Eversolo DMP-A6 Streamer Review

[nawfal07]

I believe running it this way has the downside of using the DAC in my Marantz SR8015. I ordered some good StraightWire RCA's to use the Analog Out to be able to use the internal ESS DAC. But while using the HDMI digital out - I thought one of these streaming services should have some multichannel music, no? Like Dark Side of the Moon in Atmos? I have trial versions of Tidal HiFi+ and Qobuz, and always had Amazon Music (was the best streaming thru HEOS) Apple Music and Spotify...

Someone must stream multichannel ??

The DMP-A6, and many streamers of this kind was never meant to be a multi-channel DAC, otherwise you’ll see multi-channel analogue out. I believe even if you didn’t check the specs you’ve seen a photo of the back panel with all the input/output connectors? That will give you the first clue.

No, this is not a multi-channel DAC, no hi-fi DACs do as far as I know, at least not at this price range.

Remember this is firstly a streamer, many of us bypass the DAC anyway. In fact, you’ll be hard to find a streamer with a HDMI out to allow lossless multi-channel out. S/PDIF supports multi-channel but lossy only.

Yes, there are multi-channel music but they’re from DSD or SACD/DVD-Audio (or blu-ray audio). These have discrete lossless multi-channel data, their bitrates are too large for streaming (lossy 5.1 can but I’m not sure they do that). So you rip (or buy online files) and play it from your disk to send out via HDMI to a multi-channel processor+DAC. 3D audio music i.e. Dolby Atmos is not a multi-channel track.

So no this does not support Dolby Atmos. Firstly you need to understand what 3D is. In movies, the Dolby Atmos discrete base layer can be 5.1 (streaming, Dolby Digital Plus, lossy) or 7.1 (blu-ray discs, Dolby TrueHD, lossless). These tracks have metadata for the decoder to map the sound to your overhead speakers, so there’s no discrete data for the overhead speakers. When a system doesn’t support Dolby Atmos, it will only decode the base bed layer giving you standard 5.1 (lossy) or 7.1 (lossless) audio.

But for music the base layer only has discrete data for 2 channels (ALAC, etc). It also has metadata for the receiver to map to all other speakers. When a system doesn’t support Dolby Atmos, it will only decode the base layer giving you standard good old stereo music. But note that it’s still lossless (and in the case of DMP-A6 still in its original sampling, hi-res or otherwise).

There is a lot more to talk about, but at least now we understand the difference between multi-channel and 3D audio.

So again no, DMP-A6 doesn’t support spatial audio, even though it has an HDMI out. It’s a lot more complicated to do and Zidoo also has to pay licensing fee to Dolby Laboratories.

But the point remains, you cannot take this as a negative point, because you can’t get these features from it’s competitors as well, not to mention multi-channel audio that the DMP-A6 supports is already better than other streamers at this price.

If you want 3D audio from Apple Music, the only way to do it is by using Apple TV 4K connected to your AV receiver, but the downside of that lossless audio will always be resampled to 48 kHz and that’s the max, you will not get 24-bit/96-192 kHz hi-res audio, of which at the moment only the DMP-A6 can (another way is to use a USB dongle to a DAC but that’s not why people use streamers). Tidal like you said you can get spatial audio via HEOS which also take advantage of the AV receiver.

 

[glc650]

Firstly you need to understand what spatial audio is. In movies, the Dolby Atmos discrete base layer can be 5.1 (streaming, Dolby Digital Plus, lossy) or 7.1 (blu-ray discs, Dolby TrueHD, lossless). These tracks have metadata for the decoder to map the sound to your overhead speakers, so there’s no discrete data for the overhead speakers.

It's not just the overhead speakers that play objects. With home movies all of the speakers (except the sub) are playing objects. The sub is playing the LFE channel. Everything else is playing objects. The only time the discrete channels (aside from the LFE) are played is for backwards compatibility (when the AVR/sound bar doesn't support Atmos). Also, this isn't spatial audio, this is just Atmos. Spatial audio is "fake" Atmos/surround sound with minimal channels (i.e. headphones).

 

[nawfal07]

It's not just the overhead speakers that play objects. With home movies all of the speakers (except the sub) are playing objects. The sub is playing the LFE channel. Everything else is playing objects. The only time the discrete channels (aside from the LFE) are played is for backwards compatibility (when the AVR/sound bar doesn't support Atmos). Also, this isn't spatial audio, this is just Atmos. Spatial audio is "fake" Atmos/surround sound with minimal channels (i.e. headphones).

That’s not what I’ve read, happy to stand corrected if you can provide a link to a reliable article.

I speak of spatial audio not of an Apple brand, but a general 3-dimensional based audio formats which is why I didn’t write it in capital letters. But I agree it’s misleading, I should say “3D audio” instead.

 

[glc650]

That’s not what I’ve read, happy to stand corrected if you can provide a link to a reliable article.

Easily verifiable in mediainfo. This is the most comprehensive post I've seen (with a Dolby pdf referenced).

I speak of spatial audio not of an Apple brand, but a general 3-dimensional based audio formats which is why I didn’t write it in capital letters. But I agree it’s misleading, I should say “3D audio” instead.

Understood, but once a company the size of Apple "claims" a generic term as a product name it is hard to continue using the generic term since it just adds confusion. I don't believe Dolby has ever referred to their surround formats as spatial audio but since changing their site around all of my doc links are dead.

 

[nawfal07]

Easily verifiable in mediainfo. This is the most comprehensive post I've seen (with a Dolby pdf referenced).


Understood, but once a company the size of Apple "claims" a generic term as a product name it is hard to continue using the generic term since it just adds confusion. I don't believe Dolby has ever referred to their surround formats as spatial audio but since changing their site around all of my doc links are dead.

No Dolby didn’t use it, and I know already that’s it’s an Apple name don’t try to make me look stupid and you’re all master of knowledge.

It’s my own way of speaking. If you read my post I said “spatial audio music i.e. Dolby Atmos”, I gave an Dolby Atmos as an example so I wasn’t referring to the Apple name. But as I already said I agreed and edited my post.

Thanks for the link I’ll take a look at it tonight.

 

[glc650]

No Dolby didn’t use it, and I know already that’s it’s an Apple name don’t try to make me look stupid and you’re all master of knowledge.

How am I doing that? After your clarification I'm essentially agreeing with you so you are doing that all on your own.

It’s my own way of speaking. If you read my post I said “spatial audio music i.e. Dolby Atmos”,

And the part I replied to was you referring to Atmos in movies and in my reply I specifically mention home movies so what is your point? I don't have any Atmos music on disc so I can't run it through mediainfo to verify but I've seen nothing to suggest it is any different from a movie sound track on BR or streaming but your post and my reply was about movies so this is irrelevant anyway.

 

[glc650]

@mirror88 Anyway we can have the A6's outputs appear as different zones in Roon (so you would enable, name and configure each output you intended on using) or is it only appearing as one configurable zone because it is being detected as a Neo S? Also, can we get the A6 added to the Harmony Hub database?

 

[Werther44210]

The DMP-A6, and many streamers of this kind was never meant to be a multi-channel DAC, otherwise you’ll see multi-channel analogue out. I believe even if you didn’t check the specs you’ve seen a photo of the back panel with all the input/output connectors? That will give you the first clue.

No, this is not a multi-channel DAC, no hi-fi DACs do as far as I know, at least not at this price range.

Remember this is firstly a streamer, many of us bypass the DAC anyway. In fact, you’ll be hard to find a streamer with a HDMI out to allow lossless multi-channel out. S/PDIF supports multi-channel but lossy only.

Yes, there are multi-channel music but they’re from DSD or SACD/DVD-Audio (or blu-ray audio). These have discrete lossless multi-channel data, their bitrates are too large for streaming (lossy 5.1 can but I’m not sure they do that). So you rip (or buy online files) and play it from your disk to send out via HDMI to a multi-channel processor+DAC. 3D audio music i.e. Dolby Atmos is not a multi-channel track.

So no this does not support Dolby Atmos. Firstly you need to understand what 3D is. In movies, the Dolby Atmos discrete base layer can be 5.1 (streaming, Dolby Digital Plus, lossy) or 7.1 (blu-ray discs, Dolby TrueHD, lossless). These tracks have metadata for the decoder to map the sound to your overhead speakers, so there’s no discrete data for the overhead speakers. When a system doesn’t support Dolby Atmos, it will only decode the base bed layer giving you standard 5.1 (lossy) or 7.1 (lossless) audio.

But for music the base layer only has discrete data for 2 channels (ALAC, etc). It also has metadata for the receiver to map to all other speakers. When a system doesn’t support Dolby Atmos, it will only decode the base layer giving you standard good old stereo music. But note that it’s still lossless (and in the case of DMP-A6 still in its original sampling, hi-res or otherwise).

There is a lot more to talk about, but at least now we understand the difference between multi-channel and 3D audio.

So again no, DMP-A6 doesn’t support spatial audio, even though it has an HDMI out. It’s a lot more complicated to do and Zidoo also has to pay licensing fee to Dolby Laboratories.

But the point remains, you cannot take this as a negative point, because you can’t get these features from it’s competitors as well, not to mention multi-channel audio that the DMP-A6 supports is already better than other streamers at this price.

If you want 3D audio from Apple Music, the only way to do it is by using Apple TV 4K connected to your AV receiver, but the downside of that lossless audio will always be resampled to 48 kHz and that’s the max, you will not get 24-bit/96-192 kHz hi-res audio, of which at the moment only the DMP-A6 can (another way is to use a USB dongle to a DAC but that’s not why people use streamers). Tidal like you said you can get spatial audio via HEOS which also take advantage of the AV receiver.

@nawfal07, perfect explanation of what a Hi-Fi network player can do and I think the Eversolo is one of the most complete, it's two-channel, not intended to make immersive formats such as Home cinema, or new music found on Tidal for example. I was a Tidal subscriber for a while and having an Nvidia Shield box like the Apple, I managed to get Tidal tracks in Atmos on my Denon 8500 Home Cinema amplifier from the Tidal application on the box, the only way as you explained. Otherwise, you can have multichannel from the two-channel network player by transferring the two-channel sound by coaxial cable, for example, to the Home Cine receiver, this is not of interest in itself since the AV receiver can do it directly from its Heos type application for example. Here is my experience, I have a Rose 250, the EverSolo does the same thing as mine.
I am forwarding you an article on the new Denon network player which could do this multichannel sound because it has a Heos card, much less functionality than the EverSolo (classic player not as advanced), Denon says possible, but device intended to do the stereo and no commitment on their part that it can work....

Did Denon's DNP-2000NE Network Streamer Just Make The Competition Obsolete?

Denon's new Network Player includes something that none of its competitors have. And it may be a game-changer.

www.bigpicturebigsound.com

 

[Scoobz1]

New firmware just released. Haven’t tried it yet as am out at a kids’ soccer match.

https://music.eversolo.com/dmp/ota/DMP_A6/v1.1.60/DMP-A6_R_v1.1.60_202306031803_ota-package.zip

Did anyone lose tracks from their library (SSD) after this update ?

thnaks Scoobz

 

[glc650]

I was a Tidal subscriber for a while and having an Nvidia Shield box like the Apple, I managed to get Tidal tracks in Atmos on my Denon 8500 Home Cinema amplifier from the Tidal application on the box

I don't understand what the Nvidia Shield has to do with Apple but can't the A6 bitstream Tidal Atmos over HDMI to an AVR?

 

[gpusavat]

Hi, I just received my DMP A6 and updated the firmware to 1.1.60 How do I rip my CDs to it? I have connected an external CDROM player and added a 512GB NVMe SSD to the unit. Searched the menus but cannot find the function. Please help. Thank you.

 

[Werther44210]

I don't understand what the Nvidia Shield has to do with Apple but can't the A6 bitstream Tidal Atmos over HDMI to an AVR?

These are the only two boxes that allow you to have Atmos and decode, I think it's possible with perhaps the latest televisions (not sure). With A6 in HDMI you will be able to send an ATMOS track via Tidal application, this will not come out in ATMOS, you will have all the other multichannel modes DTS, Dolby, possible in AURO 3D, it will be 2 channels that the AV receiver will switch to multichannel , you will have with Auro the sound on all your speakers including the high ones. I tried with Roon too, for the moment Roon does not do ATMOS... Apart from specific Boxes or recent televisions, it is the only solution to have ATMOS...

 

[Gary4321]

The DMP-A6, and many streamers of this kind was never meant to be a multi-channel DAC, otherwise you’ll see multi-channel analogue out. I believe even if you didn’t check the specs you’ve seen a photo of the back panel with all the input/output connectors? That will give you the first clue.

No, this is not a multi-channel DAC, no hi-fi DACs do as far as I know, at least not at this price range.

Remember this is firstly a streamer, many of us bypass the DAC anyway. In fact, you’ll be hard to find a streamer with a HDMI out to allow lossless multi-channel out. S/PDIF supports multi-channel but lossy only.

Yes, there are multi-channel music but they’re from DSD or SACD/DVD-Audio (or blu-ray audio). These have discrete lossless multi-channel data, their bitrates are too large for streaming (lossy 5.1 can but I’m not sure they do that). So you rip (or buy online files) and play it from your disk to send out via HDMI to a multi-channel processor+DAC. 3D audio music i.e. Dolby Atmos is not a multi-channel track.

So no this does not support Dolby Atmos. Firstly you need to understand what 3D is. In movies, the Dolby Atmos discrete base layer can be 5.1 (streaming, Dolby Digital Plus, lossy) or 7.1 (blu-ray discs, Dolby TrueHD, lossless). These tracks have metadata for the decoder to map the sound to your overhead speakers, so there’s no discrete data for the overhead speakers. When a system doesn’t support Dolby Atmos, it will only decode the base bed layer giving you standard 5.1 (lossy) or 7.1 (lossless) audio.

But for music the base layer only has discrete data for 2 channels (ALAC, etc). It also has metadata for the receiver to map to all other speakers. When a system doesn’t support Dolby Atmos, it will only decode the base layer giving you standard good old stereo music. But note that it’s still lossless (and in the case of DMP-A6 still in its original sampling, hi-res or otherwise).

There is a lot more to talk about, but at least now we understand the difference between multi-channel and 3D audio.

So again no, DMP-A6 doesn’t support spatial audio, even though it has an HDMI out. It’s a lot more complicated to do and Zidoo also has to pay licensing fee to Dolby Laboratories.

But the point remains, you cannot take this as a negative point, because you can’t get these features from it’s competitors as well, not to mention multi-channel audio that the DMP-A6 supports is already better than other streamers at this price.

If you want 3D audio from Apple Music, the only way to do it is by using Apple TV 4K connected to your AV receiver, but the downside of that lossless audio will always be resampled to 48 kHz and that’s the max, you will not get 24-bit/96-192 kHz hi-res audio, of which at the moment only the DMP-A6 can (another way is to use a USB dongle to a DAC but that’s not why people use streamers). Tidal like you said you can get spatial audio via HEOS which also take advantage of the AV receiver.

Thanks very much for the thoughtful response. Yes I did see the back panel before purchasing it and understood that the XLR or RCA Analog outputs would only be in stereo (lossless at high bitrates), but thought the digital HDMI out would be capable of streaming multi-channel for the receiver to decode, in whatever format it was capable.
I was trying to use Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon remastered in Atmos to show off the ability of the system at least the 7 base layer speakers.
I do prefer generally to listen to music in 2 channel with a sub.
I’ll use 4k BluRay to share the system’s capabilities for friends.
Thanks again for taking the time in your reply

 

[Burki]

Thanks very much for the thoughtful response. Yes I did see the back panel before purchasing it and understood that the XLR or RCA Analog outputs would only be in stereo (lossless at high bitrates), but thought the digital HDMI out would be capable of streaming multi-channel for the receiver to decode, in whatever format it was capable.
I was trying to use Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon remastered in Atmos to show off the ability of the system.
I do prefer generally to list to music in 2 channel with a sub.
I’ll use 4k BluRay yo share the system’s capabilities for friends.
Thanks again for taking the time in your reply

Yes, one of the biggest argument for buying the Eversolo was (for me) the HDMI audio output, which is also able to put native DSD out in multichannel (this is a unique feature from Eversolo; I'm using also exaSound gears and here we've analogue eight channels out, but a complete different price class).
There are really rar streams in multichannel, but also Qobuz offers some (search with #multichannel) as flac streams.

 

[Werther44210]

After checking the EverSolo via the HDMI socket is more modern than Rose-HiFi, can output sound in 5.1, so see for yourself how a track recorded in multi-channel, see how it processes a title in ATMOS.

 

[Burki]

After checking the EverSolo via the HDMI socket is more modern than Rose-HiFi, can output sound in 5.1, so see for yourself how a track recorded in multi-channel, see how it processes a title in ATMOS.

Because I'm owning a RS250 and have intensive tested the DMP-A6, I can say that the HDMI outs are completely different.
Eversolo has a HDMI audio only out (makes only a blue screen), but the Rose has a video out, which can also used as audio out (passthrough). Rose has included a (very simple) video player for playing videos through smb or youtube.

 

[Werther44210]

Because I'm owning a RS250 and have intensive tested the DMP-A6, I can say that the HDMI outs are completely different.
Eversolo has a HDMI audio only out (makes only a blue screen), but the Rose has a video out, which can also used as audio out (passthrough). Rose has included a (very simple) video player for playing videos through smb or youtube.

I agree with you the logic is different, the Rose's HDMI for You Tube and making video in addition to sound, I use, interesting when plugged into a Hi-Fi amplifier with two channels. Nevertheless, the EverSolo has a lot of advantages for its price and on certain points it is very modern, its components are good. I'm going to recommend it to a friend who has a small budget, he has a pure Hi-Fi use with a Yamaha AS 3000. I'm French, my salesman is however the only one to sell it (the first devices expected around June 15) . My seller told me its really very nice as sound...

 

[Dan31620]

@nawfal07, perfect explanation of what a Hi-Fi network player can do and I think the Eversolo is one of the most complete, it's two-channel, not intended to make immersive formats such as Home cinema, or new music found on Tidal for example. I was a Tidal subscriber for a while and having an Nvidia Shield box like the Apple, I managed to get Tidal tracks in Atmos on my Denon 8500 Home Cinema amplifier from the Tidal application on the box, the only way as you explained. Otherwise, you can have multichannel from the two-channel network player by transferring the two-channel sound by coaxial cable, for example, to the Home Cine receiver, this is not of interest in itself since the AV receiver can do it directly from its Heos type application for example. Here is my experience, I have a Rose 250, the EverSolo does the same thing as mine.
I am forwarding you an article on the new Denon network player which could do this multichannel sound because it has a Heos card, much less functionality than the EverSolo (classic player not as advanced), Denon says possible, but device intended to do the stereo and no commitment on their part that it can work....

Did Denon's DNP-2000NE Network Streamer Just Make The Competition Obsolete?

Denon's new Network Player includes something that none of its competitors have. And it may be a game-changer.

www.bigpicturebigsound.com

UPDATE: A Denon rep got back to us to explain their use of the words "immersive music" when announcing the DNP-2000NE. Here was their response:

"The DNP-2000NE is designed to reproduce music as the artist intended, as if you are immersed in the studio while the music is being recorded. [This is] not to imply that this is a multichannel decoding piece or that it features any upmixing or virtualization technologies. So, it does not feature Dolby Atmos or 360RA, but what it does feature is simple 2 channel Hi-Fi with no compromises."

 

[Werther44210]

UPDATE: A Denon rep got back to us to explain their use of the words "immersive music" when announcing the DNP-2000NE. Here was their response:

"The DNP-2000NE is designed to reproduce music as the artist intended, as if you are immersed in the studio while the music is being recorded. [This is] not to imply that this is a multichannel decoding piece or that it features any upmixing or virtualization technologies. So, it does not feature Dolby Atmos or 360RA, but what it does feature is simple 2 channel Hi-Fi with no compromises."

Indeed, their network player was made for Hi-Fi and not multi-channel, see what would happen if it was connected to HDMI with a Denon AV amplifier, both of them having Heos, I am puzzled like you. Much less functionality than Eversolo or Rose (weak point).

 

[yllanos]

@mirror88 any chance for a Desktop control app for Windows?