Review and need-to-know Eversolo DMP-A6 streamer

No the ID3 tag on individual FLAC and MP3 tracks themselves.

 

ATTENTION:
MP3s do have ID3 (v1, v2.x) tags, while FLACs have VORBIS COMMENT. Although the two are meant to carry metadata, it's strongly recommended to use the adequate TAG layer to each file type.

Also. there are some differences, regarding duplicate / multiple tags (such as genre, artist, etc.), as in the vorbis comment they are encouraged (again, for example, Folk and Rock being genres of an album, Vorbis mandates to use TWO genre tags, one for Folk and one for Rock; this is regarded as invalid in the ID3 tag prior to v2.4, though).

Just my 2c on the topic, hope some of you find it useful to maintain a correctly tagged library.

 

My flacs have no ID Tags, one flac file - one album, with all the metadata in corresponding cue file. BTW, all other player programs
which understand img+cue files, work

 

It's not a matter of understanding CUE files; programs in the years have allowed (and therefore polluted) the format to include non-relevant information.

The CUE file resembles what cue files meant in the day of tape-recording in the studio: the times when each song begun.
Of course, also the band's name and some date was included, for necessity / clarity; but definitely not any "genre" for example. Every file has its purpose, and the metadata tags attached to the audio tracks serve the purpose: may contain a huge amount of additional information about the track itself, including pictures, lyrics, etc.

Pretending a CUE file to store information about the lyrics, or the genre, is as out of place as pretending a plain-text document to contain information about the codepage used to write it... We invented MS Word .DOC format for this, uh?

Anyway, in the end is your files.

 

Removed the HDMI/Analog output switch problem (paired with listening to MCH/2CH). Did not run into MCH not working anymore leaving MCH permanently on for HDMI.
Will keep a keen eye on it.

 

Added to the text:

For those who still desire one, a small cheap BTR-12 remote is available as an accessory:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C7C3Y7WW
The power button works via IR.

 

Added to the list:

- The wrong bitrate is reported with lossy formats like MP3. It seems to be done by calculating the bitrate by duration/filesize which obviously includes overhead and above all ID3# TAGs. This results in very odd bitrates (not being 48, 96, 128, 160, 192, 256, 320). OK one can guess what it really is (first lower figure possible).

Regard it a cosmetic problem as it does not affect sound nor the operation.

 

I also have a big Network Music library (SMB). Android App does not even show all of the files from Music Player shortcut - ends somewhere on letter C when in Folder mode (click small icon in top right corner to change modes), or shows nothing when in file mode - From the Eversolo front screen it works fine.

Things I'm missing in Music player:
Folder View - My music library is divided by Artists and it is easier to browse by folder as lets say artist or songs my be on different compilations and it is hard to listen one full album without getting to Folder

Back button on the phone takes you to the top of the library not one step back

Oddly enough when I use File explorer I can see all the files in the library and back button on the phone takes me one step back.
Unfortunately, in file explorer going back and forth in the library, has a huge lag and I can't see any album information except file names.

As a workaround I use Cast option in the app to get access to front screen from my phone and navigate that way.

UPDATE

It seams like new firmware resolved the issue with not all files being visible in player mode, Nice! Thank you for hard work Eversolo!

 

Mine, too, is divided by artist -> album -> tracks.

for me, to select the artist (just an example, I have no Eagles in my lib...) as Eagles, then the album as Hotel California, and play it as a whole takes even less clicks than, OTOH, going to Folder view, then selecting "E", then "Eagles" folder, then "Hotel California" folder.

Either your library is messed up and not all tracks are tagged correctly as to what album they belong to, or you are not familiar with browsing by artist / album...

 

Using Music Player the Full Path is shown on top. You can go straight to any part of that path by pressing the path element icons

 

I have a lot VA compilations (where there is a lot of "one song artists" and OST's maybe that is why, but scrolling through all the names sucks. Sometimes I just don't know what to listen and I go down the list to see what caches my eyes. Either way it would be nice to have option to customize what you can see in the UI like on/off some sorting in options in media player (something like customization in Kodi interface).

 

The number of sorting options is growing. Under Track/Title there are various, but only works decent if everything is tagged correctly: Date, genre, artist exact official spelling etc. My VA collections are not for sure.

 

I see, the evergreen problem with the compilations... Just two, and I say two, compilations (well, one is a movie soundtrack) in my library of 1000+ albums, and they are both tagged with ARTIST = "Various Artists", so...

 

Probably have 10.000 titles in VA collections (each title with the artist name in the filename). Maybe I will reorganize and keep them out of the library?
Play those a lot where young(er) people use streaming services?

 

Is that 10k songs? so we are almost on par... I really, really doubt you have 10k compilation albums... but still, 10k tracks makes about 750 compilation albums... My brain refuses to even try to understand this... ;-)

 

These are mostly not albums but collections: Top 2000 in 1998, TOP 2000 2014, Top 1000 TMB. Top2000 Evergreens, Top 1000 Germany.
These were events and released digitally only. Also made my own favorite collection which is about 3000 individual titles (great music mainly 60's, 70's, 80's).

 

Oh, now I see why it is easier for you to browse by folder...

 

Seen the many questions about it added a "Master Edition Gold version" paragraph.

Will have a look at the library features after availability of the upcoming FW update (promised for this week).

 

Hope new FW will do something with HDMI connection.
Now HDMI works correctly with Marantz avr 6015 only when TV is on. Without TV it losing sound fo 1-4 sec every 15-30 sec .

 

Strange, for sure not a common problem. It was designed to be used without a TV connected. Never power on my TV with DMP-A6. But it works with (blue screen) and without.

Ever tried to update the FW for that Marantz?
Tried swapping HDMI cables? The unit is known to be picky.