Review on Enhance Your Vinyl Experience with the iFi Audio Zen Phono Preamp by Adam Cooper

I used an old Marantz 1030 phono stage for the integrated amplifier to power my Denon AVR (which has pretty poor phono capability hence the Marantz). Unfortunately the 40+ year old 1030 has developed some features (but still sounds better on vinyl than the Denon) so I decided it was time to get a dedicated preamp. Zen Phono seems to be exactly what I was looking for. I was happy when I turned it on and burned the record straight to disc. I just listened to it before I connected the Zen so I could make a reasonable comparison. Day and night. The sound was open, crisp and detailed, with a larger soundstage and solid, fast bass, and sounded much cleaner and clearer. A definite improvement. Now I'm using an older Project Debut III with an original Ortofon OM-5E entry-level module (which I'm upgrading) and it sounds great. Having played a few more albums I can say that the quality of Zen Phono far exceeds its price. However, there is something to consider. Zen is very outspoken and doesn't forgive bad production, so a bad recording will sound bad. In addition, listening to records became a real pleasure again.