The iCAN Phantom’s capacitive battery power supply, originally developed for the Pro iESL, is intrinsic to its high level of performance. Rather than relying on a mains-powered switched-mode step-up circuit, a large battery of film capacitors rated at 1,000V DC is charged and occasionally topped up using AC mains power. This ‘virtual battery pack’ delivers pure DC power, completely free from all AC and switching noise – the perfect high-voltage supply for electrostatic headphones.
Electrostatically good
Most headphones create sound by using dynamic (or moving coil) drivers to move air. A smaller number use planar magnetic diaphragms, which are different in form and operation, but still use magnetic fields to cause motion. At the high end of the headphone scene there is another, rare but fabulous sounding driver type – electrostatic headphones.
Electrostatic drivers need an separate energiser. The iCAN Phantom incorporates our original standalone iESL energiser technology with regular amplifier technology to make a single amplifier that can handle every headphone type with aplomb.
And all users benefit as the component quality and clever circuit design required to deliver such a high level of performance with electrostatic headphones elevates the amp’s performance with other headphone types too.
Every connection covered
The iCAN Phantom supplies a wide array of balanced and single-ended connection options. The headphone outputs are at the front, with the source inputs and preamp outputs at the rear. Here’s a summary:
Source inputs – 1x balanced XLR (L/R), 3x RCA (L/R)
Headphone outputs – 1x 3-pin balanced XLR (L/R), 1x 4-pin balanced XLR, 1x 4.4mm balanced, 1x 6.3mm (positive phase), 1x 6.3mm (inverted phase) and 1x 3.5mm (includes S-Balanced technology to cut distortion by 50 per cent)
Electrostatic headphone outputs – 1x 5-pin normal bias, 1x 5-pin custom bias
Preamplifier outputs – 1x balanced XLR (L/R), 1x RCA (L/R)
Essentially, ‘fully differential’ circuit design – or True Differential Balanced, as we call it – means that each channel (left and right) is fully separated in the circuit design, and each of these channels has two separate signals of equal level but opposite polarity (positive and negative). This requires four separate amp circuits, two for the left channel and two for the right channel – much more costly and complex to implement than single-ended circuit designs, but the sonic dividends are hugely worthwhile.
The iCAN Phantom’s True Differential Balanced circuitry is coupled to a volume control with six decks – two decks for each channel (positive and negative) with the final two decks used for monitoring the volume control operation. The motorised volume control potentiometer is custom-made by ALPS in Japan and is of exceptional quality.The iCAN Phantom sports several unique features that set it apart from other headphone amps. One such facility is the incorporation of two input stages – one valve/tube-based, the other solid state – enabling the user to switch between the two in real time. These input stages are entirely separate, which means they can be kept short and direct for optimal purity rather than complicating the signal path (for example, by switching valves in and out of a single circuit).
The fully discrete Class A solid-state input stage uses J-FETs, while the all-valve Class A circuit features a hand-selected, computer-matched pair of General Electric 5670 tubes, a premium variant of the 6922 tube. This stage has two user-selectable modes – Tube and Tube+. The latter minimises overall loop-gain and thus negative feedback, giving a different trade-off between the tube’s natural harmonics and the transient performance.
Three gain settings – 0dB, 9dB and 18dB – enable the amp to precisely match the connected headphones. Unity gain (0dB) is useful to ensure low noise with more sensitive headphones and IEMs, while the higher gain settings make the most of tougher headphone loads, delivering excellent dynamic headroom.
For dynamic and planar headphones and IEMs.
The iCAN Phantom includes two separate Space analogue matrices, one for headphones and the other for speakers, with automatic switching between the two.
XSpace for headphones is designed to compensate for the ‘in-head localisation’ effect that can occur when using headphones to listen to music that was mixed using a pair of speakers, effectively widening the headphone soundstage to deliver a more spacious and 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 may be selected according to preference or switched out of the signal path completely.
This proprietary iFi circuit attenuates the output to better suit high-sensitivity IEMs (in-ear monitors), removing potential background noise and increasing the usable volume range. This can be optionally applied to the 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs.
For dynamic and planar headphones and IEMs.
The iCAN Phantom is an extraordinarily powerful headphone amplifier, capable of delivering more than 15,000mW from its balanced outputs and more than 5,760mW from its single-ended outputs in a 16-ohm load. In terms of voltage, it can supply more than 27V into a 600-ohm load; when it comes to electrostatic headphones delivers up to 640V.
Χαρακτηριστικά:
- Gain: 0dB, 9dB and 18dB user-selectable
- Frequency Response: 0.5Hz to 500kHz(-3dB)
- THD + N: Solid-State Tube Tube+
- Balanced: ≤0.0015%, ≤0.002%, ≤0.012%
- Unbal : ≤0.007% , ≤0.006% , ≤0.2%
- SNR: Balanced: >145dB(A), UnBAL: > 130dB(A)
- Maximum^ Output Power: Balanced: >15,000mW (@ 16Ω), UnBAL: >5,760mW (@ 16Ω)
- Maximum^ Output Voltage: Balanced: >27.0V (@ 600Ω), UnBAL: >14.0V (@600Ω)
- RMS Output Power: Balanced: >9,030mW (@ 32Ω), UnBAL: >3,120mW (@ 32Ω)
- RMS Output Voltage: Balanced: >20.9V (@ 600Ω), UnBAL: >10.9V (@600Ω)
- ESL Output Voltage: Custom/Pro: 640V RMS max., Normal: 320V RMS max.
- Input voltage: DC 12V/4A or 15V/3A (Phantom iCAN)
- Input voltage: AC 85 – 265V, 50/60Hz (iPower Elite)
- Power consumption: < 27W idle, 75W max
- Dimensions: 256 × 185 × 120 mm (10.1″ x 7.3″ × 4.7″)
- Net weight: 4.2 kg (9.3 Ibs)
- Limited Warranty: 12 months