It’s about time I wrote down my thoughts on the ION +. First lets get the ugly out of the way, I have no desire of using its preamplifier function but I bought what I bought and its there, so maybe for another chain. My Backert Labs Rhythm is everything I needed and pairs very well with the Firstwatt F8.
The software on this thing needs some getting used to. Partly because it’s a bit… whatever the opposite of intuitive is. But partly because it doesn’t work precisely as the documentation says it does and just extends the learning curve unnecessarily. An example of this is if you hang the scrolling a hair too long on the factory reset… well the unit does a factory reset, after you spent fifteen minutes setting it up, and you spent fifteen minutes setting it up because of the kludge un-intuative menu. Lather, rinse, repeat. I was also a bit confused because the DAC displays a volume and I was trying to have the volume fixed at 0 dB and it always defaulted back to -62 dB. It let you got back into the menu and set the default back to 0 dB. Lather, rinse, repeat, but I come to find out the volume is for the pre out which I’m not using, hence again, it doesn’t matter but more unnecessary shoulder shrugging and head scratching time spent here.
The reality is that since I’m using it as a DAC only, I simply have to set it and forget it and none of this matters much, thus I left it all back at the river.
That out of the way, this DAC is the best DAC I’ve ever heard and it should be given the $25k retail price. That said, dealers need to make a living and that retail price is always pumped to the gills, where the reality is that this was normally sold for around $16 to 18K. That’s still a major chunk of change. I was fortunate enough to strike a great deal from a dealer who was transitioning out of the Ideon line and so the real story begins here.
The first thing people seem to comment on is the bass, and I’m not going to deviate from that because it is striking. I use that word because it’s unlike bass I’ve heard from other DACs previously. It’s different and that difference is immediate. I’ve already mentioned here in the forum that it reminded me of listening to the Final Audio 8000 Pro, and the bass that headphone puts out, it had a similar effect on my chain. It has texture, a very low level texture that you’d swear is impossible to be hearing, but you are. The grip on that bass, it’s nothing left to chance, all with immediacy and control and again a texture that’s most often associated with a “beautiful” midrange is now clear and present it the sub bass. It’s not sweet, not dry, not excessive, everything feels balanced impactful and correct.
I’m a firm believer (at least in the way I hear) that subwoofers add dimentionality to the music, they provide you with information about the room and clearly the harmonics of that low level sub bass have a appreciable effect further up the spectrum to be able to do that. So a DAC like the ION wins in what it does to the amount of information you’re hearing on anything below 500 Hz for sure. It’s very tangible and at least in my chain, intoxicating. The space where the music is being presented is sharper and boundaries are farther and more clearly defined than anything I’ve ever heard in my small room before.
Moving on the the rest of the sound, the best way to describe what the ION does in my chain is balance. The DAC combines the best aspect of the Weiss 501 I had and the Mojo EVO pro I’m moving on from and that’s a tough trick to pull off. Walking that line of perfect balance between too much coloration and too clinical a signature that can be present in the chase of detail. Both the Mojo Pro and the Weiss did this to a fair degree in their own way, but it was never like what the ION is showing me.
I’m hearing sound at a level of presentation that is simply beyond anything I’ve heard previously and I was surprised by it. Back up vocal chorus singers are all individuals now singing in harmony rather than a block of voices. There are subtle clues and low level micro details presented that I have never heard before, going back they are clearly there but I’d never “heard” them. They didn’t stand as individual contributors in the recording. But it’s never too much, it’s always just the right amount. There is never “too much” of anything during its presentation as well as never feeling like there is “not enough” of something. The image is focused but not sharp, the layering is spcious but not artificial, the depth and width are always the right size for the recording. No big ten foot talking head, or exaggerated placement of singer or instrument that feels wrong compared to the rest of the presentation. It’s organic without feeling colored and immediate without sounding harsh. It excels with anything percussion for certain, cymbals, bells, glass al sound exactly as they should.
This has been somewhat of an impulsive buy on my end, one that I really think I didn’t need, but at the same time has shown me how much more there is or can be presented in a well balanced chain by continuing to move up the digital source ladder.
Now for the technical, the guys at Ideon are doing something with timing that is very proprietary. I’m not going to pretend I know what, but at a high level, they’re using two separate ESS DAC, the first one is simply part of their USB input implementation and they’re writing proprietary code and using it to buffer and time align the input before sending it out to the DAC, which is the second ESS DAC. They’re also using some proprietary software to control the flow and once again align the timing between the two in total there are four femto clocks. Two on the USB input, one on the daughter board with their controller SW and one right next to the DAC itself. Apparently all of the SW on the DAC is writen by Ideon with a propriety implementation of separation of the load on the ESS DAC clearly being used to lower the amount of work/processing. Every clock is surrounded by a very heavily regulated power section.
The reason I say all of this is to illustrate the net effect. When I first got the DAC I didn’t have two quality USB cables so I used the BNC reclocking of the Ideon Absolute Time and it was very impressive, but nothing as earth shattering as I would have expected. Given the reading I’d done on the ION’s USB implementation I knew that was the way to go. So after receiving a quality USB cable from @NickMimi I tried the USB directly from the USB output from my Lumin U2 directly into the ION.
That surprised me, and I wasn’t ready for it. The sound was better via that input than it was via the Absolute Time feeding the ION via the SPDIF input via SPDIF. It was as if a $14K DDC wasn’t even a factor. It just was a better input source coming from the USB out of the Lumin. (no slouch of course) but still… I just wasn’t ready for the difference.
After that, I immediately sold the pair BNC cables, got a hold of a second USB and put the Absolute Time back in line, this time via USB. … … …nirvana, just simply audio joy. I can’t even begin to explain the leap in performance so I’ll end it here.
Did I need this in my life? No. Now that I’ve heard the impact, how much it has elevated my listening experience, not only in technicalities but in a pure immersive and convincing presentation. A presentation that transforms me to where the music is playing, a joyous experience. F’it it’s only money and I would have died without having experienced this. Worthwhile IMO.
In summary, this is a very balanced DAC, that excels in macro and micro detail and dynamics. Has texture in spades and has a very convincing presentation of music in the correct space with the correct dimensions and boundaries. It’s a bit laid back and a hair relaxed in presentation in my chain. I could very easily see this as @gerihifi mentioned being a bit too much detail with a different driver pairing. A club sounds like a club, a hall sounds like a hall and it takes on all genres with aptitude.
Keep on listening boys and girls.
. That’s my uneducated but experienced opinion using my equipment, my ears and my perception of its performance.
, is it universal or region specific?
