SPL Phonitor X DAC/AMP - Official Thread

So true. And it is not discussed nearly enough!

Now we’re getting somewhere.

Though I was hoping for a “rods & cones”-based reply that correlates cellular structure & function of the retina with perceived “rightness” of the blue.

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Some of us just have specialized photopigments!

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Yeah, it’s not ideal. Not a deal breaker, as whatever gets selected works fine, but just annoying that the wheel isn’t super consistent. I took a quick video to show what happens. I scroll the volume down four times at moderate speed, and on the fourth swipe, the volume doesn’t change at all.

It’s not infrequent that it even goes a couple dB in the wrong direction. :upside_down_face:

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@Torq I loved reading the review, but I did want to let you know that your links trigger Google’s safety warnings, due to the misspelling of headphones.com. You spelled it singularly, headphone, instead of plurally. Maybe that was the old URL, I guess? Anyway, just wanted to bring that to your attention!

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Yes, the domain used to be headphone.com. I don’t have access to fiddle with it, so someone at headphones.com will have to update the URLs if they think it is worth it.

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@torq Ok, I thought so. It threw me initially, but then I edited the URL and it worked just fine. Maybe @taronlissimore or @andrew can take a look? If it’s not worth the trouble, then fine, no problem!

Is a one and a half year old phonitor x used worth investing in? Curious about it to be used as an amp only with matrix element x and zmf eikon. Thanks

I had an XE until recently (XE == X - line outputs), sold to a forum member because I had accumulated more headphone amps than I could justify. I used it with a variety of DACs: Schiit Yggdrasil, Sonnet Morpheus, Soekris dac1541, Holo Spring 2 KTE, several ZMF headphones (VeritĂ©, VeritĂ© closed, Auteur) and Dan Clark Audio (Ether C Flow, Æon 2). Always excellent control, dynamics, good staging, fairly neutral. I hesitated to sell it for a long while, but in the end the other amps (ecp DSHA-3F, Eddie Current Aficionado) won for their unique flavors.

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I read just about this entire thread so I knew that the Phonitor XE was going to sound better than my THX 789
 but I had no idea it was going to sound THIS MUCH better :scream:
 review coming soon comparing Schiit Heresy, THX 789, and Phonitor XE :sunglasses:

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All that equipment and not a single vacuum tube? :open_mouth:

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The guitarists bring the toobs :wink:

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Happy cake day @reallyoldcob !!

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Darkvoice is off screen to the left :wink:

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Happy Cake Day @reallyoldcob. Now that’s a stack. Wow.

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Does any user know if the XE manipulates the L/R signals in the analogue domain to create a front/center image ?
I had someone ask this question at a audio club meeting and he hasn’t received an answer from SPL.

Great setup! I look forward to your impressions as mine is Qutest->Phonitor x->HD800S. I will share my impressions as soon as my headphones are fully burned in.

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No need to wait, I did a full review of the Phonitor X several years ago.

And I posted a more concise summary as the 15th post in this thread.

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Hi! Where would I post if I needed to discuss cabling for my HD800S. It did not come with a XLR4 cable and I am having to use an ‘adapter’. A cannot help but think that a dedicated good cable would be better.

Wait! Please clarify what you are doing. It’s electrically fine to go from an amp with a 1/4" or 3.5mm jack to an XLR4 adapter to headphones with a balanced cable. It’s not okay to go from a balanced amp with an XLR4 jack to headphones with a 1/4" or 3.5 mm jack.

See this post from @ProfFalkin

And here’s a cable thread:

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