(Image credit: Future)
It’s not hard to see what iFi’s doing at this most prestigious London unveiling event. I’m in the North Tower Lounge inside Tower Bridge (the beautiful 1886 Thames suspension overpass often mistaken for London Bridge – which is thoroughly dreary in comparison). I have a beautiful, aerial view of the Capital. And I’m holding a martini.
Around me, iFi’s core team are wearing what Londoners might call ‘the full whistle’, short for ‘whistle and flute’ in cockney rhyming slang, or ‘suit’ – in this case, black tuxedoes. Add to this a poster on the feature wall reading ‘Phantom’, and it feels as if Daniel Craig’s 007 (or the villain Auric Goldfinger from 1964’s Goldfinger) could drop in at any minute.
And once I understand fully what’s being unveiled tonight, this heightened sense of drama feels justified. iFi has never been a simple black box company, even with its budget friendly efforts – this is, after all, the company that brought us DACs shaped like hip-flasks. And the all-new Phantom is every last millimeter a singular, unique and hugely specified machine.
So, if I’m reminded of the Rolls-Royce Phantom while gazing upon this piece of hi-fi tonight, that’s very much intentional on iFi’s part. The iFi iDSD is a formidable headphone amp, streamer and DAC, with 7000W of power. It is, the men in formal wear assure me, the pinnacle of what iFi can achieve – and I’m proud to say, they let me listen to it for a long time.
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(Image credit: Future)
The world is not enough
Top of the headline-grabbers (although it must be said, there are plenty here) is an all-new custom DSD2048 remastering engine: iFi’s Chrysopoeia FPGA-based solution. Essentially it’s the first of its kind to upscale like this to a consumer product, using a bespoke algorithm 18 months in the making.
Make no mistake, everything has been reworked for the Phantom. As iFi Chief Engineer Colin Farch tells us: “Each stage of development involved re-examining the circuit, measuring performance, and making improvements to cement it as the most accomplished iFi listening experience to date.”
The iDSD Phantom is still built on iFi’s continuing love affair with K2 and K2HD tech. This a mastering system is based on the human ear – it was conceived by JVC Kenwood many years ago in Japan, and iFi is the only company outside out JVC Kenwood to have access to the tech. Here, its particular studio-grade guise is unique for the iDSD Phantom.
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