If you're looking for an austere audiophile headphone amp that sacrifices nothing in the way of sound, power, headroom, and look, and feel, the SPL Phonitor se with DAC is a suitable option. This headphone and DAC combination, styled here in a black finish, gives you the main features SPL pro-fi headphone amps are known for, such as naturalistic crossfeed, a high-grade audiophile DAC, and oodles of clean output power thanks to 120V VOLTAiR technology.
The 120V rails come straight from their mastering gear used in top-notch studios across the world and are a main factor behind the Phonitor se's ability to drive up to 5W of output power per channel into headphones, doing so cleanly, without distortion. The Phonitor se's Crossfeed switch allows you to recreate the effect of speakers in your headphones at will, eliminating the often stringent and extreme separation of conventional headphone listening. The DAC allows support up to 768 kHz for PCM audio, and DoP (DSD over PCM) up 20 DSD256.
Product Features:
- High Headroom Audiophile Amp
- RCA Inputs, 1/4" Headphone Output
- Included DAC768xs Chip for Digital
- Up to 768 kHz Support and DoP Over USB
- USB, S/PDIF, and Optical Connections
- Selectable Crossfeed Emulates Speakers
- Quality Components Used Throughout
- Powers Headphones up to 2x5W at 32 Ohms
Ergonomic Volume Knob
The volume is adjusted with a milled all-aluminium rotary knob sitting atop an Alps RK27 Big Blue potentiometer.
High-Quality Analog Inputs
The Phonitor se is equipped with gold-plated RCA sockets for the analog input. The headphone amp has optional digital functionality, available separately. Coax and Optical.
Digital Inputs for Analog Sound
In addition to an analog source, three other digital sources can be connected to the Phonitor se. You'll have the ability to input digital audio over USB, RCA Coaxial, and TOSLINK jacks.
Audiophile-Grade DAC
The highly acclaimed AKM AK4490 Velvet Sound premium DAC chip is used as the converter chip in the digital-to-analog converter. This chip converts PCM audio with a resolution of 32 bits, for a high degree of headroom. Digital PCM audio is supported up to 768 kHz, and DoP (DSD over PCM) up to DSD256.
Powerful Outputs
The Phonitor se offers a 1/4" jack for connecting headphones with jack plug. Up to 2 x 5 watts of output power is available at this socket. This allows even very power-hungry headphones such as magnetostats or electrostats to be driven effortlessly.
Crossfeed for a Speaker Experience
This headphone amp prominently offers SPL's signature Phonitor Matrix with a switchable crossfeed that allows you to listen to music through headphones as though it were being reproduced on speakers. You'll find a switch dictating the intensity of the Crossfeed effect.
For more information on this or any other SPL product, visit www.spl.info.