 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. Advanced Paris used to be called Advanced Acoustic and from that time they are known for the blue illuminated power meters. They gave the Playstream A7 a classic look. Even the small display in between the meters doesn't change that. 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. 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 and 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. The functionality of both is almost equal but the A7 has the HDMI input, offers more power, 110 instead of 80 watts and 8 ohm and has more sophisticated electronics like the DAC chip or which later more. It measures 430 by 335 by 109 millimeters and weighs 9.3 kilos. On the front left the standby button with right of it almost along 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 plus radio, Tone control defeat and power amp input. Then there is a 6.3mm headphone jack socket, a 3.5mm headphone socket, a rotary encoder that normally works as a 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. Then there is a LED that indicates the use of high bias on which later more. The FD display, two LEDs that indicate amplifier overload and of course the two power meters. The rear looks quite structured while it holds about 14 inputs depending on whether a USB socket for the 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 4 ohms or higher. If you connect two sets of speakers and want to use them simultaneously, the minimum impedance of the speakers should be 6 ohms. There is an aerial 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 crossover distortion to a minimum. The penalty is higher power consumption and thus more heat dissipation. Not to be used when the amp is in the closed or poorly ventilated cabinet. Then to the RCA socket, starting with two subwoofer outputs that feed the same signal. The power amplifier input, the preamplifier output, a record out to feed 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 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. Then the digital inputs, starting with a spidive 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 plus antenna, a USB-A socket for connecting a storage medium like a USB drive or a memory stick holding music, the network socket a socket for the optional Bluetooth dongle and two 12 volt 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 stabilization of the raw low voltages coming from the transformer. Good visible are the two times four power transformers 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 heat. Not that I encountered any heating problems by the way. Digital electronics can be found on a smaller top board with piggybacked on it the Frontier Verona 2 FM DAB plus receiver and the Linkplay A31 300 Mbps WiFi radios. In between an ARM processor. The HDMI input is on a separate small board. The DAC chip is the ASAIC ASA4490EO that can handle up to 786 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. Advanced Paris came up with a more clever solution. Use double tabs. 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. Working with standard platforms does make quality products cheaper without compromising audio quality. I therefore consider the platform a pro choice, a wise one. The Playstream A7 is fitted with both FM and DAB plus receivers. When you select DAB plus 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. The 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 plus. By the way, DAB plus 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 plus. 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 Gobius or Tile or from a DNA server installed on your computer or NAS. 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. Tune in, iHeartRadio, VTuner, Spotify, Napster, Deezer, QQ Music, Ximlaya and QQFM. Furthermore, you can stream music from your smart device or computer using Bluetooth with 8PTX HD or AAC encoding. By the way, 8PTX HD is nothing more than 24bit 48kHz audio using 576kbps. 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 1, 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. 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 also is a version with analog inputs and outputs. Another use might be to use the Placeme A7 for the left and right channels of a surround setup. I find the quality of 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 have my stereo amp modified. This amp can do it without modification. My experiences with the sound quality of advanced Paris products have been rather positive in the past and that also goes for the Placeme A7. The sound quality using lossless music sources is more than excellent for its class. There is a powerful control 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 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 Spotify, you better have it. For your own pleasure there is the playstream option, eventually with high res files at 96 or 192 kHz 24 bit resolution. When I did this review, April 2020, the Dutch distributor ServiQ suggests a retail price of 1299 euros including VAT and the Bluetooth Dungle, which is small money for a 2 x 110 watts in 8 ohms amplifier with FM, DAB plus 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. Advanced Paris also makes products for people that demand less options but the same sound quality. The design is typically advanced Paris style and you like it or not. Or you are like me and you 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 advanced 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. I will try to keep you locked to YouTube for that is safe even without a virus protection. There will be a new video if possible at Fridays at 5 pm central European time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs up. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially, it keeps me independent and distrust worthy. 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.