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

The last missing pieces were added. The status is changed to 'final draft' accordingly.
Please comment on this result and mention any area you are missing.

I hope Eversolo starts fixing some items on my problem list as I am running out of text space once again.

 

I agree that the DMP-A6 is a sophisticated and outstanding streaming device. However its rip/play function does not work as intended because the A6 interface appears to be incompatible with most CD drives. I hope I am wrong, but the absence of a response from Eversolo suggests that it is an A6 hardware issue. If true, CD ripping should be removed from the feature list until the problem is resolved. May I suggest that if you intend to publish your review elsewhere, you might want to have it proofread because it contains several errors in grammar that confuse your intended meaning.

All my best in your efforts!

 

Please share any language errors, which for sure are there, with me. You may use a P.M.
It will be much appreciated. I am not a native speaker and any help is most welcome.
Other volunteers are invited to do the same.

The feature list is something Eversolo decides on not me. Eversolo is invited to review the draft version explicitly.
The interface runs via USB so for sure is a pure software/driver issue. No idea how difficult it is to be fixed but it may involve fixes within the SDK of Realtek?
The problem with incompatibility with many USB CD/DVD drives in varying degree is documented well enough in my view. Will keep it as it is.

 

Added the paragraph below:

You may like reading this as an introduction written by me for HiFi media players:
http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?thr...ther-knowhow-for-hifi-players-playback.86336/
Mostly applicable to Eversolo DMP-A6 too.

 

Regarding MQA decoding, did I understand it correctly that the DMP-A6 only decodes MQA when one uses the internal DAC? In other words, MQA will not be decoded if we use DMP-A6 as a streamer only connected to an external DAC, right?

 

The A6 does decoding and rendering. You can also do decoding in software (Roon, Tidal app, etc.) before the A6 and the A6's DAC will still do the rendering. This is exactly how I use the A6 (and its DAC) with Roon.

The A6 is my only MQA DAC so I can't verify this but I don't see why this would be the case. If using the A6 as just a streamer (no DAC, no DSP*) then the DAC connected to it should be able to do full MQA processing (decoding and rendering) on the untouched MQA signal. I'm also not sure if the apps (Tidal, internal player, etc.) on the A6 can do MQA decoding. If they can then the attached DAC should still be able to do MQA rendering.

* I believe the only DSP the A6 does is volume control. I don't know if this breaks MQA or not. If it does they might be able to get around that if the apps on the A6 can do decoding. I have always done volume control in the analog domain (after MQA processing).

 

Someone mentioned if A6 can do the first unfold. I think mirror did mentioned that we can set the setting to output to the external DAC as MQA renderer. I did tried on my external DAC (Pontus) and I am receiving 96 khz MQA

 

That isn't even an MQA DAC. An MQA DAC is required for rendering. The best you will be able to get is decoding by the A6 which is what your 2nd pic is showing.

 

Yup, and it is receiving the first unfold and playing well

 

Why wouldn't it? The (non-MQA) DAC is just receiving (and converting) a PCM 88/96 signal. The question I originally replied to above was specifically about when the external DAC is MQA capable. Anyway, in your pics above what was the source?

 

All I am saying is that A6 can do the first unfold (decode MQA, not fully though) and send to an external DAC. Previous question was on whether it would or would not if connect to the external DAC.

Source is from Tidal streaming.

 

It will do rendering too if you use its DAC. Rendering can only be done by a DAC while decoding can be done by a DAC or software before the DAC.

 

http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?thr...ther-knowhow-for-hifi-players-playback.86336/
Chapter-8 contains my review on MQA.

There actually 3-stages with the last being very obscured (The DAC specific sound handling).
Updated the MQA limitations saying it does not do the rendering for External DAC's.

 

Something I noticed earlier today. I was playing quite a bit of MQA (I'm using the A6's DAC) and noticed the A6 showed MQA on its display even though Roon was doing the core decoding. I believe it should show ORFS in this case as that is what my 3 previous DACs always showed when decoding was done upstream of the DAC. It did show the purple dot though.

 

I never heard of the first step before but the 2nd step is the "core decoding" that Roon and apps like the Tidal app do. This is also never anything but 88 or 96.

This is a given as only DACs can do rendering and since the A6s DAC isn't in use in this case the external DAC would have to do the rendering.

 

The 3-rd step can only be done by doing MQA rendering on the DAC itself as it is claimed to use DAC specific parameters.
With Zidoo/Eversolo that is done on UHD3000/UHD5000 models using Sabre ES9068 DAC's with embedded MQA. All other models do MQA processing via the later XMOS UA216/UA316 processor versions. Never heard any difference but don't use MQA except for testing.

 

Yes, I know. That's why I said the external DAC would have to do the rendering.

 

Back to the topic. Really guys no comments, corrections or grammar improvements?

 

Excellent write up.

I noticed that you don't mention anything about Amazon Music HD or accessing home music shares via UPnP. I'm having issues with both. With Amazon Music, all output to my external DAC is being resampled to 192 kHz and with UPnP, I'm able to see my local servers however the audio files on the server will not populate within the app.

Have you tested these features? I would be interested to see if you also encounter these problems?

 

Don't use UPnP/DLNA myself as there are too many dialects for these. The protocol is e.g. not transparant for the type of files allowed.
I am sure somebody else can help you. Not going into the many streaming services as there are simply too many and often not exactly for free.

I suggest to open dedicated topics for your questions. That will assure the fastest and best answers.