🎛️ SPL Big – Stereo Wizardry in a Double Slot
Hey it’s Owen from Happy and we’re deep into 500 Series Month — a joyful dive through racks and racks of shiny new audio toys 🎉🎚️
Let’s talk about the SPL Big — a chunky, double-width 500 series unit with the mysterious subheading “stereo bigger maker.” Sounds bold? It is. You throw this on any stereo source and things just… open up. 🎧💥
Does it make sense? Not really. Does it sound good? Absolutely.
You’ll ask: “How the hell is this making everything sound wider, punchier, and clearer without destroying the mono signal?”
And honestly, no one seems to know. SPL say there’s no mid/side processing going on — just magic. 🧙♂️✨
Let’s break down the controls:
🌀 Bigness – The main event. Dial it up and your mix spreads out across the speakers in a smooth, musical way.
🎚️ Range – Seems to behave like a high-pass filter. Full right gives you full spectrum widening. Turn left and it starts filtering out the lows, focusing the width on the upper mids and highs.
📍 Stage – Goes from Rear to Front. This one subtly shifts the stereo image to feel more forward or more distant in the mix. Very fun for shaping space.
🔘 Bass – This switch tightens up the low end. Somehow. The tech behind it? 🤷♂️ Still unclear. But it works — kick drums and bass guitars stay solid and punchy even with everything else swirling around them.
And here’s the kicker:
Even when you fold it down to mono — the stereo magic stays intact. No phasey weirdness, no collapsed mix. Just a clean, centred version of whatever you widened. That’s rare for a widener and a huge win for real-world usability. ✅🔊
🔥 One caution: push it too far and you’ll start hearing some harmonica-like harmonic distortion. But treat it with respect, and it’ll treat your mixes like royalty.
💸 The SPL Big goes for around $899 AUD, and you can grab it from all the usual pro audio dealers.
And if you’re plugin-curious, SPL just dropped a digital version — not quite identical, but close enough to get the vibe before dropping the real-world dollars.
🎛️ Verdict? It’s wild and very welcome in any stereo chain!
