Aimed at the problem of solar radiation loss from the spacing of ordinary evacuated tube absorber, a solar absorber which combined the external compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) and the all-glass evacuated tube had been developed in this paper. A mathematical model of solar photo-thermal conversion had been created and solved by home-built program, and the experimental setups were carried out for the proposed solar collector system. The photo-thermal performance of the CPC absorber was theoretically and experimentally compared and analyzed with that of the ordinary absorber. The tested and predicted values are in a good agreement and the difference between the two absorbers is also analyzed and performed. Furthermore, the mathematical expressions of optical efficiency versus projected incidence angle for the two absorbers are respectively obtained based on fitting method, It is found that the overall thermal efficiencies in theory and experiment are respectively 68.9% and 66.8% in term of the CPC absorber with an average optical efficiency of 70.5%, and are respectively 54.3% and 53.7% in term of the ordinary absorber with an average optical efficiency of 55.7%. The encouraging research results could provide a fundamental technology reference for the optimization design of performance of solar collector system.