[lupocerviero]

Ciao a tutti,
recently my DAC/preamp experienced a strange phenomenon. It would power on normally but remain completely silent from every input. After a couple of days, everything returned to normal. This event led me to consider an upgrade/replacement. The DAC in question is a NuPrime Dac10h, which I've been using for years with great satisfaction and is still extremely good. Since I have monoblocks from the same brand, the natural replacement for me would have been the Evolution DAC 2, but something's holding me back. There's something about Nuprime's marketing that I don't understand. Their products are excellent in quality and performance, but here in the US very few people talk about them, and the company doesn't promote them. A prime example is the release of the new Evolution streamer: zero reviews, zero information. I honestly don't understand...

Anyway, I'm looking for a DAC or even a preamp (I use turntable and CD transport), perhaps with a streaming option.
—I could leave things as they are and maybe add a Wiim Ultra as a streamer.
—Nuprime Evolution DAC 2 (~$3500+tax)
—My wife is pushing for the Eversolo DMP A10 (~$4000+tax)

I'm not new to this hobby, but I've only recently arrived in the US, so any suggestions are welcome.☕

[mitch stl]

I have a WiiM Ultra in my main system and really like it.  Lots of features including a MM phone input and room correction/PEQ equalization, sub out, a remote and a really good software app for your phone. They are constantly updating the firmware and app, greatly improving what was already very good.

I use it to play my local collection stored on a NAS and connect to my Qobuz subscription.  I ended up selling my Schiit Bifrost 2 DAC and Lyr 3 preamp.  They are only $329 (and may be much cheaper on a Black Friday sale coming up this fall).  If you buy it on Amazon you can try it out for a few weeks and send it back for a full refund if it doesn't float your boat.  Hard to go wrong with giving it a trial.

[lupocerviero]

Thanks for your post.
I'm familiar with the Wii Ultra because I have one. It's in my second system, connected to active speakers and a sub. It's simply brilliant and is rewriting many of the rules of this hobby. It's really useful for connecting a subwoofer and to separate the frequencies between the speakers and the sub. I tried it in my main system, connected to the DAC as a streamer. I don't think the room correction works very well using the phone's microphone, and I don't have a better microphone at the moment, so I disabled the correction. I haven't tried the line input, for connecting the phono preamp.
But then again, it's brilliant, just one of its features is worth the full price.

[NIGHTFALL1970]

Frank’s AVA DVA Digital preamp is absolutely fantastic.
https://avahifi.com/collections/digital-audio

[lupocerviero]

Thanks for the link.
I took a look, it might be an interesting item, but it lacks line inputs for the turntable.

[NIGHTFALL1970]

If you purchase the Analog to digital converter just plug it into the 2nd coaxial input. LPs sound fantastic on it!🤟

[lupocerviero]

Yes, I've seen it, but honestly, it seems like it's lengthening the signal path a bit too much.
Turntable > pre phono > ADC > DAC/preamp. 🤔
More connections, more cables, more chance of signal degradation...
Why not integrate it into the preamp or simply add line inputs (at least two)?

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Look at an Aqua La Voce S3.

[NIGHTFALL1970]

Yes, I've seen it, but honestly, it seems like it's lengthening the signal path a bit too much.
Turntable > pre phono > ADC > DAC/preamp. 🤔
More connections, more cables, more chance of signal degradation...
Why not integrate it into the preamp or simply add line inputs (at least two)?

Your worries are understandable but I play LPs thru it all the time and they sound even better than my CDs.

[AllanS]

I’ve been impressed with NuPrime engineering and build quality so have not understood why it doesn’t get more traction in N America.  I relied on Totally Wired.NZ https://totallywired.nz/ for much of what I learned about the AMG series I took an interest in.
Unfortunately I suspect you won’t get much in the way of user feedback here about the Evo DAC 2, which I also considered for a time to pair with an AMG STA.

What is it about the DMP A10 that your wife likes? Other than being their respective mfg flagship models, implementing high end ESS chips and including preamp functionality the A10 and Evo DAC 2 are very different.  I have a DMP A8 that I like pretty well but, in addition to on board file storage and comprehensive I/O, I bought it mainly to reduce box count by combining DSP, DAC, and streamer functionality.  The A10 has all this and more.  Are these features and functionality you want?

There are a lot of good options in what appears to be your ~ $4000 budget, more if you’re interested in used gear (https://tmraudio.com/).  With a bit more information about what you want and need, the crowd here can help guide you to manufacturers who are well regarded, well represented, and well supported in N America.

[lupocerviero]

I’ve been impressed with NuPrime engineering and build quality so have not understood why it doesn’t get more traction in N America.  I relied on Totally Wired.NZ https://totallywired.nz/ for much of what I learned about the AMG series I took an interest in.
Unfortunately I suspect you won’t get much in the way of user feedback here about the Evo DAC 2, which I also considered for a time to pair with an AMG STA.

What is it about the DMP A10 that your wife likes? Other than being their respective mfg flagship models, implementing high end ESS chips and including preamp functionality the A10 and Evo DAC 2 are very different.  I have a DMP A8 that I like pretty well but, in addition to on board file storage and comprehensive I/O, I bought it mainly to reduce box count by combining DSP, DAC, and streamer functionality.  The A10 has all this and more.  Are these features and functionality you want?

There are a lot of good options in what appears to be your ~ $4000 budget, more if you’re interested in used gear (https://tmraudio.com/).  With a bit more information about what you want and need, the crowd here can help guide you to manufacturers who are well regarded, well represented, and well supported in N America.

Ciao Allan,
I appreciate the courtesy and clarity of your post and will try to respond with more detail.
I fully agree with your assessments of Nuprime's quality and marketing; this incomprehensible contrast is a source of great hesitation for me.
At the moment, I have no real need, but rather an excuse to see what the market has to offer and maybe buy a new toy. 🤦🏻‍♂️
In Italy, when I'm struck by this kind of dangerous desire, I can go for a walk downtown or along the seafront, have a coffee, go to a record store and buy CDs or vinyl.
If in doubt, buy music! It's been a golden rule for years, much cheaper than buying new components, and above all because the purpose of our systems is to listen to music.
Here in the US, or at least where I live in Texas, partly due to culture and partly due to distances, we don't walk; we use the car for everything, so you have to plan where you're going.
If you then add that hi-fi or music stores are increasingly rare, everything becomes even more complicated, and maintaining certain "simple" pleasures is even more complicated...

Why the Eversolo A10? Because she decided so! 🤣
If you look further, she has some good arguments.
An excellent DAC (better/newer chip than the Nuprime Evolution 2)
Excellent build quality and components.
An extremely wide range of inputs and functions, guaranteeing great flexibility of use.
As for me, the A10 has a very good preamp section; I can connect a turntable and maybe experiment with a sub or two (my new speakers really don't need a subwoofer, but you never know... 😉), and last but not least, a remote control that finally works in every direction.
The streaming function is extremely convenient, but more for discovering new songs or artists, or for background playback.
For this reason too, a Wiim Ultra paired with my current DAC would be more than sufficient.
Currently, for liquid music and streaming, I have a dedicated NUC with jRiver (the app on my tablet no longer works and I don't understand why) and a 4TB SSD, excellent, but less practical than an app.

It's hard to find components that can compete with what the A10 can offer at a reasonable cost. I find the Audiolab N90 interesting, but for a similar price, it offers less.
My sick mind, anchored to old audiophile stereotypes, has even started longing for a nice Audio Research preamplifier 🤤 or maybe McIntosh 😬.

Tmr? I contacted them recently, they were very kind, but in my case, I found their policy absolutely inconvenient, both for selling and buying. I had a strange feeling, uncomfortable, more of a last resort for the desperate...
If you sell with store credit, they offer less than 19%.
If you buy used items, they resell them for 90-95% of the price of new.
I don't want to know what you're offering if you sell for cash.
Under these conditions, I'll buy new with a warranty, no doubt.

[newzooreview]

I upgraded from the A8 to the A10. It was a good, worthwhile upgrade. I would definitely do it again.

I used to have a Holo May KTE DAC and Holo May Serene preamp. The A10 sounds as good to me as that previous setup, although the A10 is able to receive ethernet directly while the Holo May was connected by USB to the Roon Rock NUC (on the advice of Kitsune, the US distributor for Holo). I'm using Spatial Audio M3 Sapphire loudspeakers and a Hypex Nilai stereo amplifier. Everything is plugged into a Puritan power conditioner, and there is significant attention given to the ethernet input to the A10, including an optical isolator and a Muon Ethernet filter.

I use the A10 simply with Roon, controlling volume with the A10 preamp (via the Roon app), going to the amp via the balanced outputs from the A10. I don't use any of the other A10 features, such as parametric EQ, built-in streaming, or file playback via the A10 operating system.

I considered other DAC/preamps before upgrading to the A10. I was looking for something that was Roon Ready (not just Roon "Tested") and something that had a real pre-amp (not just a digital volume adjustment).

[AllanS]

Here in the US, or at least where I live in Texas, partly due to culture and partly due to distances, we don't walk; we use the car for everything, so you have to plan where you're going.
If you then add that hi-fi or music stores are increasingly rare, everything becomes even more complicated, and maintaining certain "simple" pleasures is even more complicated...

Why the Eversolo A10? Because she decided so! 🤣
If you look further, she has some good arguments.
…Excellent build quality and components.
An extremely wide range of inputs and functions, guaranteeing great flexibility of use.
…The streaming function is extremely convenient, but more for discovering new songs or artists, or for background playback.

Yep.  Welcome to the States where car culture dominates and public transportation is inconsistent at best and inconvenient in my experience.  I lived in Spain for a few years decades ago and dearly miss the convenience of day to day life’s simple pleasures and necessities being within easy walking distance.  It can be found here in some places, especially if you stretch your idea of easy walking distance.

Build quality and components also drew me to the A8 but the streamer functionality was definitely a deciding factor because native Radio Paradise and Qobuz app functionality is much better than when added to other streamers.  If you’re not familiar with Radio Paradise, I can highly recommend it for back ground and, for me, new to me artists.  Native Qobuz is less of an issue since connect was finally released.  Prior to connect I found nonnative apps did not support gapless playback which was a deal breaker for me.

Newzooreview’s endorsement of the A10 as a DAC/pre is compelling.

Best of luck!

[dflee]

I got a Sonnet Morpheous MK II and use it for dac purposes only.
Sonnet and Metrum have become kind of one in the same (read up on it should you be interested)
and I absolutely love it in my system.

Don

[Freo-1]

The Topping D900 is a excellent DAC/Preamp.  One of the best I've hard to date.  Competes with some very expensive options.

[lupocerviero]

Yep.  Welcome to the States where car culture dominates and public transportation is inconsistent at best and inconvenient in my experience.  I lived in Spain for a few years decades ago and dearly miss the convenience of day to day life’s simple pleasures and necessities being within easy walking distance.  It can be found here in some places, especially if you stretch your idea of easy walking distance.

Walking even long distances is not a problem for me...

Build quality and components also drew me to the A8 but the streamer functionality was definitely a deciding factor because native Radio Paradise and Qobuz app functionality is much better than when added to other streamers.  If you’re not familiar with Radio Paradise, I can highly recommend it for back ground and, for me, new to me artists.  Native Qobuz is less of an issue since connect was finally released.  Prior to connect I found nonnative apps did not support gapless playback which was a deal breaker for me.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try these radios soon...

Newzooreview’s endorsement of the A10 as a DAC/pre is compelling.

???

[lupocerviero]

The Topping D900 is a excellent DAC/Preamp.  One of the best I've hard to date.  Competes with some very expensive options.

I have a D90 and is amazing, I can only immagine how good will be the D900
I was just evaluating another combo: d90III discrete + Volumio Rivo+
So many interesting options...

[AllanS]

Newzooreview’s endorsement of the A10 as a DAC/pre is compelling.

???

I was referring to this positive comment from newzooreview.

I upgraded from the A8 to the A10. It was a good, worthwhile upgrade. I would definitely do it again.

I used to have a Holo May KTE DAC and Holo May Serene preamp. The A10 sounds as good to me as that previous setup…

[lupocerviero]

Good morning,
I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with the electronics you're talking about
and I don't know who/what this newzooreview is.
🤔

[Jeff_From_Michigan]

The TEAC UD-507 might be a good option to look at.