8
Auditor
Introduction
There is more than meets the eye in working with headphones. A rea-
son for this surely lies in that modern audio production often neces-
sitates decentralized processes. In turn, production phases following
such plans more often take place in acoustically questionable rooms.
In such circumstances, a mix might occur in an acoustically deficient
ambiance (for example, in an extremely modal room), and employing
headphones then begins to make sense when a successful mix would
otherwise turn out to be impossible.
Acoustic Magnifier
But also when working with full range monitors in the studio, head-
phone monitoring is an extremely important alternative to loudspeaker
monitoring: analytical monitoring via headphones offers a very high
precision to observe details. Headphone monitoring is like work-
ing with an acoustic magnifier, excluding external room influences.
Working with the magnifier effect of headphones has the advantage of
safely hearing clicks or similar defects and helps in fine tuning cross-
fades or to judge tonal problems in individual tracks.
120 Volts Technology
The Auditor is our interpretation of a high-end headphone amplifier.
We strictly followed a purist approach to achieve the highest sound
quality. The alternative to the Auditor is the full-featured headphone
monitoring amplifier Phonitor. Based upon our unique 120 volts design
as well, the Phonitor transfers the essential ambient parameters of
loudspeaker monitoring to the headphone monitoring.
The basis for such high-end developments is our proved 120 volts ref-
erence technology. Core elements are the handmade SPL SUPRA op-
amps running on 120 volts – it corresponds to approximately twice that
of most modern analog audio semiconductor technologies. Through
such 120 volts circuitry and processing we reach performance levels far
beyond conventional designs in dynamic range and distortion levels,
and such technical specifications exceed all known analog or digital
standards.
