Advance Paris PlayStream A7 network receiver

What if you have many audio sources, want to stream from the web and from your computer and even want to connect your TV to your stereo but you don’t want a stack of equipment. Well, you might consider the PlayStream A7 on review here. Advance Paris used to be called Advance Acoustic and from that time they are known for the blue illuminated power meters. They give the PlayStream A7 a classic look. Even the small display in-between the meters doesn’t change that.

00:40 - But let’s first see how it fits into your setup. It’s a stereo amplifier so it needs to be connected to a set of loudspeakers. Then it needs to be connected to your router to be able to listen to internet radio and streaming services. You can also access a shared volume on your computer or NAS that holds your own music collection. An infrared remote lets you choose the appropriate input settings and volume.

01:11 - The streaming functions are controlled over an app on your smartphone or tablet. If you still want to use your cd-player, that can be connected either analog or digital. As can a lot more analog or digital sources, as we will see later. A TV can be connected using an HDMI cable, plugged into the HDMI connector on the TV that carries the Audio Return Channel, ARC for short. The PlayStream A7 shares its housing and front-end with the PlayStream A5.

01:46 - The functionality of both is almost equal but the A7 has the HDMI input, offers more power - 110 in stead of 80 watts in 8Ω - and has more sophisticated electronics like the DAC chip, on which later more. It measures 430 by 335 by 109 mm and weighs 9.3 kilos. On the front left the standby button with to the right of it, along almost the total width of the front, illuminated touch sensitive input selectors and functions starting with phono, and when touched again CD, then Aux 1 and 2, Aux 3 and 4, TOSlink optical 1 and 2, TOSlink optical 3 and SPDIF, Streaming, HDMI ARC, Bluetooth, FM radio, DAB+ radio, Tone control defeat and power amp input. Then there is a 6.3 mm headphone socket, a 3.5 mm headphone socket, a rotary encoder that normally works as volume control but when pressed can be used to step through the menus in the central display. The small button below it brings you one level up in the menu structure.

03:03 - Then there is a LED that indicates the use of high bias, on which later more, the FD display, two LED’s that indicate amplifier overload and of course the two power meters. The rear looks quite structured while it holds about 14 inputs, depend on whether a USB socket for storage media can be considered an input. But let’s start with the AC input with above it the power switch and on the left the voltage selector to set it to either 115 or 230 volts AC. Then two sets of loudspeaker binding posts that also accept banana plugs. With one speaker set connected the impedance of the speakers should be 4Ω or higher.

03:50 - If you connect two sets of speakers and want to use them simultaneously, the minimum impedance of the speakers should be 6Ω. There is an arial for wifi and the HDMI connector for the Audio Return Channel of your TV. The input only does audio, there is no video switching. Then the switch to set the High Bias function. When switched on, the power amplifiers operate in class A mode at low levels to reduce cross-over distortion to a minimum. The penalty is higher power consumption and thus more heath dissipation. Not to be used when the amp is in a closed or poorly ventilated cabinet. Then to the RCA sockets, starting with two subwoofer outputs that feed the same signal, the power amplifier input, the pre-amplifier output, a record output to feed to an analog recorder, four analog line level inputs, called Aux 1 to 4, and a fifth one called CD-player. Even a phono input is present and it can be set for moving magnet, moving coil high output voltage and moving coil low output voltage. Not something you see often in this price category.

05:01 - Then the digital inputs, starting with a SPDIF on RCA and then three optical inputs on TOSlink. There is a USB A socket for service purposes only, an F-connector for the FM and DAB+ antenna, a USB A socket for connecting a storage medium to, like a USB drive or memory stick holding music, the network socket, a socket for the optional Bluetooth dongle and two 12 volts trigger outputs. The inside is rather crowded with directly behind the power connector a circuit board holding fuses and mains filtering. The massive toroidal transformer has three secondary voltages and, according to the rear of the amp might need 400 watts of power. The analog electronics is on a large board on the bottom with on one side the rectifiers and stabilisation of the raw low voltages coming from the transformer.

05:59 - Good visible are the two times four power transistors on the cooling profile. In between them temperature sensors to prevent the amp from dying due to overheating. This is especially important if you use the High Bias mode since it generates clearly more heath. Not that I encountered any heating problems, by the way. Digital electronics can be found on the smaller top board with piggybacked on it the Frontier Verona 2 FM/DAB+ receiver and the Linkplay A31 300 Mbps Wifi radios. In-between an ARM processor.

06:36 - The HDMI input is on a separate small board. The DAC chip is the Asai Kasei 4490EO that can handle up to 768 kHz but in the PlayStream A7 is limited to 24 bit 192 kHz. Which by the way is more than most users will ever use. In general, having so many inputs leads to selecting inputs by stepping through them. Advance Paris came up with a more clever solutions: use double tap.

07:08 - Both the turntable and the cd-player are selected by the same soft key on the front and pressing again switches to the other. Selecting inputs on the remote control does have some peculiarities. For most inputs it works about the same as selecting inputs from the front. But the HDMI input has to be selected by pressing the mode key and then select HDMI ARC from the menu on the display. This is the consequence of using standard ‘platforms’ for a range of products. HDMI is a later development that is not yet integrated. Comparable is the selection of the analog CD input. The cd function on the remote control is for models with an internal cd-player. The sequence for the PlayStream A7 is to press the microphone button and then select CD using the arrow keys. I would rather connect the cd-player to one of the digital inputs, depending on the quality of the DAC in the cd-player. As said, it is a very versatile receiver.

08:10 - Working with standard ‘platforms’ does make quality products cheaper without compromising audio quality. I therefore consider the platform approach choice a wise one. The PlayStream A7 is fitted with both FM and DAB+ receivers. When you select DAB+, a search for all available stations is started after which they can be selected using the remote control. When you select FM radio for the first time, something comparable happens. De band is scanned for available FM stations that then can be stored in presets. This makes the use of FM radio very easy and to me FM is the better choice over DAB+. By the way, DAB+ receivers, including this one, can also receive DAB stations for those lucky enough to be offered the original DAB. It is of higher sound quality than DAB+. There are several ways to play music files. The highest quality is of course using the PlayStream function that plays music from a lossless streaming service like Qobuz and Tidal or from a DLNA server installed on your computer or NAS.

09:29 - The PlayStream protocol supports multi room, although I could not test that since I only had this one PlayStream device, Many other streaming and internet radio services are supported: TuneIn, iHeartRadio, vTuner, Spotify, Napster, Deezer, QQMusic, Ximalaya and QQFM. Furthermore you can stream music from your smart device or computer using Bluetooth with aptX HD or AAC coding. By the way, aptX HD is nothing more than 24 bit 48 kHz audio using 576 kilobits per second. So it’s hardly high-res and a lossy compression scheme is used. But hey, when your children ask for it, you better have it. Apple Airplay, the original version, is supported too and that is a lossless protocol. I want to specially mention the power amp input. You might wonder why that is needed. Well for regular use it isn’t but I can dream up a few situations where it comes in handy. Example one: you want to use a room correction device. By inserting it in between the pre-out and the power amp input, all input signals will be processed.

10:51 - You do need a room corrector with analog inputs and outputs, like the MiniDSP SHD - I have reviewed the digital in and out version but there is also a version with analog inputs and outputs. Another use might be to use the PlayStream A7 for the left and right channels of a surround setup. I find the quality of a surround setup less important than the quality of my stereo. So I use a less expensive surround receiver and connect the left and right line outputs to the power amplifier of my stereo setup. And I place simpler surround and center speakers. Otherwise I would have needed to have extra left and right speakers too. A Logitech Harmony remote control is programmed to switch the equipment in the right mode for the application I want. I had my stereo amp modified, this amp can do it without modification. My experiences with the sound quality of Advance Paris products have been rather positive in the past and that also goes for the PlayStream A7. The sound quality using lossless music sources is more that excellent for its class.

12:04 - There is a powerful, controlled low end, natural voices, a fair to good resolution for the high end of the spectrum and a remarkable wide and deep stereo image given its class. Of course, you can deteriorate that quality by using lower quality sources. In degrading quality: Bluetooth AAC, Bluetooth aptX HD, MP3, DAB and the lowest quality DAB+. But you can’t blame the amp for that. As said, if your children choose for Spotify, you better have it. For your own pleasure there is the PlayStream option, eventually with real high res files at 96 or 192 kHz 24 bit resolution.

12:48 - When I did this review, April 2020, the Dutch distributor Servi-Q suggests a retail price of € 1299 including VAT and the Bluetooth dongle. Which is small money for a 2 x 110 watts in 8Ω amplifier, with FM, DAB+, HDMI ARC, phono inputs and a streamer built-in. The build quality is fine, the sound quality even more. This is, of course, a product for the audio enthusiast that seeks a very versatile audio centre. Advance Paris also makes products for people that demand less options but the same sound quality.

13:32 - The design is typically Advance Paris style and you like it or not. Or you are like me and don’t care. The power meters - they are not VU meters - are correctly calibrated in dB Watt peak. Not that they are of any use but if you add them you better make them correct. Other manufacturers seem to bother less. As such not important, but it confirms that Advance Paris cares to do things right and - perhaps with the exception of the defendable shortcut on the remote control - that is what I found in the PlayStream A7. That brings us to the end of this video but not before I wish you a safe environment and ask you to please take care.

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14:43 - If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on Youtube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, as always, enjoy the music. But keep safe. .