ON TEST
20 AustralianHi-Fi ˹˹˹ƖŘˁʊǒǔǞƖƋɁȧ
Dynaudio Evoke 50 Loudspeak
the Dynaudio Evoke 50, its unique dou-
ble-dome structure would make such a repair
challenging, to say the least. More important-
ly, it would be difficult to see that the inner
dome had been damaged by a customer in the
first place. I guess that Dynaudio intends that
the salespeople should leave the pucks in place
whenever the speakers are not actually being
demonstrated, and removed only for listening
sessions.
Needless to say, all of the foregoing means
that you need to remove the pucks... and
indeed the words ‘Remove Before Use’ are
moulded into the yellow plastic of the puck,
but I dare say that if you have children—or
grandchildren—you, too, may be able to put
the pucks to good use, so don’t just discard
them! And, just in case you were wondering,
you can safely play music while the pucks are
attached... just don’t expect to hear any high
frequencies!
The foam port plugs do not come pre-in-
stalled, so if you want to use them, you’ll need
to remove them from their protective zip-lock
plastic bags and press them into the port
tubes. When would you use them? Dynaudio
has a fairly simplistic answer in its Owner’s
Manual, which takes the form of this advice:
‘(Plugs) can be fitted to reduce the bass emphasis
that may be apparent if the speakers are placed
close to room boundaries. Some Dynaudio port
plugs can be split to provide optional levels of bass
volume reduction. For mild bass reduction, fit only
the outer foam ring by sliding it in the port tube so
that it sits just inside the flared port exit—mak-
ing sure it retains its shape to minimise airflow
turbulence. For more extreme bass reduction, fit
the complete plug so that the port is blocked.’ I
say this is simplistic because when you block
the port completely you will certainly get a
reduction in the level of upper bass, but you
may find that you also get a slight lift in the
level of the extremely low bass. Which is the
more desirable outcome will depend not only
on your room and where the speakers are
positioned in that room, but also on the type
of music you most often listen to.
Generally, I would recommend notu
the plugs unless you find the bass a bit
‘boomy’ and ‘one-note’ in which caseI’d
recommend blocking the ports complete
not just using a ‘half bung’.
After years of experience of reviewing
loudspeakers and being somewhat famil
with Dynaudio speakers in particular,I w
expecting the stand-out feature of theD
dio Evoke 50s would be their midrange
sound. This is because all three-way
speakers have a huge advantage over
all two-way designs, which is that the
bass notes can’t ‘muddy’ the midrange,
through compression effects or moresignif-
icantly, though Doppler distortion effects.
‘Doppler distortion?’ some may ask, ‘What’s
that?’ And well may you ask!
You likely haven’t heard of it because
all loudspeaker manufacturers prefer to
keep very quiet about Doppler distortion
because all of them sell speakers that suffer
from it. You’re likely already familiar with
the principle of Doppler distortion, which
describes how the speed of an object affects
its perceived pitch. If we are standing on
a railroad station, and a train approaches
us with its whistle blowing, we will hear
the whistle as a higher frequency while the
train is approaching, at its ‘proper’ (lower)
frequency when the train is alongside us, and
at an even-lower frequency when the train
is moving away from us. This is because the
train whistle’s sound waves are compressed
when the train is approaching our listening
position and ‘stretched out’ when it’s depart-
ing our position.
Now think about a bass/midrange driver
that has to produce both bass and midrange
sounds because the particular cabinet in
which it’s fitted does not have a midrange
driver. And let’s imagine that that driver
is producing a deep bass note at 20 cycles
per second (i.e., 20Hz), so it’s moving back
and forth 20 times per second. At the same
time, it’s also producing a midrange note at
1,000Hz, which means it’s also moving back
and forth one thousand times per second at
the same time that it’s moving back and forth
20 times per second. This means that instead
of hearing a 1,000Hz tone, we will actually
hear 1,020Hz as the cone moves towards us
and 1,980Hz when it’s moving away. It’s only
when the cone is midway through producing
the 20Hz signal that we will hear the correct
frequency of exactly 1,000Hz. That’s how
Doppler distortion affects loudspeakers, and
it is present in ALL two-way loudspeakers.
In all three-way designs, such as the Dy-
naudio Evoke 50, in the previous scenario the
bass drivers will be producing the 20Hz tone,
moving back and forth freely without havingLoudspeaker
manufacturers
prefer to keep very
quiet about Doppler
distortion because all
of them sell speakers
that suffer from it
to deliver the 1,000Hz tone, and the mid-
range driver will be reproducing the 1,000Hz
tone at exactly 1,000Hz, with no frequency
variations at all. The advantage of a three-
way loudspeaker design with its separate
midrange driver should now be immediately
obvious!
So, as I said before I digressed to make that
very important point, I was fully expecting
the midrange of the Dynaudio Evoke 50 to
be the stand-out sonic feature of the design.
But I was not prepared for the quality and
expansiveness of the bass from the dual bass
drivers, nor was I prepared for the perfor-
mance from the new Cerotar tweeter, which
was exceptionally good... so good that it
was very easily encroaching on the Esotar3’s
territory.
But back to that bass, it was so powerful
that I half-checked the cabinets to see if they
were rocking back and forth as a result of the
driver excursion, but no... the cabinets were
rock solid back and forth with no movement
at all—no doubt thanks to those outrigger
feet, which are far more effective at delivering
front/back stability than they are deliver-
ing side/side stability. The bass is not only
powerful (turn up the volume at the peril of
your ears, and the annoyance of your neigh-
bours... because those Dynaudio bass drivers
are built tough, they can take it) but also
enormously extended. The notes from the
bottom-most keys of a grand piano are about
the lowest-frequency sounds you’re ever
going to run across in most music genres...
classical, jazz, rock, et al, and after having
used the Evoke 50s to enjoy the performances
of a number of piano greats, from Wilhelm
Kempff and Glenn Gould to Khatia Buniat-
ishvili and from Art Tatum and Bud Powell to
Keith Jarrett, and from Jerry Lee Lewis though
Keith Emerson and Sir Elton John, I can tell
you that the Dynaudio Evoke 50s deliver a
fine rendition of a grand piano in full flight.
The bottom-most notes are stringily tangible,
and you’re never left wondering about pitch,
even for the most briefly-struck keys.kers
singd
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