Choose the ‘magic’ of SET, Push-Pull or Classic Tube sound – three different sonic signatures. There is no right or wrong, it’s whatever you prefer!
Still feel there’s something missing from your music? Playlist a little lack-lustre?
Try the iTube2 – bring the warmth of ‘tubes’ into your home.
The magic of tubes
The micro iTube2 is a tubed output stage, preamp, buffer and impedance matching device, all rolled into one.
Put simply, whether you are listening to vinyl, CD or a digital stream, it will add depth, bass and personality to your playlist.
Spoilt for choice.
At iFi, we love giving you options and the iTube2 is no exception.
With the iTube2, you have a choice of three key sonic signatures:
- Single-Ended Triode
- Push-Pull Tube
- Classic Tube
There is no right or wrong. It’s all down to what you prefer.
Sonic-tuning
And the choices continue. We’ve add our own exclusive optional ‘sonic fining-tuning extras to add further nuances to your listening.
xBass+® cleans and restores the bass to give you a richer, deeper sound and 3D+® opens up your music to bring a live-concert atmosphere into your living room.
Hear the difference
Why did we give you a tube amp? You know how much we love them here at iFi and we know some of you do, too.
We feel the iTube2 delivers that special tube sound – it adds warmth, removes hardness and adds emphasis to instruments and vocals.
Give it a whirl in your set-up. Hear the difference.
Only the best tube for our products. The GE5670 made by General Electric. Nothing comes close for quality.
An important aspect of the circuit design is its direct-coupled nature (no coupling capacitor is present), achieved without a conventionally applied DC servo.
DirectDrive® equals a direct signal path which means less signal degradation. This direct signal path is unequalled in audio and is the reason why the sound is so ‘true’.
Support
| Tube: | NOS GE 5670×1 |
| Maximum output: | > 7.75V (>+20dBu) |
| SNR: | 119dB(A) re. 2V, buffer, 0dB Gain |
| DNR: | 131dB(A) re. +20dBu, buffer, 0dB Gain |
| THD & N: | < 0.009% (re. 2V, buffer, 0dB Gain, A- weighted) |
| Frequency Response: | < 10Hz -to > 200kHz (-1dB) 20Hz – 20kHz (+/-0.003dB) |
| Input impedance: | 1M ohm Direct Tube Buffer 100k ohm Pre-Amplifier with Volume Control |
| Output stage output impedance: | <1 ohm |
| Corrected output impedance: | <150 ohm |
| Input voltage: | AC 100-240V, 50/60Hz |
| Power consumption: | <4W idle, 10W max |
| Dimensions: | 175(l) x 67 (w) x 28 (h) mm |
| Weight: | 278g (0.61lbs) |
Reviews
IFI Audio, iTube2 , buffer, intermediario. Interesante adición económica?
Watch the full review here…
(Click name to read original review)
iFi Itube2 class A Tube/Preamp/Buffer Overview of a Blooming Flower ?
(Click name to read original review)
Audiophile quality
This buffer is beyond incredible. At first I wasn’t sure about it, but I am glad I gave it some time to break in. I am powering my Polk LSIM 707 towers with a Peach Tree Audio class D amp. The amplifier is powerful but wasn’t warm enough. This tube buffer made the sound perfect. Huge sound stage, punchy bottom end.
It actually made my towers blend better with my subwoofer. I am a picky audiophile. Trust me, you will love this device. Play with the settings. As amazing as my audio sounded before, it took the overall sound quality to a much higher level. Make sure you give it about 50 hours to break in before you get the true sound quality.
(Click name to read original review)
Gigantic Improvement – Mind Blown
The iTube2 is an amazing piece of gear.
I run it in the loop of a Peachtree Nova 300, through a pair of 4 ohm Tekton Pendragons. I use it in tube buffer mode w 9dB gain.
It came in the mail yesterday. I plugged it in last night and was utterly unimpressed. In A/B comparison, it seemed to do absolutely nothing.
I left it on all night. I woke up today wondering if I could get a refund.
Then I tried it again and was absolutely knocked out by the improvement in soundstage, punch, immediacy, mids and highs clarity & overall awesomeness.
Read more…
(Click name to read original review)
A little spice.
Perfect for my application! Have a solid state pre-amp that needed some flavor. This unit did the trick without extra noise and distortion. Some feel the change is subtle. I found it to be just the right amount. IFI has some clever engineers.
(Click name to read original review)
best system enhancement ever
The addition of the Ifi iTube 2, has made my setup perfect and adds a flexibility for me to experiment. I am running an Airist Audio R-2R Dac hooked up to a THX AAA-789 heapdhone amplifier. This makes for a very analytical and dynamic setup that I do love. However, some headphones that I also love are a bit on the lean side of bass. Adding the iTube 2 in the mix has allowed me to enjoy these headphones for all music i push through it.
I set the bass to +12, regular amount of 3d+, and set the tube type to classic when I use my sony mdr-ex1000 IEMs. This is such a blast.
I have some Koss esp-950 electrostatic headphones. These are very resolving and clean to the max. For electrostats, these are known to be more tuned like loudspeakers. With this in mind they don’t have a very wide soundstage but have very good instrument placement. These too are a little light on bass. I set the bass boost to 6db, regular amount of 3d+ and set the tube type to classic.
(Click name to read original review)
Buffer
A buffer amplifier (sometimes simply called a buffer) is one that provides electrical impedance transformation from one circuit to another, with the aim of preventing the signal source from being affected by whatever currents (or voltages, for a current buffer) that the load may be produced with.
Impedance matching
Impedance represents the opposition that an electronic component offers to an alternating and/or direct electric current.
Impedance matching is when a device ensures that the maximum power transfer from an amplifier, for example, matches the impedance of the source.
SET / Push-Pull / Tubes
A single-ended triode (SET) is a vacuum tube electronic amplifier that uses a single triode to produce an output. This doesn’t ‘split’ the music signal and the music’s ‘pure’ nature remains intact.
A push-pull amplifier uses a pair or more of tubes/devices to generate an output. This splits the signal and then puts it together again. Some argue that the signal is not put back together with the exact purity it had to begin with.
Some feel that tube amps which deliver a classic tube sound create a warmer, more musical tone.
