This is a review and detailed measurements of the Eversolo DMP-A8 balanced DAC, Streamer, HDMI ARC, and Analog/digital Preamplifier with DSP support. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $1,980.
The DMP-A8 is stylish and functional in every sense of the words. Running Android with a high-speed processor, navigation is smooth and very rich. I am assuming the same CPU is used for DSP implementation of equalization, delay and compression as it works for all inputs (output must be analog however). The usual App is provided for the controlbut I was disappointed that a hard remote was not. Back panel shows the very rich connectivity:
Really, I can't think of a thing that is missing there. The DMP-A8 can easily be the heart of a modern system with support for legacy analog inputs as well.
Volume control provides excellent channel matching courtesy of stepped relay control.
Beauty extends to the insides:
There are many features available such as per input volume preset.
The unit was sent to me many months ago but I wanted to review it when Roon was implemented and it is now.
If you are not familiar with measurements that are about to follow, please watch my tutorial:
Eversolo DMP-A8 Digital Measurements
I streamed my reference test signal over Ethernet from Roon, capturing balanced output:
This is within shouting distance of state of the art stand-alone DACs:
Surprisingly, there is no hit to using RCA output:
There is a slight difference in dynamic range however:
Performance gets a bit better if you crank up the volume to max:
Multitone performance is superb:
As is linearity:
Jitter is nearly so and is input independent:
IMD vs level shows a slight rise in noise in mid-level but it is inconsequential:
Looking at the spectrum (not shown), noise floor moved up just a hair at -37 dB.
Driving an unrealistically low impedance of 600 Ohm doesn't bother the A8 at all:
Nor does it care what frequency you throw at it:
The DAC in use is AKM and we have the usual set of filters available:
Eversolo DMP-A8 Analog Preamplifier Measurements
I stayed with XLR input and output to keep the measurement set manageable. I selected volume control at 0 dB (it allows excursion well above that):
Wow! I was not expecting this. This is amazing performance. I thought it is digitizing the input but it is not (which sadly means DSP is not available for it either).
Across every measurement, performance is superb:
Reducing level to just 50 mv still provides excellent dynamic range:
That good noise performance translates into IMD vs level as well:
Making sure nothing bad happens when volume is reduced, here it is at -10 dB:
Crosstalk is superb:
And no frequency dependency:
Conclusions
In just about every area you look at, the DMP-A8 brings class leading performance combined with functionality that is not available elsewhere. All is put together in an elegant packaging with extensibility and openness of the Android OS. Critical features such as equalization and compression are provided. The only missesare lack of included hard remote and absence of DSP on analog input. The latter does translate into better performance than any digitizing analog preamp.
It is with my absolute pleasure to recommend the Eversolo DMP-A8 streamer and DAC. It is expensive but just doesn't get better than this folks.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The DMP-A8 is stylish and functional in every sense of the words. Running Android with a high-speed processor, navigation is smooth and very rich. I am assuming the same CPU is used for DSP implementation of equalization, delay and compression as it works for all inputs (output must be analog however). The usual App is provided for the control
Really, I can't think of a thing that is missing there. The DMP-A8 can easily be the heart of a modern system with support for legacy analog inputs as well.
Volume control provides excellent channel matching courtesy of stepped relay control.
Beauty extends to the insides:
There are many features available such as per input volume preset.
The unit was sent to me many months ago but I wanted to review it when Roon was implemented and it is now.
If you are not familiar with measurements that are about to follow, please watch my tutorial:
Eversolo DMP-A8 Digital Measurements
I streamed my reference test signal over Ethernet from Roon, capturing balanced output:
This is within shouting distance of state of the art stand-alone DACs:
Surprisingly, there is no hit to using RCA output:
There is a slight difference in dynamic range however:
Performance gets a bit better if you crank up the volume to max:
Multitone performance is superb:
As is linearity:
Jitter is nearly so and is input independent:
IMD vs level shows a slight rise in noise in mid-level but it is inconsequential:
Looking at the spectrum (not shown), noise floor moved up just a hair at -37 dB.
Driving an unrealistically low impedance of 600 Ohm doesn't bother the A8 at all:
Nor does it care what frequency you throw at it:
The DAC in use is AKM and we have the usual set of filters available:
Eversolo DMP-A8 Analog Preamplifier Measurements
I stayed with XLR input and output to keep the measurement set manageable. I selected volume control at 0 dB (it allows excursion well above that):
Wow! I was not expecting this. This is amazing performance. I thought it is digitizing the input but it is not (which sadly means DSP is not available for it either).
Across every measurement, performance is superb:
Reducing level to just 50 mv still provides excellent dynamic range:
That good noise performance translates into IMD vs level as well:
Making sure nothing bad happens when volume is reduced, here it is at -10 dB:
Crosstalk is superb:
And no frequency dependency:
Conclusions
In just about every area you look at, the DMP-A8 brings class leading performance combined with functionality that is not available elsewhere. All is put together in an elegant packaging with extensibility and openness of the Android OS. Critical features such as equalization and compression are provided. The only misses
It is with my absolute pleasure to recommend the Eversolo DMP-A8 streamer and DAC. It is expensive but just doesn't get better than this folks.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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