back to my inquiry about hd800 amps... What can anyone say about the spl phonitor?

Quote from: donunus on March 05, 2013, 02:24:30 PM

back to my inquiry about hd800 amps... What can anyone say about the spl phonitor?

The geek in me so wants to hear phone of those things!

I own a phonitor and HD800.  I've had it for a year now and it has been my primary rig up until last week.  I bought an S7 and haven't looked back. 

I've written some more information below but here is the TLDR:  It's good but overpriced. Don't buy one unless you can find it for maybe a grand, which is way less than what they go for.  Last I checked they still went for 1400-1500 used and 1900 retail.  Get the S7 instead.

I bought it because I was actually trying to get the sound stage not to be terrible with the LCD2s and I figured the controls on the phonitor could help.  Well, there is no fixing the sound stage on the LCD2, but I found that I did like the amp's sound well enough with the HD800 and also it allowed me to control the sound stage.  Sound stage is without a doubt my most important quality in a setup.  I do not like in head sound, I must have an out of head sound with a complete center or my brain rejects what I am listening to.  I do like using the controls to fine tune the sound stage.  Especially on older classic rock recordings.  I can't stand when the sound appears to be coming from two sources on either side of my face.  So I was willing to trade a bit of quality for correct staging.  Having gone to the s7, well this just has a proper center image straight out of the box, so no worries there.  Meanwhile I still have a DA11 as my source, which means I can control the center image with the S7, so the phonitor finds itself sitting dark and unused. 

It is a pretty good amp, and as far as solid state amps go, it does work with the HD800.  Which leaves it with very little company since most solid states sound way too harsh for me.

I would offer to sell you mine, but now that I've told you what it is worth, that wouldn't work 

I have a friend who is looking for some speaker amps in 2-6k range for driving a pair of Harbeths, while he is currently looking at Audio Note's amps, he would love other suggestions as well and I figured that I might as well ask here. He is looking at 30 to 50+W.

Audio-Space, Atma-Sphere, Air Tight, and Manley would be my suggestions. 

I'm thinking of getting my first pair of cIEM and am deciding between the C4 and the UERM (leaning towards the C4).

Anyone know the current lead time for these two? Haven't read much news about the C4 or anyone getting a new set recently. No email reply from Frogbeats either.

@CEE TEE is out of pocket for a few days, but if you check in with him he should be able to answer UE questions for you.

I'm thinking of getting my first pair of cIEM and am deciding between the C4 and the UERM (leaning towards the C4).

Anyone know the current lead time for these two? Haven't read much news about the C4 or anyone getting a new set recently. No email reply from Frogbeats either.