I must be slow as I could not find a link to place this as a review.
So, I have written about the 1st gen iPhono in
the past, comparing it to the very fine Coincident phonostage which I believe
is about $6k. I preferred the iPhono but
I could just as easily imagine someone else going for the Coincident unit. In
that review I thought the Coincident had a better sustain, decay and bloom
while the iPhono was hands down the winner in the prat department. The iPhono
made my feet move, the Coincident, not so much.
Later on I added the iPower to the fray and the iPhono shored
up the areas it lacked. As a former owner of the very very nice Graaf GM70 I
was a bit surprised and dismayed when I finally received the iPhono and heard
it once fully run-in. I would not have shelled out the thousands of dollars I
paid for the GM70 and the vintage NOS tubs I purchased to make it sing, oh and
the $1600 I had to spend on the Ortofon ST-80SE SUT to use with the MM inputs
of the Graaf as I could not get it quiet enough to tolerate with the MC inputs.
The very small $400 iPhono basically did everything the Graaf did (with the
iPower that is).
My reference phonostage for the last few years (and probably
many more to come) is the fabulous AMR PH77 and I’m running it with a set of
Bendix 6900 tubes which elevates its performance even more than the already stellar
stock configurations performance. In comparison to my PH77, I found the 1st
gen iPhono to be a bit thin and during crescendos it could become a little
ragged. Still, it remained in my arsenal as a handy and trusty back-up. The
PH77 is of course tubed and as we tube owners know all too well, sometimes they
fail and you are down for a while.
Compared to most phonostages I have heard, some of them
costing up to $9k I found the 1st gen iPhono to be able to hold its
own in some cases crazy as it may sound it was just plain better. I believe AMR
intended the iPhono/iTube to be used in conjunction as a sort of baby AMR PH77
and I ran it that way for some time and yes, it does share that familial DNA
when it comes to sonic signature.
Move forward some years and I have in my possession the
iPhono2 and the iTube 2. To say that the iPhono 2 is better than its
predecessor is far too simple a statement. Mr. Fremer thought it to be at least
twice as good as the original. I would agree with his assessment. Out of the
box with the included iPower is shows far more prowess in the areas of bass but
otherwise is pretty close to the original. After about 20 hours a bit more
fluidity begins to appear. Again at the 100 and about the 340 hour mark big
jumps occur in the areas of fluidity and continuousness. When you get to 480
hours forget about it!
This thing sounds like it has a tube in it, and I don’t mean
in that classic overly warm soft rose colored sound that I found so fantastic
when I was new to high end audio. No, I am referring to a pellucid but meaty embodiment
and rendering of the music. A sound one would immediately associate with MUCH
costlier gear.
Most of my listening has been done with my second turntable
system which is composed of a Technics SL-1200 GAE with a fully broken in Denon
103R on a LP Zupreme 15 gram headshell and my London Reference. The phono stage
then feeds the iCan Pro (best pre I have heard and I have owned 2 MFA Ref
units, the baby Ref and the full Ref), the Tube Research Labs GTP 2, and many
more. I have had in my system for evaluation the Veloce (battery powered) the Allnic
L3000 and many others. From the pre it goes to the custom active crossover and
then to a Graaf Modena for the mids, a Harmonix Reimyo PAT777 for the Raal
Ribbons and a pair of Acoustic Reality Thaumaturges ($25K when available) for
the woofers. The speaker is called the Encore and is my own design. I simply
got tired of paying for passive boxes made of MDF with wood screws going
directly into the glued wood dust and sold for tens of thousands of dollars but
I digress :)
The sound is at once flowing and dynamic. It grabs and holds
my attention and really gets my foot tapping. The sound is MUCH more refined
and fuller than the original iPhono with no hint of raggedness during large
scale bombastic music. For instance it scales far more convincingly on some of
the more challenging passages in Hans Zimmers wonderful soundtrack to
Gladiator. The original could sound a bit blocky if you take my meaning. It did
not have the ability to gracefully scale the mountain so to speak. The iPhono 2
does it with much more ease and refinement.
Here is where it gets interesting. As good as the iPhono 2
is out of the box and it is very very good (and especially after 340 hours or
more) in fact far far better than the DS Audio optical cartridge system that I
auditioned, it can be made to sound a
good deal better. Now this is my own thing, the iFi line of SMPS’s are admittedly
super quiet and much better than most SMPS
such as the ones inside my apple gear, but I hate them ALL.
I do not like green eggs and.., ahem. Sorry, just flashed
back to Dr. Seuss when I thought of my aversion to SMPS’s.
I mean I understand why they are used, efficient, cheaper to ship and inherently regulated. But
they still hurt the sound of my system. As an aside I am actually having a
custom linear PS built for my SL-1200 GAE to replace the awful SMPS that
Technics installed. So to the point, I replaced the iPower with a linear regulated
lab grade power supply. I don’t like hyperbole so I offer none but the result
was nothing short of breath taking. There is a great deal more that can be had
from that little silver box with a good (and I do mean good) linear supply.
Next I added the iTube 2 to the fray. As I mentioned before
AMR always sorta intended this combo to be a baby PH77 as was or may still be
mentioned on the iFi site. How to put this; everything I have said about the
iPhono 2 up to this point; multiply it by 2 times again. Now you have that
sorta living presence that the performers are in your vicinity. Things are rounder,
more palpable and it breathes much easier. Again I powered the iTube 2 with a
linear supply along with the iCan Pro. Please don’t misunderstand me, I lived
with these units powered via there very good SMPS’s for quite a while and they
made beautiful music BUT I knew there was much more to be had.
Like Mr. Fremer (paraphrased) stated, to get better than the
iPhono 2 you are going to have spend much more and you still may not surpass
this unit. I auditioned a $16K current phono stage that people rave over and my
ears tell me that it cannot compete with iPhono 2/ iTube 2 combination. I will not call this a reference phono stage.
It is great and I listen to it daily but I reserve titles like reference for
the likes of Ypsilon, VDH Grail SB and my AMR PH77. The little combo does far
more than I could have imagined. It capable of truly astounding musical
reproduction on a grand scale.
Remember to let it run in for at least 100 (and I suggest
300) hours before you really start to judge it but my guess is it won’t take
most people that long to know that this is special gear designed by some super gifted
engineers who also happen to actually be able to HEAR. Thanks for reading and I
hope this helps someone make a decision one way or the other. Happy listening.
Dang, I got the fuses and they turned out to be the wrong size. It seems that the PS26KX needs the large fuse, not the small. Looks like it'll be another two week wait, but it's no big deal. So far I have had the iPhono2 burning in for 9 days and a few hours, which adds up to over 220 hours, and I had at least 150 on it prior to that. It took a year and 3 months to put that first 150 on it, so it's amazing that in just 9 days I can reach 370 hours. And MAN is it sounding good. It's becoming more and more nuanced and warm and losing harshness as the time goes. The character just keeps changing, it really keeps surprising you.
For anyone reading this who is wondering if you should wait for this thing to burn in on its own, or try the burn in, all I can tell you is that I regret not doing this sooner. In about three weeks you can get this thing to 700 hours, whereas that same amount of burn in would take years, even if you listened for a couple of hours every single day.
At first I thought that burning it in would deprive me of the "education" of listening to it happen, as another poster also suggested, but I find that this has been a very educational process. I check the sound pretty much every day to see where it's at, and you get to watch it change by the day. It's really fun, and it makes the changes more salient than they would be if you stretched this process over years.
Funny how life works sometimes, I have been eyeing the PLC Thingee FX2 X0e for a while. The newer FX2 models claim to have twice the filtering capacity, and the "x0e" models have a wider spectrum of noise filtering. If you got yours at an audio show two years ago you probably have the newer FX2 x0e model.
I'm sorry to somewhat highjack your thread with questions about power supplies and strategies for burning in phono preamps, just been very excited about all of this since experiencing the Pyramid LPS. Been a bit too busy for audio the past 18 months, and kind of got myself to a point where I don't spend much time with it, and when I do spend time with it I'm usually trying to fix some issue rather than enjoying the music, so I just got to a point where it feels like a chore and I am not enjoying it as much as I used to, but now I'm getting the rewarding feelings again big time. I also digitize my vinyl records to produce high quality 24/96 FLAC files for listening on-the-go, so the past little while I keep thinking there's no point in digitizing any of my records until I get the new power supply or until the iPhono2 fully burns in, or until I get a power conditioner.
Just don't want to put myself into a position where I do a bunch of work but then have to re-do everything, so I keep getting this feeling that I might as well wait until I get all my upgrades, and until the unit fully burns in, before I really commit to the bulk of the work. Now I finally have the LPS, the AMR fuse is on its way, and I got the unit burning in 24/7, so I'm finally seeing the finish line and that's very exciting.
P.S. The MC setting picking up a bit more noise on the line makes sense, as that input does apply way more gain to the incoming signal, and I did not take the time to carefully remove 100% of the the grounding noise (it's harder to hear when you are bypassing the phono preamp and recording the super quiet cartridge signal directly, you have to turn your amp up to max just to hear anything). I did my best to get rid of as much grounding noise as I could, but I don't think it's as perfect as I had it before. But even so, it's really not bad and it sounds almost perfect. I'm thinking it won't affect the burn in, since it's possible for it to be way worse, I actually got it really quiet all things considering.
Anyway, I'd like to try to bring the conversation back to the iPhono2. Thanks for taking the time and letting me pick your brain.
Funny, I was thinking of Blue Circle when I read your mention of that very company. I use there products, I think I have the thingee or whatever it is called, it is designed to clean up junk on the line from SMPS's. They really work, I met Gilbert here in Chicago a couple of years back at Axpona. He was performing a test where he had one of the Audio Prism Noise Sniffers (I bought one) plugged into an outlet with a lamp using a SMPS. The sniffer was howling, in went one of his thingees and dead silence. It was impressive but I asked him to follow me and I found another outlet which was out of his control, he was super gracious and accommodated my admittedly bold request. His device passed the smell test and I purchased it on the spot. It's been in my system doing duty every since. I've taken it to buddies homes and demonstrated its abilities. It really works and I've been planning to purchase more of them and also try his big filter.
i also use a PS Audio P5 with an AMR mk2 fuse installed. I just picked the P5 up this past Saturday. It is an amazing device and is far better than the 1st gen power plants of which I once owned (p300 and p600). They were good but they tilted the tonal balance of my system up in frequency. The P5 does not do this at all. I am running it at between 540 and a 620 watt draw.
The added noise on the MC side is most likely due to the fact that the gain is higher by (I forgot the MM gain level) what? Some 20 or more dB? So you are amplifying the noise on the line more so than when using the MM inputs which is prob around 40 dB.
Okay, so I am playing the recorded stuff on a fiio portable player plugged into the MM input of the iPhono2, and it’s working really well. No weird noises, sounds exactly like my turntable. I’m monitoring the iPhono2’s output and it’s not clipping or even getting into the orange. The only thing is,the signal is so quiet that I have to blast the fiio pretty much up to full volume to get it anywhere close to the normal sound of my turntable. Which means I’m essentially playing a super quiet recording amplified very loud, is there an inherent problem in that compared to playing a loud recording and attenuating it?
I ordered the burn in device but now I’m wondering if that might have been a waste of money. I just tried the MC input and it works equally well, although I hear a slight bit more background noise than I do off my turntable on the MC, but it's not nearly as bad as I thought it might be. I suspect it's just powerline noise or grounding from me messing with the wires. Something sounds like a faint helicopter in the background - maybe noise from other wall warts? But other than the slight increase in background noise, the MC setting is working really well.
If anybody is interested in getting these files, just message me. It would work from any music player, and you can test it out for yourself and see that nothing is overloading and that nothing weird is going on.
Yeah I am thinking pulling the fan out of mine as well. It's dead cold even after hours of use.
I might still buy that burn-in device so I can run in the MC stage. I wouldn't feel as comfortable using this DYI method on the MC input as I am on the MM input.
I recorded a few LP sides over the past couple of hours, a compilation album with multiple genres on it, some orchestral stuff, some bizarre electronic music with lots of weird sounds, and the frequency sweeps from the Cardas test record. Hopefully playing these on loop will give it lots to chew on.
Just curious if you would recommend any a/c power line noise filtering devices, right now I am not using any power conditioning, but I have considered things like the Blue Cirle PLC Thingee. Now that I have seen the difference clean power makes, I am wondering about what other noise there might be in my power lines.
Concerning the Pyrmids, I leave them powered up 24/7 as the iPhono draws almost no current hence no real power to speak of is being wasted. I also leave it powered up for the iCan Pro and mac-mini but I actually power the iCan Pro down when not in use as it does consume about 20 watts even when in full solid state mode and I put the mac-mini to sleep as those little things can be thirsty.
I have not so much as experienced a hiccup from any of my Pyramids and I have disabled the fan in all of them as I knew I would not be drawing any substantial amounts of current. I am not suggesting this to anyone, this was my choice as I monithored the current draw and found it negligible in my use cases.
No worries, I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my amateur questions. I am attempting the recording right now, just to test it out, and it is recording fine. I agree there are other things that could go wrong, which crossed my mind as well - you mention the cd reading a skip or scratch a certain way, and I'm thinking if the media player I'd be using might make a weird noise when being powered on or off, or being attached to a power source. You also have to be careful about plugging in connectors while the thing is on. All things I'll test out in the next few hours, but I figure I'll try it and see how it sounds just playing it through my system, and if it sounds similar enough to my turntable and not making any weird noises, I'll go ahead with it. I am leaning towards this method more so out of impatience than anything else, as the burn in device would take about 3 weeks to arrive.
Are you leaving your Pyramid on 24/7, or are you only powering it on while listening? When I was using the wall wart I just kept it plugged in 24/7 but reading the reviews for this Pyramid, some people complain about it not lasting very long, so I am hesitant to keep it powered on 24/7. I'll probably use the wall wart again for the burn in.
I suppose if your recording device is sensitive enough capture the miniscule signal coming from your cartridge you could do what your attermpting. Just remember that most consumer level recording devices are looking for a line-in level of around .447volt(peak) -10dBV, which makes sense as it would most likely be recording from a consumer type device.
Those CD's you are referring to have been professionally prepared for this sort of task. I don't like the CD's because it your player does something atypical like skips on a scratch you are going to get a full level signal to the inputs of your phonostage having no passive attenuation in series to subdue the signal.
You are correct in that while the output electronics would be broken in for mm/mc simultaneously most likely if your ran-in the MM input for example the MC input would be left in the cold so to speak. The MC input in many phonostages is an additional amplificaion stage before the MM stage (i.e. Ypsilon's phono stage s a MM phono stage that makes use of SUT's to facilitate MC Cartridges).
I would not sugget th route you are attempting. Others may disagree with me and if they do I humbly invite them to chime in. ]
I hope this answered more questions than it may have created :)
Interesting point about the attenuation of the output signal to get .5mv output, but just to be absolutely clear, I was talking about recording the signal coming straight from the turntable, before it ever gets to the phono preamp, so shouldn't that record a very quiet RIAA signal? My intent would be to capture the exact RIAA signal coming straight from the turntable, then play it with an mp3 player, doing my best to match the loudness to the original recorded signal. The reason I think this might be possible is because I have seen inverse RIAA burn in CDs for sale. These CDs do not need a burn-in device that attenuates the signal, you just use your regular CD player and connect the output to your phono preamp. These CDs are merely playing digital files, at the right loudness, with an RIAA curve applied to them. So if I record the signal coming from my cartridge, wouldn't I be effectively creating one of these burn-in CD's, as long as I level match the volume to be exactly the same (which I assume is the hardest part)?
Reading another audiogon thread on phono preamp burn in, there is some discussion on the fact that some of these phono burn in CDs contain the "pre-emphasis" that is applied to vinyl records and then de-emphasized by the phono stage, and others do not. I assume that if I record the signal coming straight from an LP, that my signal would contain this "pre-emphasis", so it seems to me that if I record the signal from my cartridge, I'd be getting not just a burn in CD, but a very good burn in CD that contains RIAA pre-emphasis. Again, all this would depend on whether I can level match the signal to be close to the cartridge output. So, I just don't get why this a bad idea, unless your point is that matching the signal output is the most difficult part? Or am I missing something?
Maybe I'll try it on my cheap vintage amp, just to make sure I'm not overloading the phono stage during the trial and error. Then, once I get the levels right, I can move it to the iPhono2.
It' s not that I'm too cheap to buy the burn-in device (I just found one on ebay for around $60 Canadian, which is awesome), it's that I would like to be able to do it with stuff I already have, and I don't want to wait two or three weeks for the burn-in device to arrive. If I could somehow start now, I could be almost finished burning it in by that time. I also don't imagine I'd have much use for this device after burning in the iPhono2, but you never know what the future might bring.
Also, I'm assuming that the MM and MC part of the iPhono2 are separate circuits? So if I burn in the MM for 700 hours, that doesn't automatically mean the MC circuit is also burned in? Or is this an incorrect assumption? I use both inputs regularly.
Thank you for the shout-out :) I have been busy with work, multiple projects and all.
Power in is just like akin to what we as humans consume, junk in, junk out. So the better the quality of your power supply the better the sound. I am a big proponent as you have probably figure out of linear supplies, I also am not fond of batteries. Batteries have a whole other set of issues.
Concerning the reverse RIAA cable, it came with my AMR PH77.1 :) AMR knows how to do it right. I am not keen on recommending you perform your burn in the way you are describing. For one thing you would need to be able to attenuate the signal coming from your playback device by probably somewhere around 72 dB (3981 times) assuming a standard output of 2v. This would yield around .5mv of output with would then be fed to the iPhono 2 (I am sure if I did my math incorrectly I'll hear about it :).
I would contact Jim Hagerman of Hagerman Tech, I think he makes an affordable reverse riaa burn-in device (actually I should probably buy one).
I will be starting another thread this weekend, I purchase a Reel to Reel about 3 months ago. It has been with Soren Wittrup being restored and having his magic touch performed on the playback electronics. I got it in last evening and after letting the settle for about 4 hours and degaussing it (after being moved) I powered it up and played my Patricia Barber Café Blue 15ips tape. I will save the details for the new thread but I will say this. NEVER HEARD ANYTHING LIKE IT!!!
So far beyond anything I have yet encountered. Unfortunately the SP10 MK3 was torn down already and left my home on its way to becoming a NGS the same day the Tascam 42 B-NB arrived.
I was hoping it was going to merely be a different sort of sound and that I could just sell it after playing with it for a few weeks/months because tapes are NOT cheap. Well, I am in trouble now even more so than when I got into turntables.
It's nice to see you posting a bit more frequently the past few days, I always learn a lot from your posts and enjoy benefiting from your expertise.
About the power supply, it makes sense what you are saying about the phono stage modulating the power supply with the input signal to produce the output signal, I just never thought of it quite that way before. I knew that clean power is important, but I had no idea that it was to this extent! I remember the original upgrade on the first generation iPhono, when I upgraded to the iPower wall wart, it made a huge difference that shocked me at the time, but it was nothing compared to the transformation this LPS has caused. I knew that getting better power would clean the signal up, give you blacker backgrounds, but I had no idea it could change the impact and the character of the presentation to SUCH an extent.
If you don't mind me asking, how did you get your attenuating reverse RIAA interconnect? I would say my iPhono2 has a couple of hundred hours on it by now, so it's still nowhere close to being fully run in. I considered burning it in, but I hit a dead end when googling around for a reverse RIAA interconnect. Did you build yours? Is it possible to work around needing one? For example, if I were to record the signal coming straight from my turntable with an analog-to-digital converter, then use an mp3 player of some kind to play that signal, wouldn't that effectively be the same thing, provided I level match the signal to match? Or is the load going to be off if I do that? It would be nice to run this unit in over the course of a couple of weeks instead of waiting another year or two.
I've been rethinking my experience with the b-Lab phonostage. I may try too audition that unit again. It is a current amplifiying phonostage and I tested it with a Denon 103r which has a rather high resistance for a MC cartridge at 40 ohms.
I may have done a disservice to that particular phono preamp. I'm going to try it again when I have a lower resistance MC on hand. My Anna is going back to Ortofon for a refresh while I await my NG to NGS build for the SP10 mk3.
I will post concerning this re-audition when all pieces are in place.
I think you are starting to hear what that unit is capable of doing :) loading is critical with the iPhono. That AMR fuse is going to shock you all over again. Power supplies are incredibly important. When you think about you are modulating the power supply with the input signal in order to produce an output electrical representation of the music so it should be no surprise that the P.S. is monumentally important. I'm toying with building a tube regulated 15v supply to use with the iPhono just for fun/experimentation :)
Its only going to get better as you run it in. I broke mine in with a 33k ohm dummy load and an attenuating reverse RIAA interconnect being fed by an iPad playing amazon prime music selections on a loop.
I was not embellishing when when I early stated that I was literally in a state of disbelief as to how it transformed in character once run-in. The way you describe it with the LPS is very familiar to me and accurate in my opinion.
Nevermind, they contacted me and offered a better deal on shipping, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to bad mouth them on a public forum.
I received the power supply today, and even running it with the regular fuse, I am AMAZED at the difference this has made. Poster gkp above doubts that the basic character of a device can change from things like burn in, but my impressions after the first few hours of use is that using this LPS has changed the sound dramatically in character, not just made it quieter or more noise-free. It sounds a lot less bright. It’s like a high frequency veil has been lifted and now you hear more intricacies and definition in the midrange and lower frequencies, and the sound is just much less in your face and more intricate while also sounding competent and very well imaged. Voices sound much more alive, and the sound is a lot less in your face, it sounds like the whole soundstage has changed, like you entered a different auditorium with tremendous hall sound, and everything sounds much more defined and well-placed on the sound stage. The whole presentation/imaging has changed, the voicing has changed, it sounds warmer and almost tube-like. Comparing back and forth between the wall wart and the LPS, I am astounded by the difference. On some records the differences are so great that it sounds like you're listening to a different master, sometimes to a different song! I had no idea a power supply could even affect such things, my jaw has been on the floor all evening. Can’t thank you enough for the recommendation! Looking forward to getting those fuses.
That shipping sounds nuts!!! I've ordered drivers for my speaker projects from Solen in Canada and I've not had crazy shipping prices like that. I'd check to make sure that's not a glitch. That sounds nuts.
i assume youre query was dircted directed at me as I made that post. No, I do not mean bang-for-buck. I mean it has beaten every phono stage I've had it up against accept the AMR PH-77. The b-Lab as I stated came very very very close. They have a very similar sound and it was in the areas of timing and minutiae where I preferred the iPhono 2. As I stated and still believe, the b-Lab is awesome and I could easily see the choice being system dependent.
Ive stated this many times, the iPhono 2 really does need to be run-in for about 700 hours and to get the sound I'm getting, you need a good linear regulated supply, with a good fuse. If anyone out there can't hear the difference a fuse or power cord makes, I believe you can't hear the difference and I'm not interested in discussing it.
Now of course this is all my opinion. I really wanted the b-Lab, it is sooooo cool and it sounds so good, but at the end of the day the iPhono 2 was to my ears at least just this side of better.
some people will always equate price with how good something must sound or why something can't sound the way it obviously does. Mike Fremer knows how good the IPhono 2 is, and I respect his choice of the Ypsilon VPS-100.
My Sp10 MK3 NG is being picked up this wknd by Chris to be morphed into a one of a kind NGS and I'm adding a Kuzma Airline to the table along with the 4 Point. I'm shopping for another ref phonostage. I would use my AMR PH-77 as it is my favorite but even though it has 3 input sadly I can hear the delta between them and the direct input thus it does the duty for only one arm.
i can honestly state, that of all my friends tables I've not heard one system yet that I think could run away from my secondary analog front end which consists of the the Technics SL-1200GAE/iPhono 2(with Regulated LPS) and a Denon 103R or my London Reference.
you may like the iPhono 2 and then again it may be like chalk on a board to your ears, I've heard some really expensive phonostages and thought, meh... ymmv
Really? A $500 phono stage outperforms the $10k one. Are you talking in absolute term or best bang for a buck? I don't have $10k phono preamp, but I think I will give it a try. Thanks for the review.
Hey Audiofun, I finally ordered the Pyramid PS26KX, it should arrive in a couple of days. I'd like to follow your suggestion and put an AMR fuse in there - just wondering what type of fuse you recommend. There are two "AMR Ifi fuses" on Tweek Geek, I assume those are the ones you are recommending? There are two sizes and multiple fuse values to choose from, just wondering which fuse size and value you recommend?
Just looking at the PS26KX instruction manual online, it looks like it has a "glass tube fuse 6A/250 VAC". Did you pick the AMR 6.3A "slow blow" fuse? I can't find any information about what size of fuse the PS26KX takes. Did you pick the small or large fuse?
I continue to be amazed by my iPhono 2. I've ordered a second Denon 103r. Sending the older 103r to Ana Mighty Sound to have the 103.3 modification performed. Malachite body, boron cantilever and micro ridge stylus. I want to compare a stock 103r to a fully modified 103r. I'll be using my iPhono 2 for this comparison. Will report my findings once I've done a throrough comparison.
The iPhono 2 and the 103r are magic together although it also sounds mighty fine with my London Reference in MM mode.
Let the backlash begin...I recently purchased an iphono2 and I just can't hear what all the fuss is about. To me its sound lacks any body, is threadbare, washed-out, and borderline bright. It makes a rock band sound as polite as a string quartet, and who needs that? Sure it has lots of "air", and detail, that all typically comes with bright sounding gear. I am using a well run-in Dynavector 10x5, so the cartridge is not the issue. Switching to the Decca setting adds a little body, but overall does not satisfy. So I'm supposed to use it for 300 hours before making a judgement? That could be a couple of years for me. With decades of purchasing and listening to gear, I've come to the conclusion that first impressions are usually the most accurate, and although gear does break-in, its basic character does not change.
I will be writing a full review on the Amazon b- Lab phono stage. It is in the top 3 of phono preamps I've ever heard, surpassing many brands with far greater magazine reviewer love. The unit is a current injection type device meaning there is no need to set loading. Like the VDH Grail SB, BMC MCCI and a few others the current generating ability of your low resistance cartridge works its magic with this stage. It is a bit fuller sounding than the iPhono,but I give the bass to the iPhono 2. It is important to remember that I'm not using the iPhono stock, I use a regulated LPS.
As stated very very very close and this will easily come down to system balance and preference. The unit is hewn out of a solid block of aluminum and is stunning to behold. I may still buy one for my future Kuzma Airline. I plan to have it in my place again to re-evaluate. If you are looking for a statement piece I highly suggest you try this unit.
You're welcome :) I may try the heat sink tip and listen for changes in the sound.
i once owned the Metrum Octave, that piece is really good. It beat my former $4k MSB Power Dac quite badly. Place an AMR fuse in that unit and be prepared to be shocked. I recall how big the differences was when I owned that unit and replaced the cheap glass fuse it come with. It lost out to my AMR do-777 SE but that's ok. That little Metrum hits far far above its price range and would embarrass a good number of so called great dacs.
Thank you Audiofun for the tip . My IFI Phono 2 is sounding great . I placed a CPU heat sink on top to help cool it . It dropped about 8 ^ f
As I would never spend 10k on a phono section its nice too know my small IFI is literally a giant killer .My Metrum Octave DAC is also in a small enclosure . I guess sometimes good things come in small packages .
I'm very glad it's working out for you. It is going to get ridiculously better when you get about 700 hours on it. Also, if your LPS takes a fuse I highly suggest you try an AMR mk2 fuse. I think Tweek Geek is the new dealer for them.
I just had a $10k phono stage in house for 2 weeks, it was already run in but I put another ~40 hours on it using my 33k ohm dummy loads (home-made) and an attenuating reverse RIAAcable connected to an iPad.
It was very very close! At times I thought the new contender was the best. After two weeks irate was clear that I and my GF preferred the iPhono 2+LPS.
It it was a very very similar sound but the timing on the iPhono was better and it was incisive and connected to the music more intimately.
It takes 700 hours to fully run in. A $10k phono stage that I had for 2 weeks lost out to the iPhono stage. Not a big loss but $500 vs $10k ? I did like the cool factor of the pricier unit but it's the sound that matters to me.
snovosel . Some argue that the iPhono2 must be broken in before it reaches its full potential.
Thanks for your review, the addition of a replacement regulated power supply has been mentioned to be a big step up over the wall wart. I would be curious to see if your findings changed.
My initial thoughts of the iPhono2 based on my system:
I had to buy two. The first iPhono2 came from a major on-line retailer, open-box. I thought I would save a few pennies but it was DOA so I returned it and ordered a new one that was delivered today. Within the first few notes of the first track of Sade's 1983 debut album, I knew something was different and interesting about this device.
Sparkle, musical, are the two words that immediately come to mind.
I compared the iFi to a Tavish Design Vintage stage w/the TungSol tubes, a Pro-Ject DS, and a SoundSmith MCP2. The MCP2 I have had for a while; the others are new orders.
My system is primarily tube-based -- PrimaLuna Premium HP amp and matching preamp mixed with a variety of different tubes, fed into a pair of Spatial M3 Turbo S speakers. A VPI Prime running two separate 3D wands supporting a Dynavector 17D3 and an AT ART9 (both new) complete the package. I'm in a drywalled/dropped ceiling room, carpeted floors, where half of a 18x28 foot room is devoted to two channel audio. The Spatials are set four feet from the front wall, not toed in. All electronics are off to the side; not centered as many people set up. Sitting area is six feet centered from the Spatials.**
Bottom line impressions: The MCP2 provides greatest depth of stage and best imaging. The iPhono2 provides second best depth but its imaging is not as precise as the MCP. The difference is apparent to me across diverse content -- jazz, Beatles, Beach Boys, classical, punk, New Wave, Zepplin, Aerosmith, Streisand, et al.
The iPhono ever-so-slightly adds sparkle to any material I fed it. It livens up the presentation without coloring it. Maybe that's what Fremer meant when he said something along the lines that one could pay significantly more than the cost of the iFi for a phono stage but not attain the iPhono2's performance.
Yet even though the iFi is a tad more musical than the MCP, I can't help but feel that the MCP gives me a much more subjectively enjoyable listening experience perhaps because it delivers a more precise aural picture? A prime example occurs when I play that Sade album, first track, Smooth Operator, where Sade leads into the song by speaking the line, "Heaven help him, when he falls". With the MCP in play, her UK accent is so apparent on the "falls" but less so with the iFi. I like that little bit of extra character -- it makes the playback more real, more believable. You can hear the accent with the iFi but you really have to be looking for it. Both the iFi and MCP were loaded at 1k and at the stock gain.
As noted above, these are initial impressions. Some argue that the iPhono2 must be broken in before it reaches its full potential. So I will give it a bit more time and add comments later should I feel my impressions warrant it. I could absolutely live with the iFi though, and may end up keeping it to use whenever the urge suits.
**I've read lots of "reviews" where authors mention "3D" and "holographic" when referencing speaker performance but I have only ever experienced those sensations with the M3 speakers (vs. the many that I've had over the years). Try to imagine a marriage between ProAc Response and Klipsch LaScalla. I am very satisfied with how they integrate into my gear.
Excellent, thank you very much. By the way, your first review of the original iPhono was very informative and inspiring. I had already been an owner of the iPhono for almost a year, and it kept getting better and better, then I upgraded the power supply to the iPower, and the improvement was so awesome that I wondered "why is no one talking about this amp?" Sure, there had been a couple of good reviews, but those reviews weren’t enthusiastic enough in my opinion, and they were published before the iPower upgrade existed, so I searched around hoping to find more discussion and praise, and found your review where you compare it to preamps costing 6k-9k, and I finally thought "at least SOMEONE gets it!"
So when I heard that the iPhono2 was coming out, there was no hesitation to place the preorder. When I finally received it, I noticed immediately that the iPhono2, even without any burn in time, was noticeably better than the original. Then it just kept sounding better and better, and for the past 6 months or so I’ve been waiting for the praise to come trickling in. I still feel like neither the original Iphono, nor the iPhono2 get nearly enough praise, not widely enough anyway. Fremer’s review was good, but he didn’t go into enough detail for my liking. He mentioned that it was twice as good as the original iPhono, but to me it felt like he didn’t realize the magnitude of that statement. As a reader, after seeing a claim like that, I would have liked much more elaboration on the various aspects of the iPhono2’s sound, and your review has done a much more detailed job on that than Mikey’s.
There was another good review of the original iPhono, by Doctorjohn of Cheaptubeaudio, and he described the iPhono’s ability to create realistic "hall sound", and compared it to the forward-sounding in-your-face presentation of preamps like the Phonomena II, which he described as "upfront and unnatural", like it’s trying overly hard to impress you, but leaves you with only "a pastiche of highlights" instead of the full nuance of the recording. He contrasted it with the iPhono, which creates a more nuanced sound that doesn’t try to kick you in the face, but demands that you sit back and listen. He actually described all the praise heaped on the Phonomena as being an example of "how wrong Hi-Fi has become". I tend to agree with him, and I’m always reminded of that quote by Elaine from Seinfeld, "it’s like a big budget movie with a story that goes NOWHERE"
Thank you for the compliments regardlng the review. You will need a 5.5x2.1 mm barrel connector. You can find these at Dig-key, Amazon, Mouset, etc. should cost you more than about a buck.
you can try to find them with leads already soldered and then you simply make sure the outer barrel wire is connected to the "cold" of the power supply.
goto Amazin and search or "5.5/2.1 mm barrel connector" and you find 20" pigtails pre-soldered to the connector. A pack of 10 for $7.49 :)
After reading your thoughtful review, audiofun, I am now determined to purchase the Pyramid PS26KX. But I am wondering, how does it connect to the iPhono?? It looks like the Pyramid has banana plug-looking outs for the DC current (screw terminal), so how do you connect it to the iPhono?
Dear @audiofun : """
I designed the speakers and the crossover. """
that was quite a challenge for any one. I used several crossovers in those times, from the dedicated ADS to: Threshold, Bryston, Athena, Maerchant and the like. I made it modifications in all of them and when I decided stop the 3amp system what I started to use was no external/electronic crossover but using the ML input that fortunatelly is cap coupled design and just change that input cap by a teflon smaller value one and a resistor to change the operational amps frequency range and that's it. Yes, the main ADS speakers still use a heavy modified passive crossover.
I think that everything in audio has its own trade-offs and it's precisely in our " kowledge/skills " levels to choose the " adequated " trade-offs what puts the system/room quality performance nearer or away from the recording and from live MUSIC.
When I started to growing up faster in my quest was when I decided to forget " what I like it " to make my evaluations and focused/focus on what " should be ". Latter on I took in count that is non-important any more " what we like it " but how a system/room SHOULD sounds when taking MUSIC as a reference and any one can be sure that if we make system/room changes thinking on that " should " target always we will like it as ever before.
Dear @lewm : """
I would favor whatever sounds closest to live music ... """
" finally " we are in the same " channel ".
Yes I have a lot of respect for SK and his products that I like it. The exact SS device ( electrically. ) for a LOMC cartridge is a bipolar one not FETS, FETS are better for MM cartridges. D garretson posted several year in Agon when I posted about.
Now, bipolars in amp output stages performs better than MOSFETS, are less colored. Everything has its own colorations, nothing is perfect and certainly not even bipolars. If we want to be nearer to live music then we have to have the lower colorations we can at each system link in that very complex system/room chain.
Levinson, Krell, Threshold, Classé and many other vintage amps were designed using bipolars. Some of those designers as N.Pass changed the bipolars for MOSFETS and the main reason was that FETS are a little near to the tube signature, faraway but closer than bipolars. In the low level amplification as phono stage the main reason almost no one use bipolars is that are a " pain in the ass " to use it. First problem is to choose matched pairs and its polarization. The MATs you use in your preamp input/first stage is a very good device that I told you is used in the low level signal in my ML monoblocks by design.
Other than my MLs one of the best bipolar designs I listened was the Threshold 550e ( better than the today Pass ones. It's a class AB design and I remember that I listened " face to face " against the top Threshold pure class A and the 550e outperformed. NP is a very good amp designer as was or is ( ? ) D.Reich from Classé. ) and the Classe DR3 VHC.
Now, it's not easy to take in count what I'm telling here because to be aware off not only we need to make comparisons in between but to be " sure " we need that our system performs not only with very high resolution but with a very low low colorations. I know you are in that " never endless " path. Good.
Btw, sooner or latter you have to by-pass/disappears all your system fuses ( for this you have to have a precise and very well regulated electrical source and additional with at least 80db-100db noise reduction and surge ( bullet proof ) protectors. ) and re-wire all internally and externally and this means that the power cords must be manufactured with pure silver. The system improvements are not only outstanding but so incredible that we just can't imagine it till we experience it. That is a real NEW audio world experience !
Dear Raul, I am not quite sure what you meant to say in your original post of 4/16 at 3:22 PM. If you are saying that bipolar transistors are inherently superior to JFETs, MOSFETs, etc, then I have no dog in that fight. I would favor whatever sounds closest to live music. You might be interested to know that I once asked Stan Klyne if he could make any improvements in the design of the input stage of my Beveridge amplifiers, which is all solid state. (He was interested in purchasing a pair of Beveridge speakers.) Mr Klyne's position was that there would be too much to do, because he would want to use all JFETs. So, in the realm of solid state there appears to be a schism between those who prefer bipolar and those who prefer one or another type of FET. (I realize that MOSFETs are primarily used as output stage devices in amplifiers, not in phono or linestages.) I know you respect the Klyne preamplifiers, and evidently they feature JFETs, as do many other solid state phono stages. I also am not sure what you meant to say about my modified Atma-sphere MP1; I do use a bipolar transistor as the bottom half of the input dual-differential cascode, in the input of the phono section. No FETs anywhere. Allen Wright used JFETs in his single-ended phono stages and bipolars in his fully balanced RTP phono stage.
Dear @audiofun : I don’t said was not SS design but that the Ifi people are the " Carver " designers on that models. I said it’s a tricky design and any one can read what they explain about it’s trade mark: " Tube state ". Here is where appears the " Carver " signature. I hope you remember the Carver’s " anecdote.
I know that every single electronics tube system foundation owner are really proud on those tubes and sincerely I don't see why in 2017 any one that knows exactly how the live MUSIC in a near-field fashion sounds can be proud to own tubes. Makes no sense not only to be proud but still use that heavy limited technology that can't today honor MUSIC.
About the triamp or even forth one set up it’s not that " did not works for me ". I learned that even if we have a non bi-tri amp set up but using monoblok amplifiers it’s a must that both be matched in precise way on some operation main characteristics as: gain/sensitivity, damping factor, frequency response, distortion levels, slew rate, bias level, etc, etc. and I mean truly matched where one channel is a " mirror " of the other.
When we are using 3-4 different amplifiers each one has its own " signature " even if matched about what’s a " pain in the ass ".
I’m in favor of active speaker designs as ATC but but but .... and if if if ..these buts and ifs are a real trouble if we want to be nearer to the recording.
As lewm I don’t like to mnipulate the audio signal to even the " signature " because as he said it developed " colorations " that at the end are only additional distortion levels.
I think that due to your specific knowledge levels on that regards you can understand my take here it does not matters if you disagree. Could be controversial? maybe but I try very hard for years about even with four same ML 20.6, so I don’t have your specific knowledge level and maybe not your skill levels but I have in deep experiences on it.
Anyway , you are satisfied with and this is the important issue. I remember that I was satisfied with for years till...............
^^ well said @audiofun. I would also like to thank you for this meaty and pellucid comment in your original post:
This thing sounds like it has a tube in it, and I don’t mean in that classic overly warm soft rose colored sound that I found so fantastic when I was new to high end audio. No, I am referring to a pellucid but meaty embodiment and rendering of the music.
I've been looking for those words but you found em...
Raul, obviously you are writing about my tri-amped system. I'm a degreed elec engineer so I think I can write with some authority when I say the iPhono is 100% solid state. Concerning tubes and SS, they both can sound wonderful. My Acoustic Reality Thaumaturges are one of the finest amps I've ever heard and they are SS, but my Graafs (2x GM200 and a Modena) are flat out the finest sounding amplifiers I've ever heard. I believe you when you say tri-amping didn't work for you. It certainly works in my system far far better than any passive system I've heard. I designed the speakers and the crossover.
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