iFi audio ZEN Phono - Phono Preamp for Turntables/Record Players (UK Pin)

ProsSuperb construction quality. It comes with a good (if short) phono cables that appears to be gold plated. Sonically, it is excellent i.e. transparent with good timbre and high dynamic range for many different types of music. The rumble filter is very clever and useful.Test albumsMy pristine German pressing of Simply Red’s 1985 debut album Picture Book was ‘simply superb’. It has never come over so clean and dynamically brilliant.Supertramp’s first edition of Even in the Quietest Moments was also spot on.The Jacqueline Du Pre/LSO/ Barbirolli 1965 recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto is like being there in the studio with the odd crackle from a record I bought in 1974 and has been much played/loved. What a performance...this pressing benefitted from the Zen’s clever rumble filter.Von Karajan’s 1965 recording of Symphonie Fantastique with the BPO is ‘mind blowing’.Technical addendum - The AR deck has no inherent audible rumble - see You Tube on why.ConsNone at all. Don’t follow the herd follow your ears.VFMExpensive but great value for money.It will, hopefully, live in and grow with my system for years to come.SummaryA credit to British audio engineering at its best.It’s also very cute.System tested onNewly refurbished AR XB1 turntable restored to its original US NAB broadcast specification.AT VM540ML - newly (and accurately) installed and run in for about 20 hrs so far. It will ultimately bed in after about 50.Cambridge Audio Azur 540 AV amp but just using analogue (clean) stereo pass through - 100w per channel into 8 ohmsMonitor Audio Radius 90s on their bespoke stands. These are ‘tuned’ to a 30 sq m room using a REL T Zero subwoofer (100w) and its specialist high level cabling and crossover circuits. Hell of a combo if you’re short of space or your partner doesn’t want your large monitors clogging up the view from the sofa....

Some background first. I last had a turntable about 40 years ago and have just succumbed to temptation and bought a 25 year old Rega Planar 3 on eBay. This deck has been fettled with a 20mm acrylic platter, a fancy mat and an Ortofon 2M Bronze cartridge and was not expensive (£230) so I was not expecting that much from it. My NAD C658 preamp has a phono input to which the deck was connected after adjusting cartridge VTA VTF etc settings. The result very pleasantly surprised me being much better than I expected. I decided to see if I could get more out of it and investigated getting a phono preamp. The Ifi Zen Phono immediately attracted me because it has a balanced and single ended output so I could connect it to both my system preamp and headphone amplifier plus it is relatively inexpensive. It arrived today. In photos it is a bit cheap looking but in the hand it is very nicely made with a matt gunmetal finished aluminium body and decent sockets and switches etc. Comes with a basic power supply and a short shotgun RCA cable. I connected it up and could not believe the difference. Way more detail, tighter bass and much more soundstage depth. It really does sound great to me. If you are in the market for a phono preamp up to, say, £1000, give this an audition. It might surprise you. Highly recommended.

There's no question this little box gives a good account of itself sonically, and it's specs stack up really well, but it really does need a top notch system to be able to appreciate its finer qualities.Particularly its noise floor, that is it doesn't add any additional buzz or hiss to the equation, so playing music through it is going to deliver the goods pretty much straight as they come out of the groove, via the stylus/ cartridge and along the passive wires of your pick up circuit.And there's the rub. You need a good deck and cartridge to be able to appreciate what it's doing. And a decent amplifier to take all that sonic loveliness and push it out through equally decent speakers.There's no question that it's better in principle than the included phono stage on my CA AXR100, it's probably better than the much cheaper Fosi Valve Phono Amp I tried as well (although to be fair that developed a fault), and definitely better than the cheap and cheerful Behringer stage I have patched into my AV receiver, but to be fair that was only £12......So it's better than all those, looks great, is well made and has a balanced output, and a low frequency rumble filter, nice touch that.....BUT..... Can I really hear a difference...? (I'm running a Project Debut III with an Ortofon Blue cartridge by the way, AXR 100 amp, Elac UB5 speakers)Honestly, not as much as I'd like... I mean it's good, maybe I could even convince myself it's a bit better than anything else I've tried, but I'm left with the sneaking suspicion that it's probably not until you get into £1000 amp territory, and £300 and upwards moving coil cartridges, that you're really going to notice the difference.Remember, even with all such expensive magic components working in perfect harmony, crackly records will still be crackly by the way.So, all that said, obviously I'm keeping it. Go figure.What more can I say? Honestly, in context of my system it's just good (ish), a nice to have if you will.I will persevere. Hopefully one day in upgrade land I'll get to say ' Oh yeah, I get it now...!' In the meantime, I daresay I may occasionally muse whether I could've spent £145 better.... hmmmm?