Evolution Speaker System

I'm excited! Not something that happens to me often at my age (although the tablets do help). When Roger (no lunch without big order) Manning told me of yet another DB Dynamics range of speakers I tried to stifle a yawn, after all, Roger has released over 2,000 different speaker ranges over the last 10 years (well, maybe not quite that many). Reluctantly I agreed to review a set in exchange for a peanut butter sandwich and duly set a pair up along with the subwoofer in our sound lounge. I know it's a surround sound system but as you probably realise, five tin cans on the end of a piece of string can make a reasonable show of movie soundtracks and the true test of a speaker system is it's ability to reproduce music - the movie soundtrack will fall into place later.

The speakers are an extremely light, slim affair measuring 1000mm (H) X 100mm (W) X 50mm (D) (I sense a pattern here) weighing around 2kgs for the floor standing units, 1kg centre and a hefty 15kgs for the subwoofer. The mains and centre consist of 4 X 50mm midrange drivers with a 25mm tweeter and are capable of handling a genuine 100 Watts. This is no bullshit figure (as most of these small systems quote) as we ran them with a Yamaha RX-V1700 in two channel (120 Watts) virtually flat out with no signs of distress. The surrounds use two 50mm mid range and the same tweeter. The result when played with the subwoofer was absolutely amazing, there was a seamless transition from the subwoofer to speaker output with the crossover point impossible to pin point - they just sounded like two large floor standing loudspeakers. We gave the speakers a good workout on classical, jazz and rock with equally impressive results, these speakers are as good - if not better - than any others we've tested in their price range. Obviously there are better speakers, you just have to pay double the price to get them. The only caveat here is that, as with all small speakers, they are relatively inefficient, in this case around 86dB (1 Watt/1 metre) meaning they need at least 50 Watts per channel to drive them at a reasonable level.

I won't bore you with the frequency response as A) I haven't a clue and B) it doesn't matter - the overall sound in a domestic environment is all that counts. OK, it's 20Hz to 30,000Hz (that should keep the Sony/LG/Panasonic buyers happy) - probably at +/- 12dB however. As a surround sound system it rocks, the same driver type for all 5 speakers means a balanced sound with plenty of "meat" from the centre speaker for vocals. The subwoofer comes in for an honorable mention here, it's a 10" driver firing down onto a dispersion plate driven by a 150 Watt amplifier. The sound is extremely musical with plenty of slam for effects, better still, it comes with a remote control to allow for adjustment of crossover and output level from your lounge chair. This is very handy for the initial set up and for variations in listening sessions.

I won't bore the crap out of you by saying that "the whispers of the nymphs as they seduced the aging HiFi dealer were very distinct at 2 hours 20 minutes and 23 seconds into the movie" as no one really cares and reviewers who use that type of stuff are well and truly up themselves - the overall movie sound however is dynamic and clean with the vocals clearly punching through the effects. The Evolution system is available in Silver or Black and has a recommended retail price of $1499 (call for our best price) and , quite frankly, is the best value for money slimline speaker system we've heard under $2000. Grab a demonstration if your in the market for a stylish, inexpensive set up.