For most of us, Ideon Audio became known by its presence in the last "Hxos-Eikona" show, held in Athens near the end of 2015. There, the company demonstrated the Ayazi, the first ever audio product bearing their name, designed by Vasilis Tounas.
To my opinion, one of the most interesting aspects of the Ayazi was its price level, lying just below the €1000,- limit, a price range which attracts a large percentage of audiophiles and, therefore, attracts some major and well-respected manufacturers. With a move like this, Ideon Audio makes two things clear: First, their intention to direct engage with the mass market (by offering quite affordable and sensibly-priced products, not cost-is-not-an object artifacts) and, secondly, a willingness to face the game of compromising imposed by this market. What we are referring here to, is the actual, technical, compromises that inevitably all manufacturers make when designing a device whose cost should be between some -rather tight- limits. This is a difficult art to be mastered but, also, a powerful tool to possess, in a market where the cost plays an important role.
All these are, of course, just theory and are only of little value when you have in hand the final result of an effort like Ayazi. Tounas chose a rather thrifty approach to the entire design, with pretty nice and clean aesthetics and only the essential elements in terms of connectivity and user interface, focusing instead on the circuit and its quality attributes. The result is a d/a converter, capable of high-resolution PCM streaming, supporting sample rates up to 384kHz via USB and up to 192kHz via a standard S/PDIF input, easily covering the basic requirements of any audiophile who is interested in high-quality, high-resolution audio playback. Let's look at the details…

Dimitris Stamatakos

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Original Publilcation: 2016/09/22	Last Follow Up: 2016/09/22

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