iDSD Phantom

The result is a true all-in-one audio centrepiece that serves as the beating heart of your home setup, underpinned by a network streaming experience that incorporates native 768kHz PCM and DSD512 support. The PHANTOM unlocks your library across your whole home, allowing management and access to ultra-res digital audio from external hard drives, NAS drives, and more.

To preserve signal purity, the PHANTOM incorporates galvanic isolation on its Ethernet, S/PDIF, and AES/EBU inputs, separating it from sources at a circuit level to block electrical noise while allowing audio data to pass unimpeded. For further refinement, the PHANTOM offers iFi’s signature Exclusive Modes, which shut down unused system processes when streaming to improve operating efficiency and reduce the potential for signal noise.

The iFi Nexis companion app has also evolved to support Wi-Fi linking, making it easier than ever to connect and queue music to the PHANTOM from anywhere in your home.

The World Premiere of DSD2048
Native DSD excels at low-level resolution and time-domain behaviour; this philosophy has driven iFi’s previous successes in DSD Remastering technology, and they have recommitted to this by reworking and further customising this technology at every step of the signal’s journey through the conversion process.

For the first time, iFi’s Chrysopoeia FPGA-based Remastering Engine brings studiograde DSD2048 conversion into the living room. iFi uses this FPGA to apply proprietary remastering algorithms and reduce jitter, ensuring the DSD signal is clean, stable, and precisely timed before it reaches the conversion stage. The DSD bitstream is then directly converted to analogue using the same delta-sigma modulator that would be used in DSD recording. No digital filtering or volume control is applied to DSD – the latter is handled in the analogue domain, preserving the signal’s purity.

At the PHANTOM’s core, four Burr-Brown DSD1793 DACs operate in a custom interleaved configuration, drawing inspiration from the company’s experience with the legendary multi-bit Philips TDA1541A. In ‘Normal’ mode, DSD signals pass directly to the DAC while PCM signals go through a user-selected digital filter. In ‘Remastered’ mode, each DAC chipset processes up to DSD1024, and in their custom configuration they achieve native decoding that allows for DSD512, DSD1024, or the new pinnacle of DSD2048.

The result for the listener is that DSD Remastering deepens resolution and minimises distortion through its incredibly high sample rates. At DSD2048, the 1-bit stream is sampled ~90 million times per second, pushing quantisation noise far beyond the audio band for exceptionally low in-band distortion, unlocking a level of fidelity once reserved for only the world’s most prestigious mastering suites.

Three Voices. One PHANTOM.
Real-time user-selectable operation modes inside the PHANTOM delivers the experience of three DAC/amps in one. These options are provided courtesy of two entirely separate output topologies – one solid state, the other tube-based. Those familiar with the Pro iDSD will recognise the concept; the execution has been comprehensively re-engineered to exceed its predecessor at every level.

At the flick of a switch, listeners can move between a dual-mono Solid-State mode, where discrete J-FETs deliver lightning-fast precision and ultra-low distortion; a dualmono Tube mode, where hand-matched NOS GE5670 valves provide warmth and liquid smoothness; and Tube+, which reduces overall loop-gain to enhance the second harmonic by +6dB, pushing the tube character further still for greater body and a golden-era analogue feel.

These modes allow listeners to shape the character of their HiFi system or can instead be paired with the iDSD PHANTOM’s prodigious 7,747mW peak headphone output to craft the ideal synergy with your favourite cans.

Studio-Inspired Restoration
Digital masters found on today’s music platforms often lose the warmth and richness of their analogue origins, leaving listeners with music that is cold, clinical, and devoid of the emotion one should expect. In collaboration with JVCKENWOOD, the PHANTOM is the latest in iFi’s lineup to incorporate K2HD Technology. By restoring harmonic content lost during post-production or encoding, it revives the depth, nuance, and musicality of the original performance. The PHANTOM offers this technology in two forms: ‘K2’ mode preserves the file’s original resolution, while ‘K2HD’ optionally upscales it to 192kHz/24-bit.

Developed by JVC's engineers, K2HD Technology works to restore music close to its original master, infusing it with rich, natural harmonics lost during digitisation. To achieve this, JVCKENWOOD’s engineers meticulously analysed countless analogue masters with K2HD restored sound by ear, shaping the algorithm solely on experience and feel. This is what separates this processing from others; due to the emphasis on human approach and feel, it has an innately organic quality unlike any other.

Over the years, the principle of K2 was adapted and applied to CD mastering, where high-frequency information above 22kHz is typically removed due to the 44.1kHz sampling rate, and resolution is reduced 256 times when the bit depth is lowered from 24-bit to 16-bit.

The PHANTOM incorporates K2 parameters specially tuned by JVCKENWOOD for iFi, focusing on time-domain processing as opposed to frequency-domain adjustments. This approach allows for advanced high-frequency extension and minute signal (bit) extension, allowing both ‘K2’ and ‘K2HD’ modes to restore natural harmonics and overtones beyond 22kHz, and ultimately deliver audio that serves as a truer representation of the original master recording.

The Final Brushstrokes
Open-back designs are often the most sought after by audio connoisseurs and enthusiasts. However, they inherently carry with them a compromise wherein they trade bass extension for spacial openness. Depending on driver technology, size, and tuning, even closed backs can suffer from compromises in low-end performance.

XBass Pro is a fully analogue variable shelving EQ, available in 10, 20, and 40Hz options. Ideal for restoring the impact and bass response often lost in open-back headphones, it lifts low frequencies without clouding the midrange, and the range of settings ensures that this restoration can be tailored both to the headphone itself, and to the listener’s personal preference.

XSpace enhances the audio by creating a spacious sound field, adding speaker-like depth to the more two-dimensional headphone experience. Crossfeed is a generalised term frequently used for such processing; however, XSpace is not traditional Bauer/Linkwitz crossfeed, Meier enhanced crossfeed, or any of the published systems based on the same research and targets.

Instead, XSpace is its own system, derived largely from the targets set by the Ministry of Radio and TV in East Berlin, and their foray into headphone/speaker replay compatibility; their goal being to allow a signal recording to playback via speakers or headphones, while retaining good spatiality. The results are distinct from, and well in advance of, ‘crossfeed’ of all variants.

XSpace Pro is our most advanced form of the XSpace, recreating the spaciousness of speaker playback in greater detail and with greater customisability. With 30-, 60-, and 90-degree settings, listeners can choose the most natural, lifelike presentation for their setup.

To ensure that these features come at no cost to the overall listening experience, particularly clarity and low-noise performance, further circuit-level redesigns have been implemented.