8
Phonitor
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.
But another fact is that many musicians or producers might wish to – or
be able to – mix at home (to say nothing of having to). Then the head-
phone becomes a clear must, enabling an evening or late night session
that can only take place thanks to its being unhindered by the local
acoustic environment.
Each and every careful headphone user should know about the ana-
lytical advantages of headphone monitoring, but also about the main
disadvantage: the difficulty (if note impossibility) in properly judging
room ambiance.
Therefore, several years ago SPL began planning the development of
a compact, professional headphone amplifier design based on its 120
volt technology. The essential inspiration came from project manager
Hermann Gier‘s desire to eliminate the major disadvantage in working
with headphones. It therefore meant transferring essential ambient
parameters of loudspeaker monitoring to the headphone monitoring.
After several years of development and painstaking optimization, we
can now introduce the Phonitor, whose derivative name from combin-
ing “Headphone“ and “Monitor“, conveys the successful conclusion of
this process.
At first glance the Phonitor‘s functional range makes immediately
clear that this is not just another headphone amplifier. With the usual
(monitoring) parameters there are new functions such as “Crossfeed“,
“Speaker Angle“ and “Center Level“. These are the essential parame-
ters to create what with loudspeaker monitors are perception of width,
balance and overall space and how we recognize them coming from
the loudspeaker. Crossfeed simulates the frequency dependent inter-
aural level differences from both channels. Speaker Angle determines
the stereo width caused by frequency dependent interaural time dif-
ferences. Center Level regulates the balance between phantom center
and L/R stereo signals.
