iFi Audio ZEN Phono

Mil-spec RIAA

The EQ circuit uses multiple TDK C0G capacitors in parallel.They beat polystyrene capacitors and are close to Teflon. 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 RIAA EQ tolerance level (+/- 0.15dB) is impressive as it is en par with hand-selected capacitors!

Super sub-sonic

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.

Hissless whisper

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.

Features:

• 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