If Google brought you here directly, jump to the start!
The Eversolo DMP-A10 has excellent top to bottom extension, and that shows in the quality of its bass as well. It reaches deep without any form of bloom, or the impression of being lose at any low-end frequency.
Bass on the Eversolo is very well controlled and comes with high resolution and precision. Its sub-bass delivers authority, impact and speed. A key strength of its bass is definitely its textural accuracy, as the Eversolo brings out very fine nuances of each string stroke for example. It presents very fine details in each note and makes them easily audible.
The bass is snappy, fast and thunderous, but also organic and full-bodied. Bass is delivered with great weight and density, where every low-end instrument has a life-like shape and appearance.
Great examples would be Higher Ground by Red Hot Chili Peppers, where Flea’s bass line sounds organic to the touch and is rendered with superb precision. On DJ Shadow’s The Mountain Will Fall you get all the sub-bass extension that’s required to make this track fascinating.
The transition from bass to mids is simply flawless. There’s just a hint of warmth transported through the midrange to give them a bit more body and soul. The mids have a generally neutral to slightly warm analogue feeling. What truly struck me about the midrange though, is how polished and clean it sounds at the same time. You get great richness and precision with the DMP-A10.
It has a great emotional presence and can fill the room without any issues. Vocals have good levels of air in and around them, to appear in a grander shape with top clarity. Instruments sound full bodied and come with a lush sound, though they aren’t fattened-up to give you an over-saturated feeling. They don’t glow as heavy as on tube-infused gear for example but still deliver nice richness.
On tracks like Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers you get a full and emotional sound, with precise vocals with a rich touch in them. The same applies to David Bowie’s Heroes or Space Oddity.
Another great feature of the mids is how organized and clean they sound. Each instrument is perfectly highlighted and separated with superb air surrounding them. You get an expansive sound, where everything is layered precisely and sharply.
The DMP-A10 creates a large-scale sound stage with excellent dimensions in width, depth and height. Everything checks out, from left to right, from top to bottom and from front to back. The musicians are carefully placed and set on stage with a deep dark and pitch-black background to stand on. That’s something I noted early on in my time with the DMP-A10.
For example, in Jon Hopkins’ Contact Note every single note is highlighted carefully but can be seen with sharpness. This track sounds clean and polished on the DMP-A10. So much, that I listened to it again and again. The Eversolo really masters separation and stage construction. Of course, this is best shown by well-produced tracks with good dynamic range levels.
The treble of the DMP-A10 is well extended, precise and neutral. It doesn’t sound laid-back or upfront at all but gives music the needed air infusion for a precise signature. Treble is fast, agile and detailed. The Eversolo delivers a finely rendered and natural top end, with good shimmer and crispness. I never had issues with sharpness or hotness myself.
To me, higher pitched instruments have good body and softness. Violins, cymbals and hi-hats as well as more electronic upper frequency sounds come across with precision and a lively manner. However, I never had the impression of them being piercing, since there always is a level of softness to them.
Most of my time went into the Eversolo’s line output, where it fed my Serene KTE pre-amplifier directly. When I used the Eversolo DMP-A10’s own volume control, the sound became mellower, fuller and smoother. It also lost some of its detailing and rendering magic that had impressed me before. Though the extra touch analogue goodness is very appealing, I opted for the line-level output myself as it sounded superior for my personal preferences.
Comparisons
In this section we will check out how the DMP-A10 fares up against its competition. It will have to step into the ring against its sibling, the Eversolo DMP-A8, as well as the Matrix Audio Element M2. The DMP-A10 will also be compared to the Chord Electronics Hugo TT2, which is not a streaming DAC.
During the comparison process, the products were connected via XLR line-level output to my HoloAudio Serene KTE’s XLR inputs. I created a combined zone of the units simultaneously with Roon and simply switched inputs on the Serene. The provided music came through my Roon ROCK server.
Eversolo DMP-A8
The DMP-A8 is one of my favorite products and was also named my personal top pick of 2024. In terms of functionality and feature-set both Eversolo’s are almost identical. The DMP-A10 has a larger touchscreen with better coloring, which is most notably with black colors. The A10’s screen has a darker black than the A8. Under the hood both come with R2R amplification and support for highest sampling rates. The A10 uses an ESS9039Pro chip, while the A8 uses an AKM AK4499EX chip. Though we all know, it’s not the chip that matters, it’s the implementation.
In terms of ins and outs, they two differ only marginally. The A10 comes with dual subwoofer output and SFP Fiber Network input, which the A8 doesn’t have. On the A8 we will find an I²S HDMI output, which was removed on the A10. The DMP-A10 also has two M.2 SSD slots compared to the single slot found on the A8.
Both support all the same streaming services and come with Eversolo’s excellent software. The DMP-A8 costs $1,980 USD.
Just like the A10, the A8 has a generally balanced signature with exceptional technical abilities. And I expected the laws of diminishing returns to fully kick in before I heard the A10. But once the A10 replaced the A8 in my chain, it was especially the detailing and rendering where the A10 left its sibling behind.
The DMP-A10 produces a more expansive and higher resolved sound, where everything appears more polished. It’s like there’s a veil lifted from the A8 to the A10. With the DMP-A10 you get finer details and a more precise sound from top to bottom. Every note appears with higher accuracy, finer texture and on a blacker background.
Signature-wise both are relatively close to each other, but the A10 has a slightly fuller body and richer glow than the A8 to me. It makes music sound a slight touch warmer and softer. The A10 can render big pieces and complex structures with a finer resolution. It has sharper imaging and better contouring than the A8.
The A8’s mids are smoother and maybe even a hint more emotional than the ones found in the A10. Vocals appear airier on the A8, whereas the A10 gives them more precision and texture with slightly fuller and bigger body.
The A10 controls bass with better grip and a more tactile speed. It gives lows better resolution, rendering and texture but also a slightly fuller body than the A8. In terms of body size both are very similar. Neither pushes lows more in front than the other but stays neutral in appearance.
Find the final comparisons on page four!
