[abyrvalg]

Quote:

Sceptre, thanks for the intro to the Sonosax SX-DA2. Looks like the Sonosax folks are discontinuing it. A shame. It'll probably drive the price sky high. I found some photos on the web. The shots aren't the greatest, but they give us an idea of what the SX-DA2 looks like. How would you compare it to some of the more popular DACs in Head-Fi?

 
I believe Sceptre is about to publish his review of Sonosax, and I will follow with my own impressions and snapshots.

 

[Jian]

After A/B ing auditor and phonitor, really felt the SQ difference is quite big.I guess I'll be buying the phonitor. Problem is the local dealer only have the black ones, but I do love the old look.

 

[.Sup]

Thanks for adding me to the list! We've seen silver Phonitor, black Phonitor, silver Auditor but no black Auditor? Well here it is: 
 

 

[AppleheadMay]

Nice on Sup! 

 It looks better as well.

 

[feifan]

abyrvalg: Looking forward to your and Sceptre's review of the Sonosax DAC!

Jian: Keep us posted on your Phonitor order! It's great that you got to audition both the Phonitor and Auditor. The A/B difference that you're hearing between the two may be due to the speaker angle/position variations in the Phonitor rather than actual amp differences. Most who've compared the two say they are pretty much identical in terms of the internal build and sound.

.Sup: Thanks for the photo of the black Auditor. It does look awesome. The Ed 8s look mighty tempting paired with the SPL amps. I've never tried the 8s, but I'm guessing that they add a bass dimension that's missing with more neutral cans.

 

[Jian]

Hi feifan, when I did the A/B, I made sure that all effect were switched off on the phonitor. The difference was big, but the whole feeling you can tell straight was that these two amps are from a same origin. I don't know if it was because of my system setup, but god my ALO CM ED8 sounded soooo great on phonitor, and I'm putting the order this weekend. If I can't find the old looking ones, I'll go foe the blacks, can't wait any more.

 

[ical]

Quote:

 
Cal: I've decided to follow your advice and wait until I can afford a good quality STAX rig. In the meantime, I'm still enjoying dynamics. In my case, ignorance may be bliss. LOL!

The Phonitor is still an excellent amp. Take your time in your upgrade path and enjoy what you've now. 

 

[feifan]

Quote:

Hi feifan, when I did the A/B, I made sure that all effect were switched off on the phonitor. The difference was big, but the whole feeling you can tell straight was that these two amps are from a same origin. I don't know if it was because of my system setup, but god my ALO CM ED8 sounded soooo great on phonitor, and I'm putting the order this weekend. If I can't find the old looking ones, I'll go foe the blacks, can't wait any more.

Thanks for the clarification, Jian! I like the looks of the ED8. Any difference between the original color and the black -- besides cosmetic?

 
Quote:

The Phonitor is still an excellent amp. Take your time in your upgrade path and enjoy what you've now. 

It's a win-win proposition all-around when head-fiers get into the range of decent equipment. Still, so many long-time head-fiers are moving toward electrostatics that those who are sitting on the fencepost must be at least considering them.
 
The one thing that's holding me back -- besides a thin wallet -- from jumping right in is the apparent preference for tube versions of Stax amps. I prefer SS for a number of reasons so the possibility that Stax SS may be a bit inferior concerns me.
 

 

[oqvist]

91010114 Auditor checking in.
 
It certainly is huuge... At least 3x a Heed Canamp which also have internal power.
 
headphones see sig plus T1 and soon LCD-2.

 

[feifan]

oqvist, thanx for checking in. i've added your auditor to the op.
 
you make an interesting comment about size. i started off with all-in-ones like the hr desktop because my desktop space is cramped. but in my quest for better sq, i kept bumping up size to the point where my rig no longer fits on my desktop. i guess quality sound comes with a price -- size.
 
keep us posted on your journey with the auditor.

 

[oqvist]

Have you seen any internal pictures of it?
 
I have tested most of my headphones on it. One issue I have with it is that pannings left to right can be a bit odd like it´s not a smooth transition.
Maybe a result of an overall wider soundstage then I am used to dunno.
 
I also wonder manual say something about having the vol pot at zero would give the most neutral signature? Do you lower the signal from the transport to the DAC so you can run the Phonitor at Zero or max signal to DAC and lower signal to the Auditor/Phonitor?
 

 

[oqvist]

The resolution on this amp is really something extra... I have a binaural recording from Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Saint Saëns symphony nr 3.
Listening to my DX 1000 for a change. You hear people caughing all over the place like 30 metres away! Make you wonder why they saved this take. Soundstaging is amazing. Old comparison but yes kind of speaker like which was one of the goals with the DX 1000 I have been told. The small detail stand up to the point it can be annoying as in this case. You don´t just hear coughing you hear cloth rubbing against skin, people moving around in the chairs, putting down their instruments!. At the same time there is so little dirt or distortion the amp can sound almost over naturally clean at times. Even on the DX 1000 which is designed to sound all but cold or lean. Quite a contradiction actually. DX 1000 on many systems get quite bass centric but not on this one.Thankfully I do have a LFE and it really helps compensating a bit with feeling the music and better replicating speaker dynamics.
 
Dynamics are also something extra... the difference between pianissimo and fortissimo is greater then ever.
 
 

 

[ical]

Quote:

 
It's a win-win proposition all-around when head-fiers get into the range of decent equipment. Still, so many long-time head-fiers are moving toward electrostatics that those who are sitting on the fencepost must be at least considering them.
 
The one thing that's holding me back -- besides a thin wallet -- from jumping right in is the apparent preference for tube versions of Stax amps. I prefer SS for a number of reasons so the possibility that Stax SS may be a bit inferior concerns me.
 

If you like SS amp, then the Stax 717 will be ideal. It one of the better amp that can drive the O2 well. I'm still very happy with mine. 
 

 

[vvanrij]

I still love the phonitor, after I got it I stopped upgrading, finally found what I was looking for. My SPL Phonitor + AKG K1000 are still a dream come true, and will probably stay with me for the rest of my life.
 
Serial = 8300138
 
I love the fact that combined with the k1000 I really really forget I'm listening to headphones after about 10mins. 
My settings on it are
 
Crossfeed 3
Speaker Angle 40
Center Level -0,9
 
Question? Can those ears be removed in the front of the amp? I already mailed SPL about this, but didn't get a response yet.
 
Setup: 
 

 

[AppleheadMay]

Phonitor + K1000? I tried that myself, but apart from having way too low volume I also miss a lot of detail which I do get with my speaker amp.
I love the K1000 as much as you do, it's my dream phone as well even when I compared it to an O2. But I think it needs a lot more power than the Phonitor can deliver. I have it hooked up to a Marantz PM7200KI for the time being but ordered a tube amp with speaker outputs for it.
 
I bet you can remove the handles by taking the front panel (4 screws) off but you will notice your silver frontpanel has the corners cut off. You could probably order a replacement black panel from SPL, that one is made to be used without handles.