In the online magazine HIFI.DE you can find a review of our DA converter and preamplifier SPL Director Mk2. The complete review (in German) is available online at HIFI.DE. We have summarized and translated some of the highlights for you here on our blog.
“Without the studio devices from SPL, many recordings would not sound the way we know them today. The German equip world-class studios with pro audio devices such as the Vitalizer, compressors and equalizers, but also have perfectly natural preamps and microphone amplifiers in their range. A few years ago, SPL launched the Professional Fidelity series: Audiophile hi-fi components that look out of place neither in the living room nor in the mastering studio. The Director Mk2 is the flagship of the series: packed with functionality and clever ideas, technically highly interesting and practically impossible to copy. And above all, its sound is as clear as water. We tested the SPL Director MK2 as part of a complete SPL chain in our listening room – and we are absolutely thrilled.”
“Depending on your point of view, the SPL Director Mk2 is a preamplifier with integrated D/A converter or a D/A converter with volume control and additional analog inputs. However, the number of inputs alone suggests that it is a fully-fledged preamplifier: Four unbalanced and two balanced sources are connected at the rear of the preamp.”
“In addition to the analog inputs, the SPL Director Mk2 also provides digital inputs in all important standards: optical TOSlink, coaxial RCA, balanced AES-EBU and USB 2.0 via the USB-B socket. All interfaces are fully utilized and accept whatever the respective standard allows: 192 kHz/24 bit for AES/EBU, coax and Toslink, 768 kHz PCM or 8x DSD (aka DSD256, 11.2 MHz) via USB. All signals are converted by an impressive combination of chips: a SPARTAN6 FPGA serves as the digital filter, while the legendary 32-bit AK4490 from AKM performs the actual DAC function.”
“The manufacturing of the SPL Director Mk2 is outstanding, the use of expensive, sometimes hard-to-get components is opulent. Everything you touch or look at is solid, well thought out and made for long, continuous use. For example, the two illuminated VUs that display the input level.. And not just anyhow, but precisely calibrated, with a switchable display range and a response curve according to BBC specifications.”
Sound:
“Great dynamics, completely effortless. The SPL device doesn’t just open a small door to dynamics, it opens a whole gate. Of course, the SPL developers know that you can make music even bigger and more beautiful with psychoacoustic techniques. After all, they build devices that do just that at a professional level – such as their famous Vitalizers. For their hi-fi devices, however, they have imposed a strict purity requirement on themselves: we have never heard less unwanted ‘sound’ from a hi-fi preamplifier before. Nor more music.”
Conclusion:
“The SPL Director Mk2 lives up to its name by maintaining a completely relaxed overview with any source material, active speaker or power amplifier. With its various analog and digital inputs – and one of the finest D/A converters on the market – it can also be easily integrated into more complicated systems. The dynamic capabilities are impressive, but never seem forced: The director draws a huge frame around the music. Recordings and players just have to be able to fill it.”
“Once you’ve heard the SPL Director Mk2, you’ll never want to be without it again. Whether digital or analog – with its musically natural sound and enormous dynamic range, the DAC/preamplifier becomes the heart of every hifi system.”
