Competition Closed...but what is in the Retro – Stereo 50?

[Tony Foran]

Mine unit has always have some pops and clicks in the first 10-15 minutes after it turns on. The pops disappear once the tubes are completely warmed up. It used to have a non-regular pop and click sound mid song, but the problem was solved by replacing a whole set of tubes.

Did you replace your power tubes with the mysterious "EL84Xs"? Are they Sovtek EL84Ms ?

 

[aerosuffly]

Did you replace your power tubes with the mysterious "EL84Xs"? Are they Sovtek EL84Ms ?

EL84Xs. I also replaced the ECF82 tubes and actually found that those were what caused the pops. The new EL84X did lower the noise floor.

 

[Tony Foran]

Sent it in the iFi and they fixed it under warranty even though it was three years old. Updated the board and volume pot, too.
I was using a SS receiver while it was gone and man what a difference ! This really is a sweet little amp.

 

[aerosuffly]

Sent it in the iFi and they fixed it under warranty even though it was three years old. Updated the board and volume pot, too.
I was using a SS receiver while it was gone and man what a difference ! This really is a sweet little amp.

Congrats! iFi always have very good service.

Did they say what cause the problem on you unit? I had popping on the right channel again this past weekend. Luckily I still have replacement tubes that they sent to me under a warranty awhile ago, so I replaced one of the tube, and that fixed the problem. But if I might send in the unit if the issues come back.

 

[Tony Foran]

Congrats! iFi always have very good service.

Did they say what cause the problem on you unit? I had popping on the right channel again this past weekend. Luckily I still have replacement tubes that they sent to me under a warranty awhile ago, so I replaced one of the tube, and that fixed the problem. But if I might send in the unit if the issues come back.

No, they just said they updated to current specs and replaced a board.

 

[aerosuffly]

No, they just said they updated to current specs and replaced a board.

Current Specs? Maybe @iFi audio can clarify on this. I never heard of different specs of the Retro 50.

 

[jaco61]

Can this unit drive audio physic yara floorstanders (90 db, 4 ohm) poperly?
I just use the Ican micro and I love it... If the retro could drive my speakers I am pretty curious

 

[Matez]

Can this unit drive audio physic yara floorstanders (90 db, 4 ohm) poperly?
I just use the Ican micro and I love it... If the retro could drive my speakers I am pretty curious

This is something that should be tried out before anything happens. In theory it should be fine, I think. But the real question is about correctness of specs you provided. And we are speaking of Yara and not Yara II, right?

 

[Tony Foran]

Can this unit drive audio physic yara floorstanders (90 db, 4 ohm) poperly?
I just use the Ican micro and I love it... If the retro could drive my speakers I am pretty curious

I use the Stereo 50 with Nola Contenders, which are 90 db and it works great.

 

[jaco61]

Thank you for the fast replies! The AP are the very first Yara floorstanders (not Yara II etc.). I will try it out, there is a Retro 50 sold private for 700.- Euros just one year old with a set extra tubes.... For this price I have to try it. I will give a review then.

 

[Matez]

Thank you for the fast replies! The AP are the very first Yara floorstanders (not Yara II etc.). I will try it out, there is a Retro 50 sold private for 700.- Euros just one year old with a set extra tubes.... For this price I have to try it. I will give a review then.

The very first Yaras had their measured efficiency around 88 dB vs declared 90 dB. It might work. Please let us all know as this is interesting!

 

[jaco61]

... sorry I cannot deliver a review with the Retro 50. I decided now to stay with my actual equipment.

 

[Tony Foran]

I finally swapped out the power tubes and fixed the pops. I pulled the jumpers and put in JJs.

 

[Elwood86]

Hi all,

An update after a long time.
Sorry for the bad english but I’ll do my best.

It seems that it does work after all with a speaker I tried before.

I searched for a long time for different speakers and couldn’t find anything really satisfying.
So I thought maybe I should buy another amplifier.
I went with a friend to a couple of audio dealers here in the Netherlands.
We listened at a dealer to a Devialet 220 pro with B&W 804D3 and 803D3.
That sounded really nice. But I was missing something. And that was timbre the instruments didn’t sound really life like as on the stereo 50.
Like real saxophone or piano. Overall the sound was really good!! But it didn’t had that real instrument sound thing!
So that wasn’t really my thing and don’t get me wrong I know that this set ups are for most people really dream set ups for a lot of money but we really tried to listen with an honest ear. We also heard a lot of difference in the quality of recording. The source was via tidal hifi true an expensive streamer. The session was like three hours so we heard enough!



After a few months my friend did a demo at some audio dealer with his girl friend, they listened to kef ls50 and b&w cm6 s2. Hè really liked the sound of the b&w so hè bought them. Hè invited me for a listen session. He used an onkyo integrated surround amp in stereo mode. The sound was really nice and you could really here the benefits of the separated tweeter on top. It gives a really nice effect to the highs! But again no good timbre! So I asked if it was okay to bring my amp for a test. As you all know or may have read on the internet B&W isn’t really tube friendly and a bit hard to drive. So it could be a bad combo!
But that wasn’t the case. We switched between amps. The retro had that life like sound and It drove the B&W’s perfect! Also at loud volume! So that was a very good match! Also good control! My friend bought ride away another amp. He bought an NAD 368. This sounded way better than the onkyo. But still the retro sounded better. More life like, like with Nils Lofgren the guitar sounded more real and my friend agreed. Don’t get me wrong it’s also taste. The NAD does a very good job but the sound is just really different! But believe me if you like a more analog sound and more timbre you will like the retro more. For more info we used as source for testing an MacBook Pro Retina connected with usb to the amps and played with audirvana latest version at that moment and tried DSD and high res audio files also Qobuz for streaming.



At home I play more vinyl on a clear audio concept table with AT 150mlx which isn’t available anymore. But than something very sad happened. My retro broke, It didn’t get into the heat up mode anymore or It took a very long time. So I contacted IFI about this but poor me my guarantee was over. But I could sent it in and for around 400 euro they would fix it and upgrade the chipboard and install new tubes. So I did this and after a week I got it back. First listing was a bit surprising because it sounded a bit harsh but also different. Not in a bad way. But after I will when the tubes where used for a longer time it started to open more up. And the sound was very good again! But I had some problems with the new tubes that seem to broke fast again. But thanks to ifi they send me new tubes and now it’s ok!! I can only say very good service!!



But enough with the bull crap I still don’t have my speakers!! So I went to the audio show here in holland at XFI. This is an big audio show where all the big brands come like Devialet, bowers, McIntosh, audioresearch and more.. very nice we listened to a lot of combo’s also the new 700 series from bowers but they used rotel and I think this isn’t a good match but I understand it’s from the same house so I think that’s the reason. Also heard 802d3 with Macintosh, sounds very good! But not very special. A lot of loud only and not very much timbre!! Also heard Devialet again there but also not a very good sound afterall. That wasn’t the amp but the speakers (Davone) who did that, we asked to play London Grammar latest album with Bitter Sweet Symphony live, there was a good presentation but the voice sound was very bad. The new top amp from marantz pm10 and q acoustic concept 500 I did like! Good sound!

Devialet

But after all the bla bla.. today it happened.. I had a day off and contacted my audio dealer if I could come in for listening and bring my amp and turntable. This was ok and we spoke about if I also could listen to some other amps he had there a Devialet 120. So when I came in we first listened at the Devialet with q acoustic concept 500 and spinned London grammar on my turntable (I brought my own vinyl) very good sound! So now the little tube amp against the top Devialet. Lol!! This was amazing to my ears it sounded better!! And it drove the q acoustics very good!! The dealer also said wow! I didn’t expect this! And good to know this dealer didn’t sold me the amp and also no ifi. Don’t get me wrong. The Devialet sounds really good! But the retro is just more analog. Same bass presentation. Shame it wasn’t the new Devialet 130 pro because I would like to test this to.
So I asked the dealer if he had any other speakers there. So than he said I have something special the Kii Audio three. I just listened 3 tracks on this active speaker! It sounded really good!! But it is an totally different sound than the Devialet or the ifi retro! Very clean!! But not my taste! But really special and very good sound!! But not very analog to my ears! So than next!



Audiovector SR3 Avantgarde Arreté




This was the next speaker the dealer came with and we tried it first on the retro. This sounded very good. The dealer was surprised and said I didn’t think that this amp could drive this speakers. But it did and the sound was perfect! I found my speakers! The timbre was there! A lot of detail, beautiful bass! But I also wanted to hear it with the Devialet. Sam was configured and also the at150mlx for the phono pre. The Devialet sounded very nice! But to my taste the was retro better. For me this was really surprising. I didn’t expect this and I know that if you have speakers that are to hard to drive the Devialet will be the better one. After all I read about the Devialet I thought this was the best amp ever. But now i’m very glad I didn’t sold my retro! Just find that right speaker and it will rock your audio heaven! I asked the dealer what he thought about it after we finished listening. He told me that he would stay with the Stereo 50, with the retro the audiovectors sounds better than with the Devialet.
And than we didn’t speak about the price difference. For the info, we didn’t play digital on the retro, phono only. So I didn’t test with the dac in the retro vs dac in Devialet. What we did test was the phono in the Devialet vs dac in the Devialet, phono sounded best. For digital we used tidal streamed via bluesound node 2.

 

[XjunkieNL]

@Elwood86 great to hear your experience.
i'm still looking for a new set of speakers, this certainly helps.
by the way I heard a rumor the production of the Retro50 will stop soon, and a new model, without EL84s, will be introduced.