Micro iPhono2 - Only everything has been improved

[iFi audio]

Hiya,

Just wanna check if anyone has the same problem with me, i have a iphono2 and unfortunately im not sure if my settings are wrong for pro jet debut carbon but there is a long droning sound when i plug into:

Iphono 2 to centrance dacmini px then to speakers. Every time i turn on the power to iphono 2 my ears almost burst. Tried connecting to another power socket but also the same results i suspect the ifi power might be faulty maybe i wasnt able to test at stereo in singapore as they dont sell turntables before i left the shop.

In the same power sockets i do play the same turntable connected to ps audio sprout and sounds fine connected to passive speakers and was hoping iphono2 to be an upgrade over my existing setup.

 
Hi,
 
Our tech guys can only guess from afar, but they asked us to pass on that that there seems there is a missing Earth connection.
 
- The Amp (dacmini px) uses an external 19V Brick, our PSU has no earth, so needs an earth somewhere.
 
- Otherwise everything is floating and the shielding of neither Amp nor Phono works which is not good for a Phono stage where millivolts are amplified.
 
Feel free to open a Support Ticket and we'll try our best to trouble shoot the vinyl setup.
 
http://support.ifi-audio.com/
 
Cheers.

 

[manualvin]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply Ifi team, I'm a bit surprised there is no earth in the psu. Is there any recommendation on how to solve the problem either with the psu or my current setup. Does it mean I need another power amp?

There is no feedback as well from any other user I can't be the only one who bought the iPhono 2? Regardless still a big fan of idsd micro and iUSB3.0 which I own but am regretting the money I put in, perhaps I should have gone for Ifi SE instead. Morale of the story might be to test before I buy next time at a retailer who at least have a turntable setup.

BR,
Manualvin

 

[Rob N]

No problems with my unit

 

[JoeyGS]

Try providing a ground wire from the iphono2 grounding lug and connecting it into a grounded location

 

[rickyleelee]

Try providing a ground wire from the iphono2 grounding lug and connecting it into a grounded location

Because this guy has no ground and you have ground? I'm guessing.

 

[manualvin]

In the iPhono 2 ground attachment I had unscrewed the ground connection and attached the wire provided. Maybe it has to do with my connections using this grounding.

Is it correct to connect the ground cable for phono RCA cable from pro jet with the terminating end to be connected to the iPhono 2 grounding?

 

[iFi audio]

In the iPhono 2 ground attachment I had unscrewed the ground connection and attached the wire provided. Maybe it has to do with my connections using this grounding.

Is it correct to connect the ground cable for phono RCA cable from pro jet with the terminating end to be connected to the iPhono 2 grounding?

 
Hi,
 
Best you are the support techs to look at your system as they will need to ask you to describe the earth connections.
 
http://support.ifi-audio.com/
 
Cheers.

 

[VladTheImpala]

Having the same issue. Owned the iPhono for over a year and never had any problems other than the standard issue everyone knows about - it was picking up radio signals like crazy and was sensitive to placement as a result. Since I upgraded to the iPhono2, it has been a nightmare. I have spent 95% of the time I should be enjoying music trying to figure out how to get rid of this annoying ground hum that just WILL NOT GO AWAY no matter what I do.

I am starting to think I have a defective unit. I'm not doing anything different than what I was doing with the original iPhono (connect my TT to the inputs, then connect the outputs to an analog-to-digital converter which is not connected to anything else but sends an optical cable to a PC sound card), and I had never experienced a grounding loop type of hum with the original iPhono even once, but with the iPhono2, it's constantly there and I can't get rid of it. I can do various things to make it sound worse or better, but I cannot get rid of it no matter what I do. I've been fussing about this for the past three months and have tried everything. Grounding the iPhono2 to the analog-to-digital converter helps a little but does not get rid of the hum, disconnecting the source/turntable does nothing - the ground loop is there when there is no source plugged into the iPhono2. Connecting an actual ground to the ground post makes the hum way, way worse.

Weird thing is, there has been a couple of occasions, maybe two days out of the past 3 months that I owned this thing, that there was no hum. I have no idea why because I was not doing anything different, but one day the hum is there, another day it's not. But I don't want to give the impression that it's 50/50, because it's more like 99.9/0.1 - there were only two occasions when the hum wasn't there, but when I study the recordings I made on that day, it's clear that hum is not completely gone, it's just very very quiet. So even on those couple of occasions when I thought the hum was gone, it wasn't, it was just very quiet.

Anyone else experience similar issues?

 

[iFi audio]

 

Anyone else experience similar issues?

 
May we ask you to open an enquiry with the Support Ticket System?
 
http://support.ifi-audio.com/open.php
 
The techies will only be too glad to work through your turntable system. Absolutely no sweat.

 

[VladTheImpala]

Okay I will do that, thanks!

 

[iFi audio]

   
(connect my TT to the inputs, then connect the outputs to an analog-to-digital converter which is not connected to anything else but sends an optical cable to a PC sound card), 
 

 
 
Our support tech guys asked us to pass on this observation:
 
"No earth, due to using an optical cable. Use a Coax Cable or USB, the noise should disappear!"
 

 

[VladTheImpala]

Noise is still there regardless of connection to analog-to-digital converter, so the ADC is definitely not the culprit. It also never exhibited any issue of this kind with the original iPhono. Just to be sure, I connected a pair of headphones directly to iPhono2's RCA outs (cutting out the ADC entirely) and listened to the unamped signal coming from the RCA outs on the iPhono2, and the noise is still there. No source was plugged in to the iPhono2 while I tested this. The hum was just as loud as always, but here's something interesting: it was reduced when I grounded myself to the iPhono2's ground post, but did not go away completely. What seemed to work best was touching the negative leads on the headphone cable off the iPhono2's ground post. That seemed to reduce the noise significantly, but I am not sure if it was entirely gone because the signal was unamplified. 

When I get home in a few hours I will try a couple of more things that I have not yet tried - grounding the PC chassis to the ADC, grounding the negative leads on the RCA outs of the iPhono2. I can also try other things, like grounding the ADC to an actual ground, but not grounding the iPhono2 to anything other than the ground wire on the phono cable.

Will update later.

Thanks

 

[VladTheImpala]

I have solved the issue. Grounding the negative leads on the iPhono's RCA outs to a real ground did the trick. For some reason, using the ground post on the iPhono made it worse. Grounding the outsides of both of the RCA outs was what needed to be grounded. Strange. But I finally have quiet playback so I am very happy. There is now a washing machine type of noise when I turn it all the way up, which is probably DC noise somewhere in the power lines, but otherwise it is totally quiet.

Thanks iFi team. I'll close the ticket

 

[iFi audio]

  I have solved the issue. Grounding the negative leads on the iPhono's RCA outs to a real ground did the trick. For some reason, using the ground post on the iPhono made it worse. Grounding the outsides of both of the RCA outs was what needed to be grounded. Strange. But I finally have quiet playback so I am very happy. There is now a washing machine type of noise when I turn it all the way up, which is probably DC noise somewhere in the power lines, but otherwise it is totally quiet.

Thanks iFi team. I'll close the ticket

 
Sure great. Will pass on the message. Grounding issue can be solved in any number of ways! Just needed a ground. Glad it is solved. Vinyl is very finicky!

 

[manualvin]

Hi,

Mind to share pictures of how you ground the real outs?

Thanks!