“Due to its low noise and neutral amplification, the Phonitor One delivers a wonderfully equilibrated sonic experience with highly detailed resolution, dynamics and an intimacy rarely found in common devices. Beyond the crossfeed function, the Phonitor One behaves as one would expect from an amplifier: tonally neutral, without coloration, and quick to respond.”
KOPFHOERER.DE is a team of “music maniacs, audio freaks, musicians, journalists and technicians.” On the online platform you will find everything about headphones. That is whay our new Series One headphone amplifier – SPL Phonitor One – can’t be missing. Find the complete review online at KOPFHOERER.DE – here we provide you with a short summary:
“The Phonitor One follows a straightforward concept and can be recommended wherever a high-quality headphone amplifier is needed. This can be the case in the living room at home or, in a pro audio environment, at the mixing console, at the editing suite, at the computer or at a second monitoring position, for example for the producer. The headphone amplifier can also be very useful for recording…”
“For signal amplification, SPL relies on two audiophile-grade Burr-Brown OPA 2134 SoundPlus operational amplifiers and other high-quality components. The result is actually very low noise and an equally convincing and powerful sound stage, which is brought to the output by a Class A/B amplifier stage with thermally coupled field-effect transistors.”
“Of course, special attention should be paid to a function called…”
Phonitor Matrix:
“A proprietary SPL development is the analog Phonitor Matrix, which pursues the goal of providing headphones with characteristics of a loudspeaker reproduction. The problem: almost every published recording is mixed using loudspeakers and optimized in terms of its level components, spatial positioning in the stereo panorama and depth definition. In fact, playback via loudspeakers is also more relevant to the listening experience in real life, where sound sources always reach both ears, with a certain delay difference as well as a complementary physiognomically conditioned filtering. These parameters are relevant for our perception of spatiality and distances. However, they are omitted in headphones due to their perfect channel separation. And thus it is hardly surprising that resulting auditory differences arise…”
“SPL’s Phonitor Matrix now addresses these downsides with a circuit that offers three parameters: filtered crosstalk between stereo channels, speaker placement angle, and level compensation of the center signal.”
Sound:
“The crossfeed circuit actually clearly influences the sound. It is continuously adjustable and is removed from the signal path in the minimum position. In fact, the results are amazing: the audio signal gains ‘size’ and ‘naturalness’ in the sense of improved three-dimensionality. The sound detaches itself from the pure localization in the head and appears more realistic in its spatiality. At the same time, this control offers the possibility to dose the ‘correction’ as needed, since the perfect stereo separation and the resulting over-wide panorama of a typical headphone reproduction are, after all, not per se negative characteristics.”
Conclusion:
“SPL’s Phonitor One masters the self-imposed task with excellent value for money. This applies to both the model presented here and the version with additional USB interface. As a special feature, the integrated Phonitor Matrix offers real added value in the evaluation of sound signals designed for loudspeaker output, ultimately providing improved certainty for sound compatibility.”
