If you're looking for an austere audiophile headphone amp that sacrifices nothing in the way of sound, power, headroom, and look, and feel, the SPL Phonitor se with DAC is a suitable option. This headphone and DAC combination, styled here in a silver finish, gives you the main features SPL pro-fi headphone amps are known for, such as naturalistic crossfeed, a high-grade audiophile DAC, and oodles of clean output power thanks to 120V VOLTAiR technology.

The 120V rails come straight from their mastering gear used in top-notch studios across the world and are a main factor behind the Phonitor se's ability to drive up to 5W of output power per channel into headphones, doing so cleanly, without distortion. The Phonitor se's Crossfeed switch allows you to recreate the effect of speakers in your headphones at will, eliminating the often stringent and extreme separation of conventional headphone listening. The DAC allows support up to 768 kHz for PCM audio, and DoP (DSD over PCM) up 20 DSD256. 

High Headroom Audiophile Amp    RCA Inputs, 1/4" Headphone Output    Included DAC768xs Chip for Digital    Up to 768 kHz Support and DoP Over USB    USB, S/PDIF, and Optical Connections    Selectable Crossfeed Emulates Speakers    Quality Components Used Throughout    Powers Headphones up to 2x5W at 32 Ohms

The volume is adjusted with a milled all-aluminium rotary knob sitting atop an Alps RK27 Big Blue potentiometer.

The Phonitor se is equipped with gold-plated RCA sockets for the analog input. The headphone amp has optional digital functionality, available separately. Coax and Optical.

In addition to an analog source, three other digital sources can be connected to the Phonitor se. You'll have the ability to input digital audio over USB, RCA Coaxial, and TOSLINK jacks.

The highly acclaimed AKM AK4490 Velvet Sound premium DAC chip is used as the converter chip in the digital-to-analog converter. This chip converts PCM audio with a resolution of 32 bits, for a high degree of headroom. Digital PCM audio is supported up to 768 kHz, and DoP (DSD over PCM) up to DSD256.

The Phonitor se offers a 1/4" jack for connecting headphones with jack plug. Up to 2 x 5 watts of output power is available at this socket. This allows even very power-hungry headphones such as magnetostats or electrostats to be driven effortlessly.

This headphone amp prominently offers SPL's signature Phonitor Matrix with a switchable crossfeed that allows you to listen to music through headphones as though it were being reproduced on speakers. You'll find a switch dictating the intensity of the Crossfeed effect.

Related Questions and Answers

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Q: 2. Since this does not come with a power supply, what are the requirements and connector size for a usable power supply?

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A: The iFi audio Zen DAC V2 USB DAC and Headphone Amp BH #IF0311002 will not connect to the TV.

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Q: 5. Does the PA550 have a built in rumble filter? And also what is the phono cartridge load capacitance?

A: This unit does not have a specific rumble filter built in. As well, the cartridge load capacitance is not specified by the manufacturer.

Q: 6. How do you plug this into your MacBook Pro for listening to music? My late-2013 MBP does not have a "mini-USB" port. Thank you for your help!

A: The connection to your Macbook would be USB-A, the Micro-USB 2.0 connector is on the Grace Design m900 DAC. 2 USB 2.0 Type A Male to Micro Type B Male Cables are include in the box.

Q: 7. Hello, there seems to be RCA in, can I use the pre out from my integrated amplifier to the K9 aim? Will the speakers be on mute?

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Q: 8. Will this be iPhone compatible?

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Q: 9. Can it be used while charging with wall power? Planning to use this to plug a portable cd player into my car’s aux.

A: The FiiO Q3 MQA Portable DAC and Headphone Amplifier (BH # FIQ3SMQA) will operate while it is USB wall charging.

Q: 10. Does this have 2 RCA outputs? I need to avoid a splitter to eliminate radio station interference when I use a splitter.

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