ON TEST
22 Australian Hi-Fi ˹˹˹ƖŘˁʊǒǔǞƖƋɁȧ
Dynaudio Evoke 50 Loudspeakers
The sonics are such that you can hear the
soundboard at work making the sound bigger
and more authoritative, and you’ll never be
left wondering whether you’re listening to a
Steinway or a Fazioli, such are the incredible
detailing abilities of those Evoke 50 bass
drivers.
As for that midrange, it was, as I have
already intimated, absolutely superb: totally
clean and clear, and not a hint of the box-
iness that can affect two-way and 2.5-way
speaker designs. Obviously, this meant that
vocal were particularly well-delivered, and
for both male and female vocalists. I tend
often to use ‘Sampler’ CDs when auditioning,
because it saves a whole lot of disc-swapping,
and on Ana Caram’s contribution to Chesky’s
Jazz Sampler Volume 1 (Meditation) I heard
the superb clarity of her vocal inflections as
well as I think I ever have. The ability for a
loudspeaker to mimic the spoken voice of
someone you know well is a lot harder than
you’d imagine, yet I’m happy to report that
when one channel of a Dynaudio’s Evoke 50
was reproducing a mono home recording of
the dulcet tones of my nearest and dearest, I
could easily have sworn she was right there
in the room with me. It didn’t fool the dog
though... but then no loudspeaker ever has!
Of course midrange isn’t the sole domain
of the human voice, and the midrange sound
was also clearly superior when reproducing
violin, guitar... essentially any instrument
playing in the three octaves above middle C.
Check any orchestral instrument frequency
range chart and you’ll discover that there are
a lot of them! If you’d like to hear something
fabulous that has both the piano and the
violin working the Dynaudio Evoke 50s’
midrange hard (as well as those superb bass
CONTACTDETAILS
Brand: Dynaudio
Model: Evoke 50
RRP: $7,499 per pair
Warranty: Five Years
Distributor: BusiSoft AV Pty Ltd
Address: 158 Christmas Street
HðŁƓǠěŗē
VIC 3078
TF: 1300 888 602
T2: (03) 9810 2900
E: [email protected]
W: http://www.busisoft.com.au̴ Amazing bass
̴ Outstanding midrange
̴ Looks and build quality̴ Single spkr terminals
̴ Low impedance
̴ Cabinet stabilitydrivers), I can totally recommend Brahms’
Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano on
Calliope (Harmonia Mundi) as performed by
Andrew Hardy and Uriel Tsachor. The sonor-
ities Hardy creates with his 1793 Guadagnini
are ear-opening: the warmth of the instru-
ment is exceptional, yet never so warm that
you can’t hear the perfection of his vibrato.
Unlike many such recordings, not only are
the two musicians in perfect musical balance
with each other, but the sounds of their two
instruments are also perfectly balanced one
against the other, something that’s enor-
mously difficult to do with two instruments
that produce their sounds so differently as
the piano and the violin, due not only to
the differences in acoustic size, but in the
method of sound creation (i.e., vibration vs.
percussion).
Returning again to that tweeter, and it
encroaching on the Esotar3’s territory, I’ve
always found Phil Smith’s posthorn solo in
Bernstein’s take on Mahler’s Third, with the
New York Philharmonic (DG 427 328-2), a
very good test of a tweeter, and listening to
it via the Dynaudio Evoke 50s I heard all
of the brightness, cleanliness and punch-
through that I expect to hear, and all against
an atmosphere so orchestral you could cut
it with a knife. The highest frequencies are
beautifully extended, but not so extended
that they become glassy, or bright. All in all
it’s a beautifully balanced delivery of high-fre-
quencies. No it’s not quite an Esotar3, I don’t
think its extreme highs are quite as extended,
but you’d have to be listening to extremely
well-recorded high-res recordings to pick the
difference... and even then you might not!
The ability of the Dynaudio Evoke 50s to
create not only a superb stereo image, but a
complete soundstage, is second to none...
and you don’t have to be in the sweet spot
either. In fact, you can try this for yourself
when auditioning: sit exactly in the sweet
spot, then move your head from side to
side, and up and down, and twist it from
side to side. If the speakers have been set up
correctly, nothing will change: the perform-
ers will stay exactly in their positions and
the soundstage will remain fixed in place,
unaltered in width, height or depth (and
you’ll hear plenty of each). That this is the
case speaks volumes for not only the quality
of Dynaudio’s drivers, but for the company’s
quality control and testing procedures as
well, because you can’t deliver this type of
performance with ‘off the shelf’ drivers...
they’re just not matched closely enough.
So far, so good, but is there a downside?
Only one that I don’t think will affect anyone
who’s looking at buying a pair of Dynaudio
Evoke 50s, which is that to make the bassdelivery truly lifelike and the midrange really
sing, you’re going to need an amplifier that
will happily drive low-impedance loads,
preferably right down to 2Ω. Power output
per se is not important—these are efficient
loudspeakers, so they’ll make the most of
any reasonably-powered amplifier—so any
solid-state design that’s rated by its manufac-
turer with an output into a 2Ω load will be
fine... or equally any non-SET valve amp with
a 2Ω tap.CONCLUSION
Dynaudio’s new Evoke 50 loudspeakers sound
‘way bigger than they have any right to
sound, given the relatively small size of the
speaker enclosures, and that’s got to be great
news for anyone with an average-sized room,
or even a small room, who’s ever despaired
about being able to buy speakers that would
not dominate their décor.
But it’s not just that the Dynaudio Evoke
50s have a big sound... it’s that they sound
fabulous, with super-extended, effortless
bass, superb midrange and transparent highs,
along with stereo imaging to die for. As you
can tell, I loved the soundofthesespeakers,
and I think you will too. Andrew PetersReaders interested in a full technical appraisal of
the performance of the Dynaudio Evoke 50 should
continue on and read the LABORATORY REPORT
published on the following pages. Readers should
note that the results mentioned in the report, tabu-
lated in performance charts and/or displayed using
graphs and/or photographs should be construed as
ðƐƐŗǍŁŢĴŭŢŗǍƧŭƧļěƛƐěČŁǠČƛðŠƐŗěƧěƛƧěē̻
Laboratory Test Results