OSCAR HEADS TO LONDON FOR THE LAUNCH OF THE NEW IFI IDSD PHANTOM

On a rainy Thursday evening in London, British HiFi brand iFi Audio held a launch event for their brand-new flagship DAC, Headphone Amp, and streamer combo, the iFi iDSD Phantom. HiFi PiG’s Oscar was there to check it out.

The iFi iDSD Phantom is an all-in-one device costing £4499 and is designed to be the heart of any system. It boasts a ton of functionality built in, and some nifty little tuning features up its sleeve, let’s look at some of the best bits.

IFI IDSD PHANTOM DAC HEADPHONE AMP AND STREAMER

First up, the iFi iDSD Phantom is a culmination of many years of iFi expertise, bringing together all their knowledge of both analogue and digital signal processing into one unit. It features up-sampling to DSD2048, the JVCKenwood K2HD technology, xBass Pro and xSpace Pro analogue tuning circuitry, a valve input stage, quad DAC architecture, and a streaming platform based around a heavily modified Volumio 3 engine.

STREAMING PLATFORM

IFi audio have dabbled with streaming in the past, this latest product though features a new platform that is based on a heavily modified version of Volumio 3, promising to ensure greater stability when streaming your favourite music. It supports Qobuz connect, Tidal connect, Spotify connect, AirPlay 2, playback from local USB media devices, NAS drives and more. It has built in galvanic isolation on the ethernet port (as well as on the S/PDIF and AES/EBU ports) to prevent electrical noise and it also shuts down unused system processed when streaming to minimise signal noise.

DAC

DSD2048 is something new, and as far as we are aware, this is the first commercially available product to offer DSD2048 up-sampling. IfI are using a custom FPGA-based remastering engine for this conversion and it promises to reduce jitter, and preserves the signals purity.

They are using 4 Burr-Brown DSD1793 DAC chips in a custom interleaved configuration; these draw inspiration from the legendary Philips TDA1541A chip. In Normal mode, DSD signals pass directly to the DAC and PCM go through the user-selected digital filter, in remastered mode each chip processes up to DSD1024, allowing them to go up to native DSD2048 in their custom configuration.

VALVE STAGE

Much like the iCAN Phantom, iFi have decided to keep the valve stage in the iDSD Phantom, giving you the ability to change between solid state, Tube, and Tube+ modes on the fly. The circuits are separate, and iFi have chosen a pair of GE5670 as the valves in this model (they have been using these for a long time, and they sound great, as well as being long-lasting too).

K2 and K2HD have been featured in iFi products before, it is part of an exclusive partnership they have with JVCKenwood and is based on an old algorithm that was tuned by ear to bring back life to music during restoration. This tuned-by-ear approach is what makes it different to most processing, and you can once again change this setting on-the-fly, K2 keeps the original sample rate whilst K2HD up-samples the track to 24/192. These modes promise to restore natural harmonics to the sound, and I’m keen to have a play around with them in the near future.

USER TUNING PREFERENCES

Those familiar with iFi products will have seen their xBass and xSpace toggles before, these are tuning tools that are run in the analogue domain ensuring signal integrity whilst adding some flavour. xBass Pro is a variable shelving EQ bringing an additional helping of low end to headphones and speakers, whilst xSpace Pro enhances the audio by creating a spacious sound field that brings headphones closer to speakers in their presentation. It’s like crossfeed, but isn’t your standard crossfeed circuit and is largely derived from targets set by the Ministry of Radio and TV in East Berlin.

Lastly, they include an array of digital DAC filters, which allow the user to fine tune the sound to their own preference – these subtle changes do bring a difference overall and it’s always nice to have this kind of flexibility built in.

PRO AUDIO STUDIO USE

After the intro to the product from the team at iFi Audio, they had two guest speakers at the event – both working in the pro-audio space. First up was Madison Claridge who spoke about using the iDSD Phantom to help with mastering the tracks, and the cleanliness of the sound is a standout feature when in solid-state mode. Secondly, we had Steve Levine who is a well-known producer, he also spoke about how the iDSD Phantom is a great bit of reference kit, and how the internal clock was indistinguishable from a high-end clock in his studio (showing off the DAC’s prowess). I quite enjoy listening to pro-audio people talking about using kit like this in their studios, they also talked about using some of the Silent Power products in the studio too, to overcome certain noise issues.

OSCAR TAKES A LISTEN

While obviously not the time or place for a review, I did get the chance to have a brief listen to the iFi iDSD Phantom with a pair of Audeze LCD-5 headphones, with peak power at over 7w per channel, it is a setup that can drive most headphones on the market with relative ease. My initial impressions are that this is a serious bit of kit, with an impressive DAC, streaming capabilities, and a powerful headphone amp, it powered the LCD-5 easily and sounded very effortless in doing so.

I use the iFi iCAN Phantom as my main reference amp, and absolutely love the features on it, it is great to see a lot of these on the iDSD Phantom too, and despite having a slightly lower powered headphone output, it should still hold its own with all but the hardest to drive headphones.

I am looking forward to having a chance to put this through its paces soon, as it is perfect for those who combine speakers and headphones in their main system.

IFI IDSD PHANTOM SPECIFICATIONS

Hi-Res Support PCM 768kHz; DSD512 (DSD2048 with Remastering)

Streaming Platforms Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Qobuz Connect, Roon, Airplay, DLNA, UPnP

Output Power Specifications

Balanced Headphones (RMS) ≥4,676mW/17.3V (@64Ω);  ≥564mW/18.4V (@600Ω) Single-Ended Headphones (RMS) ≥2,311mW/8.6V (@32Ω);  ≥144mW/9.3V (@600Ω)

Balanced Line Outputs (Vrms) 0-4.5V (Hi-Fi); 0-18V (Pro)

Single-Ended Line Outputs (Vrms) 0-2.2V (Hi-Fi); 0-9V (Pro)

SNR (Max output, 20-20kHz) ≥116dBA @ 600Ω Balanced; ≥114dBA @ 600Ω Single-Ended

DNR (10-20kHz) ≥116dBA @ 600Ω Balanced; ≥115dBA @ 600Ω Single-Ended

THD+N <0.005% @ 16Ω Balanced (2.4V, 20-20kHz); <0.01% @ 16Ω (1.27V, 20-20kHz)

Output Noise (Max output, 20-20kHz) <30uV(A) @ 600Ω Balanced; <20uV(A) @ 600Ω Single-Ended

Power Requirements DC 12V/4A; 15V/3.5A Dimensions 256 x 185 x 120mm Net Weight  3.6kg (7.93 lbs)

Connectivity

Digital Inputs 1x USB-B 3.0; 2x USB-A (Host); 1x USB-C (Host); 1x S/PDIF (coaxial) 1x AES3 (XLR); 1x RJ45; 1x M12; 1x Optical (SC); 1x BNC (Sync in)

Headphone Outputs 1x 3.5mm S-Balanced; 1x 4.4mm Balanced; 1x 4-pin XLR; 1x 3-pin XLR (L/R); 1x 6.3mm (positive phase); 1x 6.3mm (inverted phase)

Line Outputs 1x Balanced XLR (L/R); 1x RCA (L/R)

IFI IDSD PHANTOM PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

The iFi iDSD PHANTOM is available now for £4,499/$4,499 USD/€4,695 EUR/$6,999 CAD.

Oscar Stewart

Additional photography by Kelly Bowden