SPl phonitor one

[Deleted member 22273]

considering to try this one

 

[andresnol]

i use marc one and i like it. i don't have golden ears though. crossfeed at 11 is nice. i like the form factor a lot - big volume knob, plus speaker switches. as a headphone amplifier i don't understand it though. a lot of the newest headphones have low impedance. why does it have 20ohm output? my headhones are focal clears (55ohm) and they probably have a small 50hz bump with this amplifier due to it. to be honest, i cannot hear it though. compared to my hd600 with the same preamp, clears have more bass, sure, but they have it anyways, so im not sure.

the included power cable and usb cable are less than 1m length.

 

[Deleted member 22273]

I consider the model without dac.
Hope amir will measured one

 

[Mr. Speakers]

I too was curious about the SPL Phonitor series as it progressed. I ended up getting a used Phonitor Mini that still has plenty of adjustments for cross-feed, but considerably cheaper than the bigger SPL brothers. It suits my needs fine and I'll probably keep it for life; too bad SPL stopped making that one.

 

[andymok]

Just my 2c

Budget - Drop 789
Better - Benchmark
Function - Little Labs Monotor
Digital solution - Grace 900 / Merging Anubis

 

[watchnerd]

SPL gear looks cool and I've liked the build quality of all the ones I've used in person.

 

[paolomo]

I am late here, but I can share my experience. I own the Phonitor One and the Marc One, they have the same headphone amplifier and it's a good one, at least to my ears. SPL here is targeting the market of traditional pro toolchains, where high impedance dynamic headphones are a bit of a standard. These are their entry-level products. You get 2x190 mW at 600 Ohm, that's excellent performance imho. My DT 880 (600 Ohm) shine, but I understand Beyerdynamics are not everybody's cup of tea here. Add balanced and unbalanced input, nice potentiometers, the optional DAC (the Marc One has it), the "made in Germany" bit: a nice package overall.

For low impedence headphones, the story is a bit different. SPL declares 20 Ohm output impedance (!) but with a buffer circuit that should accommodate low-impedance headphones. In practice, for fun I have driven my Shure SE 215 (16.22 Ohm) and Audio Technica ATH-M50x (38 Ohm) to very loud levels without hearing distorsion. So I would say that the thing just works. That, or my hearing has been permanently damaged by the Beyers

Of course, if you are planning on driving planars that need at least 1W at low impedances, that's just out of spec and SPL is kindly telling you to get the much more expensive Phonitor se, Phonitor X, etc. I will try it though, in case anyone is interested in the future.

By the way, first post, hi everybody!

 

[avoidwork]

I got a One D about 2 weeks ago, and I really like it. I love how my fostex th-909 & audeze lcd-xc sound on it. there's no gain switch, and the +20db input gain forces me to do a corresponding -20db upstream from it, otherise the first dot on the volume dial is where it'd sit. spl really did an impressive job with the akm 4490 chip; string instruments sound really good.

 

[AkerSvI]

Beginner question about high impedance headphones:
I have 2 headphones, audio technica ath-m20x and beyerdynamic dt1770 pro 250ohm.
I'm using them with spl phonitor one.
spl is connected to audio interface line out.
dt1770 sounds squashed / compressed (not good overall)
audio technica ath-m20x sounds much better.
and eq is very different between them.
(dt1770 is much more expensive ofc)

what could be the reason for dt1770 to sound bad?

 

[paolomo]

Beginner question about high impedance headphones:
I have 2 headphones, audio technica ath-m20x and beyerdynamic dt1770 pro 250ohm.
I'm using them with spl phonitor one.
spl is connected to audio interface line out.
dt1770 sounds squashed / compressed (not good overall)
audio technica ath-m20x sounds much better.
and eq is very different between them.
(dt1770 is much more expensive ofc)

what could be the reason for dt1770 to sound bad?

I’m not sure it’s an impedance problem. I don’t own those exact headphones, but I have some ATH and Beyer of comparable impedances. Since the source impedance of the Phonitor One is 20 Ohm, if anything the Beyers should sound “better”, that is more as they are supposed to. Could it be that you just like the ATH better? In order to make the most neutral possible comparison, make sure the crossfeed knob is in the off position.

 

[Bob-23]

what could be the reason for dt1770 to sound bad?

As the impedance curves of both of your phones are nearly flat, Phonitor's 20 Ohms output impedance have no audible impact on the sound of your phones.

It's probably simply a question of personal preference, as paolomo suggests.

EDIT: 'Open sound' you more often find in open phones instead of closed ones. Great open soundstages - at now ridiculously low prices - you find e.g. in the K702 or in the X2HR, the latter one slightly less soundstage width than the former one, but in my perception a bit more depth and clearly more 'body' and 'punch' (I don't apply digital eq to them anymore, as this kills the soundstage - X2HR can be listened to without eq, or by only very slightly reducing treble by applying the shelving filter of a standard Baxandall tone control.)

Sources:
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/audio-technica-m20x.php
https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/beyerdynamic-dt-1770-pro.php

 

[3125b]

what could be the reason for dt1770 to sound bad?

The reason is the 1770 itself. The FR is all over the place (though better than some other new Beyers ...): https://www.dropbox.com/s/hoo5ox7if5fwj5q/Beyerdynamic DT1770 (Leatherette Earpads).pdf?dl=0