This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below

To stay with context, over the C5i's 60wpc there are 100wpc 3rd-generation ASX2 ICEpower™ modules with Wyred's fully balanced class A input stage. These ultra-compact 8x11x3cm WxDxH boards are permanently bridged. This nets even lower distortion figures than single-ended mode would. But still there's 170 watts into 4Ω with a whopping 125dB of signal to noise*3. B&O's latest power supply includes "a new zero-voltage/zero-current switching topology with a fully integrated adaptive supply pump cancellation. This results in a significantly improved power supply as well as virtual elimination of the power supply pumping phenomenon and the need for large secondary buffering capacitors."

__________________________________

*3 Relative to another high-value all-in-one box aka Peachtree Audio's $1,799 iNova, the mINT leads with its more robust power stage whilst the iNova gains that fabulous digital-direct iPod dock and the snazzier cosmetics. Either machine runs Sabre converters but the iNova gets the 8-channel chip. Which one better serves your needs should come down to favored source (hard to deny the iNova if that's an iPod), speakers (and how loud and how big a room where the mINT should go further) and aesthetics. Including Bel Canto's C5i, them's very happy times for the cost-conscious minimalist/maximum shopper. If this type of coin still has you choked, consider the €599 NAD Viso 1 over the equivalent B&W and B&O complete i-dock systems.

As I heard it, Peachtree Audio's top-flight Grand Integrated below wasn't originally slated to run on ICEpower. It took E.J.'s demonstration of his latest custom input/output solution (like their gear he uses Bascom King input buffers) to disarm team Peachy and greenlight B&O power.

As the former behind-the-scenes fabricator for PS Audio and others in the US and still current maker for Spread Spectrum Technologies and Emerald Physic loudspeakers, Wyred4Sound lacks any pedigreed ring to its name. But if true pedigree is experience, this funky name might just ring in the ears of less resourceful competitors.
A bevy of Spread Spectrum Ampzillas at CES 2012
The prototype's cover didn't yet have the final W slots.


This photo shows how the mINT is barely wider than the DVD-ROM slot drive in the Music Server.
   It definitely should ring in your wallet. Wyred's focus has always been value. It's why their new 1TB Music Server with one-click backup sells for $1.999 and not the gold bullion other brands demand. If that means minor concessions on cosmetic slick factor, many cost-conscious punters could probably care less. That included me. Having sprung for Vinnie Rossi's 256GB SSD-drive makeover of the iPod, I began to entertain second thoughts over the redundant A/D conversion my C5i imposed on the iMod's analog output. (Since this mod is limited to models prior to Apple's digital-direct chip, the 256GB iPod can't be used with the Cambridge iD100 and equivalent docks.) Having very favorably reviewed Wyred's STP-SE preamp and DAC2, I felt comfortable to place a personal mINT order sight unseen. Whilst my dislike of black hifi continues, for my desk top where HP's 2710 monitor combines black with silver, E.J.'s color scheme was actually very much on. That the first run was fully presold by the time I placed my order seemed less so but good for him.