IFI Micro iTube2 Vacuum Tube Buffer and Preamplifier. 'sure, for decent reviews, available tube upgrades, remote, and all those media options, I'll go for it.
Improving upon the original in terms of components and on-board features, the iFi Audio micro iTube 2 is designed to bring the sound and feel of tubes to your listening environment, providing a tube preamp, a tubed output stage, a tube buffer, and impedance matching. It accepts RCA inputs and outputs, and is designed to be inserted at various points along the chain. For instance, you can use the device as your sole preamp, or in conjunction with a solid-state preamp to inject the tube sound on the output stage.
To accomplish this, the iTube 2 provides switchable settings: SET gives you the sound of single-ended triode power amplifier, while push-pull gives you the sonics of a push-pull power amplifier. Alternately, you can choose to effect the sound of a classic, low-distortion tube preamplifier. Improving upon the original in terms of components and on-board features, the iFi Audio micro iTube 2 is designed to bring the sound and feel of tubes to your listening environment, providing a tube preamp, a tubed output stage, a tube buffer, and impedance matching. It accepts RCA inputs and outputs, and is designed to be inserted at various points along the chain.
For instance, you can use the device as your sole preamp, or in conjunction with a solid-state preamp to inject the tube sound on the output stage. To accomplish this, the iTube 2 provides switchable settings: SET gives you the sound of single-ended triode power amplifier, while push-pull gives you the sonics of a push-pull power amplifier. Alternately, you can choose to effect the sound of a classic, low-distortion tube preamplifier.A large volume knob will allow you to attenuate the iTube 2 when it is being utilized as a preamp—though other features built into the unit recommend it for listening situations, such as built-in 3D Holographic+ technology for speakers to improve the sound-stage of your system, and XBass+ settings to simulate an accurate bass response to speakers which don't inherently reproduce low-end frequencies all that well.
On the unit's underside, you'll find dip switches which allow you instantiate and turn off various settings. While the unit is compatible with the 12V port often provided by cars and other recreational vehicles, iFi Audio ships the unit out with a quiet 15V power supply to further enhance your listening experience. Audio I/O2 x RCA inputs2 x RCA outputsTube1 x NOS GE 5670Maximum Output 7.8 V ( +20 dBu)SNR119 dB (A-weighted), re. 2 V, buffer, 0 dB gainDNR31 dB (A-weighted), re. +20 dBu, buffer, 0 dB GainTHD+N 200 kHz (-1 dB)20 Hz to 20 kHz (±0.003 dB)Input ImpedancePreamp: 100 kOhmsOutput ImpedanceStage.
Hello,I am trying to set my latency parameters for Ableton under Preferences Audio using the method described in the tutorial. I am using ASIO4ALL v2. When I set the CPU Usage Simulator to 80% (although my problems are still around if I turn this down a bit), the Test Tone is having latency problems event when I turn the ASIO Buffer Size all the way up to 2048 Samples (the max)!I am a bit puzzled by this. I have a AMD Athalong 63 Dual Core 2.63 GHz machine with 8G of ram running XP with sp3. I close down all other applications before opening Ableton and I watch the Task Manager which shows no significant CPU usage for anything other than Live.Is there something I am missing?Thanks in advance.
Kpolich wrote:Hello,Is there something I am missing?Depends what you man wih 'latency problems'The bigger you set your buffer, the higher your latency will be.Or do you mean clicks due to cpu overload? In that case shut down programms running in the background (try googling 'tweaking XP for music production', and turn off unused hardware (wlan, dvd drive.)Keep in mind the cpu meter in live shows the ammount of cpu live is using for the music, so if its on 80% and your OS and other programms are using 30% you'll get audio dropouts. Well, if you're using ASIO4All I guess you're not using a 'pro music' sound card (one designed for use with DAWs)?
There ought to be a native ASIO driver otherwise and then you should use that.Some people do get lucky and achieve acceptable latency and stability with standard sound cards + ASIO4All, but ASIO4All can't fix everything for every card out there. Chances are you'll never get acceptable latency and stability out of a card not designed for it. I've tried it with four different cards myself and none of them came close to even the cheapest of 'pro music' cards.(Well, the cheapest of 'pro' cards would probably be the Behringer one. And I suppose at least one of the cards outperformed the Behringer. Lets say the second cheapest of 'pro' cards then. )Now there are a few settings you can make for the driver itself. I haven't fiddled with ASIO4All for years, but check out if someone else on their forum is using the same sound card as you.
Maybe they can help you with the settings.If not, well, these journeys often end with our pilgrim buying a 'pro music' sound card. They're not that expensive really.
Just don't get the Behringer. Ok, I solved my problem.
I couldn't figure out how to use my TonePort UX2 as input and regular sound card as output. In Ableton, if I select Driver Type = MME / Direct X, the output will go to the speakers, but when I try to select 'Line 6 UX2 DX' it says it is unavailable. So I was trying Asio4All for lack of any other options. I set it to Driver Type ASIO and pulled headphones into the UX2 and everything was working perfectly.
I could turn the buffer to the lowest setting and get no errors (great!).I have since figured out that under MME/DirectX I should select 'Line 6 UX2 Wave' instead of '. I don't know the difference, but I now have it the way I want it. Thank you for your help!