It was mid-June this year, about eight weeks ago, when I was travelling with Cambridge Audio to hear the company’s new Evo One all-in-one music player in one of the most appropriate places – the former Sex Pistols“A London house on Denmark Street with walls covered in John Lydon graffiti. An iconic British band setting where you can hear the latest songs from a very British audio brand.”
Not that I’d associate Lydon’s superfluous doodles with Cambridge Audio’s design language: the Evo One is a carefully engineered all-in-one with 14 drivers and a total of 700W of amplification, but its wood-topped design has a touch of humanity. It’s real walnut, too, and each of the Evo One samples I’ve seen has individual grains—a natural graffiti of the product’s own design, if you will.
I’ve been testing the best all-in-one speakers for many years, but such systems are rarely released – Bowers & Wilkins’ latest Zeppelin, for example, was released almost exactly three years ago – given the longevity of such products. One of my favourites was the Naim Mu-so – but the original was released a full decade ago. Naim’s best speaker also looks much more industrial in design than Cambridge Audio’s softer look with a wooden top and fabric-covered sides.
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Using a tablet connected to the Evo One, guests took turns playing everything from classic jazz to modern bass music; no stone was left unturned – and I was impressed with how well Cambridge Audio handled the output. This is an all-in-one device that can fill a large room with sound – and when exploring the highs, the volume was above conversational.
Behind those fabric-covered side panels, the Evo One features four 1-inch silk dome tweeters, four 2.25-inch aluminum cones for the midrange, and six 2.75-inch woofers for the low end. The soundstage is convincingly wide, making for a great listening experience—I sat almost sideways after trying it from the front, and the sound remained full throughout.
These woofers won’t boost the bass to subwoofer levels, which would be a minor criticism, but their combined output certainly produces enough bass to satisfy most music listeners’ tastes. You can even monitor the output with a quirky digital VU meter that can be set to display on the Evo One’s built-in 6.8-inch display – probably best reserved for your Tidal, Spotify, Qobuz or Deezer interface, all of which are supported.
Cambridge Audio is also not doing things by halves when it comes to compatibility: the Evo One supports an audio resolution of up to 32 bit/192 kHz for high-res audio fans. In addition, all common streaming formats and many high-end codes are supported (MP3, WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, DSD, AAC). For the highest quality, you should connect via WiFi, but Bluetooth is also available, as are AirPlay 2 and Google Cast.
I think Cambridge Audio is on a roll at the moment: I’ve tried the new Melomania P100 (yes, same place, secret’s out now), the company’s first ever over-ear headphones, and this Evo One all-in-one is a reasonably priced competitor to Naim with great sound and, I think, a more natural design that fits better in people’s homes. It also comes with a remote control in case you don’t like fiddling around with a connected phone or tablet.
Oh, and by the way, the Chateau Denmark hotel’s two-storey ‘I Am Anarchy’ suite can be booked if you fancy a completely different hotel experience and want to sleep in a pull-out bed amidst the now Grade II listed building and artwork. Sure, a weekend away will cost more than buying a new Cambridge Audio Evo One – it’s on sale for £1299/$1499 on release; the hotel suite, by comparison, costs from £600 per night (around $760), but it will no doubt be everyone’s cup of tea. PistolsDream stay for fans.
