IFi – ZEN Air Phono

iFi ZEN Air Phono Preamplifier Delivers a Pure Listening Experience at an Amazing Price

You can enjoy a pure, powerful listening experience with the ZEN Air Phono, a reliable, super-affordable phono stage. A phono stage, also called a phono pre-amp, provides the connection between the record cartridge/pickup (stylus) and the amplifier.

Turntable cartridges output a very small signal. This signal needs amplifying up to several hundred times the original size before it is loud enough for your amplifier. A phono stage increases the signal level from millivolts to volts.

When vinyl was the standard for audio recording, the phono stage was built-in to receivers and amps, allowing direct connection of a turntable. These days most receivers and amps do not contain a phono stage so a separate unit is needed.

It is a necessity for any turntable without a phono stage already built in. It will also upgrade a basic built-in phono stage in a turntable or amplifier system.

Listening to music on vinyl is good for the soul. It sounds purer than listening to a track via your phone or computer. Make this experience purer still by reducing hiss, noise and rumble on your records with the ZEN Air Phono.

There are two kinds of turntable cartridge – Moving Magnet and Moving Coil – and the ZEN Air Phono works with both of them. The MM setting is for cartridges with an output voltage of 2mV and higher. The MC setting for outputs less than 2mV. You use the gain switch on the rear to change this setting. It also has a precise RIAA equalization setting to satisfy the most demanding vinyl lover.

As we all know, records can become warped with age. With the ZEN Air Phono any warp on your records will be driven away by our ‘subsonic filter’. Normal subsonic filters remove ‘rumble’ AND bass and cause phase issues. A unique AI phono sub-sonic filter removes ‘rumble’ only.

A custom OV Series operational-amplifier is incorporated. This top-notch component contributes to the extremely low noise, low distortion (0.0001%) and wide bandwidth.

TDK C0G (Class 1 ceramic) capacitors offer high stability and low losses for resonant circuit applications. Getting ever closer to the theoretical ideal of pure, frequency-constant capacitance, these capacitors reduce capacitor-induced distortion to vanishingly low levels.

Each ECPU capacitor is constructed from some 3,500 layers of ultra-thin dielectrics less than 0.5μm thickness. It offers class-leading Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR), low impedance and frequency stability and vanishingly low distortion.

And, like all Music Direct products, the iFi ZEN Air Phono preamplifier comes with the 100% Music Direct Satisfaction Guarantee.