May 22nd 2015 brought a new email correspondent and with it, a new brand. "We are a new company in its startup phase. I was part of the design group behind the Aavik Acoustics U-300 for which I developed the DAC, preamp section and overall software control. I had nothing to do however with their RIAA stage and Pascal Audio Class D module. For several reasons, I left this group. Now I am starting a company with my brother called Phison Audio. We have a prototype DAC running to test the AK4490 which will be the back bone of our DAC section. The product we are about to launch will be a preamp/DAC called the Phison PD2. How difficult is it to get a product reviewed?" - Sonny Andersen, Kroggårdvej 12, DK-5270 Odense N, Denmark.


I told Sonny what I tell all makers. Unlike certain print magazines, we have no minimum dealer policy. We're global. We appreciate the old chicken/egg dilemma of getting started and needing reviews to enter mass awareness. But we don't review prototypes. We aren't private consultants. Hence we must insist on formal production items which reflect what paying customers would buy. And we do insist on getting fully burnt-in units so that our main system aka working lab isn't shut down and all other reviews put on hold until the required hours are clocked in. Doing basic Googligence, I found this DIY Audio thread. Was Sonny double-dipping in turnkey and DIY? In his photo at right, we see two premium Crystek clocks, the XMOS USB transceiver and the Asahi Kasai chip in the foreground.


By February 9th 2016, he was ready. "Our PD2 preamplifier is finally ready for review. It is not a prototype but full production. We took great care to get the best performance from each circuit part. All gain stages are discrete and single-stage designs. We exclusively use folded cascode voltage feedback or current feedback depending on the circuit junction. This is a mix of bipolar transistors and Jfet to get the right blend combined with a single gain stage. It is of course a fully balanced design. This includes the DAC8812 R2R attenuator. Our converter section features reclocking, galvanic isolation for USB and a single AK4490 DAC chip for which separate ultra-low noise regulators per channel perform remarkably well. There even is an optional slot for RIAA." So Sonny (electrical) and brother Philip (mechanical) had opted to subtract the power module of the Aavik integrated but otherwise stay with the multi-kulti concept of doing more with less.