ifi Audio ZEN Phono Stage

Here we have a small, neat phono stage from British company ifi Audio. This relatively new company whose headquarters are in Southport now manufacture more than 50 audio devices and products and the ZEN Phono is yet another which has garnered much praise from the Hi-Fi press. It comes in very good condition in its original box, with power supply unit, interconnect, manual and our regular three month warranty.
ifi Audio Say….
You’ve spent years building your dream LP collection. We know because we have done the same!
The ZEN Phono is a wonderful enhancement to your vinyl setup. It will max out every MM/MC cartridge.
Choc full of AMR/ifi trickle-down vinyl technology, it will have you poring over your LPs into the wee, small hours.
Unlike any other entry-level phono stage. The ZEN Phono has:
MM/MC from 36dB >72dB gain. Super-silent noise floor -151dBV
Precise RIAA with Balanced output, performance comparable to +$1k phono stages
AI sub-sonic filter. Addresses warp without eliminating bass or causing phase issues
Flagship phono amplifiers create their own power supply off the mains, like a mains regenerator. This is fundamental to a well-designed phono stage. Without this, it will struggle to amplify the signal without added noise. This is why phono stages ‘hiss’ so annoyingly.
Unusually, the ZEN Phono has its own high-tech clean power supply. It creates a 1.2MHz power supply (20,000x mains frequency of 60Hz). In this circuit, a 10uF filtering capacitor = 200,000uF at lower, audible frequencies. With serious levels of noise filtration, it performs at the level of well-designed LC filtering circuits as found in classic tube amplifiers. Further, located on its own ‘island’ PCB, it is isolated so there is no noise pollution of the analogue stage.
The EQ circuit uses multiple TDK C0G capacitors in parallel. This is for best stability and the least distortion. They beat polystyrene capacitors and are close to Teflon. Read more here.
Already using the lowest tolerance capacitors combined with multiples in parallel, tolerance is exponentially improved by the square root of the number of capacitors. This is quite a natty circuit design.
The ZEN Phono has some seriously good audio components backing up the fab circuit design which has trickled-down from its ultra-fidelity AMR PH-77 and ifi iPhono siblings.
The intelligent sub-sonic filter is from the iPhono range and is quite special.
Normal sub-sonic filters remove ‘rumble’ AND bass and cause phase issues.
Our unique AI phono sub-sonic filter removes ‘rumble’ only.
Specifications:
Gain settings: MC (v lo)@ 72 dB (+/- 1 dB); MC (lo) 60 dB (+/- 1 dB); MC (hi) 48 dB (+/- 1 dB); MM 36 dB (+/- 1 dB)
AI Sub-sonic filter: Remedies only the ‘warp’ in LPs – No negative impact to bass response
Max Output Voltage (RMS): 20 V RMS BAL output into 100 k (< 1% THD & N); 13.5 V RMS BAL output into 600 R (< 1% THD & N)
Output Impedance: BAL 200 Ohm resistive; SE 100 Ohm resistive
Input impedance: MM: 47 kOhms (Load: 110 pF); MC High: 47 kOhms; MC Low: 1 kOhms; MC V Low: 110 Ohms
Signal/Noise Ratio:
94 dB(A) MM re 2 V BAL/1 V UNBAL; 80 dB(unweighted 80 kHz BW) MM re 2 V BAL/1 V UNBAL
84 dB(A) MC Hi re 2 V BAL/1 V UNBAL; 71 dB(unweighted 80 kHz BW) MM re 2 V BAL/1 V UNBAL
90 dB(A) MC lo re 2 V BAL/1 V UNBAL; 79 dB(unweighted 80 kHz BW) MC lo re 2 V BAL/1 V UNBAL
79 dB(A) MC v.lo re 2 V BAL/1 V UNBAL; 69 dB(unweighted 80 kHz BW) MC v.lo re 2 V BAL/1 V UNBAL
Harmonic Distortion: < -110 dB / 0.0003% MM re 2 V BAL/1 V UNBAL; < -80 dB / 0.01% MC lo re 2 V BAL/ 1V UNBAL; < -86 dB / 0.005% MC v.lo re 2 V BAL/1 V UNBAL
Dimensions: 160 (L) x 113 (W) x 35 (H) mm
Net weight: 515 g

To read a review from specialist magazine Hi-Fi Critic please click here