SPL - Sound Performance Lab Phonitor x Headphone Amplifier & Preamplifier + DAC768xs

SPL Phonitor x

The headphone amplifier with preamp.

The Phonitor x is both an exceptionally good headphone amplifier and an excellent preamplifier that can be used to drive power amplifiers or active loudspeakers directly. With the optional DA converter, it not only plays analog sources, but also directly from digital sources. The Phonitor matrix enables loudspeaker-like listening via headphones.

Thanks to VOLTAiR technology, it offers all of this with the highest sound quality.

Great sound - For all headphones

The Phonitor x offers connections for standard headphones with a jack plug and for balanced headphones with a 4-pin XLR plug.

Thanks to the high output power, it drives all headphones effortlessly and effortlessly, so it exploits the advantages of the SPL VOLTAiR technology and rewards the listener with an honest, detailed and at the same time lively sound experience.

headphones or speakers

The OUTPUT switch - simply switch from headphone to speaker playback.

In the middle position (mute) no signal reaches the outputs. The VU meters glow red.

To the final stages

or to the active loudspeakers, it goes both symmetrically via XLR sockets - for long cable runs, and asymmetrically via cinch sockets. The source signal is always present at both loudspeaker outputs.

The standby mode of devices with a 12V trigger input can be switched on and off via AMP CTL. For example, the power amplifiers SPL Performer s800, Performer m1000 or Performer s1200 can be ideally integrated into the set-up.

From the full

The massive 45mm volume knob milled from aluminum is a haptic highlight. Its mass, combined with the Alps RK27 "Big Blue" motorized potentiometer, creates a wonderful "spoon in the honey" feel.

The red marking LED ensures good visibility of the volume parameter even in darkened environments.

remote control

The volume control can be remotely controlled with any infrared remote control.

The Phonitor x learns how to communicate with it by simply pressing a button.

Free choice

Up to five stereo sources can be connected to the Phonitor x:
XLR, RCA and via the optional DAC768xs also USB, COAX and OPTICAL.

The Phonitor x accepts a variety of different audio connections.
Balanced via XLR or unbalanced via cinch sockets.

The optional DAC768xs adds three more digital sources.
PCM audio is received in S/P-DIF format both coaxially (Cinch) and optically (Toslink F06).
Both PCM audio and DSD audio can be converted via USB.

The DAC automatically adopts the sample rate and resolution of the digital playback source. No matter whether a streamer, computer or CD player is connected. No further settings are necessary on the Phonitor x.

Optional: The DAC768xs

The highly acclaimed AKM AK4490 Velvet Sound TM premium DAC chip is used as the converter chip in the optional digital/analog converter. Thanks to its architecture, it reproduces the finest sound details.

It converts PCM audio with a resolution of 32 bit and a sampling rate of up to 768 kHz, which is 16 times the resolution of CD. Direct Stream Digital is also supported up to a resolution of DSD4 or DSD256.

In contrast to the DAC768, which is built into the Director Mk2, for example, or is available as an option for the Phonitor xe, the DAC768xs does not offer an AES/EBU digital input. The DAC768xs also does without the SPL DLP120 with VOLTAiR technology. Nevertheless, it offers a great performance that is unparalleled in this class.

Good old times

Two mechanical VU meters visualize the input levels for the left and right audio channel.

find the middle

it's not always easy. By nature, hearing can be more to the left or more to the right. This becomes particularly clear when listening with headphones.

That's why the Phonitor x has the uniquely finely resolved laterality control. This brings the stereo image back into balance.

Use the MODE switch to choose between stereo or mono playback.
This switch also activates the laterality control.

The Revolution: Phonitor Matrix

The Phonitor matrix is the revolution in headphone amplifiers.

Thanks to the Phonitor matrix, music can also be experienced through headphones as if it were being played through speakers. The tiring super stereo effect is a thing of the past.

Enjoy your music without listening fatigue and just the way it was meant to be heard.

Music is typically produced and mixed for playback through stereo speakers.

Listening through headphones is different from listening through speakers. The biggest difference is the lack of sound signal crosstalk from the left speaker to the right ear and from the right speaker to the left ear. This crosstalk is absent from traditional headphone listening because no sound travels from one side of the headphone to the other. This results in an unnaturally wide stereo stage and the various sound sources in the audio signal are not localized as the sound engineer intended. This effect is often referred to as the "super stereo effect". Normal listening through headphones allows our brains to compensate for the misrepresentation of music playback to a certain extent - but this is very taxing.

The SPL Phonitor matrix can correct this false stereo image with analog circuitry. The Phonitor matrix not only ensures a correct representation of the stereo stage, but also relaxed listening pleasure.

The two main parameters of the Phonitor matrix are Crossfeed and Angle :

Crossfeed determines the crosstalk of the channels, the so-called interaural level difference.
Angle determines the opening angle of the stereo stage, the so-called interaural runtime difference.

In the center of attention

In order to perfect the listening experience, the level of the sound sources, which are arranged in the middle of the stereo image, must be lowered when the Phonitor Matrix is activated. The result is that not only the position of all sound sources is displayed correctly, but also their volume.

The Professional Fidelity units have this value fixed at -1dB of cut, which is the best choice for an authentic representation of the soundstage.

The VOLTAiR technology

VOLTAiR is made up of the terms Volt and Air .
Volt is the unit of electrical voltage and Air is the English word for air.

VOLTAiR symbolizes the seemingly limitless dynamics resulting from the high audio tension.

120V technology is SPL's reference technology. It is unique in the world of audio because it works with a DC voltage of 120 volts. This corresponds to four times the operating voltage of IC-based semiconductor operational amplifiers. In our Professional Fidelity series, they refer to this unsurpassed technology as VOLTAiR technology.

The highest possible audio quality requires the highest possible audio operating voltage.

120V technology operates at +/- 60V. In order to be able to handle such a high voltage, SPL has developed special proprietary operational amplifiers that can operate at +/- 60V DC - the SPL 120V SUPRA operational amplifiers. This high voltage would destroy conventional components and operational amplifiers.

120V technology achieves exceptional technical specifications and sonic benefits. From a technical point of view, in terms of dynamic range, signal-to-noise ratio and overload resistance. In terms of sound, in terms of richness of detail and an absolutely relaxed listening pleasure.

Incidentally, the "120V" in the name of the technology has nothing to do with the local mains voltage from the socket. This is about the operating voltage in the device with which the audio signals are processed.

The mains voltage from the socket is transformed to the required secondary voltage in the device's internal linear power supply with toroidal transformer. Rectifiers convert this AC voltage into the DC voltages required in the audio device.