audiofun

As an early adopter of the iTube I took note of your comments. I have a system composed of Analog and digital and before the iTube I found that I loved the use of my (2) MFA Reference Preamplifiers in my (2) systems. One of the units was the full MFA Reference and the other was the Baby Reference. The costs of these units were USD$16k and $9k respectively. I found them to be indispensable in my system for the fullness and beauty they brought to the overall gestalt of the musical performance. Nothing I had listened to was able to supplant them including the ARC Ref Anniversary Pre, Allnic..,etc. The possible exception was the USD $24k Concert Fidelity Pre with about $1.4k worth of pinched waist Holland 6DJ8's installed All this to say, that when the iTube came along, I sold both MFA units.., the Baby Ref first but then, later, I finally realized (and reluctantly faced the fact) that the iTube was more transparent than even my MFA Reference TVC. With the iTube came all the beauty of the MFA units with the absolute transparency of Pure Music's 64 bit volume control. I am unclear what distortion you speak of; I am sure you are aware that harmonics and distortion are NOT synonymous. A harmonic is simply an integer multiple of the fundamental and the original signal would have harmonics (i.e. be made up of integer multiples of the fundamental) a distortion is just that.., a malformation of the original whether it be a signal or an object. Did you measure the input vs output of the iTube in order to determine the distortion you mentioned. I have an active system (actually 2 active system) and the one in which I am using the iTube is composed of a Graaf Modena, a Reimyo PAT777 and a set of Acoustic Reality custom bass amplifiers driving a custom active 3 way loudspeaker. I drive it with an AMR DP777 and a Artisan Fidelity Next Gen 3 turntable (based on a Technics SP10 MK3 TT) with a Kuzma 4Point and Ortofon MC Anna cartridge. The sound IMHO is glorious. No way anyone would be allowed to remove the iTube from my system. I use it in buffer mode with presents a 1 mega ohm input impedance to my source and I use the 3D Holographic feature to great affect and judging from my buddies (universal appeal). Have you listened to the iTube and personally heard this "distortion" you wrote of? You may find the actual measurements performed by a very competent indivdual in the following link interesting: http://www.head-fi.org/products/ifi-audio-itube/reviews/9473 Selected text from the above link: "Surprisingly, the impact of iTube, at least on graph, seems to be fairly minimum. Yes, it is noisier with the iTube, but we are talking about 0.001% of difference in THD and 0.004% in IMD+Noise, plus less than 2dBA in overall noise level. The numbers are small enough that I have to wonder how valid they will be in actual listening. As far as the frequency response goes, iTube is as flat as it can be, at least when the Digital Antidote Plus is not engaged (*but we will leave that discussion to the next section)." Looking forward to your response. best regards... audiofun