Comparing Aurender N20 vs eversolo dmp A8

I also have the N20 which replaced an N200

I tried USB, and AES connections - and then it was recommended that using the Optical (toslink) connection may be optimal with a Chord DAVE DAC.  This provided a HUGE sonic benefit.  It’s much more transparent with much better high frequency accuracy and much more air to the sound.  
 

The cable is a ten dollar optical cable from Amazon.  This sounded significantly better than an a much more expensive AES cable that was tried, and  better than the USB cable.  
This leads me to believe that selecting the right connection type to your DAC maters quite a bit.  (Full disclosure:  I do believe in the benefits of better/more expensive cabling - in this case the optical cable happens to be cheap). 

IME everything in a digital source chain right up to the DAC is important, cables too. Also the differences between an N20 and A8 will become more appreciable the more high-end all the rest of the system components are.

That being said I think for most folks in most systems an A8 is all that is needed, a great product at an even better price.

I have a Lumin P1/L2 combo and the fiber optic connection has been a big sonic upgrade, so back to cabling, major sonic upgrades can be had without buying new components.

The DMP-A8 truly is amazing for the money. I preferred it's analog outputs to the Octo 8 Stereo DAC (Stereophile Class A) but I prefer the PS Audio Perfect Wave Direct Stream to either. It just sounds more dynamic and real. I use the I2S out from the A8 to the DAC.

I already stream from Roon through the DMP-A8 and it works just fine. I guess maybe what you get when it becomes "Roon Ready" is album art and track info on the front screen. Idk.

The only streamer I would possibly trade the A8 for would be the HifiRose RS130.

@saurabhgarg 

@lalitk is a great resource of all things audio, especially cabling. @blisshifi is another great resource.  My profile has my setup for power and AES between Holo May DAC KTE and the N20.  I preferred AES over USB.  I like my results, but I don’t have the expertise of those mentioned above.  I’m currently on battery through Shunyata conditioner and cables plus a bit of help from Synergistic Research.  I’ve spent much more on power than my streamer and DAC combined.

@vonhelmholtz 

Thanks for the kind words. Clean power (along with room acoustics) should be foremost priority for assembling a good sounding system. Once you have addressed the power and room acoustics, rest of the system is pretty much a moving target…you can gradually add/upgrade rest of the components.