Eversolo dmp A6 vs Master edition vs Z8

@soix @brianportugal et al

i am currently on a summer vacation in spain, will be gone for another week, so i won’t really have proper answers on the streamer comparisons for probably another several weeks ... sorry about that not being any sooner

i ordered the eversolo master unit from summit several weeks back and it arrived just a couple days before we left for our trip (i wasn’t going to order both the plain jane and the master version, so i just picked the master with the purported better clocking and ic output stage)

before i left for the trip i played it using my usual cleansed lan feed using its internal ess sabre dac output first, and what i heard was predictably that very well known clean clear crisp spacious rhythmic sound signature that that chipset is well known for when coupled to a good ss output stage

i will compare the streamer output(s) against the others i have in house in due course, but as you know, to do that properly, using the various digital outputs into various dacs, will take some time to cover the many permutations - one that i quickly did was compare its rca spdif out against my well-used ifi zenstream with 12v lps, both feeding the same musical fidelity trivista dac using roon, i could not hear any difference

I have the standard Eversolo DMP-a6, and compared the coaxial output (SPDIF) to the USB output. Both cables were Audioquest Carbon, so that eliminated any differences you would hear from the cables geometry. 

I thought the USB sounded a little cleaner than the coaxial. I had it connected to a Denafrips Pontus ll DAC.

@mr_m Doesn’t the Eversolo have I2s out? Pls let us know how that compares into your Pontus when you get a chance. 

@burtlake 

No. The Eversolo doesn't have i2s outputs.It has SPDIF, USB, optical, and HDMI digital outputs and single ended and balanced analog outs.

The upgrades to the Masters Edition are higher level clocks and op amps on the DAC side so if you are only going to use it as a streamer the standard edition is the same.  If you are going to use it as a combination unit you may or may not hear the benefits of the upgrade.  No matter which of the Eversolo DMP-A6 unit's you chose the Z8 is intended as a higher level DAC.