The standard ZEN Phono may be twice the price of the Air model, but it’s still great value at a shade under £200, which is less than a midrange interconnect cable. While a mains cable is included there’s no plug, but with its USB-A socket and 5V DC input, most phone charger plugs can provide the right amount of juice, including those from Apple and Amazon. Set-up could not be easier, with font panel buttons for power and its subsonic filter, alongside LED lights denoting which cartridge type is selected. The whole unit comes housed in a plastic polycarbonite case which feels light yet solid with a nicely textured finish and small grippy domed rubber feet. Despite the low price, iFi has managed to pack in a range of quality components aligned to a sensible feature set, with a custom OV Series op-amplifier and TDK Class 1 ceramic capacitors, alongside ECPU types from Panasonic.Īir’s rear panel includes RCA in/outputs, knurled ground connector, switchable gain for MM/MC and power input The ZEN Air Phono model is the cheapest phono stage iFi offers costing less than a hundred quid, as part of iFi’s great value ZEN Air range. With an almost dizzying churn of latest products, it’s a wonder iFi’s boffins have time to sleep. And when you consider its job, it’s easy to see why, as these little units are their own preamps, designed to boost extremely low-level cartridge signals before handing over to your main amplifier.įast forward to today and iFi Audio is well established as a market leader for great value and spec laden desktop and portable audio, plus a range of accessories. These days we can expect much more from the humble entry level phono stage, with dedicated specialist manufacturers like Graham Slee showing that for a few quid extra, a standalone is a worthwhile investment. Having heard and tested many entry level phono stages from this era, in truth most were little better than the standard inclusions that came fitted to integrated amps a decade earlier, but they at least gave vinyl newbies a way in. The turn of the millennium saw vinyl’s comeback begin and the birth of the budget standalone phono stage, as an add-on to the amps of the day that were caught lacking them. Then when CD ruled the roost and vinyl’s demand waned, many amp manufacturers dropped this feature, as buyers mainly needed line-level inputs, for CD, radio and the like. Otherwise I could conceivably blow out my woofers.Back when vinyl was king a built-in phono stage was all part of your average integrated amp’s offer, so much so they were taken as a given on the spec sheet. I would only use it on a truly terrible warp or outrageous rumble that is on the disk.īut it is nice to know I have it with all that horsepower laying around. The bass gets clean as a whistle but everything sounds very closed in when it is in the circuit. The filter sucks all the separation out off the signal and makes it sound like mono in the bass.Īnd it completely alters the tone of the set. I can't remember using my subsonic filter at any time during the last year. I'm not bragging on hot air-I am a professional installation guy and retired after 40 years in the trenches.Īnd the table feet are then floated again on their own silicon pads for TOTAL isolation from vibration at ANY volume my main system can put out (measured 105dB on "All Along the Watchtower by Hendrix"). It is so quiet you think the record is really a CD. Records are normally dead quiet on the quiet passages-zero rumble, hiss and just a tiny bit of groove scrape. It tests +-3dB down to the low 20s in room using test microphone at listening position. I have a KAB subsonic filter on my far field system that can be switched in or out of my tape monitor loop when I need it.Īnd dual 15 inch Velodynes under those for truly deep bass.
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