iFi Audio Zen Phono Stage Review & Comments

I'm suitably impressed with 24 hours down to have placed my Schiit Mani on ebay. Given my set up more life, lower noise floor and the sub sonic filter has made a Depeche mode lp that's warped easier to listen to.
 
I'm suitably impressed with 24 hours down to have placed my Schiit Mani on ebay. Given my set up more life, lower noise floor and the sub sonic filter has made a Depeche mode lp that's warped easier to listen to.
Hi. I am still waiting for my Zen Phono to arrive it will be here later this afternoon. I see you didn't put a Buy it Now price on the Mani I might wait to see what you get before I put mine on ebay good luck selling it.
 
Anyone any ideas how this would compare to a rega phono mm?

Rob
Difficult to say really as the stereo performance of the Denon itself will be relatively poor. The Rega may give a better performance but will still be stifled by the Denon itself. If I were going to spend money on trying to get a better performance out of the Denon it would be bring in a stereo amp that has HT by-pass ability and route all my music sources through that.
 
Mine's out for delivery. I'm becoming very impatient...
 
Mine's out for delivery. I'm becoming very impatient...
I have a 17.15 PM - 7.30 delivery spot so I will have to be patient. your system is very similar to mine so we will see how it sounds with the Cambridge Audio stuff
 
Hi. I am still waiting for my Zen Phono to arrive it will be here later this afternoon. I see you didn't put a Buy it Now price on the Mani I might wait to see what you get before I put mine on ebay good luck selling it.
Yeah it was reflective of what I paid with £40 import duty and the lack of any others for sale. Don't think I've taken the piss too much.
 
Yeah it was reflective of what I paid with £40 import duty and the lack of any others for sale. Don't think I've taken the piss too much.
No I hope that you can get as much as possible they were very sort after for ages so why should they go down in price not everyone will run out to change theirs to the ifi one as with the Mani we are buying ours on somebody else opinion.
 
istockphoto-164471602-612x612.jpg

My delivery spot has been moved to a later spot.
 
Just arrived!
 
Blimey!

Got this on as first play and I’m very impressed...

ED4F326B-3A50-4707-B452-92AFBBC430FD.jpeg
 
Difficult to say really as the stereo performance of the Denon itself will be relatively poor. The Rega may give a better performance but will still be stifled by the Denon itself. If I were going to spend money on trying to get a better performance out of the Denon it would be bring in a stereo amp that has HT by-pass ability and route all my music sources through that.

Cheers Gibbsy,

Not sure where Denon comes in to it as I’ve not got a Denon :)

My amp is a stereo only Bel Canto 2i which has been heavily modified / upgraded by Coherent Systems. Quite old now but it’s a great amp still.

I am thinking of changing it at some point though. I’m in no rush though.

I’ve got the Rega phono stage already. Might just buy the Zen and do a comparison. After all it’s cheap as chips, and I’m sure I’ll have no issue shifting either that or the Rega depending on what I decide to keep.

kind regarss

Rob
 
Impressed so far - has dealt with a couple of difficult lp’s much better than my CA did.

Will spend some more time with it tomorrow
 




Sub filter in or out what is the consensus
 
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I've just ordered one.

I must stop reading about things on here! ;)
 
How long are the rca and power cables?
 
How long are the rca and power cables?
Too short really they are ideal for their components stacked. Of the equipment that I have bought from them I haven't used any of theirs I have used my own it would depend on the distance between your TT and Amp but I would definitely say use your own. The ones in the picture are for another one of their products but they are the same cables the purple ones. the power cable is about the same as the one in the picture.
71FY8HkQu9L._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
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Same here, I just used my existing RCA cables which are much better quality anyway.

Power cable wasn’t an issue as it just depends down into the cabling nightmare behind my unit that I never, ever look at... 😀
 
Don't suppose anybody's compared it to the internal one in a Rega Elex R?
 

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