Ideon Audio Absolute Stream User manual
User Guide
v.1
Αbsolute Stream
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© Ideon Audio, August 2020 – absolute stream manual v.1
Due to continuous research, Ideon Audio reserves the right to change specications without notice.
Reference Streamer/Music rendering engine
Absolute Stream
THANK YOU!
Congratulations on purchasing the
Absolute Stream, reportedly one of the
best-sounding music servers currently
available.
If you are already an Ideon owner,
thank you for your continued trust in our
approach to music reproduction and we
hope you will soon enjoy the absolute Suite
(if you aren’t already doing so!).
If you are a newcomer, we are thrilled to
welcome you on board our Absolute Suite!
Your Absolute Stream is an audiophile music server; it was designed from the ground up to
offer superlative sound, surpassing the sonics of the best commercially available streamers.
To achieve this, we equipped the Absolute Stream circuit with several audiophile features,
components, and proprietary circuits:
• Proprietary re-clocking platform: it uses
a hi-quality femto clock and is fully
upgradable;
• Seriously over-engineered power supply:
◊ Proprietary, ultra-low esr, special
bypasspowerlterimproving
the transient current for the CPU
(spectacular sound improvement!)
◊ Huge main caps using low esr,
audiophile silk capacitors
◊ hand-made audiophile transformer
◊ Proprietary,“no-noise”,rectication
active bridge topology which
eliminates noise from diodes
• Short signal paths without wiring
• Audiophile design & solid aluminium
construction
• Simplied,bare-bonesoperationavoids
internal noise-inducing circuits
The Absolute StreamisrstdeviceintheAbsoluteSuite,thesuperlativeaudiophiledigital
front end comprising the Absolute Stream, the Absolute Time, and the Absolute (DAC).
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Connecting
absolute stream music server
audio ports
LAN HD1 HD2
handcrafted in
Athens, Greece
5V
On/Off button
Out to DAC LAN connection
USB Hard Disks (music)
Stand by led
Setting up your Absolute Stream is simple, using it is even simpler.
Hardware
Please make the connections below in the
order presented. Power cable connected in
the end.
Signal inputs: in the middle of the back
plate you will see three (3) inputs marked
LAN, HD1, HD2. Please connect your
network’s LAN cable to the corresponding
input.
If you have libraries stored on USB external
discs, please connect to HD1, HD2 as
applicable. You can use a NAS as well.
On the left side on the back plate you will see two USB “audio out” connections which
connect to the DAC:
• On the right you have signal with 5V bus
• On the left is pure signal; unless your
DAC needs 5V supply, this is by far the
recommended output
The output connects to your DAC. We recommend you use good quality USB cable.
For Ideon owners, the output connects to the signal re-clocker (absolute Time, Master Time, 3R).
Finally, connect the power cord to the IEC input on the right side of the back plate. Ensure it
is safely inserted in the right. Press the knob to switching the device to stand-by mode.
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© Ideon Audio, August 2020 – absolute stream manual v.1
Due to continuous research, Ideon Audio reserves the right to change specications without notice.
Reference Streamer/Music rendering engine
Absolute Stream
Important Notice
ΤheAbsoluteStream,aboveallisahighlysophisticatedrendererwhichyoucanusewithanymusic
player program (client) that supports UPNP (most of the well-known commercial of freeware do
that), such as Roon, JRiver, Audiorvana, Foobar, and similar. The rendering of music is done with the
highest standards of our designs and we make sure it is happening in the server, so no loss of sound
quality is possible!
Important Notice
Yourmusiclesneedtocontaintherightmetadata.Thereisaminimumofdatathatmustbein
thelesothesystemcanrecognize,nd,,display,andprovideinformationrelatingtoanyle–
at the very least, a proper title, artist and album name. The more metadata you have the better,
butifyourtrackslacktheminimumrequireddatainordertoberead,thentheseleswon’tbe
searchable and won’t appear in any search or indexing process. They will be in your database, but
the system will not be able to retrieve them!
Additionally, we provide a music player program along with the device, providing all the
functionality of such a program. You can experiment with this music player program or,
alternatively, use the one that you prefer and around which you have built your music library.
Press the power button on the front plate (off center left) to power up the Absolute Stream.
You are now ready to connect!
• Connect to your router, go to “network”, then “LAN”;
• On the screen you will see all the connected devices in your network including Ideon,
and their associated IP addresses.
• Note and copy the IP address your router has assigned to ideon (it should look like
192.168.X.Y)
NowyouneedtochooseadevicetocontrolyourIdeonstreamer–tablet,laptop,phone,
etc. Any device with a browser will do. We designed the application this way for simplicity
and ease of use.
Open the device browser, type in the IP address your router assigned to Ideon, and press
enter. This will launch the Ideon Audio application
Absolute Stream: rendering your music.
Your Music’s metadata
Software – GUI
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Invest a moment to carefully complete the settings, they only need to be done once!
Aseriesofdialogueboxeswillappear,therstbeinglanguage&skincolorchoice.
The next screen is “Your NAS settings”, important if your music is in a NAS STORAGE!
• Select type:
◊ select “samba A” if a guest (such as a friend) is accessing your NAS or your accessing
a NAS without credentials
◊ select “samba B” if you are accessing a NAS with credentials (username & password)
• NAS IP address: enter your NAS IP address or its name
• Path: enter the NAS path to your music
• Username / password (only applicable if you have selected “samba B”): enter the
appropriate your credentials
• Press next
The following screen is Operating Info. We recommend you save the information in this
screen for future reference.
Clicking submitcompletestherstpartoftheset-up!
Settings
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© Ideon Audio, August 2020 – absolute stream manual v.1
Due to continuous research, Ideon Audio reserves the right to change specications without notice.
Reference Streamer/Music rendering engine
Absolute Stream
Clicking on Submit takes you to the “Playing now” screen. This is the application’s main
screen for playing music.
It’s time to CREATE your MUSIC library! Follow the following simple steps:
Click on Ideon Audio app main menu icon (“main menu”) on the top left of your screen.
From the drop-down menu select: Create/Update library and then Update library. The app
will start indexing your library. Please wait until the indexing is complete.
Click on “close” and you are ready to go!
Now the playing screen will look like this:
The left half is the playing window (i.e. what is playing at any time) while the right side
containsalbumsofyourlibrary.Therst100willappear.ThedefaultsortingisAlbumArtist.
Youcan,ofcourse,optforadifferentsortingusingtheicontotherightofthesearcheld.
Top right shows your library metrics (tracks, time, etc)
The screen bottom has the app’s four basic functions:
• Playing now (i.e. what is playing, from
whichle,album,artist,etc)
• Queue (i.e. what you have selected to listen
to–youcansavethisasa“playinglist”)
• Library (your music library portrayed as a
databaseorasalesystem)
• Search (self-explanatory; using keywords
and any parameter)
Create your music library and play music.
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We are at the Playing now screen (see upper left). This can be selected from the main bar of
the application at the bottom of the screen. This, along with the Queue option will be your
main screens, depending on how you want to play music.
Clicking on the album of your choice (right side) the album will expand to reveal the tracks.
Click on a track for instant play.
On the left side you will see the artwork (if available) of the track being played as well as
relevant information. A pause/play control and progress bar appear below the artwork.
The four tracks that follow what is currently playing, “Next in queue”, are also listed below.
(The list is empty if there are none.)
Clicking on any of the listed tracks, immediately loads it to the player, replacing the current
one.
The player’s main controls are top bar right (i.e. previous, stop, pause/play, next, output
volume).
Expanding an album
Clicking on a folder artwork (i.e. an album) immediately reveals its tracks.
Playing Now (how to play music)
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© Ideon Audio, August 2020 – absolute stream manual v.1
Due to continuous research, Ideon Audio reserves the right to change specications without notice.
Reference Streamer/Music rendering engine
Absolute Stream
Clicking on the album title opens four options:
Expandthealbum.Clickingontheminimenuontherightsideofeachtrackopensve
options:
Selecting and playing specic tracks
Play album: immediately loads and plays the
album
Add to queue: adds all of the chosen
album’s tracks to the end of the current
queue.
Replace queue: erases the current queue
and replaces its contents with all the tracks
from the current album
Add to playlist: choose a playlist -- or create
a new one -- to which all contents of the
current album are added
Play: as stated
Add to queue: add the track to the end of
the current queue
Add after current playing song: will play
selected track after the current one is
complete
Replace queue: erases the current queue
and replaces its contents with the selected
track
Add to playlist: choose a playlist -- or create
a new one -- to which the selected track will
be added
Song details:revealsdataaboutthespecic
track (provided there are data attached to
the chosen track)
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Ontherightsideofthescreenyouwillndthesearch bar and the sorting button
Search: enter any key word in the search bar; the search function will display all the artwork
containing your key word (or characters). Clicking on the magnifying glass allows you to
focusthesearch–oursuggestionistousealbumartist
Sorting menu:youwillndthisimmediatelyfollowingthesearchbar.Thismenucontrolshow
you wish to sort your albums. Again, our suggestion is albumartist
Clicking on the gear icon in the upper middle of the screen allows you to choose track
information on the track being played. This information appears on the left pane below the
track title (pic).
To the left of this gear, you have the thumbs up & thumbs down buttons, as well as the “+add
to playlist” button.
View: the button of the far right (two arrows) is a toggle switch alternating between
thumbnails and list view for your albums
Searching and Sorting Your Albums
Left Pane – Playing Now – the Information Icon
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© Ideon Audio, August 2020 – absolute stream manual v.1
Due to continuous research, Ideon Audio reserves the right to change specications without notice.
Reference Streamer/Music rendering engine
Absolute Stream
You are at the Queue screen (see upper left). This can be selected from the main bar of the
application at the bottom of the screen. Here you can see all the tracks that have been
selected to be played in queue. Remember that when browsing tracks or albums you always
have the choice to add them to your Queue.
At the upper left of the screen you have two options. The default is the Queue, where you
see all tracks of the current Queue.
At the right side of the screen you see the number of tracks and total playing time of the
current Queue.
By clicking on Last Played, you see the most recently played tracks
The track currently playing is highlighted; duration and remaining time are also visible
You can play instantly any track in the Queue by just clicking on it.
For every track on the Queue there is a menu icon (three parallel lines) at the far right of the
track’s line.
Queue (your listening tracks queue)
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