Right, so this is probably not regular order here, but given that I purchased a pair of the Organics and the DMP-A6 ME within a couple of weeks of each other, I didn’t quite know where to put my impressions. Hope this is kosher. Also, I am far less experienced on the digital side of things than the folks here and I suspect some of this will show that inexperience.
Anyway, the tl/dr is I like my new stuff a lot but I am having some issues with the DMP-A6 that need to get sorted. I should add that an email to their support folks resulted in a very prompt and impressive response. We’ll see how things progress
The chain is now Eversolo DMP-A6 Masters Edition>Schiit Asgard 3 amp>Aryas.
The headphones are only a couple of weeks old and are still in the “break in” period, which the manufacturer ludicrously says is 175 hours. Balderdash, I say, without data and just on general principles (aka prejudices).
I received the Eversolo last week. It too has a hypothesized burn-in period (100 hours) so I suppose I should wait to make any commitments I may live to regret.
Also, changing all but one of the major variables (the Schiit) more or less at once makes it hard to isolate what is to be credited (or blamed) for particular features of the system
Finally, the RCA cables I am currently using cost less than a decent lunch at my local taquieria, so, really, how good could the system be?
Well, I say the system is wicked good. I have had enough time with the Aryas using the Schiit amp/DAC combo (pre-Eversolo) to know that the electronics in the Eversolo are a major contributor to the improved holographics. Wow! The soundstage grew, but more importantly the specificity of the image is dramatically better, becoming more capacious laterally and in depth. Listening to the 4 Tenors at the moment, and there is really breathtaking concreteness to their positions on the stage, and you can really hear the hall.
Fidelity is exceptional pretty much no matter what the material is. Even primeval recordings like Orbison’s Pretty Woman have a depth and presence I was not used to.
I have a thing about pianos. A good system might fool you into thinking a flute or drum is with you in the room, but the piano is almost always no closer than a good imitation. “That’s a great recording of a piano” rather than “that’s a piano.”
Ok, I am still not fooled, but on the right recording, the timbre and size is just so close to right. Listening to the Duke and Ray Brown, the piano sounds tactile and present, even if a bit distant in the room.
The detail is crazy. On shuffle, Pinball Wizard came up–a song I have heard literally thousands of times, including live a dozen times or more. For the first time ever (re-mastered ed, it must be noted) I heard a faint echo of Pete’s guitar in the first 30 seconds of the song off stage left that shocked and thrilled me. Hey! What was that!?!
There is plenty of thump and crash for The Clash and Replacements but the endless nuance necessary to deliver on Hilary Hahn or Casals or Lupu. Listening ATM to the tick of the strings on Phil Lesh’s Mission Control. Amazing.
There is also a ton to love about the Eversolo device aside from the sonics. It has endless ways to sort and categorize music. The touchscreen is pretty (even if you have no particular interest in the multiple VU meters available) and extremely responsive. For those who have diminished hearing through years of abuse or who are just inveterate tinkerers, there is a 15(!) band equalizer (graphic or parametric) that can save to memory a slew of preset curves for different kinds of music.
And the app is fabulous (not something I thought I’d say). You can perform any action on the app that is available on the device itself and in fact can bring up on the phone an on-screen version of the touchscreen on the device that is just as snappy as the screen on the device!
Complaints about the Eversolo: the “manual” is complete garbage and the “tutorials” they have on their website seem to be AI translations from Chinese and are mostly unhelpful in the extreme. Setup, which was allegedly going to be easy was a PITA (some user error here no doubt). The transfer process for music files to the installed SSD was endless. For reasons beyond my ken, about half of the cover art files did not make the laptop>device journey, so it looks like I’ll be doing a batch edit and another endless transfer. I can’t log into iTunes for some reason (it says that my log in info is incorrect, but the same info has me logged in on multiple other devices).
Oh, and I should also mention that the ear pads on the Aryas squeak when they move slightly on my cranium. Annoying. They are, however, very light and comfortable to wear.
Anyway, thought I’d toss in my impressions to the extent anyone else is considering any of these items for whatever they are worth.
