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review iPhono 2

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.


audiofun
audiofun OP
799 posts
 
Dangcaonguyen:

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
Post removed 
audiofun OP
799 posts
 
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.
mantis-toboggan
16 posts
 
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.
audiofun OP
799 posts
 
mantis:

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.
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