-
Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
Eversolo DMP-A8 Balanced Streamer/DAC Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
Is R2R better than normal 24 steps by only provide much more steps? Anything more? It looks like not to many relays there in the photo.
It is amazing to have so many parts get together and it can remaing low noise. How about replacing the digital power supply show better performane or it is unnecessary.
So cool.Of course 25 steps would make a great difference, or even one more to 26 steps ... If you would be able to hear it ...
The lay out is much more organized than the used popular model TEAC 701N, with streamer , DAC and a pre-amp.The conecting wires is flowing aroud and cost more than double I think. China is catching up with the design. I hope TOYOTA build better cars than BYD.
Parametric Equalizer
I have to take my words back. After a couple of weeks listening to Eversolo A8 as streamer/ DAC /preamp connected directly to my amp Rotel RB-1090, I found myself not really happy with the sound quality.
I was listening to tracks that I know very well, and they sounded very muffled and indistinct—to the point where I actually walked up to the tweeter and put my ear to it! I thought they might have failed. But no, they were working, just with very dirty, muffled, and low-quality sound. I'm not an audiophile, so I don't know how else to describe it, but the system just sounded bad.
Then I went to the Zidoo forum looking for posts about the A8 and found user reports saying that the preamp in the A8 is very poor and doesn’t provide enough output level to the amplifier. I also noticed this in my system. I could turn the volume on the A8 up to -8 dB, which is almost the maximum.
I want to remind you that my amplifier is a Rotel RB-1090, which delivers 380W at 8Ω and 700W at 4Ω. I realized that the Eversolo A8 has issues with preamp output, and it's not just me—I've seen many other reviews reporting the same problem.
I decided to bring back my former preamplifier, the Rotel RC-1572 MK2, and see how the system would sound with it. I connected the Rotel RC-1572 MK2 to the Eversolo A8 using an RCA cable and disabled the preamp mode on the A8 (setting the volume control to 0 dB). In other words, I used the A8 purely as a streamer and DAC.
Then, I played the same tracks again, and from the very first seconds, I heard clean, high-quality, and stunning sound! The difference was massive! Additionally, with the Rotel RC-1572, I set the volume knob to 65 out of 100, which produced the same sound level as the Eversolo A8 at -8 dB. This confirmed to me that the preamp in the Eversolo A8 is of terrible quality.
I’ve never noticed a difference in DACs or amplifiers before, and I always believed that preamps didn’t affect the sound at all. But in this case—sorry, but only a deaf person wouldn’t hear the difference!
But then, I encountered another surprise. I decided to connect the Eversolo A8 to the Rotel RC-1572 via USB to bypass the A8’s built-in DAC and listen to how it would sound using the internal DAC of the Rotel RC-1572. And once again, I was shocked! The sound quality with the Rotel RC-1572’s built-in DAC became even better!
I won’t describe it like an audiophile would—I’ll just say that I started hearing cymbals in the drum tracks that I hadn’t noticed before with the Eversolo A8. And this whole situation left me completely puzzled. I asked myself, how is this possible? The DAC in the Eversolo A8 is technically far superior to the one in the Rotel RC-1572 MK2, yet the A8 sounds terrible. And I don’t understand how this can be when Amir (from ASR) tested it and the measurements were excellent! Why does the A8 sound so bad and muffled???
I don’t know what to think, but I decided to keep the Rotel RC-1572 MK2 and now use the Eversolo A8 solely as a streamer. If I had known that its DAC and preamp were so bad, I would have just bought the cheaper A6 model instead.
It is astounding how powerful the imagination can be.
www.audiosciencereview.com
Keith
Eversolo DMP-A8 Balanced Streamer/DAC Review
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...
www.audiosciencereview.com
Keith
Nothing to do with imagination. These are not tiny differences - its a DAY and NIGHT.It is astounding how powerful the imagination can be.
Eversolo DMP-A8 Balanced Streamer/DAC Review
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...
Keith
Uh-huh.
Keith
Keith
staticV3
Grand Contributor
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2019
- Messages
- 12,249
- Likes
- 20,321
Day and night differences will be easily picked up by even just the recorder App on your phone, as long as the phone's position does not change.
The recording could then be forwarded to Eversolo to fix any issues.
And to be clear: the A8's Preamp audibly affecting sound quality would be a severe issue.
It's a $2k streamer. Anything but transparency would be unacceptable.
Edit:
I see the Rotel has tone controls built-in. Are you sure that you didn't enable them and that's the difference you heard?
Last edited:
I use a8 as a dac and preamp connected to two 500w @ 4ohm Hypex ncore mono amplifiers, with harbeth p3esr xd 83db. To have a medium low volume I have to get to -50db on a8...is this normal? It's like having to put the potentiometer of an integrated amplifier at 12 o'clock and this has never happened to me because it already sounds quite high at 9 o'clock.
Thank you
Thank you
Loftrocket
Member
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2024
- Messages
- 38
- Likes
- 13
Oh man, I'm shocked. I was choosing between Eversolo A6 ME Gen2 and A8 and thought, that A8 will be better option, because of superior dac and other internals...
Loftrocket
Member
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2024
- Messages
- 38
- Likes
- 13
I just need streamer with good dac, that i don't need to search for external one.
Amir has actually measured both, perhaps a quick read?
Keith
Keith
No, I haven't used tone controls on Rotel preamp. There is a big thread on Eversolo forum about this issue with A8. Eversolo reps don't even respond on that forum. Anyway, thanks to some people, finally I have found the main reason for really bad/muffy sound with low volume levels when you connect A8 directly to power amp. The reason for that is that Eversolo adv about fully balanced preamp section is a bit of scam. With A8 you ONLY get claimed 10db gain and signal through preamp section if you connect device to Eversolo A8 ANALOG inputs. However, if you connect device to A8's digital inputs, you do not get any preamplification at all, volume knob is used as attenuator, you don't get 10db gain either. Same true if you use A8 as a streamer, which is actually it's main job - so no gain, no preamp, just attenuator. Eversolo must have been more clear when they claim that A8 have fully balanced preamp with 10db gain.
I have made a mistake selling my preamp when I bought A8, thinking I don't need one more box, A8 has a nice fully balanced preamp and R2R volume control, etc. That is big mistake! Now I got my Rotel back and everything works fine. I will repeat that I am NOT an audiophile. This is a huge problem with A8 if you decide to connect it directly to power amp. All music then will sound with a complete lack of high freq (after 10khz). And this is happens when you don't get proper preamp.
Similar threads
