Recently, Eversolo has become a well-known brand stateside, with an array of attractive offerings of DACs and all-in-one products that combine a streamer, a DAC and a preamp. I recently bought the Eversolo DMP-A8, which uses the so-called "Velvet" AKM DACs. Here, on WBF, we largely focus on state-of-the-art (read very expensive and very heavy) products that are designed as statement pieces, and rightly so. But, we shouldn't forget that every once in a while, a product line appears that offers a huge bang for the buck, which although doesn't replace the high end line of streamers or DACs made by such elite WBF industry representatives, such as Taiko or Lampizator, can give you more than a taste of what the high end is all about. The Eversolo DMP-A8 is one such product that I can recommend unhesitatingly to be used with the finest systems.
To begin with, it's an attractively designed svelte black box that can be easily picked up with one hand (don't try that with your Taiko server or Lampizator Horizon!). It doesn't use tubes, which is what attracted me to it in the first place. My main system uses the Lampizator Pacific (which uses 6 tubes) feeding into an ARC 6SE preamp (add another 8 tubes) which in turn feed into two ARC Ref 210 tube mono block behemoths (each with 10 tubes, including 8 KT120 power tubes). If my math is right, that is 34 tubes that need to be fired up to listen to music. While this system is indeed glorious sounding, it takes an hour or more to come on song, and is best suited to relatively cool temperatures and long listening sessions. The Bay Area is reaching into the upper 90s this week (unless you live in Carmel, an hour from my house -- - where it always remains relatively cool in the low 60s!). I was looking for a cool running summer alternative to my 34-tube system. Hence the Eversolo DMP-A8.
OK, first lets' get the negatives out of the way. The DMP-A8 is not Roon ready. That's actually a good thing in my book. Although I am a lifetime Roon subscriber, I have also been looking for alternatives to Roon, and the DMP-A8 lets me stream Qobuz or Tidal without Roon. I can also insert a 4 TB NVME drive at the bottom, which holds around 6000 CDs and SACDs, pretty much my entire 40-year music collection (except my precious vinyl). The lower-priced DMP-A6 is Roon Ready. It is not built to the same standards, however, and while its DAC is highly rated by audiosciencereview.com, I prefer the DMP-A8 as it comes with a fully functional balanced preamp that uses a R2R ladder control preamp that like my CJ GAT S2 preamp goes clickety-clack when adjusting volume.
So, the DMP-A8 combines a streamer, a built-in NVME drive for playing locally stored music in the Taiko style from NVMEs, not SSDs, a great AKM "Velvet" DAC, and a very well-designed analog balanced preamplifier. It costs $2000, which is for most people not cheap, but on WBF, probably counts as chump change! You can read more about these DACs on AKM's web page, so I'll spare you the tech details, except that it's clear that these latest Velvet DACs are quite special. They sound much more analog like and far smoother than the previous generation of AKM DACs that I heard on low-end products like Topping D90 etc.
The DMP-A8 has sensibly put money into this product where it counts: the part selection is unusually well done, right up to using quality capacitors, femto-clocks and sensible layout. Yes, you get a switching power supply, not a linear one, although you can get aftermarket linear power supplies from Teddy Pardo if you want to gild the lily. The best part of the DMP-A8, which clinches it for me, is that it works well without a glitch. Streaming, playing back from local disk, and the iPhone app controlling the device all do their jobs without any errors, which is what I want from such a device.
The sound is not Lampizator tube like, but then, you'd hardly expect that from such a device. It is neutral, and pleasant to listen to on a high end system. It does not sound bright. It does not sound like it's malnutrioned in the midrange. It sounds warm and pleasant, and fairly dynamic (no, you won't get Lampi Pacific KR 242 tube dynamics here!).
So, if you are like me, wanting a slice of the high end of Taiko and Lampi at a shoestring budget, and one that runs cool, I recommend the Eversolo DMP-A8. It might free you of your addiction to Roon
To begin with, it's an attractively designed svelte black box that can be easily picked up with one hand (don't try that with your Taiko server or Lampizator Horizon!). It doesn't use tubes, which is what attracted me to it in the first place. My main system uses the Lampizator Pacific (which uses 6 tubes) feeding into an ARC 6SE preamp (add another 8 tubes) which in turn feed into two ARC Ref 210 tube mono block behemoths (each with 10 tubes, including 8 KT120 power tubes). If my math is right, that is 34 tubes that need to be fired up to listen to music. While this system is indeed glorious sounding, it takes an hour or more to come on song, and is best suited to relatively cool temperatures and long listening sessions. The Bay Area is reaching into the upper 90s this week (unless you live in Carmel, an hour from my house -- - where it always remains relatively cool in the low 60s!). I was looking for a cool running summer alternative to my 34-tube system. Hence the Eversolo DMP-A8.
OK, first lets' get the negatives out of the way. The DMP-A8 is not Roon ready. That's actually a good thing in my book. Although I am a lifetime Roon subscriber, I have also been looking for alternatives to Roon, and the DMP-A8 lets me stream Qobuz or Tidal without Roon. I can also insert a 4 TB NVME drive at the bottom, which holds around 6000 CDs and SACDs, pretty much my entire 40-year music collection (except my precious vinyl). The lower-priced DMP-A6 is Roon Ready. It is not built to the same standards, however, and while its DAC is highly rated by audiosciencereview.com, I prefer the DMP-A8 as it comes with a fully functional balanced preamp that uses a R2R ladder control preamp that like my CJ GAT S2 preamp goes clickety-clack when adjusting volume.
So, the DMP-A8 combines a streamer, a built-in NVME drive for playing locally stored music in the Taiko style from NVMEs, not SSDs, a great AKM "Velvet" DAC, and a very well-designed analog balanced preamplifier. It costs $2000, which is for most people not cheap, but on WBF, probably counts as chump change! You can read more about these DACs on AKM's web page, so I'll spare you the tech details, except that it's clear that these latest Velvet DACs are quite special. They sound much more analog like and far smoother than the previous generation of AKM DACs that I heard on low-end products like Topping D90 etc.
The DMP-A8 has sensibly put money into this product where it counts: the part selection is unusually well done, right up to using quality capacitors, femto-clocks and sensible layout. Yes, you get a switching power supply, not a linear one, although you can get aftermarket linear power supplies from Teddy Pardo if you want to gild the lily. The best part of the DMP-A8, which clinches it for me, is that it works well without a glitch. Streaming, playing back from local disk, and the iPhone app controlling the device all do their jobs without any errors, which is what I want from such a device.
The sound is not Lampizator tube like, but then, you'd hardly expect that from such a device. It is neutral, and pleasant to listen to on a high end system. It does not sound bright. It does not sound like it's malnutrioned in the midrange. It sounds warm and pleasant, and fairly dynamic (no, you won't get Lampi Pacific KR 242 tube dynamics here!).
So, if you are like me, wanting a slice of the high end of Taiko and Lampi at a shoestring budget, and one that runs cool, I recommend the Eversolo DMP-A8. It might free you of your addiction to Roon
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