One of the most exciting products revealed at High End Munich show earlier this year was the Eversolo Play streaming amplifier: a neat, compact unit that combines amplification, streaming and various inputs into one box – you simply have to add speakers.
More interestingly, there is a CD Edition with a CD drive included, and it's this Eversolo Play CD Edition that we have in for review.
Our review process can take many days (sometimes weeks), but with a feature-packed product like this, there are plenty of features, settings and specs that surprise us or pique our interest when we start setting the product up. So below you'll find a handful of cool features on the Eversolo Play CD Edition that stood out to me during the first day of the testing process.
Of course, my colleagues and I on the review team will be spending plenty of more hours and days listening to the Eversolo Play CD Edition to bring you the full details of its performance, but for now, here is a small taste of what this versatile streaming amplifier offers.
1. It's not just a CD player, it's also a CD ripper!
The CD drive in the Eversolo Play (CD Edition only) can play CDs and SACDs (but not Lorde's transparent Virgin CD). But I also learnt it doubles up as a CD ripper.
Load up your CD and you'll find an option to rip the album appear on the screen – once selected, the Eversolo goes into CD ripping mode.
It's a straightforward and pretty swift process, with the display showing you all the options and progress at every step. I particularly like the animated graphic of the CD album (in our case, Weezer's Green Album) turning alongside the progress bar.
You have the option to rip the CD in FLAC or WAV formats, while the unit can also fetch metadata such as album artwork and track names – just make sure the Play is connected to your network.
Where do the ripped CDs go? The Play has 32GB of internal storage, so once the ripping process is finished, you simply have to head to the File section, select the Music folder, and you'll find your ripped CD tracks waiting for you there, ready to be played.
Another neat trick: long-press on the ripped CD album folder (on the unit's touchscreen display, just as you would on a smartphone), and you get options to rename it or even delete it entirely from the Eversolo Play CD Edition's storage.
2. You can play hi-res and lossless Apple Music tracks natively
Apple Music (in)famously doesn't integrate its streaming service into third-party hardware, so you tend to have to rely on AirPlay (iOS only) or Chromecast (for Android) to stream your Apple Music playlists to a hi-fi streamer.
The problem is, AirPlay 2 is still a lossy protocol that doesn't support lossless or full hi-res streaming, despite Apple Music's library being full of hi-res and lossless quality tracks.
Eversolo has a solution, in that it essentially allows you to download the Android app version of Apple Music directly on to the Play (under the App section), meaning you can access Apple Music just as you would on your smartphone – and it unlocks lossless and hi-res playback.
While it doesn't display sample rate and bitrate data in detail as with Qobuz Connect or Tidal Connect streams, our review sample shows that a stream of Waxahatchee's Right Back To It is being played at PCM 96kHz, while playing They Might Be Giants' The Mesopotamians switches to PCM 44.1kHz.
At first, you do get the usual Android app pop-up information about needing an external DAC to play full-fat 192kHz files, but you can disregard this in the Eversolo Play as it will natively play up to 24-bit/192kHz. We will be exploring this further during our full review.
Make sure you select the Hi-Res Lossless tier in Apple Music's sound quality settings (you can do all of this directly from the Play's screen) to get full-fat hi-res lossless ALAC files played directly from Apple Music.
3. "Listen At Will" feature will play "randomly recommended" songs – but it really is random
Here's a fun feature I've not encountered before. The Eversolo Play (and CD Edition) has a "Listen At Will" option, which will "automatically play randomly recommended tracks from both logged-in music services and your local music library.”
I am logged into my Apple Music, Qobuz and Tidal accounts on our review sample and the unit can see our local Naim server full of CD-quality and hi-res digital files.
Now, I initially took this to mean that this feature will play from our saved playlists – any favourited songs, or songs on heavy rotation – or at least, something quite familiar and oft-played.
But the selection here is truly random, and the Eversolo offers a completely different experience from the algorithm-led shuffle feature on most streaming services.
I've spoken with our Eversolo contact and they said this feature is very much designed to be fully random, to "deliver surprising musical discoveries". I quite like this novel approach, and more time with the Play will tell if this "lucky dip" feature does throw out surprise new favourites I never would've otherwise discovered.
At the moment, our sample unit keeps playing Weird Al Yankovic songs. I can't remember the last time any service has recommended his work to me – it must be years! The "Listen At Will" feature did play The Streets' Turn The Page and a few other unfamiliar tracks, but oddly, every other song – so far – has been a Weird Al parody track.
Either way, at least it has a sense of humour.
4. Its built-in phono stage works with MM and MC cartridges
Plenty of all-in-one streaming amps these days include a phono stage. Whether it's the Ruark Audio R610, the NAD C 3050 or Cambridge Audio Evo 150 SE, you'll find a moving magnet (MM) phono stage built in to cater to the still-booming vinyl revival.
In the Eversolo Play CD Edition, its built-in phono stage also works with the more premium and audiophile-friendly moving coil (MC) cartridges. It's unusual to have MC compatibility in this kind of product, let alone at this kind of price point, as good MC models tend to start around £400 and above (see: Ortofon Quintet Blue and others on our best cartridges list).
The Cyrus 80 AMP coming out later this year is the only other streaming amp I can think of that offers both MM and MC support, and that's set to cost between £5000 to £6000.
For the considerably more affordable Eversolo Play to offer both MM and MC support here is quite the bonus – it's nice to have the option here for those who want it.
We haven't tried this unit's phono stage's quality yet, so stay tuned for the verdict in our forthcoming review.
5. So many display and light customisation options
The first thing I did after connecting the Eversolo Play CD Edition to our test room's network and speakers was to log into all my music streaming services.
The second thing I did was to delve into the control app and unit's settings to marvel at the multitude of display options for the large 5.5in LCD touchscreen.
There is so much to choose from. There are multiple layouts for the 'Now Playing' screen available, from minimal album artwork to detailed information about sample rate, bit depth and file type alongside the usual artist, track and album names.
You can also choose to have the popular retro VU meter displays (there are multiple styles and colours to choose from) or go very 80s with a choice of spectrum graphics.
It's not just the screen that you can customise. There is a lovely, subtle RGB light ring around the volume dial, and you can choose from over a dozen solid and gradient colours to suit your tastes and style.
It's perhaps rather superficial, but I think these customisation options allow you to have a bit of fun (or even keep things entirely minimal) when using modern streaming products like this Eversolo.
6. It's double the price of the WiiM Amp Pro – will it be double the performance?
Most of the streaming amplifiers we tested previously cost about £1000 and above, but more budget options have recently popped up.
The recently reviewed WiiM Amp Pro is the cheapest streaming amp we've tested at £399 / $379. Its clear, detailed, lively and enjoyable performance earned it four stars.
At £699, the Eversolo Play CD Edition is double the price of the Amp Pro, occupying a larger footprint than the WiiM but also retaining the appealingly compact and square dimensions.
Interestingly, both units are powered by Class D amplification and have a claimed rating of 60 watts per channel (into 8 ohms). Numbers alone aren't an indication of actual sonic performance, of course, with both brands emplyoying different DACs and their circuitry and tuning will be different – but we are curious to find out just how much of a step-up the Eversolo will be and if the Play CD Edition will require different speaker partnering to get the best out of it.
We'll investigate it further during the full review process, so stay tuned for our final verdict in the coming weeks.
MORE:
Read our WiiM Amp Pro review
Check out our guide to the best CD players
I tried Lorde’s transparent CD in 7 different disc players – but did it play on any of them?
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