Thank you, brother! Sometimes it is easier than others, lol. I try to give as much as possible without putting people to sleep. At least that is my goal @PaisleyUnderground
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Here is my written review if you guys prefer to video! Thanks again to @jb77 for letting me review his amp!
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Any comparisons with Violectric v550?
Hi Phonitor owners, I have a couple questions about this amp if anyone has teh time to answer:
I assume based on what I read the Laterality feature is just a good old fashioned āBalanceā dial that adjusts left and right gain and is not related to any of the cool trickery of the Matrix feature.
If so, does that feature work as well with the pre-outs or is it only for headphone listening?
Thanks for the info!
Iāve tried this out and it does work on the pre-out as well as headphone. The effect is very subtle unlike a traditional balance control, i.e. itās a very fine adjustment. It is not related to the matrix function.
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Thank you for the info!
Hello guys,
Some questions:
Any experience of Grados Cans with Phonitor?
Is there a lot of difference between SE and XLR outputs?
I was imagining buying an SE because of my budget. Is it worth it?
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Hi, Phonitor folks!
So, Iāve been crazy curious about this amp since first hearing and reading about it, starting a year or so ago. Having moved up the Chord chain of DAC/amps, and listening through an easy-to-drive Focal Utopia, Iāve never really needed an external solid state amp.
Still, my curiosity got the better of me, so, having spotted a decent deal on Head-Fi for a used Phonitor XE, I bought it.
More than anything, I was really curious as to what differences (if any) I would perceive vs the direct headphone out on the DAVE. In theory, the Phonitor should be the same, if not slightly worse due to degradation in the signal path. Or maybe it would just present differently? Even if it could manage being exactly the same, I would consider that a win, as my one complaint about the Chord DAVE is that its volume knob simply sucks. It skips around when I try to turn it up or down, sometimes even jumping a few dB in the wrong direction. Not cool for that expensive a piece of gear. Importantly, Iām using only SE interconnects and headphone out. I donāt have a balanced cable, so cannot report on that.
After a couple of hours of critical listening and A/B-ing between the two, I do not find them to be the same. I cannot stress enough how slight these differences are, but I found them to be consistent across many tracks, spanning several genres of music. On the downside, Iām finding that the Phonitor XE is slightly less smooth (dare I say āgrainyā) versus the DAVE out. I feel that the DAVE output retains just a teeny tiny bit more microdetail, most noticeable on trailing edges of sonic elements like cymbal hits or piano notes; it just sounds a bit more analogue. A win for the Phonitor is staging. I find that instrument separation and stage depth are slightly improved. The background is dead black on the Phonitor - seemingly even darker than the DAVE. That should be impossible, but I wonder if some loss of ultra-micro-detail signal causes that perception. Either way, you wonāt be having any noise floor issues with the Phonitor.
These differences are so incredibly minor, that I wouldnāt be surprised if better interconnects might even bridge the gap. I have Kimber Kable Hero (Cu) interconnects (~$350 / pair), which are no slouch, but in a world where weāre noticing and chasing every last atomic air movement, this could be a factor. Also, the Phonitor deserves bonus points for usability and aesthetics; the volume wheel is great and the VU meters are SO DAMN COOL!!!
Anyway, just wanted to put that out there. Wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences. Looking forward to folksā thoughts and feedback!
ā Andris
P.S. After switching between the DAVE out and Phonitor XE for a while, I warmed up my demo DNA Stratus and have been happily listening to that while writing this review and not missing either solid state option for a second 
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I listen for electrons jumping orbitals! 
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Having been a chemistry major in college, this hits right home 
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Itās fun to whip out the science every now and again. I almost transferred into chemistry but stuck it out with the hardcore molecular biology stuff.
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Can you write up your impressions of the Stratus versus the SS amps? Smoothness? Grain? Microdetail? Background? Etc.
How and why is the Stratus superior?
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Because itās blue. Blue is better extended.
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Wrong blue. Itās a very particular part of the visual spectrum.
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When I did my original review of the Phonitor X, it was sufficiently transparent that I could not detect loss of transparency or resolution (i.e. sins of omission). By definition, there has to be some (all amplifiers add some level of noise and distortion, even if it is well below audible thresholds), but I couldnāt detect such listening the headphones I used at the time.
It wasnāt until I had the SR1a, and was using the Phonitor X as a pre-amp, that I became aware that there was some small loss of transparency there. It wasnāt a big difference, obviously, or Iād have heard it with some of the more resolving dynamic and planar cans (inc. Utopia), but it took a more resolving transducer to make it apparent (for me).
Its physical interface is not great, in general.
Mine has never done that.
Which doesnāt mean other units donāt, but it is not something Iāve encountered. Not that it would be terribly unusual for an stepped encoder to behave that way.
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Dave is 4x more expensive than Phonitor X
Price in audio is rarely indicative of anything more than how much youāll have to pay for something. Very poor correlation to performance.
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Phonitor Xe seems to have a good price/performance ratio. Iām ordering a unit. This thread is very informative.
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So, I just want to note that I was using the Phonitor XE as an amp only. The DAVE was the DAC in both cases. I donāt have a DAC unit in my Phonitor XE, and I have no opinion on the Phonitorās own DAC offering. Depending on your needs, budget, and preferences, you may or may not want to consider an external DAC.
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