Cambridge Audio’s new Evo One wireless music streaming speaker is a 15-driver monster that has more in common with most high-end soundbars, and it’s available August 9 for $1,500.
The Evo One is a real looker, with a wood veneer finish and a 6.8-inch color screen, making it a bigger brother to the Evo 150 streaming integrated amplifier. However, finding the right place for it can be tricky. At 26.6 inches wide and 11.4 inches deep, it’s going to take up quite a bit of space. And since it weighs 32 pounds and has its own built-in pedestal stand, you won’t be wall-mounting it. It comes with its own remote control.
Behind the fabric grilles lies a huge array of 15 drivers, powered by up to 50 watts of Class D amplifiers per unit. There are four 1-inch tweeters, four 2.25-inch midrange drivers, and six long-throw 2.75-inch woofers. Six of these drivers are front-firing, but there are also three drivers on each wing, and two of the woofers are aimed at the rear of the speaker.
This is the kind of setup we’d expect from a soundbar like the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus, which happens to have the same $1,500 price tag as the Evo One. Cambridge Audio says it’s an omnidirectional sound experience. “You don’t have to sit in an acoustic ‘sweet spot’ like you do with most wireless speakers – with the Evo One, every seat in the room is treated to glorious sound,” the company told us in an email.
Cambridge Audio believes the Evo One’s primary purpose is to be a top-of-the-range music system (it even has a dedicated phono input for turntables with moving magnet cartridges), but with an HDMI ARC/eARC input available, it’s obvious that TV audio also adds to its appeal.
With dual-band Wi-Fi ac and Ethernet, the Evo One supports a variety of streaming options including Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast, DLNA, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect. There’s also easy access via the Deezer and Qobuz apps. It’s also Roon-enabled for people who are fans of that music management and streaming platform.
The speaker supports a wide range of music file formats from streaming services, your local network or a connected storage device via the USB-A port on the rear. These include WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, DSD (DSF and DFF), WMA, MP3 (CBR and VBR), AAC, HE AAC and AAC+ (CBR and VBR) and OGG Vorbis.
When using the optical or HDMI port, the integrated digital-to-analog converter (DAC) can decode up to 24-bit/192kHz. When accessing the USB port or your network music collection, including up to DSD128, the resolution increases to up to 32-bit/384kHz.
What we still need to find out is what audio formats the Evo One can handle from a TV over HDMI eARC. The listed specs make no mention of Dolby Audio (neither Dolby Digital 5.1 nor Dolby Atmos), DTS:X, or any other surround sound formats.
We will update this post as soon as we know more.
