I have the iPhono 3. First let me say that most people who have read my posts know that I absolutely hate SMPS. I hated the power supply in my Technics SL 1200 GAE so much I was having a bespoke linear supply designed and built for that table. I sold the GAE as my custom SP 10 mk3 NGS can now hold 4 arms. I never believed that SMPS could work in highend audio as they are inherently noisy and good for things like airplanes where weight is of most importance. Having relayed all of that, I will say that the iPower X has changed my mind. That supply works and actually made my system sound better. The active noise cancellation seems to work to very good effect. It is the ONLY SMPS I will allow to work in my system. I’ve mentioned before that nearly every piece of gear near my system that uses a SMPS is connected to a foot switch so that I can do a hard disconnect from the wall. Even my Mac mini music server has a linear power supply from Uptone Audio,
Now having said all that I will tell you that I compared the iPhono directly to an ARC Ref 10 in the same system. AMG Viella Forte with Koetsu Onyx Platinum with an ARC 160 Ref S power amplifier and a McIntosh preamp. I just performed this comparison after putting 7 days of 24 hour run-in on the iP3.
Let me say this right now; I could not care less about all the side chair comments this is sure to elicit. I was there. The iP3 was every bit the equal of that $33k stage! It actually revealed more information than the ARC. This is what I wrote a buddy after the comparison:
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So today with 7 days (24 hours a day) of run-in on the iP3 using my tuner and a reverse RIAA attenuating cable, I finally listened to it connected to a turntable. The table was the AMG Viella Forte with the Turbo arm and a Koetsu Onyx Platinum cartridge. The amplifier was the ARC Reference 160 S along with a McIntosh tubed preamp and an ARC Ref 10 phonostage. I can’t recall the model of the McIntosh tubed preamplifier but it costs about $7.5k and is an outgoing model. The speakers were the Wilson Alexias.
I played Enya, one of my Westminster albums and Jacintha.
First I Listened to the ARC Ref 10. It is a decent sounding unit, not seeming to do anything inherently wrong. The Ref 10 phonostage is relatively full sounding and the bass is very nice. The shock came when I put the iP3 in and literally heard things in the track that had escaped me with the $29,000 more Ref 10. The breathing of the Cellist during Pietro Locatelli’s playing of Sonata in D Major Allegro literally made me feel as if I were watching a master at work. You could feel his intensity as he played the piece. With the iP3 the bass was every bit as strong as the Ref 10 but the overall event was more lively and engaging. When the Ref 10 was reinserted things became more chocolate-ee. It sounded more like a stereo playing a recording whereas the iP3 released the music.
Surely I can see some preferring the more gooey sound of the Ref 10, it certainly is not bad. The iP3 without question renders more information than the Ref 10 seemed capable of :)
Even the owner of the Ref 10 paused, listened to the iP3 and then asked what it costs. When I told him, he said that’ll be hard to beat for that money.
It is eye-brow raising good!
I did find that using the $100 iFi DC iPurifier definitely helped and made the iP3 sound fuller, richer and simply more grounded. I would say you would definitely want to use them together.
Now that is simply the truth of what I heard and experienced. It is freakishly good!
