INTERVIEW
58 Australian
Interview by Peter Xeni
W
hen Ypsilon amplifi er co-
founder Demetris Backlavas
(pictured above at left with
the other co-founder, Theo-
fanis Lagkadinos) met Australian turntable
developer Mark Döhmann at CES it ignited
a collaborative synergy—and an unbreak-
able personal bond—and it was analogue
guru Michael Fremer who created the audio
alchemy because it was he who insisted
they meet. At fi rst they thought it was a
chance meeting through a mutual friend,
nothing special, but looking back they both
say that they now realise Michael Fremer
was a sorcerer: He knew it would work.Interview
Their decision?
To build the best audio money could
buy. That was the goal. The Holy Grail.
It was a heady thought for two men
who’d met only hours earlier, but today the
sister company of Ypsilon is arguably the
most successful manufacturer of stadium
sound in southern Europe and Mark Döh-
mann’s Helix 1 turntable one of the fi nest on
the planet. Their kindred spirit was apparent
when I met them at the 2016 Australian Hi
Fi Show in Melbourne, where from time to
time they’d retreat to a far corner of the room
to discuss some arcane detail of advanced
electronics.‘The moment Mark and I met, we immediately
knew we were on the same page. We were
walking the same path in trying to advance
audio reproduction closer to that of a real
performance.’
Backlavas told me that he and Döh-
mann spent the whole night talking in
Vegas, one man an IT aeronautics expert,
obsessed with audio, the other a doyen of
stadium sonics, and as the dawn broke over
the night sky, they were still talking: ‘How
would we combine our expertise in audio?
What could each of us do to help to advance
the goal of the other and take audio a big step
closer to creating the illusion of reality?’Demetris Backlavas
Ypsilon Electronics