Upgrading EverSolo DMP-A6 with LHY LPS-A6 Power Supply

If you’re new to the audiophile world, this might surprise you – but there is a long tradition of upgrading an audio device by upgrading its power supply. The most obvious way is whenever your device comes with a small power brick or a wall wart. This means it is external and easily replaceable. But why would anyone do that? Because these are usually very low-quality, high-noise, switching power supplies. Believe it or not, having a noisy power supply is easily heard in a revealing hi-fi system. More accurately, it is not heard until you exchange it for a better one and realize what it can bring to the sound.

Eversolo DMP-A6 is a very popular network audio streamer I’ve reviewed already and had little negative to say about it. After all, it became very popular for a reason – it performs really well. But can we maybe do something to lift its performance to an even higher level? Enters LHY with their LPS-A6 linear power supply made with that goal in mind.

Build Quality

Without doing a deep dive into the quality of electronic parts such as transformers, capacitors, etc. I’ll just say that LHY LPS-A6 gives a feeling of a well-made and well-tought power supply with high-quality parts. It being linear, means that it is also heavier and has some bigger parts on-board. But worry not, everything is made to the available space well. Aside from the power supply itself, a new flat cable to connect it to the mainboard is provided in the box too. This one is made of silver-plated copper wires.

How This Works

Since Eversolo DMP-A6’s power supply is internal, the LHY LPS-A6 comes as an easily swappable PCB board. To swap them you first have to unscrew and open your Eversolo streamer. Inside, you will notice two separate PCB boards; the smaller one is a power supply attached to the mainboard by one flat cable, and to the case by several screws. If you ever did anything similar, unscrewing these and disconnecting one cable is a quick and easy job.

Now it’s just a matter of slotting in the new LHY power supply, putting screws in place, and connecting that one flat cable. Once that’s done, put the lid back on, screw it in, and you’re ready to go. The only problem with this endeavor is that it will void your Eversolo warranty. That said, there is no warranty seal anywhere on the device itself so if it ever comes to that – I’ll leave the tough moral decisions to you.

Sound

I started listening to the digital outputs first, using several standalone DACs connected to the Eversolo DMP-A6. I was positivly surprised by how tonally richer DMP-A6 sounded. This was true across the frequency spectrum but for me personally most easily noticeable in the midrange. Already clean and well-separated tones now have a new level of harmonic richness, and inner tone detailing. Listen to wind instruments and the improvement will be hard to miss since they strongly benefit from a richer tone timbre. Already good soundstaging is still equally good and stable, but tones inside that stage are now more realistic and believable. Increased detail retrieval doesn’t come at the expense of good tonality though. If anything, Eversolo now sounds calmer and even more natural, without a trace of harshness.

Moving to the analog outputs, and the improvement is probably even more striking. While the analog section already sounded clean, precise, and dynamic, it always had a slightly analytical side to it. LHY LPS-A6 removed that impression completely, bringing a respectable amount of tonal richness. And the DAC section – analog outputs – needed this even more than the digital outputs. It went from sounding like a decent 400~500 dollars DAC (Topping E70 Velvet or SMSL SU-9 Pro for example) to sounding like a very decent 700~900 dollars one (roughly in line with Topping D70 pro, Chord Mojo 2 or SMSL SU-10).

Conclusion

Accessing the value of an upgrade like this one is not a straightforward job. In a more recently and less carefully assembled HiFi setup, this upgrade will be observable but might not appear to be significant enough to justify the jump. However, if you’ve been tending to your system and fine-tuning it for some time, you know it’s decently transparent, and you enjoy pushing it as far as you can – this upgrade will be more than justified. I belong to this second group and I find the LHY LPS-A6 purchase justified even for the digital outputs, and a true no-brainer if you happen to use the internal DAC too.

LHY LPS-A6 – CHARACTERISTICS

Linear Power Supply for eversolo DMP-A6 [Standard/Master Edition]. Designed and hand-built by highly skilled electronics crews by LHY Audio Purpose-built for Eversolo DMP-A6 with selected premium components Low Noise, High Speed, High Current, Low Ripple, Low Dropout DC Silver Plated internal wiring The LPS-A6 comes with a pre-set voltage of 120/240VAC at the factory. Compatible with AC voltage range 115-120VAC / 220-240VAC ± 2%, 50/60Hz.   Official product page