iFi's £699 iDSD GR2 MT Adds a Ceramic Circuit Board and Two Filters Voiced by Steve Levine

iFi has announced a special edition of its iDSD GR2 portable DAC and headphone amplifier, built in collaboration with the British record producer Steve Levine. The new model is called the iDSD GR2 MT — MT for Master Tuned — and it is available now at £699 / $699 / €729, with HiFi Pig also listing a Canadian price of CA$799.99. AVForums dated the announcement to 1 October.

The headline change is not the conversion chip, which stays put, but what surrounds it: a different circuit board material, different passive components in the analogue and DAC stages, and two digital filters that iFi says Levine voiced himself — one for PCM, one for DSD.

What carries over from the standard GR2

The core of the design is unchanged. The MT uses the same Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC chip as the standard iDSD GR2, paired with iFi's K2HD Technology — a harmonic restoration algorithm that the company describes as reintroducing subtle detail in pursuit of a recording's original character.

The physical package is familiar too: a ridged aluminium chassis, a metal control knob, and an OLED touchscreen, which HiFi Pig specifies as a 2.3-inch colour panel. The visible tell that you are looking at the special edition is on the back, where What Hi-Fi? reports the rear panel carries Levine's signature.

What iFi says it changed

All of the following are the manufacturer's own claims. None of the sources covering the launch has published measurements, and no listening comparison between the MT and the standard GR2 has been reported.

• The circuit board. The standard model uses a conventional fibreglass-cloth-and-epoxy-resin PCB. The MT substitutes a hydrocarbon ceramic board, which iFi says is in pursuit of "near-zero signal loss". Both What Hi-Fi? and HiFi Pig name the material.
• The DAC stage resistors. What Hi-Fi? reports iFi has fitted what it calls audiophile-grade tantalum resistors here.
• The capacitors. Audio Note capacitors replace the more standard electrolytic parts used in the regular GR2.
• The analogue stages generally. HiFi Pig describes the change more broadly as selected components in the analogue stages.
• Two new digital filters. HiFi Pig specifies the split: one filter for PCM material and one for DSD. What Hi-Fi? frames iFi's intent for them as delivering the "balance and emotional potency" of the original record.

Steve Levine's involvement

Levine is described by What Hi-Fi? as a Brit Award-winning producer whose credits include the Beach Boys, Motorhead and Culture Club. His stated contribution to the project is the voicing of the two digital filters, and his signature appears on the chassis.

In a statement carried by What Hi-Fi?, Levine said: "The goal of any producer is to document the authenticity and emotion behind the artist's performance. I have voiced the iDSD GR2 MT with this same goal in mind, and I hope you feel that when you listen."

That is worth reading for what it is — a description of intent from the person who did the tuning, not an independent finding. Producer-voiced filters are a presentation choice rather than a specification, and whether a given listener prefers one of Levine's two curves to the filter options already available is not something any of the current coverage attempts to answer.

Connections, codecs and power

The MT keeps the connectivity set that makes the GR2 family unusually flexible for a portable unit. There are 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm single-ended sockets, and What Hi-Fi? notes that these serve as inputs as well as outputs — so the unit can take an analogue feed, not just drive headphones.

On the digital side there is USB-C plus a combined optical/coaxial input. Wireless is handled by a Bluetooth 5.4 receiver, and What Hi-Fi? lists support for aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive and LDAC; HiFi Pig's codec list covers aptX Lossless and LDAC.

For power, HiFi Pig quotes iFi's figure of more than 1,500mW RMS into 32 ohms. The unit runs on an internal battery and offers a desktop bypass mode for use when it is plugged in and parked on a desk rather than carried.

The price gap

What Hi-Fi? gives the standard iDSD GR2 at £529 / $529 / AU$849, which puts the Master Tuned edition £170 and $170 above it. No Australian price has been announced for the MT, and nothing in the current coverage suggests the standard GR2 is going away — the MT reads as a parallel special edition rather than a replacement. No limited production run or edition size has been stated either.

So the question the MT poses is a fairly clean one: a fixed premium for a different board substrate, upgraded passives and two bespoke filters, on top of a conversion stage and feature set that are otherwise identical. The parts list is public and the intent is clearly stated; what none of the launch coverage can yet tell you is what any of it sounds like. Until someone puts the two side by side, the £170 difference is a bet on component choice and on one producer's ear, both of which remain manufacturer claims rather than tested results.

This article was written by an AI system from Into The HiFi AI Desk, generated from the following sources, with no human editing pass before publication: What Hi-Fi? — iFi's special-edition DAC packs upgraded circuitry and filters tuned by a Brit Award-winning producer, HiFi Pig — iFi iDSD GR2 MT Brings Studio Tuning To A Portable DAC Amp, AVForums — iFi Audio launches upgraded iDSD GR2 MT DAC/amp.