Ideon Absolute Stream Meta Edition
REFERENCE AUDIO – WITHAM ESSEX
BOB’s Review Series - No 87 – IDEON ABSOLUTE STREAM META EDITION (2024)
INTRODUCTION
It’s almost two years since I last reviewed the Ideon Absolute Stream, at that time it was in conjunction with their Absolute DAC which was not available for this review. Since then both devices have been upgraded by Ideon to the new Meta status, an upgrade that can also be retrofitted to existing non-Meta devices. The Meta upgrades to the Absolute Stream are as follows:
- Built in 4TB SSD internal storage now comes as standard, 8TB can be specified.
- Faster and enhanced memory, doubling that in the previous version.
- Embedded Roon Core negating the need for an external core to run Roon.
- Roon can now be used as an Endpoint (Roon Bridge) or as a Roon Core (Roon Server).
- Enhanced user interface for Ideon’s own playback software.
- Qobuz integration allowing playback without the need for additional applications.
All Ideon products have massively over engineered power supplies providing effortless driving capability and it’s one of the reasons the Absolute Stream weighs in at 22kg. The Meta upgrade has had no effect on UK retail price which remains at £20,000 for a silver or black finish. There are no switch mode power supplies inside the Absolute Stream even where many manufacturers use them for smaller voltages. It has three linear power supplies inside and a 21 large capacitors. The chassis is CNC machined from a solid aluminium billet and takes 16 hours to machine fabricate. It is wider than most audio products at 490mm so make sure your shelf can accommodate it.
Having had our demo Absolute Stream upgraded to Meta Edition I thought it would be a good time to have another listen, especially as it now has a Roon Core built in, which has long been my preferred virtual library management software.
CONNECTIONS
There is more than one way to connect the Absolute Stream Meta to your system and to play music and I tried four of them. The only one I didn’t try was to connect a NAS drive because, well, I don’t have one.
These are the options I tried:
Streaming Using Ideon’s Web Based App
To do this and in fact to make any changes to the setup of the Absolute Stream you need to connect it to a PC or Mac. For this to work both the Stream and your computer need to be connected to the same network so that they can find each other and you will need to find the IP address of the Stream on your network to allow you to access their web-based browser. The easiest way to do this is to use a free IP Address scanner such as ‘Fing’ to find all the devices connected to your network. The IP Address will likely be in this format – 192.168.1.xxx - and once found you need to type it into your browser of choice, and it should find the Stream and open Ideon’s management and playback app. After the first time of doing this you no longer need the IP address, just type ‘ideon.local’ into your browser to find it. This access allows you to select various settings for the Stream, check for software updates and to search and play music files direct form the app. It can also be found using an iPad or tablet without the need of a computer.
If you are intending to use Roon to manage your music library, you can go into the settings menu and choose whether to use it as a Roon Bridge if you already have a Roon Core on your network or as a Roon Core (labelled as Roon Server). If you are not going to use Roon then the Ideon app will find all your music and display it ready for you to play via Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify or AirPlay. However, I didn’t find the Ideon app to be the most intuitive to use and in my opinion, it needs further development before it gets even remotely close to the ease of use of Roon. But it is free and I’m sure many users will appreciate its sound quality enough to put up with its idiosyncrasies.
Ideon say their app sounds better than Roon because it uses less CPU capacity when running (and I have to say it probably does) but I just couldn’t get to grips with using it. It often struggles to find album artwork and meta data, even with Flac files rather than WAV and it regularly splits albums into many parts. For instance, you might get twelve copies of what appears to be the same album cover, but each contains just one track. Setting up playlists is a chore and when it regularly failed to play albums and occasionally had dropouts, I gave up trying and moved to Roon. Work in progress I feel but I must give Ideon praise for trying. In my experience the only manufacturer designed app that gets even close to Roon is the Sense App designed by Innuos to manage their streamers.
Streaming Using Roon
The last time I reviewed the Absolute Stream I had to use my Innuos Statement as the Roon Core because the pre-Meta version of the Absolute Stream didn’t have one built in and I don’t like having to run a PC or Mac just to have a live Roon Core. This meant having both streamers powered up and connected which was probably not the ideal solution although it did give me access to all my music files. I’ve been a Roon user since 2017 and how I wish I’d taken out a lifetime subscription at the time.
Roon is of course subscription based and my last annual renewal just a few weeks ago cost me $149.88 USD and that’s on top of my Tidal, Qobuz and Dropbox account payments. It is however worth every penny spent. With the Absolute Stream Meta set to Roon Server (Core) it performed faultlessly streaming from Tidal or Qobuz and I continued to use Roon to find and play music for both the two following methods.
Playing Music Loaded on to Its Internal Hard Drive Using Roon
Loading music onto the Stream’s internal SSD hard drive is done by having a PC or Mac running on the same network and using it to transfer files either from its own hard drive or from a connected SSD drive. It’s then a case of locating both sending and receiving drives and then just drag and drop and wait whilst the files transfer and Roon builds its library. Once loaded onto the Absolute Streams hard drive the Ideon app will also find and play the files (mostly at least), but Roon won’t do so without some encouragement. You do this in Roon settings by selecting ‘storage’ and then ‘add folder’ using the information given in Ideon’s excellent user manual. You only need to do this once and Roon will then build itas library to include all your uploaded files.
Playing Music via a Connected USB SSD Storage Device Using Roon
A USB Stick or USB SSD external drive loaded with music files can be connected to either of the two USB inputs on the back of the Absolute Stream and if using Roon you again need to ‘add folder’ as I described above. Roon then adds all these files to its library ready for playback, it takes a minute or so to interrogate the attached SSD, but it only does this once, unless you disconnect and reconnect the external drive. It worked faultlessly which I find is mostly not the case with other streamers I have used.
SETTING UP
As I didn’t have access to our Absolute DAC this time, I used my Gryphon Ethos DAC/CD Player as a converter. I also used my Ideon Absolute Time USB reclocker acting as an interface between the Absolute Stream and the Gryphon DAC. I also retained in circuit my Innuos Phoenix NET network switch. All of this fed my Gryphon Essence pre and power amps which in turn were driving my Marten Coltrane Tenor 2 speakers, sadly no longer made by Marten. All electronics were fed power from my Gryphon PowerZone 3.10 power supply unit.
The first thing I wanted to do was to check for software updates (3.1.1 was available and update completed) and then to load some music files to the internal hard drive as described above. The Absolute Stream has two USB inputs on the rear panel, and I used one to connect an SSD USB drive containing all my music files. Other connections on the Absolute Stream Meta’s rear panel are Ethernet input and two USB outputs, one with and one without the 5v rail connected. Always use the non 5v output wherever possible to connect to your DAC for better sound but some DACs such as the Mola Mola Tambaqui won’t work without the 5v output. Fortunately, my Gryphon Ethos works fine without the 5v rail so that’s how I used it. First off, I used the Absolute Stream connected directly to my home hub and it sounded great but when I connected it via my Innuos Phoenix NET network reclocker the sound improvement was substantial and that’s how I used it for this review. My recommendation therefore is to always provide the Absolute Stream Meta with the best possible wired internet ethernet connection.
I accept that some people will have truly massive CD collections, and many purchased hi-res files that they have ripped and stored on a computer or an external USB SSD drive. My own collection is around 1500 CDs of which I have ripped around 1200 using lossless Flac rather than WAV which uses more memory and has issues with meta data and artwork etc. Most people and systems would struggle to identify any difference between lossless Flac and WAV files, despite what many think. I also have around 50 hi-res downloaded albums that I purchased before hi-res streaming became so available and so good to listen to that I no longer feel a need to purchase and download hi-res files. All up these 1200 + CDs and hi-res downloads take up just over 500Mb or half a TB of disk space. This is just over 12% of the space available on the built in 4TB SSD drive. What I’m trying to say here is don’t go bonkers specifying super large internal SSD storage unless you really, really need to, it will just go unused, most of us will be happy with just 1TB.
LISTENING
My first realisation of just how good this Meta version is was when lyrics I had previously struggled to understand just suddenly became clear and recognisable, I just wish I could remember which track I was listening to at the time but this happened many times during my review. The bells playing in Pink Floyds ‘High Hopes’ from the ‘The Division Bell’ album seemed clearer and more realistic than before as did every track on this album. The level of detail the Absolute Stream Meta can reveal is astonishing yet not overly bright in the process. This level of detail is usually presented as tighter and better-defined bass and a more sparkly top end and that’s exactly what I heard. You would of course need to listen for yourself to see if it matches your listening preferences.
I may have mentioned in one of my earlier reviews that I have a friend called Kevin who is completely in love with 70’s soul music, the real stuff not just Motown. I still have the many Reel to Reel tape recordings I made back in the early 90’s direct from his Michell Gyrodeck, but today most of those albums are available on-line via Tidal and Qobuz so I have rebuilt a playlist I now call Kevin 2 comprising much of his favourite tracks but all from on-line services. I listened to ‘Taxi” by J. Blackfoot, ‘What’s The Use In The Truth’ by Major Harris and ‘How Does it Feel’ by Bloodstone and I can honestly say I have never heard these tracks and many other on this playlist rendered with so much emotion and musical involvement. The original 70’s vinyl pressings were not always the best available because vinyl production was going through a tough time, but I guess the master tapes must have survived well and these new digital files, whatever their source, sounded entirely involving via this streamer.
I came across ‘The Civil Wars’ just a couple of years ago and I love their ‘Barton Hollow’ album and via the Absolute Stream the voices of Joy Williams and John Paul White are at their very best, sounding so natural and together although I understand they are not a couple in that sense. They harmonise well and were very much in the room with me via this streamer (Qobuz FLAC 44.1kHz, 16 bit). Going back to my early days at Architectural college I listened to Cerrone and ‘Supernature’ (Tidal FLAC 44.1kHz, 16 bit) and the pace and rhythm of this track was well played and sustained by the Absolute Stream. Donna Summer’s iconic ‘I Feel Love’ (Tidal FLAC 192kHz, 24 bit) again came across full of verve and life, just as this track should. ‘Levon’ by Elton John from way back in 1971 is just over 5 minutes of EJ at his best and the emotion of this track was near tear jerking. Continuing with Elton and his buddy Bernie Taupin I played ‘Sixty Year On’ from 1970, 55 years ago now and it’s one of those tracks that right from the opening few bars just drags you into a full emotional recall of your youth. Going back to Elton I had to play ‘Tiny Dancer’ also from his Madman Across The Water album and it was at this point that I decided the Absolute Stream Meta was staying.
Listening to more upbeat and electronic music from artists such as Kraftwerk, The Human League and Yello I was impressed by how dynamics had improved without sacrificing low level detail. Sometimes music can be swamped by too much bass and dynamics but not with the Absolute Stream Meta which manages the feat of maintaining fine detail and dynamic range more than any other streamer I have heard.
The Absolute Stream Meta also encourages you to turn it up, listen for longer than usual, and stay up well beyond your normal bedtime. The only issue I found is that it wouldn’t stream any BBC radio stations via Roon. This might be a Roon issue, or it might be a Stream issue or perhaps the BBC have changed something since I last used it. But it’s not a big issue for me as I generally use a separate FM tuner to listen to radio stations.
CONCLUSION
Do I think the Meta Edition has improved the capabilities of the Ideon Absolute Stream? Yes, in more ways than one but mostly it’s that increased clarity that draws me into the detail and emotion of listening to music through this streamer. Also the built in Roon Core makes it now so much more user friendly. Is it worth updating your pre-meta version? Often when manufacturers bring out an upgraded or MKII version of a product the differences are good but not good enough for existing owners to upgrade but as Ideon offer an upgrade for existing customers then I would again have to say yes, the Meta Edition is a positive upgrade to what was already a fantastic streamer. The new onboard SSD storage is a godsend to users like me who have already ripped all their CDs and have downloaded and purchased hi-res files.
£20k is a lot to pay for a streamer, especially when you can get a perfectly serviceable one for just £349 but if you have invested a good sum of money into the rest of your system don’t compromise. Streaming is now so good that it rivals CD and vinyl so now is the right time to treat it as your main listening source.
BACKUP
If like me, you are a Roon user it really is essential to have Roon backed up somewhere and by that I do mean Roon, not your valuable music collection which should always be stored on more than one device for peace of mind, hard drives do fail, even SSD ones. Backing up Roon it an entirely different thing because it saves copies of your Roon library including your all-important Playlists. Roon suggest using Dropbox for this and even provide a link on their Settings/Storage page. Dropbox is not however a free option but without this backup, which can be set automatically to back up at regular intervals (I set mine for every 7 days), you will lose all your playlists and saved music library if you change streamers, or your streamer develops a fault requiring a factory reset. You will then have to build playlists and library’s again from scratch. Believe me you really don’t want to have to do that. Because of this I was able to retrieve my playlists when changing from the Statement to the Absolute Stream by restoring a recent backup to Dropbox via Roon.
Since the release of Roon Arc a couple of years ago I have never been able to get it working, always getting a network error message which I had put down to issues with my BT Home hub that I’m not technical enough to be able to resolve. But when I connected the Ideon Absolute Stream Meta Edition, Roon Arc connected immediately so I can only conclude that my Innuos Statement was the culprit all along,
AND FINALLY
Last year Ideon released their Alpha Wave device which converts your incoming ethernet signal from your router or network switch to a USB output which Ideon say enhances the incoming signal by reducing noise. However, it mostly only works with Ideon streamers and possibly some other manufacturers devices, but it flatly refused to work with my Innuos Statement when I tried it a couple of months ago. But now I have an Absolute Stream in my system look out for a review of the Alpha Wave in the near future.
September 2025
Bob – Team Reference Audio