8/27/2023 0 Comments Spl amp reviews![]() ![]() They served a real purpose back in the day, when phono cartridges put out tiny little voltages that needed to be “pre-amplified” before heading over to the big-boy amp. ![]() Preamps are, at least to me, somewhat boring and utilitarian. My editors always anticipate my griping about preamp reviewing. A few emails back and forth, and before I knew it, an Elector showed up on my doorstep. Marc was kind enough to put me in touch with the kind and helpful Wendy Knowles of the Focal Naim America Group, which handles North American distribution of SPL products. I like using my own DACs, and I’m a few shekels short of a bushel, so I figured the Elector would do me quite well, thank you very much. 2, which includes an on-board high-resolution DAC along with a few extra signal routing options. For a few more shekels, one could also consider the more sophisticated Director Mk. I chose the Elector, which is a traditional analog-only preamp. Ooohhh yeah!įor those potentially in the market for a preamp-like device from SPL, there are actually a couple of options. Panel, but the likeness was almost uncanny. That looked dangerously like the Phonitor (as I recall it). I went to their website, and lo and behold! There was a preamplifier I hadn’t checked in recently on what has been going on at SPL (my bad…), but I heard some rumblings a little while back from our own Marc Phillips about an audiophile line of componentsĬoming out of the company. Well, here we are, and I’m definitely in! When that happened, I told myself I’d be in. Maybe, just maybe, down the road they’d come out with an audiophile friendly preamplifier that sported much of what I found cool about the Phonitor. When I finally (reluctantly) packaged up the Phonitor and sent it home, I vowed to keep an eye on this little German company called SPL. I thought it made a difference, but maybe I was just wowed by the Phonitor’s overall Chad-like persona. This feature was supposed to improve overall dynamics and resolution by enhancing the power available to downstream modules in the device. Besides that, the amplifier was based on customized discrete amplification modules that ran on beefed-up power supply rails. The Phonitor also had a really cool feature set, including phasey sorts of controls that allowed the listener to make the between-the-ears image blossom out and seem more realistic. However, the Phonitor felt to me like something of a crossover product that might have appeal to both audio professionals and home audio enthusiasts alike. The company, based in Germany, catered almost exclusively to the pro audio side. If I could have justified the purchase though, that Phonitor would have been mine… bahahahaha! Words and photos by John Richardsonīack in those days, SPL (short for Sound Performance Labs) wasn’t exactly a household name in the audiophile community. The problem was that I wasn’t really a dedicated headphone guy, a fact that remains true to this day. Though I didn’t purchase it, I can say that I dearly loved the Phonitor. This is when it’s good to be a reviewer: I found out who distributed the item, I reached out, and lo and behold, I had it! The piece in question? The original version of the SPL Phonitor (cool badass name too…). When I saw a picture of it, I knew I had to get hold of one. What I do know is that the amp was quite badass. Or was it referenced in an off-hand comment somewhere, and I happened to follow up? I really don’t know. I don’t recall exactly how I found out about it maybe through an on-line audio forum, or perhaps in an advertisement. A number of years ago, long before I reviewed this SPL Elector, I stumbled upon a really neat headphone amplifier. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |