beat tattoos had proper crackle and urgency. The three ouds of Le Trio Joubran's duelling brothers exhibited sharply honed blades on AsFar. Moving to Meitner's new $7.000 MA-1 to enter the mINT on one of its auxiliary inputs instead increased subjective detail density particularly on the multi-paralleled percussion tracks while tonal density stepped back a bit though less than expected.

The young French musicians whose Quintette Aquilon formation was named after a northerly Breton wind and who won the ARD Music Competition of 2006 showed very good timbre differentiation and color nuance with their Bohemian Wind Quintets [Zebralution, Crystal Classic]. Particularly on shifting unison passages and standing chords between flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn this isn't easy work for any affordable amp, much less one that for its price also packs a DAC and dedicated headphone stage. On my Aries Cerat Gladius speakers I clearly preferred the mINT's amplifier stage over the far costlier and more powerful Eximus twins. The reasons were better microdynamics, subjectively higher speed, superior immediacy/directness and greater depth layering.


D for different. My private takeaway from this excursion into the dumb and diabolical was simple confirmation. Not all ICEpower amps sound the same. Their non-sameness can be rather more than assumed. I also began to think that the mINT mounted the Peachtree Audio iNova horse backward. For that and the earlier iDecco I'd established a downward ranking front to back. The peachy converter was top, their preamp/headphone stage second-best, their amp section last. With the mINT the output stage was a very strong point and quite possibly the highlight of the package.

D for double. To pursue the subject of not all ICEpower is created equal, I next juxtaposed mINT and C5i. Both were preceded by a digitally tapped 160GB AIFF-loaded iPod Classic. Having worked my way through two Onkyo and Pure docks respectively, I've ended up with Cambridge Audio's iD100 as the best of the lot - one black for the desktop, one silver for the nightstand. For the mandatory dumb stunt reviewers are always expected to pull, the S/PDIF cable here was Chris Sommovigo's very finest, the Stereolab Tombo Trøn priced like the mINT. Clearly it wouldn't be the weak link of this chain. And yes, the iD100 even sports an AES/EBU 110-ohm socket. But not only don't I own such a cable, neither of these affordable amps with DAC inputs sports the necessary socket. Coax it was.

 
On very mellow instrumental numbers, the difference here wasn't big. The C5i was a bit softer around the edges, its focus less acute and its stage set back farther. However once well-recorded vocals entered in a better mapped acoustic—Enrique Heredia Negri on El último beso for example—the mINT pulled ahead noticeably. It better lit up recorded space. It sounded patently bigger and deeper. Separation and sculpting (keeping intersecting lines discrete and extricating performers in deep relief against their surroundings) was higher. Finally the energy encoded as fine dynamic fluctuations and brisk transients was stronger. Angélique Kidjo got my foot tapping harder. In Brit speak, the mINT was PRaTtier. In SET speak, it had higher immediacy or more presence.


If anything these differences compounded on the desktop. Here closer proximity meant lower output voltages. John Stronczer claims utter inaudibility for his digital attenuator. I'm not sure. When I compared the Emerald Physics speakers with sensitivity between drivers matched digitally (Behringer) or analog (in-line attenuator), the difference hadn't been subtle. And it had operated in the same domain. Digital attenuation had undermined vitality very similar to how frozen fruit tastes different from fresh. Whatever the reason, this owner with two horses in the race heard Wyred4Sound as the clear winner. This translated equally to the headphone outputs. The mINT's had more drive, grip and color to fit somewhere between the Bel Canto and a completely dedicated machine like Burson's HA-160D.

 
D for digital. For a quickie assessment on mINT converterage, I drafted Schiit's $395 Bifrost. This necessitated an analog interconnect. As such the signal path became more complex and indirect. Cigala provided tunes with Tango.

While not identical, I thought this a draw. The mINT produced the more powerful bass, the Bifrost had the stronger vocal lock on this live recording which was a tad reminiscent of how SETs extricate soloists from their accompanists as though endowed with artificial intelligence.
Something similar happened with Maxine Sullivan. The Schiit created greater 'vocal sex', the Wyred was wirier in the bass and as such blacker or more grounded. According to Wyred, their new $399 µDAC is exactly what's inside the mINT. The showing against the Bifrost thus felt spot on. Think of the mINT as fitted with a highly competitive $400 converter that even does the currently fashionable asynchronous USB at 24/96 to require no drivers. Because you save the costs of an extra power cord and interconnect, if you went with an outboard DAC the latter's total expenditure would probably come in closer to $500 or more.


D for done. A properly price-matched minty system might end in Anthony Gallo's Classico II monitors coupled to the matching CLS-10 600-watt subwoofer. At $2.500 for the sub/sat combo, you'd have $1.000 left for stands and cabling if you meant to hit 5 grand for the complete system sans source. With Sommovigo's Morpheus cables, one could easily manage. Call it $6.000 instead and you'll include the two source components and very decent stands. By matching the class D theme across monitors and sub, you're assured textural continuity. Gallo's sharp focus on impulse fidelity nicely matches the dynamic behavior of the Wyred integrated. Power headroom in a space like mine means the volume control will sit below 1:00 when it gets real loud. Soundstaging will be superlative and depth layering very impressive.


As a punter acting on instinct and prior satisfaction, my encounter with the mINT not only met but exceeded expectations. The meeting occurred on converter and 6.3mm output quality. The exceeding occurred on the power modules. About the latter, size and price will raise eyebrows accompanied by nyet. It seems so very unlikely. Yet having done the main-in isolation of the output stage, I'm confident. If Wyred launched the latter as a stereo amp in the same chassis with perhaps some added tweaks to exploit spare room, they'd make some competitors very unhappy. Of course size and price will continue to spell disbelief. That's how snobbery protects the high end.


D for dineros. What the mINT doesn't do versus far pricier spread—treble tintinnabulation, ultimate bass textures, extreme resolution, final tone-color nuance and top-lens focus to imply minor homogenization—pales against what it does. Unlike early class D which struck me as relentless, thin and hyper-realist in its rendering of detail and space, this latest generation actually errs on the side of civility and warmth. Here E.J. Sarmento adds back some transient spice for that low-level jump factor inside a melodic arc or bass pattern that's not a function of loudness but speed. Excellent functionality does it all now. For later there are upgrade paths when budgets and needs rise (then you're more likely to go external DAC than outgrow the power amp). The ultra-compact footprint invites 'cool' reactions to win over the fairer sex. Clearly the mINT offers an awful lot for not very much. It gets there with far fewer compromises than seem realistic. And that's my whole fascination with realsization: downscale complexity and expense, acquire a good serving of the high end. Be a snob and spend a mint. Or be smart and stop at a mINT. Cute? Sure is. But still true.
Postscript: Mindful of the brand's by now quite enviable award count with our publication, our upcoming assessment of their music server will have two reviewers get critical to create double trouble on expectations and ear bias. Glen Wagenknecht in Canada and Joël Chevassus in France will report on their findings of two separate units in parallel. Stay tuned.
Wyred4Sound website