SPL 2Control black

Ottimo. Silenziosissimo, funzionale, solido e ben costruito. Ottimo feeling della manopola del volume, perfetta. Pre di alta qualità. In e out di qualità e costruzione eccellente. Ampli cuffia integrato di buon livello, potente e di qualità, solo un po' enfatizzate le frequenze alte, per i miei gusti e per il mio orecchio. Nel mio caso non mi interessava la sezione cuffie perché uso, e continuo a preferire, un Lake people G109P, straordinario, potente e lineare. In ogni caso buon livello generale. I tastini di plastica danno un po' la sensazione di non eccessiva solidità, ma penso sia solo una impressione, stanno facendo il loro lavoro egregiamente. Utile la funzione DIM per una attenuazione del volume al volo. Consigliatissimo.

I have this hooked up from my Metric Halo LIO-8, going out to my PSI A25s, Avantone MixCubes and two pairs of headphones. Soundwise, it's very transparent on the monitors, but does unfortunately add a bit of noise on the headphone outputs, causing me to deduct one point each for Handling and Quality. As I use the (phenomenal) headphone output on the LIO-8 for my main phones, this doesn't bother me too much, and the additional pairs are only used for quick reference purposes, so it's not a deal breaker for me.

My Avantone MixCubes have a slight humming issue (quite common, unfortunately) which the ground lift feature doesn't eliminate, but again, it's not a deal breaker and can't really be blamed on the 2Control.

The 2Control features and overall build quality are excellent. I can't understand why all controllers don't have Mono and Dim buttons, especially the former, as it's such a necessary feature for working quickly when you want to listen back to your mixes with the computer screen turned off, checking for mono playback compatibility. The main volume knob has a wonderful feel to it, it's big and travels smoothly, keeping the stereo image intact across the whole range, something that e.g. the SM Audio MPatch 2 doesn't handle as well.

The two headphone outputs are controlled by individual volume knobs (woohoo!), and shares a Crossfeed feature, enabling the user to simulate the interchannel bleed when listening to speakers in a room, as opposed to the 100% left/100% right stereo representation of standard headphones.

Noise issues on the headphone outputs aside, I found this to be a great monitor controller with all the features I need in my mixing and mastering studio.

Before I bough this unit I was using Presonus Central Staton Plus. I know it is not the subject of thie review but let me explain something. Presonus is very cool except one thing: being passive controller it introduces come audible phase distortion. I cannot explain it proffessionally but someone explained me that in passive coircut long cables can affect the sound by creating electric induction (coil - like effect). In my studio this effect was clearely audible - sometimes one of monitors sounded "out of phase".
This was the main reason why I bought SPL. It sounds absolutely great and it is not true that passive controllers are better ! What it lacks is some functionality. No talkback, no digital input. But the sound kills. I recommend it.