SPL Phonitor Roll Call & Appreciation Thread - Page 37

yeah man. I really feel they make a difference. I also got rca caps for my Mdac. All in All ... it is a continuation of the blackening 

and deepening of the presentation..which I started thinking about more since I found that unplugged, my macbook puts out a cleaner

digitial signal. 

 

cheap upgrade .. and worth it. I also got a lend of a merlin black widow..a 85 sterling mains cable. I noticed more bass and punch

from that. kinda makes sense..powering a 600 quid amp with a 2 quid cable is the standard standard to work up from though lol. 

"audioquest xlr noise stopper caps"

 

I have to admit, these look like a hardcore gimmick. 30 bucks for some caps that go over your unused connections? And they are supposed to deepen my soundstage? They aren't in use how can they be picking anything up let alone have you hear it. The DAC/Amp what ever you're using isn't set to that output/input, which means there is no signal path there. 

 

Don't mean to sound harsh or anything, I mean stranger things could happen. But I don't think those are for me. 

 

I have never noticed any difference using different power cables of any kind either. Unless one was faulty or something. I must be on the other side of the fence :).

 

I have been in heaven listening to my music all afternoon, just got my MDAC finally and I love it. Everything is right with the world.

try listening to music for a day with your laptop plugged in ... then try another time unplugged. I personally found there is less noise and 

you can hear more detail..esp if songs have quieter levels e.g. mixed in field recordings. My local headfi shop told me this plug issue is due to ground loops. 

 

btw what bitrate are you using? my experience is lower the bit rate, esp with more transparent the audio software (im using audirvana) the more noise (aka veiled sound) can come across. 

Edited by daniel_hokkaido - 12/4/12 at 9:42am

Hello BoyZ & Gurlz,

My Auditor & M1 DAC by Musical Fidelity are in place and I´m currently listening to ´Alice in chains - Frogs´ unplugged.

The HD 800 sings and all is good.

Since you asked to fire away any questions .... M1 DAC is connected with optical cable to my laptop (Acer 8940G)

If I try to change the windows 7 ultimate digital audio HD driver to 2 channel 24bit 192hz the sound is corrupted and beeps

trough the headphone (24bit - 96Hz is ok)

edit :

stupid me ... "The M1 DAC will handle 24-bit/192kHz material through its coaxial and AES/EBU inputs, and is limited to 24-bit/96kHz through everything else – a fairly typical state of affairs at the moment."

I´m using mediamonkey (and dfx) with the standard output driver (there is also a WASAPI output driver available / can't install under win7)

The audio performance is very bright perhaps al little to bright ... airy ... I miss some warmness

I also installed winamp5 with the maiko plugin and tried to let mediamonkey use winamp as dedicated player -crash-

The winamp is actually warmer and less intensive on my ears (due to the maiko output plugin?) can't get dfx to work but bass is prominent


Enjjoying the 'gravedigger song' from Dave Matthews Band live performance .... I'm 46 and normally don't sing-along but can't resist .... "gravedigger if you dig my grave ... make it shallow ... so I can hear the rain "

Then my wive closes the door !

Some issues I got from other forums :




Edited by teddytejero - 12/8/12 at 1:24am

SPL Auditor (Model 2911) in black with the S/N 11.2911.003xx signing in.

 

A superb piece of audio engineering.  Powers my HE-500's with authority and has become my go to amp.  

Great and deep low end with superb control and detail.  Intimate and clear vocals. Natural soundstage. Extended highs w/o fatigue. Very fast and never blurry.  Paint me extremely impressed.

 

Because this is considered a transparent amp, I'm wondering how much of the sound sig is coming from my DAC.

 

The Reference 5.2, Auditor and the HE-500's are the 3 amigo's.  Never thought I'd say this BUT, I've reached my audio nirvana and have stopped searching for audio gear upgrades.

 

 

 

edit:  I love the feet extensions.  Such a simple yet useful feature.  My feet are always extended.

edit 2: photo

Edited by rezolver - 12/11/12 at 6:04pm

haha love the setup pics. wonder what type of baby they'll have :P 

 

btw I asked about aftermarket cables before with SPL on this thread. I tried the 250 bucks audioquest NRG-2 cable this weekend on a loan, and I must say

it does change the sound alot on the SPL. Particularly the bass...which with the HD650s became quite farty on some tracks. The increased power seemed

to emphasize bass more in general..which I am certain would improve use of HD800s with this amp. I gave my ety er4s iems with adaptor a go with NRG2 and 

the same tracks..and it really made their normally rolled off bass just that bit more present and engaging. and made the over all sound stage more present 

and more engaging also. 

 

Def a good investment with SPL auditor for HD800 type phones with less bass. Since I only have 650s ... im sticking with my merlin back widow..which is 

circa 100 bucks...as it works well with the 650s. But if i get 800s then the NRG2 is a good option to have. 

 

just fyi guys :) 

Edited by daniel_hokkaido - 12/12/12 at 6:06am

Just joined the SPL Phonitor crowd. Serial # 93002** (got it off a head-fi member here). I'm done on the amp quest for dynamic cans. I'm not moving towards electrostatic headphones yet but this amp does the HD650 and HD700 justice now. There's control, effortlessness of music delivery, details but not to the point of being harsh (more like smoothed out details). This is, as some have put it, the end of the line on solid state amps for dynamic headphones. 

 

Still playing around with the crossfeed settings but from immediate listening to very familiar tracks, I'm done. All other amps of mine go on sale as a result of this brilliant piece of gear.

 

Now I've got to upgrade my DAC and I think I'm good for many years on the gear side. Always will itch for different headphones, however. :)

what dac did you have, what one you looking at? 

 

PS Audio Perfectwave DAC. It's a MK I so to get Asynchronous USB, I need to upgrade to MK II. Should be epic after that but it's so good right now that anything else is incremental. I hope I don't go down the path of cable upgrades. 

well good xlr cables are pretty worthwhile ;) 

Hey, does anyone here have any experience with the apex peak amp from TTVJ? I find the auditor does a good job with the HD800 but

am looking into getting a tube amp at some stage. 

I'm really on the fence about the phonitor.  On one hand I know its an awesome amp and has great reviews and on the other hand I hear that it doesn't pair well with some dacs.  I have the ps audio nuwave and was wondering if anyone had heard them together.  Thanks for any input.  Also, I haven't read through all the posts about the phonitor but has anyone ever mentioned that the black version looks like the the black-faced Sansui gear from the late 70's? I'm a huge Sansui fan and the aesthetics of the Phonitor match the Sansui gear very well.  In particular it looks like it would look good next to an AU-717.

 

I pair my Phonitor to the PS Audio Perfectwave DAC so hopefully some of the similar synergies exist to the Nuwave, which is trickle-down technology from the PWD. Should be ok since I hook up via XLR out on the PWD to the XLR in on the Phonitor. In fact, depending on how "hot" your DAC output is, the Phonitor can adjust for this with the gain reduction ("Dim") switch which reduces things by a straight 20db.