A capable, punchy sounding streamer that’s a joy to use
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Every once in a while, we encounter a new brand that leaves us so excited about the trajectory of hi-fi products. This new music streamer from Chinese-based Eversolo impresses us with its slick design, user-friendliness and fresh outlook on a niche hi-fi category.
This well-made aluminium chassis, the size of a shoebox, makes a change from the full-width size we are used to seeing from other streamers at this level, which include the six-time Award-winning Cambridge Audio CXN (V2) (£799) and Arcam’s new ST5 (£799). Going up against the CXN (V2) is certainly stern competition, but Eversolo proves it can play with the established big boys.
We like the classy, minimal aesthetic, but the large LCD screen that dominates the front panel is the DMP-A6’s main attraction. Not only is it a crisp, easy to read 6in size, but it is also full colour and fully touchscreen. And it works a treat. The screen is a customised version of the Android 11 OS powered by a Quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 processor, and it is a sophisticated machine. It does a superb job of mimicking the same experience you get when using a smartphone’s touchscreen, and there is so much information beautifully laid out for you to digest in one go. It never feels cluttered, either; the album art is lovely to behold in full colour, and being able to read the source, song and artist name, data rate, file type and file resolution all at one glance is a design triumph. You can pause/play/skip tracks on the display, while all sources and tracks are easily selectable with a tap.
The thing that truly brings us joy, though, is how responsive and slick it is to use. It never once stutters or feels sluggish in operation during testing. Picking sources, scrolling through playlists and switching between menus are done with the smooth swiftness of the best smartphone screens.
The accompanying Eversolo app for iOS and Android mirrors all these features, with everything laid out logically and naturally, and it manages to offer extra features without ever feeling overwhelming. Eversolo blows all rival apps we have used for streaming products out of the water, such as Cambridge’s StreamMagic app, the BluOS app and DTS Play-Fi app. We find using the DMP-A6, both with the app and especially via the touchscreen display, intuitive to use from the second we get it powered on and set up on the network – the learn
