IFi's new reference-class analogue headphone amplifier, the iCAN Phantom, takes the Pro iCAN, refines and improves every element of its circuitry to further elevate its performance, incorporates technology from the Pro iESL, formerly a separate component, for electrostatic headphones, and adds a new advanced user interface and networked control system. The result? A headphone amplifier truly worthy of its flagship status.
Exemplary build quality, sophisticated technology, unrivalled specification and remarkable versatility, expertly engineered to push every type of headphone to its full sonic potential. From ultra-sensitive IEM monitor in-ears to the finest dynamic and planar magnetic headphones and the most power-hungry electrostatic designs, the iCAN Phantom delivers a truly exceptional headphone experience, exquisitely tailored to the listener's requirements.
The iCAN Phantom also functions as a high-end preamplifier, to power a power amplifier and speakers (or active speakers), allowing headphone and speaker listening to be combined into a single high-performance audio system.
The iCAN Phantom's design gives the appearance of two units, but it is actually a single two-level device, whose full depth is fully utilised by its multi-layer circuit design. Its casing is solidly constructed from aluminium, with the bottom layer sporting front and rear cable connections, and the top layer offers touch controls and a colourful OLED display.
The top of the iCAN Phantom incorporates a recessed smoked glass panel that allows you to see the amplifier circuitry and its glowing audio tubes. Circular aluminium vents ensure that the circuitry inside does not overheat.
When not in use, the connectors on the front or rear can be hidden with a clean aluminium panel that is magnetically attached. This panel also contains the data cards for electrostatic bias voltage configuration. The iCAN Phantom also comes with an attractive, high quality and easy to use aluminium remote control.
The iCAN Phantom has two input stages, one tube-based and the other solid-state, allowing the user to switch between the two in real time - in effect, it's like having three amplifiers in one, each with a different sonic presentation.
Solid state offers rhythm and immediacy. Tube mode adds fluidity and a free-breathing dynamic quality. Tube+ accentuates the sonic influence of tubes, providing an intriguing romantic warmth that can be adapted to, for example, acoustic and vocal musical styles.
GE5670 tubes have an expected lifetime of around 10,000 hours of use. When it's finally time to replace them, the iCAN Phantom's smoked glass panel is easily removed to provide access, meaning the job can be completed in minutes. The amplifier is also compatible with 6922 tubes.
Most headphones create sound by using dynamic (or moving coil) drivers to move the air. A smaller number use planomagnetic diaphragms, which are different in shape and operation, but also use magnetic fields to generate movement. At the top end of the headphone scene, there is another rare but fabulous type of sound transducer: electrostatic headphones.
Electrostatic drivers need a separate energiser. The iCAN Phantom incorporates our original iESL separate energiser technology with regular amplifier technology to make a single amplifier that can drive any type of headphone with aplomb.
And all users benefit, as the quality of the components and intelligent circuit design required to deliver such a high level of performance with electrostatic headphones elevates the amplifier's performance with other types of headphones as well.
Electrostatic headphones have varying requirements for bias voltage. The iCAN Phantom has two outputs for electrostatics: one set at the "normal" 230V bias voltage, the other offering a user-selectable variable bias voltage between 500V and 640V. If the wrong voltage is selected, damage to the headphones is possible.
To make this much less likely, the iCAN Phantom has a series of data cards that specify different bias voltages (these are supplied with the amplifier). Simply select the card that matches the headphone specification and insert it into the card slot: there are cards for 500V, 540V, 580V, 600V, 620V and 640V, each with a handy guide on the back showing which brand of headphone is compatible with that voltage.
The iCAN Phantom is the first product to incorporate iFi Nexus, a module that combines with an app to provide a comprehensive and scalable networked control system.
The features offered by Nexus will grow over time. At launch, the Nexus app allows your Android or iOS device to act as a "super remote control" for the iCAN Phantom, providing access to additional functions that cannot be accessed through the amplifier's dashboard or standard remote control.
The application can display diagnostic information and allow the user to monitor the operating condition of the iCAN Phantom in real time, e.g. voltages, the condition and projected life of the vacuum valves, etc. It can also be used to apply wireless updates to the iCAN Phantom's firmware by downloading and installing update files via your home Wi-Fi network.
As the number of Nexus-compatible iFi devices grows and the functionality of the application expands, a network-connected iFi "ecosystem" will develop: one application for all your requirements, like a concierge service for iFi customers. It will allow additional software-driven functionality to be delivered and shared between existing iFi devices, as well as providing a direct technical support service and potentially even an online shop within the app.
The iCAN Phantom's capacitive battery power supply, originally developed for the Pro iESL, is intrinsic to its high level of performance. Instead of relying on a mains-powered switched-mode booster circuit, a large capacitor bank of 1000 Vdc rated film capacitors is charged and occasionally recharged by AC mains power. This "virtual battery pack" provides pure DC power, completely free of AC alternating current and switching noise: the perfect high-voltage supply for electrostatic headphones.
Balanced circuit design has long been considered the right path to audio excellence in high-end amplifier design, but the term "balanced" is used in different ways and does not always mean the same thing. The iCAN Phantom takes balanced circuit design to the extreme: fully differential from input to output, minimising noise and crosstalk in the signal path for maximum sonic purity.
Essentially, "fully differential" circuit design, or True Differential Balanced, as we call it, means that each channel (left and right) is completely separate in the circuit design, and each of these channels has two separate signals of the same level but opposite polarity (positive and negative). This requires four separate amplifier circuits, two for the left channel and two for the right channel, which are much more expensive and complex to implement than single-ended circuit designs, but the sonic dividends are worth it.
The iCAN Phantom's True Differential Balanced circuit is coupled to a volume control with six decks: two decks for each channel (positive and negative) and the final two decks are used to monitor the operation of the volume control. The motorised volume control potentiometer is custom-made by ALPS in Japan and is of exceptional quality.
The iCAN Phantom has several unique features that distinguish it from other headphone amplifiers. One such facility is the incorporation of two input stages, one tube-based and the other solid-state, allowing the user to switch between the two in real time. These input stages are completely separate, which means they can be kept short and direct for optimum purity rather than complicating the signal path (for example, by switching tubes in and out of a single circuit).
The all-discrete Class A solid-state input stage uses J-FETs, while the Class A circuitry of all valves features a pair of hand-selected, computer-matched General Electric 5670 valves, a premium variant of the 6922 valve. This stage has two user-selectable modes: Tube and Tube+. The latter minimises the overall loop gain and thus negative feedback, providing a different trade-off between natural valve harmonics and transient performance.
The iCAN Phantom includes two independent Space analogue matrices, one for headphones and one for loudspeakers, with automatic switching between the two.
XSpace for Headphones is designed to compensate for the "headphone localisation" effect that can occur when using headphones to listen to music that was mixed with a pair of speakers, effectively expanding the headphone soundstage to provide a more spacious, speaker-like experience. XSpace for speakers increases the width of the apparent soundstage beyond the width dictated by speaker placement.
Both forms of XSpace feature multiple levels that can be selected according to preference or completely disconnected from the signal path.
XBass is a proprietary analogue circuit and can be activated to enhance low frequencies, its sophistication allowing it to do so while maintaining bass definition and without muddying the midrange. This is useful, for example, with some open headphones that sound with a light bass; it "corrects" the bass so that the listener hears the low frequencies the artist intended. The iCAN Phantom offers three XBass steps: 10 Hz, 20 Hz and 40 Hz, or it can be disconnected from the signal path altogether.
Transformer quality is critical to sound quality, which is why the iCAN Phantom incorporates a custom-made PPCT (Permalloy Pinstripe Core Transformer). These incorporate a hybrid GOSS/Mu-Metal core and a complicated multi-section winding with both vertical and horizontal cuts, using an extremely thin conductor that is hand-wound with great precision. This transformer is capable of exceptionally wide bandwidth, ultra-low distortion and perfect linearity.
Three gain settings (0 dB, 9 dB and 18 dB) allow the amplifier to precisely match the connected headphones. Unity gain (0 dB) is useful for ensuring low noise with headphones and the most sensitive IEM in-ear headphones, while higher gain settings take full advantage of the heaviest headphone loads, providing excellent dynamic headroom.
This proprietary iFi circuitry attenuates the output to better match high-sensitivity IEMs (in-ear monitors), eliminating potential background noise and increasing the usable volume range. This can optionally be applied to the 3.5 mm and balanced 4.4 mm outputs.
The iCAN Phantom is an extraordinarily powerful headphone amplifier, capable of delivering more than 15,000 mW from its balanced outputs and more than 5,760 mW from its single-ended outputs into a 16-ohm load. In terms of voltage, it can deliver over 27V into a 600 ohm load; when it comes to electrostatic headphones it offers up to 640V.
Features:
- Amplifier for electrostatic and planar-magnetic headphones.
- Balanced circuitry with selectable tube or transistor output.
- Included card slot for optimising the adjustment of the connected headphones to the headphone.
- High quality iFi Power Elite external power supply.
- Balanced output power greater than 15,000 mW and unbalanced greater than 5,760 mW into 16 ohms.
- Maximum output voltage: 27V at 600 ohms.
- Electrostatic bias voltage: 500V, 540V, 580V, 600V, 620V and 640V (depending on headphone model)
- Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz (-3dB)
- Balanced headphone outputs: 1 x 3-pin XLR (L/R), 1 x 4-pin XLR and 1 x 4.4 mm.
- Unbalanced headphone outputs: 1 x 6.3 mm (positive phase), 1 x 6.3 mm (reversed phase), 1 x 3.5 mm (includes S-balanced technology to reduce distortion by 50%)
- Electrostatic headphone output: 1 x 5-pin normal bias and 1 x 5-pin custom bias.
- Pre-outs: 1 x balanced XLR (L/R) and 1 x RCA (L/R).
- Remote control.
