Icon Audio PS3 MkII Signature Pure Valve Phono Pre-Amplifier
I’m fascinated by phono stages, or, more accurately, ‘phono preamplifiers’. I commonly use the term ‘phonostage’, and will do so herein.
I can remember back, after a flirtation with the ingenue Compact Disc, I bought a cheap, 2nd hand Direct Drive Sony Turntable. I can’t remember what I used as a phonostage. But, I do remember the exact moment when listening to the Sony I knew I had been missing something compared to the early, heady days of the CD and my burgeoning audiophilia.
First on the Sony platter was a beaten up, unremarkable CBS pressing of Murray Perahia playing Mozart Piano Concerto K503. I’m not sure what ‘it’ was, but it was something. Something in the timbre, something in the music’s communication. The soul of the performance was present. Immediately, I was involved. I had musical skin in the game rather than listening to a CD, admiring from above the platform.
This presence was heard even more easily when comparing my entry-level Yamaha CD player, which was brash and unmusical. I was very inexperienced. And more than a little confused by the CD hype and the negative comments about vinyl.
Experience is everything, and, as they say, the rest is history.
Decades later, I’m blessed with a Bergmann Audio Magne Turntable (10th Anniversary Magne on its way from Denmark for review) hooked to one of the world’s great phonostages, the Allnic Audio H-7000 LCR and equally blessed with a Pure Fidelity Eclipse Turntable and Icon Audio PS1 MkII Phono Preamplifier, which, at $2400, is many times cheaper than the $16,500 Allnic, but still very fine in its delivery of LP sound. I use it primarily as my mono rig phono, with its rare and wonderful mono switch.
So, after the PS1 review, Warren Lavender of Audioarcan asked if I’d like to review next in line to Icon’s phono throne, the PS3 MkII. An immediate reply, yes.
Note: The model I received for review is Ikon designer/owner David Shaw’s ‘Signature Edition’ (see prices for standard and Signature below).
The Signature upgrade on the PS3 MkII consists of the following: 1 David Shaw white ceramic base CV181 (6SN7), 4 Genalex (Russian) ECC88 (6922) tubes and Mundorf capacitors (this five tube and capacitor upgrade can be ordered from the Icon Audio UK factory as a Signature Model or added by Audioarcan to a PS3 MkII Standard as a future upgrade).
The PS3 MkII MM/MC Standard comes with a David Shaw brown base tube, 4 Asian ECC88 tubes and less expensive/standard caps.
Prices are: Icon Audio PS3 MkII Standard $4,100; Icon Audio PS3 MkII Signature $4,695. Like the PS1, both PS3 versions are MM and MC and feature a mono switch and ‘volume knob’ gain.
My unit(s) with ‘David Shaw Signature Edition’ plate.
My Use
The PS3 MkII arrived shipshape from the Barrie, Ontario, Audioarcan office. It’s very easy to setup. Be careful of the delicate tops of the tubes. They snap easily. The units are connected by the supplied umbilical, attach cables, place in a roomy rack and you’re ready to go. The unit (I’ll talk in singular terms, but you know it’s two chassis) had a few hours on it and I put on a full day of Mozart 39 every 30 minutes. Then, I was ready to listen.
The manual is comprehensive, but, oh my, the Icon Audio website. Please redo. It’s functional, but that’s about it. Components of such excellence and value deserve the very best web standards for present and prospective customers.
Icon describes the qualities and features of the PS3 MkII this way:
We use a large power transformer and a EZ80 valve rectifier followed by two large chokes for very smooth power. This is regulated by the excellent EL84 valve controlled by a 12AX7 for the very accurate smooth voltage necessary for true high end performance. The preamplifier unit uses a unique circuit using 4x ECC88 to get the high gain and low noise for excellent detail and soundstage. There are inputs for two turntables, with a moving coil option using our own ‘in house’ designed and manufactured moving coil transformers. The PS3 MkII has an unusually large output (1,260 mv) this with internal ALPs volume control enables direct coupling and control of many power amplifiers.
Loading? Read more about David Shaw’s choice of one loading impedance each for MM and MC (47k MM, 100 ohms MC) in my review of the PS1. Happily, all 4 of my reference cartridges are more than happy at 100 ohms.
Specifications
• Signal to noise ratio 88db MM
• Separate Power supply for lower noise
• All hand wired point to point
• No printed circuit board to colour the sound
• All Triode valves
• Sensitivity: 3mv for 1.26v output (0.3mv MC)
• Gain MM 53db MC 72db (my use was MC at the full 72dB)
• Output source impedance 50 ohms
• RIAA Freq response 20hz-20khz +0 – 0.5db
• NO feedback used for RIAA
• Solen/SCR audio capacitors, Mundorf upgrade option
• Silver PTFE audio cable
• Gold plated Input/output terminals
• 220/240volts (also 117v)
• Pre-amp 15.5cmW, 33D, 17H*, 3.6kg
• Power Supply 15.5cmW, 30D 17H 6.4kg
• Packed: 40cmx40cmx28cm (0.044CM) 11.5kg
Sound
Gauging the qualities of the PS3’s sound was simple compared to many others that hide secrets in their topology and nooks and crannies of uneven soundstages. The PS3 was a straight shooter. Enviable imaging, wonderfully wide and deep soundstages with timbral accuracy. Phonostage aficionados will recognize the tubey goodness immediately. But like all wonderful tube phonos, they marry beautiful timbre with admirable clarity. Tubey it is, tubby, it’s not.
Many vinylphiles prefer the one special component in a comprehensive system to be a tubed phonostage. I’ve heard some duds. And for big bucks. I’ve also heard some solid state gems. In fact, my main comparison with this Icon price wise was my long time reference Sutherland Engineering DUO Phono Preamplifier, a $4000 jewel of a component. It had everything I was listening for with only the Allnic H-7000, a super reference, long-term loan beating it on all audiophile fronts. Leveraged by the $12,500 price difference and vaunted LCR topology.
So, let’s put to bed any notion of a $4,695 phono stage trouncing or matching the Allnic. The H-7000 is a chart topper; industry leader. It has explosive dynamics and sweetness when whisper quiet. No repertoire fazes it and has the best timbral accuracy I know. So accurate, I can tell what time of day I recorded certain tracks or movements on a recording; specifically, my embouchure reacts far differently after noon than early morning calls, where I really have to work it.
With that out of the way, I can report to you rich orchestral music on the Icon Audio PS3 MkII sounded divine. Beautiful midrange with great bass and a treble to match the Sutherland DUO, its particular strength. Compared to its $2000 cheaper PS1 sibling, the PS3 gave me more quality in all the important phono metrics. And unlike some of those aforementioned over-priced phonos, the Icon never crapped out (soundstage implosion) at very loud levels. In fact, some of the out-of-nowhere explosive brass dynamics on the Masterpieces by Ellington reissue (1950 mono recording), a recording I didn’t know previously, scared the living poop out of me!
The opening of the Reiner Pictures is always first on the turntable for phono tests. Bud Herseth’s famous trumpet sound perfectly placed in barrel shaped Orchestra Hall, back right, then as the full brass chorale enters, the balance is, like the players’ intonation, flawless. The PS3’s bloom and magical tonal qualities ensured listening was a continuous musical delight. As heard via the very best, I could hear the ppp 4th horn wobble on his muted low Db in bar 4 of ‘Gnomus’. Many phono stages miss that X-ray. Reiner missed it, too. The Allnic, Sutherland and both Icons do not. Quality.
Also instructive, the first bar of ‘Limoges Market’, with Ravel’s (not Mussorgsky’s piano original) four dynamic markings on the horns at very fast speed—each beat successively softer (ff f mf p). Some phonos can’t keep up to Ravel’s orchestration or the players’ brilliance. No worries for the PS3. All in a days work. Technically, David Shaw’s design is a tour de force.
So, great on the big stuff, what about solo piano and simple voice, both acid tests for immediacy and emotion? Equally fine. It won’t dissolve on large scale works and be as intimate as you like when quiet dynamics are in play. Master pianist Alfred Brendel’s Philips releases are amazingly consistent. And the PS3 replicates each with as much accuracy as Brendel achieves in his playing. So, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann or Schubert piano works sound enviably familiar.
Conclusion
The PS1 MkII was starred because of its sound quality and price. The PS3’s star is given for the same reason. Sure, $4695 is not cheap. But, Icon is playing with the big boys (and girls) at that price. As such, it holds its own and then some with star firmament players from Pass Labs, Manley Labs, Sutherland Engineering and the similarly-priced Allnic Audio phonos. Even though the Icon Audio PS3 MkII has two chassis, they both have a small footprint, are rackable, look wonderful and sound even better. Highly recommended.
Further information: Icon Audio
