Hi tfarny, I have had the chance to play one of the blackstar heads, it wasn't the mini stack, it was run through a 2x12 cab, no idea what kind of speakers were in it though. Fantastic clean channel, believe it or not it has one of best clean channels I think I've ever heard. Didn't spend a lot of time on the gain channel as my friend was running a damage control demonizer pedal in front of it for distortion, but there is plenty of gain on tap, maybe not enough for new metal but more than enough for a trip to the 80s. I've haven't got a clue if it's 100% true tube amp, it's got tubes in it but pretty much everything has these days so your guess is as good as mine. I will say that for the clean channel alone it's more than worth the money. I haven't picked one up yet, I don't really need one, but I intend to get one anyway.