As we all know, the home stereo market has changed, split, shifted, whatever you wanna call it quite a bit in the past decade or two, starting with the rise of the iPod and headphone listening, then to streaming. It’s been a strange, and yet exciting time in the industry. For a while the old guard manufacturers were caught off balance, and new players emerged. Then the market seemed to stabilize as everybody discovered that variety was still out there.
Of the new guard, two companies have gathered a lot of attention in the past two years, one is WiiM, that I previously reviewed both their Amp and Ultra units. Now I have the chance to review my first piece of Eversolo gear, the Play.
The Play, let’s be honest is not an audiophile piece of gear, much like the WiiM Amp, it is a lifestyle piece is for people who want to put something in place, turn on the music, and enjoy life. But at the same time, it can also be the entry point for those that want to expand into the home audio hobby. The play comes in two choices, the standard unit which relies upon streaming or by adding an off board piece, such as an external CD player, and a phono preamp input for vinyl enthusiasts. Or, for approximately $100 more they offer a built in CD player. My unit, is the standard model at $699, and true to Eversolo form, it has a beautiful, sharp 5.5 inch display that can easily be read with the exception very small print from my listening position some 8 feet away. The unit with its rounded sides, but square overall aluminum case shape, 9x9x3, is heavier than you may think at 6.4 pounds. The front panel has just the 5.5 in touchscreen and a knob that when you push it turns on power or off as well as volume control. The ring around it lights up, and you can actually choose between several colors. The Play has a plethora of inputs starting with optical, coax, gigabyte LAN, USB, RCA, and the phono RCA. Output choices. Include USB, Sub out, coax, and two pairs of respectable quality binding posts for speakers.
Under the hood, the Eversolo Play amplifier is rated at 60wpc into 8 Ohms, or 110wpc into 4 Ohms using class D amplification. The software and other non DAC processing, which I’ll discuss later, is built around the ARM architecture chipset.
When it comes to software, Eversolo deserves credit for diving deep and creating an overall, (with one or two quibbles) a tremendous UI. The engineers took the Android system, and as the story goes, completely re-engineered it. Of course, upon opening the box or even before, download the Eversolo app onto your phone or tablet. I will say that, unfortunately, my older iPad mini was not new enough to run the app, therefore, like most everybody else I ran it from my phone.
Like any piece of audio gear now, the Eversolo Play relies heavily on software. On first power up, you will need to run an update. This took about five minutes or so. Once complete, at the home screen you’ll select Source. There you can check off whether you are the using ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, optical, line in, or phono. Below that is the output where you’ll have your choice of speakers, USB out, or coax out. If you’re wondering, yes, the Play can be used as a preamp as long as you’re running it out into a DAC. however, before doing this, make sure you go into your output volume settings, and this is where one of my few disappointments with the Play occurred. The terminology for adjustable volume control versus fixed is confusing and disappointing. The WiiM software is very simple and straightforward in comparison. Therefore, make sure you have the volume turned all the way down to zero, or as it shows on the screen -100 DB. But let’s be honest, chances are this will only be used by no more than a few percent of the total buyers of the Play.
Next, in the software set up, you get to decide how you want your display to look. The standard is one where the artwork is on the left, with the album name artist and current track being played on the right, in the background. You can have the spectrum analyzer shown in a kind of shadowy way. You also have the choice of VU meters in various styles such as the Macintosh blue or the classic Pioneer receiver champagne background, along with a few other color choices. I actually preferred the Pioneer coloring myself, maybe it’s because my very first receiver was a wood-sided SX 450 way back in the latter 1970s.
Next comes the fun for those of you who like to shape your room sound. You can either set the equalizer bands yourself or you can run room correction. This is my second quibble as I found the room correction software once you get done with the measuring, wasn’t clear compared to the WiiM software. I highly suggest you take a look at this YouTube video starting at the 4:45 mark to get a much better grasp on how to use the settings. Like I said you can get everything set, but I just did not find it as convenient as the WiiM.
Listen to the music
Since the Play had been fully burned in by the previous owner, but not knowing how long it has been since it had been used, I let the unit run at lower volume overnight. I did decide to challenge the Play right off the bat by hooking it up to the Buchardt S400 mk2’s. These are a 4 0hm speaker and frankly, they take a little bit juice to get them up and going. The Play did a nice but not exceptional job powering them, but I sincerely doubt that somebody is going match up this pairing as the S400’s are designed to pair with true audiophile gear. The class D modules in the Play are really designed to work with six and eight ohm nominal loads so while the sound was nice, it wasn’t engrossing by any means.
But since I still have around the Buchardt P300’s from my last review, I swapped them in and with their easier to drive, more aggressive, yet not as detailed, or purely as deep bass, they were a better match with the Play. Class D amplification overall pairs up nicely with the P300 speakers, as they are not overly sparkly or strident, so the mellow blends with the sharper upper frequencies. In other words, they balance each other out. Listening to Supertramp’s Crime of the Century album, the dynamic swings are there which allowed for a very nice listening experience.
But in reality, the Play will be paired with speakers realistically in the under $1000 pair category, whether they be tower or stand mount. The Verifi Audio Scouts were a really nice pairing. At $299 a pair, plus if you add in their Caldera subwoofer for $199, for $1200 total, you have a really nice set up for the lifestyle user. Just turn it on, select the music and go. If you have a rec-room and you’ve got teenagers, or even for a ball game or a movie a simple 2.1 set up like this will bring you plenty of joy. Though I currently don’t have a traditional floor standing speaker, I can imagine that a pair of Elac or Q Acoustic mini towers would work quite well. Spinning Hotel California, The Eagles classic was a fun turn back to my high school days. The same thing goes for Boston and their initial powerhouse album. That was the choice of most everybody as we left school each day.
That brings us to the built-in DAC. In the case of the Play, it uses the AK4493SEQ DAC chip. Now the AKM chips have tagged themselves as having the “velvet sound” technology. Their claim is to lower the harmonic distortion and noise during signal processing. Now, since this is an onboard unit only so much room and design at this price point can be given towards its performance once the decoding has occurred, but it will say I didn’t find it strident or uncomfortable in the least. A few times I did find it a bit too relaxed, lacking in the ability to pull it out more inner detail. While the play can pull out DSD PCM, or super fidelity files, in reality I think we all know that it’s going to be the standard 44.1 with occasional forays up to 192.
There are over a dozen music service that can be accessed withe Play (Apple Play excluded). I streamed via Qobuz or Roon, and in both cases. I’m happy to report that the lag is less than the WiiM software on my Ultra. My speculation is that the re-engineered Android software is the difference maker. Digging thru The Alan Parsons Project collection, the light but effective bass punch in “I Don’t Wanna Go Home”, the channel separation is spot on, the slight rounding of the vocal at the lead vocals highest pitch to avoid any harshness gets my thumbs up. I will say that I did catch just a hint of edginess when he goes full throated, but still impressive for an on-board DAC.
Switching recording methods altogether, The Cowboy Junkies Trinity Sessions album, which is considered a masterpiece of single mic recording, have a very smooth neutral sound with the Play. The harmonica which occasionally tests the range of the microphone is nicely placed resolved in the song “I Don’t Get It”.
Moving to a recent recording, Billie Eilish’s “I Didn’t Change My Number”, the bass is nicely detailed with a level of low frequency dig that surprised me. The track “Billie Bossa Nova”, the effusiveness of her vocals has some extra texture that I did not expect. The harshness that I have heard in the track with ESS 9038 based DAC chips, is thankfully missing with the AKM velvet engine topology.
If you choose to add a turntable chances are yoga with an MM cartridge, though MC is available through the software settings. The skies the limit there, but as always as I tell people get a quality cartridge that doesn’t break the bank and there are plenty out there.
Much like the WiiM Ultra, the photo section signal is converted into digital. Interestingly enough the Play shows it at 192 kHz. While the 80s regional rock band Shooting Star’s first album sounded a bit flat, when I change to Alex de Grassi’s "Clockwork" album there was definite spatial depth and a three dimension dimensionality that was wholy absent in the previous album mentioned. Credit to the Eversolo engineers for putting in the extra effort necessary to make this a realistic phono preamp rather than just a throw on for sales.
Speaker matching
As mentioned, the Play puts out 60 W per channel in the heats or 110 W per channel into forums. But in fairness, I call this a light measurement. Why simply put the current capability of the play is not at the same level of a separate power amplifier. That’s not its role this is a lifestyle unit therefore, is designed to be a part of the environment rather the main item in it.
It’s hard for me to quantify how good these four pieces worked together they played drove the Scouts easily the subwoofer control in the play software allowed for a really smooth crossover. Signal to the subwoofer via the Sub out. Now the play does recommend that you set the software cut off point or frequency at 10 to 20 Hz lower than what you have said on the subwoofer. I had the subwoofer set at 80 Hz, and the software at 70. Listening to the Doobie Brothers, classic instrumental, upbeat, funky, "Steamer Lane Breakdown". the base is perfectly integrated to the rest of the frequencies for the younger crowd, going back to Billie Eilish, they will have no problem appreciating the electronic base that is a big undercurrent in many of her tracks.
Caveats
My big puzzlement is the lack of a headphone jack. The Play’s target buyer pool includes younger demographic groups, who are currently using headphones. The Play is desktop sized, making it a perfect choice for Head/DAC/Amp usage. I hope in the second iteration, Eversolo adds this feature, as our hobby needs to grow, and the Play has the capability to become that bridge device.
Final thoughts
The more and more I listened to the Eversolo Play more infatuated I became with this unit. Like all integrated amplifiers, the fewer the cords, the better things seem to be. The Play is built to last from everything I could see. The case and the various jacks are solidly secured. The knob has a very nice textural feel to it. The Play just feels and sounds like it will last a long time.
Most importantly, it offers the owner, the opportunity to listen to both analog and digital streams with a class D amplifier powerful enough to handle typical inexpensive, stand mount or floor standing speakers. If the Eversolo Play had a headphone jack it would hit the absolute center of the bullseye. But still, the Eversolo Play is a big win for lifestyle home audio customers, therefore, in my estimation the Play deserves an A-.
Link Manufacturers Website & Specifications.
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