Let’s assume reality. However much vinyl sales have skyrocketed in recent years or even the moribund CD market has begun to show signs of life, the farewell to physical media for listening to music is a reality. A large portion of music “listeners” have been addicted to Spotify, Apple Music or Tidal for years and have no plans to go back.

To these we must add those who cannot resist the permanent loss of ownership of their music and prefer to buy it rather than rent it; audiophiles or simply hobbyists who are not willing to subscribe to any audio service streaming, They choose platforms like BandCamp, Qobuz or HD-Tracks to access music in the highest quality and get files up to 192kHz and 24bit.

What does not change, however, is that within the limits of each pocket, everyone wants to enjoy music in the best way, either by investing in better headphones that most mobile phone manufacturers give. case at hand, incorporating a streamer into your sound system.

In its various configurations, a streamer is a device designed to play music streaming that is, to stream music over the Internet and play it on the audio system. Due to their characteristics, these devices are designed to offer high sound quality and are often used in hi-fi systems. To achieve this, they include both the ability to connect to a Wi-Fi and Ethernet network to access music streaming services such as Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal, or stream music from a personal music library stored on a local network or NAS. The streamer then processes the digital music signal and sends it to an amplifier or powered speakers.

They usually come with their own smartphone app to make it easier for the user to control the music that will be played on their device, and at the same time they offer all kinds of connections so that we can use the device for other purposes. features such as integration into a home theater setup, video game console, etc. Almost all of the above can be found in this Eversolo DMP-A6.

Unpack and connect

As we have already mentioned, the Eversolo DMP-A6 is an all-in-one network audio player that can be integrated into any audio system thanks to its many connection options. From the moment we take it out of the box, it attracts attention: mainly because the quality of its construction, which the Chinese company took special care of, and which definitely does not interfere with being included alongside the equipment of better-known brands in the audio world such as Teac, Bose or Marantz. Secondly, thanks to the 6” HD screen that practically occupies the front of the device and that coexists next to it volume dial which is also responsible for turning the device on and off.

All connectivity options are located on the back of this DMP-6, that is: optical/coaxial input (PCM 192KHz 24Bit, DSD64 Dop, MQA), USB-C audio input, optical/coaxial audio output (PCM 192KHz 24Bit, DSD64 Dop , MQA), HDMI audio output (DSD64 Native Multichannel/PCM192KHz) and XLR output connectors. We can hardly ask for more. And we say almost because the absence of any type of connectivity with our headphones is striking. It’s true that in many hi-fi devices this port is commonly found on the amplifier, but it still seems like an absence that will be missed by some users.

Although the streamer has a storage capacity of 64 GB by default, we have a slot at the bottom of the device SSD M.2 NVME 3.0 2280in which, thanks to the tool provided by the brand in the package, we can install an SSD drive with a maximum capacity of 2 TB.

We can store practically any file in this 2 TB, as the device is compatible with almost all quality formats, be it CD (FLAC, WAV, APE) or higher bitrates DSD512 stereo/multichannel and MQA etc. Its USB port also makes it easy for us to play stored music on our computer or on an external drive, and thanks to file sharing protocols such as NFS, SMB or UPnP, we can easily build our music library from files stored on NAS or on our home computer. Do we want more? We got it: The DMP-A6 has support for Apple AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth 5.0. Basically a swiss army knife in which you will be hard pressed to find a configuration that this device doesn’t support.

Software, features and our music collection

We really liked the large 6” high resolution screen. And even more, we liked the effort Eversolo put into creating a simple, well-designed, and intuitive interface. The menu management is pleasant, the movement is very smooth and although all the functions of this can be controlled using a smartphone ribbon you don’t necessarily need to use your phone remotely to get the most out of it.

With EverSolo Music Library we can manage our collection of digital files. We were surprised by the good job it does in terms of recognizing their brands, even being able to download additional information related to music genres or covers. On the other hand, how cumbersome it can be to recognize a new album once we first create our collection, because it doesn’t recursively explore network directories (yes in internal storage), which we sometimes want. we have to force ourselves to rebuild our collection.

It is also very interesting that it contains the “CD” application, which allows us both to play an audio CD by connecting an external drive to its USB port and, above all, to “rip” its tracks and incorporate them into its storage, internal or any other way we determine . Speaking of applications, the DMP-A6 supports both Qobuz Direct as Spotify Direct, so it is not really necessary to install these applications on the device, although it also offers us this. Plus we have other streaming sources in the Apps drawer like Tidal, Apple Muisc, TuneIn…etc. as well as the ability to play music files from cloud storage such as DropBox or Google Drive.

Curiously though this ribbon It’s based on Android, it doesn’t have an app store, so we won’t be able to install other streaming services that already exist or external apps that we might be interested in. No big deal as we didn’t need to do it ourselves, but it’s something you should consider. Nor, and this is interesting to us, since this is a Chinese company, does it not allow us to transmit it to other speakers connected wirelessly to this device.

Specifications

• 6″ LCD touch screen
• Internal memory: 4GDDR4 + 32GeMMC
• DAC: ES 9038Q2M*2
• Sound processor: XMOS XU316
• Op amp chip: OPA1642
• High quality switching power supplies with low noise
• Hard disk slot: M.2 NVME 3.0 2280 protocol, up to 2 TB
• USB-A port: USB3.0*2
• Ethernet: RJ-45 (10/100/1000 Mbps)
• Dual-band 2.4G+5G WiFi
• DAC playback and decoding
• Supports up to DSD512 stereo, PCM 768KHz 32Bit, MQA
• Streaming: Air Play, DLNA, Roon Ready, Spotify, Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect, etc.
• Bluetooth audio input: Bluetooth BT5.0, support SBC/AAC/aptX/aptX LL/aptX HD/LDAC
• USB‑C Audio Input: USB Audio Compatibility: Windows (7, 10), Mac, Android, IOS
• Supports up to DSD512 stereo, PCM 768KHz 32Bit, MQA
• Optical/Coaxial Audio Input: Supports up to stereo PCM 192KHz 24Bit, DSD64 Dop, MQA
• Optical/coaxial audio output: Supports up to PCM 192 kHz 24-bit stereo, DSD64 Dop, MQA
• HDMI Audio Output: DSD64 native multi-channel/PCM192KHz raw multi-channel output
• Dimensions: 187mm x 270mm x 90mm

Sound quality and performance

Almost as if it were a studio player, the new Eversolo product faithfully reproduces any recording, offering in this sense a “neutral” sound quality, or one that is not modified by algorithms that can compensate for possible defects of the original master.

If the album was mastered well, will offer us an amazing experience, but it will also quite forcefully show the flaws of albums that have not been given much attention. It won’t cover up one’s mistakes by filling out the bass and lower mids to give you a warmer sound, nor will it try to beef up the mids and highs and offer “softer” music. In fact, it doesn’t even have an integrated equalizer that we can play with depending on the style of music we’re going to play. What we hear is what it is, nothing more, nothing less.

The truth is that it generally offers excellent resolution across the spectrum. Bass is well-defined and extended, with texture and layering, but not overpowering. The mids have enough room to breathe, but not so much that they sound lost or hollow. Instruments and singers sound realistic, with a natural and close tone without being overly warm and perhaps only the highest notes can sound a bit washed out.

With a recommended price of just over 800 euros, we cannot compare its sound quality with that of devices that cost four to five times more on the market, but neither can we compare it with the quality of many mid-range streamers that simply meet their requirements. subdued. In this sense, Eversolo puts in our hands a very interesting device, perhaps not so much for the digital audiophile, but for the audiophile who wants to complete his equipment by adding one extra capacity.

You can buy it from the official website or from authorized sellers like Amazon.