Ideon DAC's

I tried the Ayazi with the 3R Master Time Black Star (along with a bunch of other stuff) with my Fleetwood Deville SQs, Backert Labs Rhythm 1.3 and McGary Amp.  The bottom line is I did not love it.  I got to go back and forth between the Ideon stack and a Merson DAC1 and liked the Merason much, much better in my system. Streaming came from an Innuos Zenith MkIII server and also a Sonore Optical Rendu.

I had auditioned both Absolute and Ion Dac at home.

Although Absolute belongs to the elite class of Dac,  Ion could be better value.

Ion approach 80 % of performance at less than half price.

Server was Aurender N20.

Thomas

So I'm still searching high and low for a DAC/Streamer. The drawback is I cannot preview since no one sells them by me. The options I'm still looking at are as follows: Hopefully someone can point me in the proper direction..

1. Ideon Ayazi
2. Merason Frerot - I could get demo both DAC/power supply for $1,699
3. Chord Qutest
4. Bricasti M3

I would probably use the Innous mini Pulse, Innous Pulse or the Aurender N150 streamer.

Thanks again for any help or experience!!

@badgerdms We are living parallel audio lives.

I had the same exact experience as you.

The Merason DAC1 has not been taken off its perch on my rack since its arrival.

@macdude - what streamer are you using?