Ayazi a small size device with a width not exceeding 300 mm. The front panel in our review sample (the same you can see in the photos in these pages) was black, anodized aluminum, but the company offers a range of other options among which is the classic brushed aluminum and one made from a composite material (in glossy black). Ideon Audio says that there is the option to order a custom color finish (like red, etc).
The user interface is quite simple, as one can flip a simple on-off switch to turn the device on and use a similarly simple input selector for the S/PDIF and the USB inputs. Two blue color LEDs indicate that the converter is on and locked to a digital signal in one of its inputs, respectively.

The simplicity of the front panel clearly reflects the connection options offered by Ayazi which are quite basic. On the back panel, the user will find a coaxial input, through a good quality RCA connector, a USB port for PC connection and a pair of single-ended analog outputs, featuring the same good quality RCA, as the digital input. Ayazi's digital interface supports PCM signals with sample rates from 44.1kHz up to 192kHz (in 24-bit depth) through the S/PDIF input, and from 44.1kHz up to 384kHz (32-bit depth) through the USB port, the later at asynchronous mode. Due to its circuit structure (for which an analysis follows), Ayazi does not support playback in 176.4kHz sample rate through its coaxial input. Nevertheless, this sample rate is supported normally via the USB port. Also, the fact that the device supports 32/384 file playback via USB, allows for DSD playback, provided that a prior transcoding (on the media player side) takes place, resulting in a PCM stream at 352.8kHz.

Inside Ayazi chassis one discovers a meticulous construction with an obvious emphasis on the power supply and on critical passive components quality. The conversion circuit is built around the cost-conscious ES9023 D/A chip from ESS, which is based on SABRE technology and features both the Hyperstream conversion technology and the Time Domain Jitter Eliminator jitter suppression technology (both developed from ESS). This chip includes all the necessary analog stages for a single-ended analog output, without the need for an external output stage.

The ES9023 receives the digital signal from two different interfaces, depending on the input selected. Signal management for the USB port is implemented through a CM6631A from C-Media while the role of the S/PDIF interface is assigned to a Wolfson WM8804, a solution which has a good reputation in terms of its jitter suppression capacity. The WM8804 operates in hardware mode, i.e without an external controller, and in this mode (which is the most widespread for this application) does not allow data streaming in 176.4kHz sample rates, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. The clock circuit is based on a very low phase noise oscillator from Crystek (CCHD-957).

The power supply features a sizable toroidal transformer and includes a rectifying/smoothing stage (with eight 1000uF capacitors) and local voltage regulation stages, of which the one for the ES9023 includes a ten 100uF capacitor bank.

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