Wharfedale EVO4.S Surround Channel Speakers (Pair)

EVO4S Surround Channel Speakers retains classic British speaker sound: natural, musical, and addictive, free from listening fatigue while adding a level of transparency, ultra-low coloration, and detail surpassed only by Wharfedale’s Elysian range. EVO4 is a unique opportunity to experience ultra-high-end sound and style at a modest cost.

AMT Tweeter

The Air Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeter utilized in the EVO4S Surround Channel Speakers range is a radically different way of moving air than a conventional dome tweeter.

A large, pleated lightweight diaphragm is driven across its surface by rows of strategically placed magnets. Not only is this an efficient way of moving air, but it is also very accurate as the diaphragm is always under close control of the motor system.

The result is a wide bandwidth transducer that achieves low distortion and delivers exceptional musical detail without being “bright,” harsh, and fatiguing.

Dome Midrange

To match the EVO4S Surround Channel Speakers AMT, Wharfedale has developed a fast, responsive, and highly efficient dome midrange.

The fabric dome damped with a plasticizer coating, is vented into a large and specially shaped rear chamber to scatter and absorb back energy that would ordinarily reflect through the dome front surface, out of phase and distorted.

By absorbing and dispersing the rear energy, this driver delivers vastly improved detail, lower distortion, and coloration.

The large, damped rear chamber acts much like a woofer enclosure, permitting extended low-frequency performance. This midrange unit boasts a linear response from 800Hz to 5kHz, an astonishing bandwidth.

This wide bandwidth allowed Wharfedale designers to lower the midrange-to-woofer crossover point so that the midrange driver handles more of the lower midrange for broader dispersion and greater clarity.

Thanks to its high flux magnet, the EVO4S Surround Channel Speakers midrange dome also has high efficiency, ideally matched to that of the AMT, enabling it to respond easily and quickly to the music’s dynamics. The wide dispersion of this dome and AMT combination ensures that you’ll hear all the musical details no matter where you sit.

The dome midrange and the AMT tweeter contribute to the incredibly open, spacious, and deep soundstage of the EVO4s, usually not found in dynamic “box” speakers in this price category.

Woofers

EVO4S Surround Channel Speakers marries the low-distortion motor system developed for the ELYSIAN bass units to a Kevlar cone. Woven Kevlar (the material of bullet-proof vests) is a superior material for woofer cones. It is stiff, ensuring ideal piston motion up to frequencies above its crossover point well-damped.

The cone is fitted with a low-loss rubber surround that absorbs resonance modes that may build up in the cone. EVO4’s woofers blend perfectly with the dome midrange to produce a desirable lower-midrange response.

Bass voices and lower register instruments have the weight, warmth, and articulation of a live performance, without the muddiness and loss of clarity of lesser designs. Simultaneously, EVO4S Surround Channel Speakers’ bass is deep, impactful, and powerful yet tuneful, musical, and precise.

Bass Port

Like ELYSIAN, EVO4S Surround Channel Speakers models use the most advanced version of the unique Wharfedale Slot Loaded Profiled Port (SLPP) system. As with all other bass port designs, the woofer’s rear radiation is not wasted but vented into the room. But that is where the similarities end.

The bass energy in the enclosure is under high pressure. In conventional port designs, air turbulence occurs when the bass waves abruptly exit into the low-pressure room.

This turbulence wastes bass and often causes annoying “chuffing” or popping sounds, sometimes referred to as port noise.

In the SLPP system, both ends of the port tube are flared with a semi-parabolic flange to linearise airflow through the tube. The low-frequency energy is then vented to a slot at the speaker’s base, specially profiled to equalize the high internal pressure to the low pressure in the room.

EVO4S Surround Channel Speakers result is an entirely natural recreation of bass instruments’ fundamental notes presented with authority and articulation, without port-induced distortion and noise.

Real Wood Cabinet

The best drivers and crossovers in the world would be no in a poorly made, highly resonant enclosure. EVO4S Surround Channel Speakers cabinet walls employ a multi-layered sandwich design with soft, high-loss chipboard sandwiched between stiff MDF layers.

The dissimilar resonance characteristic of each material serves to cancel the other’s resonance for vibration and coloration-free performance.

All of the drivers’ acoustic energy launches directly into the room instead of vibrating the enclosure. You will enjoy the kind of clarity, detail and three-dimensional imaging one expects from the costliest loudspeakers (but at a far more accessible price).

Inside the cabinet, Intelligent Spot Bracing connects opposite walls with a wood brace to further reduce panel flexing and vibration. These braces are precisely modeled by computer simulation to improve upon the commonplace ‘figure of eight’ brace, which may transfer resonance from one wall to another.