EVERSOLO DMP-A6 Music Streamers, Network Player, Digital Music Streamer, DAC, Music Service&Streaming MQA Full Decode, DSD512 PCM768kHz/32Bit Bluetooth 5.0, 6’’HD Touchscreen, Exclusive App

Heads up - this is a detailed review, first impressionsFor many years, I have used the best streamer under 1k: Sonos connect with the W4S mod, coax out to my DAC. Sound wise, there wasnt anything close under 1k. Sonos port with W4S mod - inferior, Blusound - not close. I just wanted something a bit more responsive and was dissappointed when the Sonos port sounded inferior even with the W4S mod. So with the recent releases of promising products, I bought both the Innuos Pulse mini streamer and this Eversolo DMP-A6 and compared them. There is so much you can learn from the web reviews, and from experience, there can be little info on sound quality. Example - the W4S Sonos connect has very few reviews for what was for its time, an outstanding product. (It still is). So here are my impressions:Sound quality as a streamer into an external DAC: (my primary use)SPDIF (coax out): All 3 are close. Eversolo is the best by a slight margin. Very slightly cleaner in the highs, Well balanced. Sonos is a very close #2 and I could live with this as well. Slightly brighter, a tad more dynamic. Innuos: #3 Cleaner highs than the Sonos but with the stock power supply has a layer of grunge that an external power supply removes. With an external power supply, it is a bit less clean and a bit less dynamic than the other 2. Again, these differences are slight.USB out: Eversolo and Innuos (with external power supply) are the same. with innuos stock power supply , innuos is slightly grungier, which surprised me. USB I didnt like because it was less dynamics than SPDIF coax, both units. Through USB, highs are cleaner, better sibilantsApp: Innuos and Sonos apps are the best. #1: Innuos #2: Sonos #3 distant third is eversolo app. Eversolo is hard to navigate and not that clean. Innuos app is rock solid. Eversolo app would not allow me to connect to my iphone app via the camera scan.Tidal streaming: On Sonos and Eversolo, you can use the native Tidal app, via Tidal connect. Innuos you have to use their app, which is very good anyway. Eversolo app is frustrating, so very happy to avoid.Front panel - #1: Eversolo #2: Sonos #3: InnuosBack panel: #1: Eversolo #2: Sonos #3: Innuos Main benefit is that eversolo and sonos has wifi built in.Sound with built in DAC: Did not review. I have read that the Eversolo DAC is not that good.I am going to keep the Eversolo and Innuos for a while and see how they evolve and how easy to live with. I am impressed by the rock solid Innuos - it just works and it is clear that a lot of thought has gone into it and with their app. The Eversolo by comparison is full featured and has a flovor of lets put everything in and see what sticks. I can give up all the bells and whistles on the Eversolo for a better app and their excellent sound quality. Will update after more use.Edit 1: Used a 2TB intel 670p NVMe. Works great. Amazon sells 2TB for $70, 1TB for $40 right now. I would suggest that you use an external enclosure to connect to your computer or server to transfer your music the first time. Format it in exFAT, and then transfer your music. Then move the drive to the Eversolo. I first tried it by installing it into the eversolo and transferring it via wifi. It was soooo slow. Would take about a month to transfer my music. Then did it the way I suggested and that took about a minute. Also, I noted that the CPU in the eversolo is a weak performer compared to the innuos pulse mini, about 3x slower. So anything you ask the eversolo to do that requires CPU is going to be slow. The sound quality coming from the drive is superior than streaming through Tidal. Earlier I commented that the sound from the W4S sonos connect was brighter than that from Eversolo; now the balance from the drive is the same as streaming from the Connect, but more detailed. So far, the Sound Quality is the best from the NVMe with hires sources. (I tested with a 96kHz 24 bit track vs Tidal MQA).Edit2: Spent some time comparing USB vs SPDIF output. For those who are unaware, SPDIF output takes the audio digital signal and clocks it using onboard crystal oscillators to your external DAC. The external DAC uses the clock from your device (DMP A6) as the master clock. USB just sends the digital signal via an asynchronous format to your DAC. Your DAC then reclocks it with onboard crystal oscillators before doing the conversion to analog. So which sounds better will depend a lot on whether the clocks on the DMP A6 vs your DAC. The master edition of the DMP A6 supposedly has better clocks so SPDIF should sound better, whereas the USB should be the same. That said, my DAC has a pretty decent USB conversion, at least as good as the DMP A6. I used the highest quality digital signal from my NVMe for comparison and went from USB to SPDIF everything else the same to my DAC. My conclusion is that the USB output is cleaner, but I didnt always prefer the USB out. The biggest different was the soundstage. The SPDIF was up front, immediate and more exciting, whereas the USB out was further away. For pop, I generally preferred the SPDIF, whereas for classical, I preferred the USB because everything was cleaner, more precise. If you have a cheaper DAC, you probably would prefer the SPDIF. I tried it on a cheaper DAC and I preferred the SPDIF. So it all depends on your preference and the quality of the USB clocking on your DAC vs the DMP A6.

I purchased the Eversolo DMP-A8 for its ability to stream Apple Music natively and get hi-rez. In order to get the hi res for Apple Music, I had to update the firmware out of the box, factory reset it, and then update again. After that, Apple Music will stream in hi res lossless audio with no issues. Don't forget you have to set the audio setting in the Android app. Once you do that, it will work. I own another streamer of a different brand that has the Apple Music app and that brand uses an API so it's oinly getting AAC at 256 kbps and doesn't support gapless. If I had known about the eversolo prior to that purchase, I would have saved myself some money. I use this as a streamer only so I can't speak to its DAC or preamp functions. This is a very nice quality product and as a streamer, performs on par with a $5K streamer transport. I'm a Roon subscriber so I haven't tried to have this unit read my NAS music collection.

This review is mostly focused on Apple Music integration.In bullet points:Not using Airplay, which is lossy.Using "Apple Streaming services" resolution is limited to 44.1khz.Using the "Apple Music App" gives you full HiRes playback.There is NO Dolby Support.Using an external DAC - Denafrips Terminator + 15th - volume passthrough is recommended.Using the Internal DAC - which is excellent, as in detailed and neutral thanks to its AKM chip - volume passthrough is recommended.Using the unit as a preamp is not recommended if using high end gear.Compared to streaming from an Apple device, the detail retrieval and soundstage are on another level.But there is the very occasional bottlenecking of data that causes a sound anomaly and that will immediately take you out of the experience.The first half second of a track is sometimes skipped if the bit rate changes. That's annoying too. There's a sample rate latency switch feature in the settings, but it doesn't seem to do much.The 15 band EQ is VERY aggressive and not discreet. Could not come up with a curve that worked even in small increments. Ended up disabling it.The App is GREAT - except when using "CAST" which allows you to mirror Apple Music on an iPhone or iPad. Navigation is "sticky" as in not as fluid as using a native app. Horizontal format only.CONCLUSION: It sounds great! The internal DAC performance was a surprise. Too many features to go over. A few bugs. My recommendation: keep it simple and try which Source/Output combo sounds best on YOUR system.