Crafted in Germany, the SPL Phonitor One is a stylish headphone amplifier that offers an audiophile-grade monitoring experience to home listeners and audio professionals alike. Because of its two pristine Burr-Brown OPA2134 SoundPlus preamps, the unit is suitable for those who enjoy critical listening with extremely low noise and minimal distortion. The output stage is a push-pull Class AB amplifier with ample power to drive a wide range of popular headphone models, from consumer-grade, low-impedance headphones to audiophile high-impedance headphones.
Two audio sources—such as a DAC, CD player, mixer, or a tape machine—can be connected to the analog line inputs via the balanced 1/4" and unbalanced RCA connectors. An input selector lets you quickly switch between the two sources.
The Crossfeed knob engages the Phonitor Matrix, SPL's technology for emulating speaker positioning within a room, all in your headphones. With the Crossfeed knob, you can dial in subtle amounts of the opposing channel to emulate the acoustic signature of stereo speakers. Mixing engineers might find this feature particularly handy when mixing using headphones.
The Phonitor One comes with a 12V external power supply.
The output stage transistors are thermally coupled and thus run particularly coherently, which contributes to a consistent and stable sound image. The power supply has a buffer circuit with low source resistance, ensuring generous current reserves even when operating low-impedance headphones.
At the beginning of the control path, the function is not in the audio path. It is only switched on by adding it via relay (hysteresis circuit). The audio signal therefore does not pass through the crossfeed stage if this is not desired.