18 AustralianHi-Fi ˹˹˹ƖŘˁʊǒǔǞƖƋɁȧ
ON TEST
G
reatnews!Dynaudio
hastrickleddownone
ofthetechnologies
it usesinitshigh-
endloudspeakersto
a totallyaffordable
model.The‘Hexis’
geometryDynaudiodevelopedspeciallyfor
itsEsotar3tweeter—asusedonthecompany’s
Confidencerange—isnowfittedtothelatest
DynaudioEvoke50.THEEQUIPMENT
It isn’ttheexactsametweeter,ofcourse,but
themostimportantdesignelementis the
same,whichis thatthe28mmfabricdome
sitsjustontopofa hidden‘innerdome’in
a geometrythatDynaudiocallsa ‘Hexis’—
andif youlookcarefullyatthefabricdome,
youcanjustseethedimpledsurfaceofthe
sub-domeunderneath.Accordingtothe
AlexNewman,oneoftheacousticdesigners
responsiblefortheEvokeseries,thesecond
domeenablesbettercontrolofairpressure
behindthefabricdomeandbecauseofthis
increasedcontrol,thecompanyhasbeen
abletoachieveaneven-smootherfrequency
responsefromthetweeter.The new tweeter also benefits from the
tweeter Dynaudio designed for its ‘Special 40’
speaker, an anniversary model specifically
developed to celebrate Dynaudio’s forty years
in the loudspeaker business. In the centre of
the Evoke 50 tweeter’s magnet is a special-
ly-shaped vent and behind that magnet, a
larger rear chamber. That larger chamber, in
conjunction with the new pressure conduit,
reduces the back-pressure on the rear of
the tweeter diaphragm, effectively enabling
enhanced frequency extension.
As for the magnet itself, that’s one of the
major differences between it and the Esotar3.
Whereas the Esotar3 tweeter is made from
neodymium alloy—Nd2Fe14B—the Evoke 50
tweeter’s magnet is made from a less-powerful
magnetic material made using strontium car-
bonate ferrite which Dynaudio calls ‘Cerotar.’
Although all the models in the new Evoke
range use the same tweeter, the Evoke 50 is
the only model in the range that has a ded-
icated midrange driver. And that midrange
driver is a newly-developed model with
an overall diameter of 150mm, a moving
diameter (that is, the diameter of the cone
and roll surround) of 120mm and a Thiele/
Small diameter of 115mm. Its single-piecepolypropylene cone is only 0.4mm thick and
is driven by an aluminium voice-coil wound
around a fibreglass former. Unusually for a
driver of this size, the voice-coil is driven
by a neodymium magnet, which seems to
suggest that the design may be a variant of
the midrange driver Dynaudio uses in its
Contour range.
As you can see from the photographs
accompanying this review, the Evoke 50 has
two bass drivers, each with an overall diame-
ter of 185mm, a moving diameter of 120mm
and a Thiele/Small diameter of 115mm.
This results in an effective cone area (Sd) of
104cm², so if Dynaudio had elected to use a
single bass driver, rather than two, that single
driver would have had to have had a total
overall diameter of around 230mm to move
the same amount of air... and this would
plainly have been impossible, since the Evoke
50’s speaker baffle is only 215mm across.
However, spreading the load of the low-fre-
quencies across two drivers not only allows
the use of smaller-diameter drivers, it also
distributes the amplifier power between two
voice-coils, rather than one, which means in-
creased power-handling capability and, more
importantly, reduced dynamic compression.DYNAUDIO
EVOKE 50
LOUDSPEAKERS