Both headphone amplifiers of our Series One – Phonitor One and Phonitor One d – are the ideal introduction into the Phonitor world. That’s also what Peter Kaminski thinks. Why? You can find the complete review online at proaudio.de. We have compiled a few excerpts for you.
“High-quality headphone amplifiers are a domain of SPL. The SPL Phonitor 2, which we have already introduced and which we use as a reference headphone amplifier in our editorial department, is certainly one of the best in its class. But not every studio has the necessary budget to purchase it. SPL wants to close this gap with the Phonitor One and Phonitor One d.”
Power:
“The internal operating voltage for the input circuit is +/- 17 volts and for the output circuit +/- 19 volts, despite the 12-volt plug-in power supply. The input uses Burr-Brown OPA 2134 dual operational amplifiers, which not only guarantee low noise but also offer a very high increase rate of 20 volts/microsecond and are therefore the basis for good transient reproduction.”
Crossfeed:
“Especially worth mentioning is that a crossfeed – which can blend the two channels to reduce the channel separation – can also be adjusted in order to create a speaker-like listening.”
Differences:
“The difference between Phonitor One and Phonitor One d is the additional USB connection. Therefore a triple input selector switch is used to select Line 1, 2 or USB. Phonitor One d contains a 32-bit D/A converter type AK4490, a very high quality converter chip. So the Phonitor One d is also able to play back audio data with a sampling rate of up to 768 kHz and also DSD streams with sampling rates of up to 11.2 MHz (DSD4 or DSD256), which makes the Phonitor One d very interesting even for demanding consumer users. The Phonitor One d also features two (L/R) balanced line outputs (6.3 mm jacks) and can thus also be used as a pure D/A converter.”
Conclusion:
“If you take a look at the price, you have to give the Phonitor One and Phonitor One d very good testimonies, because not only the sound quality is really excellent for this price, but also the build quality is on an excellent level, from the solid metal housing to the jacks and valuable pots to the switches. Also the playback of the USB stream is, thanks to the AK4490 converter chip, of high quality. I bet that also a lot of demanding hifi enthusiasts or music listeners will be won over as customers with this devices.”
