Ok, so I first reported my thoughts on the IPhono3 BL a few months back with approximately 168 hours on the unit in a rather ambitious and costly setup. I found it competitive with the ARC Ref 10 phonostage at that point. I believe I mentioned the ARC as having a more chocolate sound while the IPhono3 BL (henceforth referred to as the ‘3’) was an information monster. When I think back on the experience, I agree with the poster rooze that there was a bit of aggressiveness to the overall sound. The 3 was certainly not etched or sterile at all but it was a bit like a racing stallion let loose if you take my meaning. Even at that point it was easily one of the best SS phono stages I’d yet experienced. The other being the Sim Audio 810LP, the SPL Phonos, the PS Audio Stellar and of course the VDH Grail SB. I have listened to the Dan D’agostino Momentum phono stage but I reserve judgment because the system was unknown to me and I’m not sure what caused the very soulless very hard SS sound I experienced.
After that initial listening and impression session, I put the 3 back in my burn in rig and didn’t touch for nearly another 1200 hours. I now have ~1370 hours on the unit and it has transformed. The information retrieval is still their but the aggressiveness is nowhere to be found. Please don’t take the previous statement to mean dynamics have retreated, it is dynamic as all get out. One of my favorite test tracks for phono stages I may be considering is Prokofieff’s Battle on the Ice (Living Stereo Red Seal LSC-2395). Lesser stages leave the climactic scenes a hot mess, the 3 sailed through this with ease and clarity and no hints of dynamic compression or stridency.
The overall character of the 3 is that of a reference level tubed phono stage. Not tubes in the (colored fat round molasses) pejorative. Rather, it sounds like what well designed tube gear seems (in my opinion) to nearly always do better than SS, that is, three dimensionality, breathing and overall ease (life). In this regard, it edges out the Stellar which I absolutely found no fault in, the PS Audio is an uh-hmm stellar unit (see what I did there ;). The Stellar as I mentioned in my review of the unit sounds very much like my Luxman EQ500 minus the tube magic, the 3 is even closer. Can I hear the difference? Yes. The 3 can’t quite pull off that sound-expanding experience that my Lux and AMR PH 77 possess but it is so good and gets so close its nearly unbelievable. For instance when I listen to Eva Cassidy’s Imagine, the 3 does a simply beautiful job replete with emotion, timing and all those ineffable traits that lets you know this is superlative gear. The Lux, yeah it did it better but again it’s more than seven times (with better tubes, etc) the cost of the 3. How they can get this sound out of this little half pound rectangle is nigh beyond belief, witchcraft?
Previously I mentioned the sound of the 3 was enhanced with the addition of iFi’s DC iPurifier. That was at 168 hours, I now find it better without the aide of the iPurifier after full run-in.
My final thoughts are that this unit is and is not reference level. It is because I have heard many so-called reference level stages that this would beat like a young Tyson did to nearly every opponent he faced. It is not reference level because units like the Lux, Ypsilon, AMR PH77 (it’s big brother) will outperform it, albeit at many many thousands of dollars more.
I would not hesitate to team this unit with any TT at any price, that is how good this stage sounds to my ears. Seriously if someone were running a Feickert Firebird or Avid Acutus and had the 3 as there main stage I would not be shocked in the least.
iFi through down the gauntlet for affordable (always relative:) phono stages. The original iPhono was very good and super quiet for very little scratch. The iPhono 2 was better in that it was more musical. The 3 possesses capabilities far beyond the 2. It’s a keeper for sure!
