Cambridge Audio EVO 75 & EVO 150 All In One Players/ EVO S Speakers

evo | Cambridge Audio US

EVO 75: Evo 75

EVO 150: Evo 150

EVO S: Evo S

 

So cool looking

 

These are interesting. I would definitely consider one if I had to place it some place in the house my wife would frequent. I don’t think she would mind the look of it and the one box solution would mean fewer boxes.

Fortunately, I have my own listening space where I can have all kinds of different looking pieces, a wire salad in the back and headphone hanging off the audio rack.

 

Any idea when this is coming out? Press release said shipping this month (April) - wondering when I can see one in the wild (and maybe audition)...

 

The EVO has been released now. I'm looking to do an audition with the 75 for use as a system for my den running TV audio and digital streams through it.

Local dealer seems to be impressed with the new units.

 

Anxious to hear reviews - I've seen a couple of reviews on-
line that really varied from mind blowing to underwhelming.

 

I'm interested in learning more as I seek a replacement for my Yamaha Integrated A-700. I want to keep my turntable so that puts me into the $3K Evo 150. I'm concerned that anything digital streaming services related is going to be obsolete within 5 years.

 

I’ve been streaming music for over 10 years now. I doubt it’s going away. Some of the services providers may change, but streaming will be with us for the foreseeable future.

If your concern is hardware manufacturers keeping their software up to date, that’s a legit concern.

 

Legit questions and my take is that this can't follow the smartphone model of replacing every 2-3 years. Thinking a piece like this should have a much longer lifecycle. Having said that, I bought a Node 2i 2 yaers ago and am thinking of upgrading....

 

Very cool. I would have considered it ... But already bought Cyrus One Cast

 

I'm listening to the EVO 75 tomorrow and will report back.

I don't believe streaming is going anywhere other than increasing marketshare, even if it's a second system for some, as in my case.

 

Why not the Yamaha A-S1200 then? Nothing about it that will be obsolete. Add a Raspberrypi with a DAC board as a streamer.

 

Love the wooden side panels. A very nice touch. The face is well laid out too.

 

Everything I am hearing is.....good but definitely not great. But that's all professional reviews - who here has first hand insight?

 

Anyone else demo either of the EVOs?

 

Will this better (soundwise) than a dedicated integrated amplifier like a Yamaha A-Sxxx series?

 

Anybody tested these out here?

 

I have the Evo 150. I tried that NAD M10 and was underwhelmed. It had issues with the screen cutting out or displaying static and it felt underpowered. I sent it back and got the Evo 150 and have had no issues with the screen. The Evo also feels more powerful. I'd describe the sound as clean. I don't think it really has a character to it. So that could be good or bad. As far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing.

I used Tidal for a while and that went very smoothly but I recently switched to Qobuz. Qobuz has frozen up on me several times requiring a restart of the Evo, but mostly works well. Spotify works perfectly. EArc and Optical both have worked perfectly with my TV. I'm not a huge fan of the StreamMagic app though. It's mostly fine, but others do it better. I had the Kef LS50 Wireless II's and that app was overall great. The NAD app also seemed better than the StreamMagic. I thought the phono preamp was fine, but I upgraded when I could afford to. If they can add low and high pass options to the outputs and have them controllable via the app, I'll be totally satisfied with the product.

I bailed on the Kef LS50 Wireless II's out of paranoia about being tied into an ecosystem where one component failure could take down the whole thing. I'm not going to say they sounded better than the Evo 150/LS 50 Meta combo, but it was more tweakable and the amplifiers were more powerful. The LS50 WII sound seemed drier if that makes sense. If Cambridge can get the app to where the Kef app is at, it's a home run for me.