Elevated cupboard volumes and massively diminished resonance
New AMT high-frequency unit and enhanced bass and midrange drivers
From £549 (about $730 / AU$1,125)
Wharfedale has considerably upgraded its best-selling EVO speaker vary, and the brand new fifth-generation EVO 5 audio system include a visible refresh and crucial audio upgrades.
There are 5 fashions within the vary: two standmount audio system (EVO 5.1 and 5.2), two floorstanders (EVO 5.3 and 5.4) and a house cinema middle speaker (EVO 5.C). They’re gorgeous-looking issues and are available in new colour choices, however what’s occurred inside is what actually issues right here.
Wharfedale EVOs already went face to face with audio system costing significantly extra money, and these fifth-gen variations promise to sound even higher.
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Wharfedale EVO 5 audio system: key options and pricing
(Picture credit score: Wharfedale)
The primary improve is to the Air Movement Transformer (AMT), which Wharfedale makes use of as an alternative of dome tweeters: it’s a pleated diaphragm that apparently pushes 4 occasions extra air than comparable conventional tweeters, delivering decrease distortion and sooner transient responses. Wharfedale says it additionally produces a wider frequency vary and glorious horizontal dispersion.
The EVO 5 model is larger than earlier than – 35x70mm in comparison with 30x60mm within the EVO 4 – and delivers improved effectivity and dispersion. Behind it there’s the brand new SilentWeave damping, which ought to scale back sound wave reflections contained in the speaker.
There’s extra the place SilentWeave got here from: ResoFrame and ResoSeal, additionally new to the EVO 5, are a brand new acoustic damping body and damping ring respectively and goal to assist the drive items ship a smoother response.
The mid-range driver is redesigned for the fifth technology, with the aforementioned ResoFrame and Silentweave. And the bass drivers utilise the superior low-distortion motor system first seen within the flagship Elysian fashions. That’s teamed with a woven Kevlar cone of 130mm or 150mm relying on the speaker mannequin and a low-loss rubber encompass for a natural-sounding decrease midrange and tight bass.
The crossovers have been redesigned too, and profit from a redesigned circuit board that delivers a shorter path size between the elements and drive items. Within the three-way fashions, that’s cut up into separate PCBs for mid/treble and for bass to scale back electromagnetic interference.
The bass reflex design comes from Wharfedale’s extra premium Aura and Elysian ranges, with a slot on the base of the speaker relatively than a extra standard entrance or rear-firing port. The place the EVO 4 vented in two instructions, the EVO 5 vent in three, which Wharfedale says optimizes the airflow distribution for deep, articulate and well-integrated bass. The design additionally makes the audio system “less fussy” about placement than conventionally ported designs.
The cupboards are bigger than their EVO 4 counterparts and constructed from a sandwich of various density woods to scale back panel resonance to inaudible ranges and scale back leakage of undesirable sound vitality. And on the backside there’s a hybrid steel/wooden plinth for rigidity and isolation.
The walnut wooden possibility is carried throughout from the EVO 4, however the black and white are actually super-smooth high-quality matt and there’s a brand new matt possibility known as Lunar Gray.
The EVO 5 audio system will probably be obtainable from June 2025. The costs are:
EVO 5.1: £549 per pair
EVO 5.2: £749 per pair
EVO 5.3: £1099 per pair
EVO 5.4: £1399 per pair
EVO 5.C: £549
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