This is a review written by Terry Ellis March 2025.

For my video review please see my YouTube channel link here

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The question

I want to start this review with a question, have you spent more money on your amplifier (s) than your speakers? We are often told to spend as much as we can on our speakers but I know great speakers can underperform if the amplifier is not up to it but all speakers on a great amplifier will hit their full potential. The question then becomes what is a great amplifier? If you had the choice between two great amplifiers, one with a totally transparent sound and the other with quite a distinct sound character which would you choose? Before you answer surely you need to know what that amplifiers character is, and in regards to the Eversolo F10 its a power amplifier with a very distinct sound character. I can make this review really quick for you, the F10 sounds very full and warm in the bass and rich and sweet in the mids and a bit dark in the highs, so very pleasing in a lot of ways. This is not the full picture however as I came to find out.

VU for you or not?

The F10 is Eversolo’s first from the ground up designed amplifier I believe and it’s a class a/b stereo power amplifier.  It’s clearly intended to be the partner to Eversolo’s DMP-A10 digital music streamer server DAC and preamplifier “all in one that” I reviewed a few weeks ago and thought was excellent link here. That inevitably means the F10 has very big shoes to fill, it needs to be as good as the A10 otherwise as a whole system it doesn’t work.

It certainly looks almost as good as the A10 as it looks very similar albeit noticeably larger in height. I do like the exposed heatsink fins more on the F10 than I do on the A10 as I think they suit an amplifiers design better but I will admit when you put the two together the overall design language makes sense. The build quality of the F10 is nice, I like the curved angles of the chassis and how its built to look screw less which is nicer and more modern for sure. Its also a reasonably heavy power amplifier at 18Kg and you will see why when I remove the lid as the best bit about the F10 is definitely inside.

Because on the front one of the biggest visual draws is of course the VU meters that illuminate very bright and its great to have vu meters on a power amp right. Well only if they are good and the VU meters are not my favourite part of the F10 although I think they should be. Eversolo told me this about the VU meters and I have

“It is entirely analog, driving a coil in response to changes in the signal. When current flows through the coil, it generates a magnetic force; the stronger the current, the stronger the magnetic effect, resulting in greater swing and responsiveness.”

That all seems great but in practice the F10’s VU meters have a very skittish movement and it has not made any sense to me at all compared to other VU meters I have seen, to the point I thought I must be going crazy. However when you use the F10 in bridged mono mode this changes and the VU meters movement is less skittish and more purposeful, more how I expect and maybe there is something in that about the amplifiers overall design.

But I do wish there was a button to disable the illumination as its very bright and I just don’t love how the VU meters are illuminated by a very simple singular led light. The light is therefore not exactly the same for both sides of the meter if the led is not installed in exactly the same position on both sides and this has been the case for the F10 I have here. It’s not a deal breaker but it is not ideal.

Round the back and inside

Round the back I do really like the layout of the F10, the speaker cable terminals are separated enough from the power and from the signal for my OCD to not kick in, so that is all great. What I appreciated most is how well labelled everything is so I could wire up for bridged mono use without needing to look in the manual, other manufacturers please take note of this.

There are a switches for adjusting the F10’s sensitivity, how the amplifier powers on from a sound signal or from the trigger and there is a trigger cable included in the box and that was a very nice surprise. You can easily select to use the F10 as a stereo power amp or in bridged mono mode with the flick of a switch so again I appreciate the simplicity. I have two F10 here so have been testing two in bridged mono mode as well as one in stereo and I will make a review about this in the near future.

I was very keen to see inside the F10 as the marketing showed some very cool things I was extra keen to see in the flesh. The 1000 watt dual channel linear power supply the F10 boasts is really impressive, I have a soft spot for a big transformer and the F10 has a very sizeable one, about the size of my stretched out hands, its much bigger than I expected to see in an amplifier at this price.  That’s not the only stand out thing, there are a lot of yellow capacitors, some pretty sizeable and I had never seen yellow caps before but upon a close inspection they are Eversolo branded caps. I couldn’t find any information for the total capacitor bank which is a shame.

Something else I have not seen in an amplifier before is the big chip looking things called, one is called the Eversolo “ultra low noise preamp module”, the other is called the “superlinear differential amplifier module”, some fancy terms.  Eversolo are calling this on the website “high fidelity audio processing” which seems to be a clever symmetrical feedback technology and to me this has to be partly responsible for the F10’s distinctive sound and and how they are achieving the very high claimed specs of 0.008% THD and 113db DNR.

The F10 appears to manage the sound from the input all the way through to the ten mosfets or five pairs per channel and from what I know mosfets generally have a warmer sound character for transistors, but I was not able to get them on camera as they are hidden behind the circuit board.

The best for the money?

With my non engineer eyes there does seem to be a lot that is impressive inside the F10 for the asking price of £2199. For power it can deliver 200 watts into 8 ohms per channel, 320watts into 4 ohms and 450 into 2 ohms. Its impressive there is a 2 ohm rating but we are not getting the doubling of power as the impedance halves that I know is a great sign for an amplifiers quality however its still very impressive numbers for the money with everything else. Numbers and specs and even a huge toroidal mean nothing in isolation, we need to know how good the F10 sounds and for that I did a huge amount of comparison listening with two other excellent amplifiers around the same price, so was the Eversolo the best?

Comparison with speaker one

One of the amplifiers I compared the F10 to are 2024’s claimed “Giant Killer” amplifier the Galion Audio TS A75 review here.  Its also a class a/b stereo power amp that delivers only 75 watts into 8 ohms per channel but its a “high current” design so those numbers don’t tell you anything.  It costs $1495 sold direct including taxes so a bit less than the Eversolo.

The Galion its also an impressive built amplifier with a lot of big capacitors, ELNA caps so nice ones and it uses two smaller toroidal transformer instead of one big one and I don’t know what’s better two small or one big and if it matters at all, likely not. The second amp I have been comparing to is a great class d example the NAD M23 that has the same power on paper 200 watts per channel into 8 ohms but can deliver peaks of a lot more.  Inside its totally different but still interesting in itself and it costs quite a lot more £3399.

I did my first round of listening testing and comparison using the Audio Solutions Figaro M2 speakers that are excellent and very clear sounding speakers so perfect for hearing any differences. With a higher sensitivity of 91.5db at 4 ohms impedance they are not overly challenging for the amplifiers to drive so really I was listening mainly for tonal or any general characteristic differences between them, really to allow me to clearly define what the F10 sounds like. It was really easy to do because the F10 has such a distinct sound character.

The F10 is excellent paired with the Eversolo A10 for speakers like this, the Figaro have a solid bass but one that I think is modest in its output paired with a quite a lively and dynamic mid range and high frequency delivery.  Its a speaker looking to give you a tonally full vocal with a spacious audiophile 3D sound stage and quite a lot of high frequency vibrancy. All three amplifiers worked well with the Figaro but the F10 was my preferred because its darker highs, very warm and rich and quite sweet sounding mids and vocals and full bass balanced great with these speakers. I think because the Figaro are already great for opening up the sound stage clear and wide with good depth too the F10 has a more forward sound compared to the NAD and Galion that both want to open up the sound stage between the speakers and emphasise clarity, in different ways.

Both were more than fine and very enjoyable in their own rights but I was not as happy listening to them for longer sessions as I was the F10, I was missing its richness, sweetness and boldness.. The other two amps did some things better for sure but the big strength of the F10, its darker warmer sweeter sound I preferred with the Figaro over the biggest strengths of the other two amps and it was a very useful and telling comparison to do but I didn’t think it was enough.

Comparison with speaker two

I did the same listening comparison between all three amplifiers but now using the larger, more demanding, lower sensitivity Canton Reference 2 speakers that have the polar opposite sound design compared to the Figaro. The Canton sound more bass first and bass big and bold and warm straight away with a more relaxed mid range and treble. They are less about emphasising sound stage spaciousness and more about the music as a whole. They are super smooth and graceful speakers and naturally they respond different to the amplifier that drives them and I think want a different sound coming in to get the best out of them.

This listening test had the opposite result, here the F10 still sounded very nice but I found it was a bit congested and bit flat sounding. There was not as much see through the speakers on to a sound stage happening in the room and it sounded a little underpowered for the bass, even though its not. The bass was not as controlled as I think is ideal even though there is a very good amount of it. The vocals still sounded lovely and rich but they were not cutting through with enough clarity for me, I think the dark treble was suffocating the height of the sound stage and the speed and energy of the music some. Music still still sounded very good don’t get me wrong but not as obviously good as a match with the Figaro speakers before.

In stark contrast now the NAD and the Galion both did a much better job of seemingly controlling the more demanding speakers, or just opening up the sound stage window wider and clearer. The NAD definitely controlled the bass better than the F10, the NAD is a really great amplifier for bass control that was obvious here but I was not as keen on the mids and highs from the NAD. They were the clearest sounding of all 3 but they were also the most dry and again I missed the sweetness of the F10 in the mid range region even if they were not as clear sounding

The Galion split the difference, it sounded sweeter in the mids and highs compared to the NAD and more lively in the treble compared to both and that sound balanced better with the Cantons and most notable to me was the Galion took me the deepest into the music. It got me closer to a huge money mega system I was listening to at the same time as well for the overall depth of music quality. That was a very big win for the Galion especially as its the most affordable power amplifier from the three and this is why some call it a giant killer because in isolation maybe it can be. Again that is not the full picture of course.

I was going to do the test again with a totally different speaker again but realised the result would likely be the same. The Eversolo F10 has a very distinctive sound profile.

Clear to me by now

The F10 sounds clean, it sounds smooth, music sounds very organised, the vocals are full, rich, warm sweet and that is all really great. The treble is delivered very nice in terms of detail but it’s definitely darker and the F10 is not the best power amp when it comes to sound stage spaciousness, or for sounding open or clear see through the speakers on to the music.  Instead it has a forward, pulled in sound that gives you the fullness and warmth rather than opening the sound up wide for more space but with a leaner character as the trade off. That same sound characteristic is there all the time so you have to really like that sound or it has to work well with your speakers and there are a lot of speakers that I think will sound great with this sound character with an amplifier and maybe some that wont.

I think a great example of this would be the Wharfedale Super and Linton. I think the A10 F10 will be great with the Super but maybe less good with the normal Linton as a prediction, as I have not tested it.

So there are a lot of positives for the F10 in terms of its sound, but one negative for me would be it sounds very reserved at lower volume, and even a little reserved at louder volumes. I think it has to the feedback system that is managing the sound and that means its always the same, always a little reserved and play it safe sounding. That can be great thing a lot of the time but other times it maybe lacks a little bit of bite and edge that can make music a little more exciting.  But this is not the full picture for the F10 either as this sound character does change somewhat when you run two of them in bridged mono mode and the F10 makes more sense to me used that like. I will explore this more in my upcoming review.

The F10 also runs pretty warm, much warmer than the NAD to be expected for a class d amp but it also runs much warmer than the Galion so its maybe something to think about if your going to put the amplifier into furniture with no ventilation.

Final Thoughts

In summary I do like the Eversolo F10 power amplifier a lot, I think it’s a very pleasing, enjoyable power amplifier to listen to across a wide selection of music. Probably most importantly it’s a great partner to Eversolo’s A10 both visually and sonically, they match up great. Eversolo have got that bit right and I applaud them for that. I think using them with the right speakers can create a great HiFi system that will be very enjoyable and not fussy for the music.

Yes its not perfect in every way and some others amplifiers will do some things better and you may prefer that but if you want more performance you can add a second F10 to get it and you do get it and that gets me excited.

An Essential Audition Award is granted in recognition of a products high performance but with a certain uniqueness that makes auditioning even more essential.

For the full specification of the Eversolo F10 power amplifier see their website linked here