<h2>SPL Professional Fidelity Director DA Converter and Preamplifier</h2>
<span style="font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;">The Director is a reference stereo preamplifier with an extraordinary DA converter designed in VOLTAiR technology. <br /></span><br />The name 'Director' describes its function pretty well. It is the heard of the stereo system to which all components are being connected: sources, amplifier, active speakers, headphone amps, phono preamplifier etc. It determines what, with what and how loud we hear. The Director is the heart of the stereo to which all components are being connected: the phono preamplifier, the CD player –digitally or analog–, the computer or media player via USB, the headphone and power amplifiers. <br /><br />Volume is controlled in the analog domain to avoid shrinking bit resolution at lower listening levels. Both volume and source selection can be controlled with any IR remote.<br /><br /><h3>Preamplifier</h3><inline style="color: rgb(29, 27, 16);"><inline style="color: rgb(63, 63, 63);"><inline style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Director is a full-fledged stereo preamplifier with an extraordinary 
DA converter. There is provision for connecting up to six stereo sources
 – two in the analog domain offering RCA connectors for e.g. phono 
preamplifier like the <a href="https://spl.info/en/products/professional-fidelity-pro-fi/phonos/overview.html" target="_blank"><inline style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Phonos</inline></a> and four in the digital domain with USB, AES, Coaxial and Optical connectors.<br /><br /></inline></inline></inline><p><inline style="color: rgb(29, 27, 16);"><inline style="color: rgb(63, 63, 63);"><inline style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">At
 the output side a power amplifier or active loudspeakers can be 
connected balanced (XLR) and unbalanced (RCA). We recommend the <a href="https://spl.info/en/products/professional-fidelity-pro-fi/performer-s800/overview.html" target="_blank"><inline style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Performer s800</inline></a> as power amplifier in order to maintain a 120V Rail audio chain from the DAC to the speakers for best audio performance.</inline></inline></inline></p><h3>Volume</h3>Volume is controlled strictly in the analog domain – for good reason.
 Commonly volume is regulated in the digital domain as part of a chip's 
functionality. Apart from being inexpensive the down side is that the 
playback at lower volume than unity gain (0dB) is compromized due to a 
shrinking bit resolution. And as you never listen with the preamp turned
 up fully clockwise you always hear at a lower bit resolutions with 
diminished audio fidelity. It makes not a lot of sense to listen to high
 res audio then, does it? As this is not acceptable we opted for an 
analog solution that gives you infinite resolution at all listening 
levels. We use a motorized ALPS RK27 "Big Blue" potentiometer with 
excellent feeling and channel matching. Being motorized Volume can be 
remotely controlled.<br /><br /><p>A great feature is a small DIP switch at the 
bottom of the Director. DIP switches number 3 and 4 allow to decouple 
the volume control and to deliver a unity gain output at the XLR or the 
RCA output or both. You can connect a headphone amplifier like the <a href="https://spl.info/en/products/professional-fidelity-pro-fi/phonitor-e/overview.html" target="_blank">Phonitor e</a> and have individual volume control for the headphones. Another application is that connection of a digital recorder.</p><br /><h3>Source</h3>On the front of the Director is a toggle switch for the selection of the
 input source. Toggle to the left to select the previous source and 
toggle to the right to select the next source. The selection is shown in
 the dot matrix display: IN 1 and IN 2 for the analog inputs and USB, 
AES, COAX and OPTI for the digital inputs. The detected sample rate of 
the selected digital input is displayed after about 2sec. (e.g. U384 = 
USB input, 384kHz sampling rate). The input source can also be remotely 
controlled.<br /><br /><h3>Remote Control</h3>Volume as well as input selection can be remotely controlled using any 
existing infra-red (IR) remote control. The cool part is that the 
Director learns your remote! Take, for example, the remote control of 
the CD player. Out of the many buttons there are maybe four you hardly 
use if at all and that do not directly trigger a function on the CD 
player. Alternatively you can use the Apple remote control which is 
small, slick and offers just the buttons you need. Assign Volume Up / 
Volume Down to two buttons and Next Input / Previous Input to two other 
buttons and let the Director learn them. The procedures are described in
 the manual.<br /><br /><h2> </h2><h3> Professional Fidelity Director Key Features</h3><ul><li>120 V rail preamplifier with integrated DA converter</li><li>Four digital inputs: USB, AES/EBU, coaxial, optical</li><li>PCM up to 384 kHz</li><li>DSD up to DSD2 (Double Rate DSD, DSD 128)</li><li>Two analog inputs (2 x RCA) and outputs (XLR, RCA)</li><li>Analog volume control with motorized ALPS “Big Blue” potentiometer</li><li>Remote controllable volume and source selection (Director learns any IR remote control commands)</li><li>AMP CTL connection to Performer power amplifier for coupled on/off switching</li><li>Frequency range (analog): 4 Hz to 300 kHz</li><li>THD: 0,0008 % (analog), 0,0004 % (digital)</li><li>Dynamic range: 137,6 dB (analog), 120,8 dB (digital)</li><li>Windows® driver, Apple class compliant</li><li>Stand-by/power on switch</li><li>Linear power supply with toroidal transformer</li><li>Made in Germany</li></ul><ul></ul>