DMP-A8

This review first appeared in July 2024 on fairaudio.de. By request of the manufacturer and permission of the author, it is hereby syndicated from the German original to reach a broader English audience. Ed.

Reviewer: Fritz Schwertfeger
Analog sources:  Linn LP12, Pro-Ject Perspective Anniversary
Digital sources: Mytek Brooklyn DAC+, Sony CDP X-707 ES, Innuos ZENMini MK3, Roon Nucleus, Synology DS220+, Auralic Aries Femto, Eversolo DMP-A6 ME, Wattson Audio Emerson Digital, Mutec REF10 SE120 and MC-3+USB, Innuos PhoenixNET and PhoenixUSB
Preamplifier: Sony TA.E 80ES
Power ampliffiers: Cayin MT-34L, 2 x Sony TA-N 80 ES (bi-amping)
Loudspeakers: Kii III, KEF LS50 Meta
Review component retail price: €1'980

The Eversolo DMP-A8 is a combination of streamer, streaming bridge, DAC and analog preamp and even has software-powered VU meters.

 “Go on! Go on!" I don't know whether Eversolo's tinkerers really are fans of certain former German national goalkeepers who occasionally nibbled on their opponents? Yet the Chinese could well have a similar motto when after the successful DMP-A6 and its Master Edition, they now scale up with an even more bulging combo of network player and analogue preamplifier: today's DMP-A8.

Auralic. Lumin. Linn. These all are respectable names that rode waves of success for many years either with pure streaming bridges without converters; or with DAC-armed network players. In all cases, pricing trended ever upwards. Even Korea's Rose which first baited us with affordable tags and large displays now demand a lot more. Is that simply the way of the world? Not always. As a 10-year old, Eversolo are a comparatively young player who even operate their own factory. Moderate pricing still promises audiophile virtues. Fuelled by social media, their maiden effort of DMP-A6 was on everyone's lips and ears whereupon its engineers were allowed to let off steam with the Master Edition. As soon as the first and second waves mellowed, Eversolo sent its latest frigate into the race with today's larger DMP-A8. This current flagship combines a streamer, streaming bridge, DAC and analog preamplifier in one chassis. Its analog RCA and XLR outputs can direct-drive a power amp or active speakers. The analog inputs on RCA and XLR expect high-quality sources and reward by applying no A/D conversion. Great. On the other hand there's no provision to loop external digital sources through the S/PDIF output unless we stream out via the internal player with I²S over HDMI, USB-A, coax and Toslink. If data processing remains exclusively in the digital domain, volume control happens in DSP.

The analog volume uses relay-switched resistors.

Otherwise, the volume control is a high-quality R2R resistor network with clicking relay switches. Step sizes can be selected from 0.5 – 3dB. If you want to use this network player as a pure DAC, HDMI/ARC and two each coax/Toslink inputs plus USB-B await. This mode accepts up to PCM 768 and DSD 512. The home network including NFS, UPnP, SMB and AirPlay can connect wirelessly at 2.4 and 5GHz via stub antennae; or wire as Gigabit LAN over RJ45. Roon Ready just added recently. You can also tap your local NAS or the cloud via Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon, Hiresaudio, Deezer; or your own content on OneDrive or DropBox.

A third antenna for Bluetooth accepts AAC, SBC, aptX, aptX HD and LDAC codecs at 96kHz which I tried with a HiBy R6 Pro. One point of criticism. Since the Eversolo DMP-A8 denies wireless headphones in the absence of bidirectional Bluetooth, why isn't there at least one headphone output on the device? I already mentioned the USB-B output but not yet USB-A input. It serves as an OTG interface to access music via tablet, smartphone or external hard drive. Reading CDs is also possible with an external drive. The Eversolo app (iOS/Android) can even be used to configure music data transfer from/to PC/Mac. Tracks can be moved back and forth and metadata edited if the DMP-A8 won't automatically grab them off the cloud. A retrofittable internal SSD serves local music storage. However, the DMP-A8 does not establish a UPnP network server that can be accessed by other renderers. With the SSD it only plays on itself. That slot locates on the bottom and accommodates SSD up to 4TB. Should your network glitch or fail, the DMP-A8 needn't be out of commission. It can still deliver music down the shortest path and be manually controlled old school.

These antennae handle WLAN and Bluetooth.

In this Eversolo there's no ESS silicon but the DAC ensemble of AK4499EX and AK4191EQ from Japanese manufacturer Asahi Kasei. Six selectable digital filters aim at pre- and post-ringing and—I'll still get to this—actually have a subtle but audible influence. The Master Edition DMP-A6 already used extremely precise femto clocks from Accusilicon which reappear in the DMP-A8. With regard to output opamps, we get OPA1612 which cost about four times more than the OPA1642 of the A6. Once again a powerful quad-core ARM Coretx-A55 handles all housekeeping chores. The DSP engine is an AKM AK7739VQ flanked by a combination of 4GB DDR4 RAM and 64GB eMMC flash memory. Connected to your home network, a wide range of possibilities opens up. Content on the NAS or cloud is accessed at the touch of a button on the very clearly structured Eversolo app. Basically almost anything can be controlled from there; and quickly. Only a few special functions such as activating Squeezelite or installing apps require the touch-sensitive 6” display. But in mirror mode, the display reflects in the app which generally saves you getting out of the chair.