Eversolo Streamer Help!


I am here for two reasons:

To let people know of the 'challenging' product support situation for (my) Eversolo DMP-A8 streamer; and

To see if I can get help finding a solution.

 

A short Summary:

o  After reading reviews and recommendations, five months ago I purchased a new Eversolo DMP-A8. I did this for one principal reason; the ease with which I could assemble individual playlists of decades long favorite music tracks. [I did also install the recommended internal SSD drive.]

o  Also after looking at reviews and recommendations I chose the Tidal app as the system to use and proceeded to assembled a couple of playlists.

o  In about a month or so the playlist tracks began to suffer sound breakups; or 'stutter' as Eversolo named it. It was random at first but soon became unlistenable.

o  Being past the Amazon stated 30 day return date I contacted Eversolo by email and thus started a five months long troubleshooting process that has ended unsatisfactorily. [The extended time due to travel schedules.]

o Facts: the Tidal playlists play without a problem on my computer and phone. The playlists also work fine when using the Eversolo DMP's Bluetooth connection(phone), The playlists work fine on my auto Bluetooth system(phone). Albums ripped directly into the Eversolo streamer work without a problem!

o  Eversolo's R & D section conclusion: Tidal has an issue; "....the problem is due to the streaming media server rather than the[their] device itself."

o  My conclusion: My DMP-A8 has a bad Tidal app. [Wrong!][Logical thought.]

o  My action; this week, after months of frustration, was to switch to Qobuz.[Logical idea!]

o  Twenty songs into my 81 track playlist things went south into the same issue as with Tidal!!

o  Well, for not the first time, I asked Eversolo to take the unit back and send me a new one. Their answer; "If you still need to apply for a replacement or repair of the device, since our headquarters is in China,...", it is going to be difficult; costing a lot of money and time. 

I have a full and documented paper trail of all of the work I have been asked to do in the troubleshooting process. At all times Eversolo's rep has been responsive. But, it has led nowhere; an apparently well thought of piece of equipment that will not do what I bought it for!

I follow Audiogon's blog regularly and I have not seen this problem talked about before.

Does anyone have a recommended repair approach?

Thanks for listening.

 

dtgunn365

Someone prove me wrong.
The reason ever solo gets pushed so much is because the dealers get so much more of a markup than what they would when they sell a INNUOS type of product.

This can be the only reason I can come up with as to why they are so popular. The dealer just makes more money off of selling one of those units than on the other. 
apologize to OP this is off thread. I just believe that people are selling and drinking a bunch of Kool-Aid.

I sort of agree. Seems there was one guy on the forum who got an A6 for his dad and it went south after a firmware update and wouldn’t recognize his USB connection anymore, turning it into an expensive paperweight. He never was able to get it resolved and I think he basically ate the cost of the device. 

Now, I’m sure there are others who bought one and have had no issues. Good for them, but these days it seems if all the YouTube reviewers are pushing something then THAT is the one thing to stay away from. 

Eversolo must sell a lot of streamers and DACs. Good for them, but as we know too often, we are taking a chance buying Chi-Fi if we ever expect warranty or out of warranty service. That’s just a risk choice individuals have to navigate and decide upon for themselves. 

I ended up buying a WiiM Ultra after being surprised that their Mini hockey puck streamer was as good as most Raspberry Pi "homemade science experiments" at the time (remember when those seemed like a logical choice?), and eventually I will add an external DAC (probably when Schiit upgrades the Bifrost 2/64 so at $849 it sounds better than their $349 Mimir DAC), but maybe not quite as resolving as their Gungnir at $1500. 

I’m not bashing Chinese made goods - some can be excellent - only saying that warranty service is always problematic for most any brands, and harder when they are in China. Mere competency these days is touted as a luxury. 

Our "throw away" society mentality doesn’t help, but that is where we are. If you buy a $2000 device and it dies after one or two years are you going to get it repaired if it costs you ~$1000 to do so? Probably not. You just move on and buy the next big thing being touted by YouTube or Stereophile Magazine. 

One reason I went with a WiiM Ultra is because their parent company has access to a lot of programming power - real people doing the code, not A.I. - and if an issue is software related they can put the resources needed to fix it to bear on that issue, something smaller niche companies can't do, even if the niche company's hardware and engineering design is the best of the best. And today, other than playing vinyl, software rules everything in our lives. 

I mean if the guy's dad's A6 was hosed by a bad firmware, then that should have been fixable with vetted code. Yet Eversolo never did. To me that is a non-starter on buying anything from them. 

 

I have an A6 - original for 3 years now- without any issues. I know quite a few folks have Eversolo products without any issues.

That said, have you tried connecting your device to the internet via Ethernet?

regards,

Manu

I have an A8 and stream using Amazon Music and have experienced none of the problems that you describe. 

Did you purchase it using a credit card with Return Protection that allows a return up to 90 days when seller refuses a return?

Here’s a list of some that do: 

1. Amex Platinum 

2. Amex Gold

3. Amex Green

4. Venture X

5. CNB Crystal Visa Infinite

There are others, but I think the benefit is $300/purchase up t0 $1000 annually.