AVID HiFi EVO Four Speakers Review
I recently wrote an article expressing why some of the best HiFi in the world is made in the UK, and this view is certainly reinforced by this next brand of HiFi that I have in for review, AVID HiFi have been building and curating some of the finest audio components since 1995 and have one of the most complete portfolios in the industry, from turntables to amplifiers and speakers even down to isolation platforms and the cables that you connect into your system.
In steps the AVID HiFi EVO Four Speakers and I recently had the pleasure of the man behind this incredible brand pay a visit to The Speaker Shack to help install these beautiful speakers in to my system. Conrad Mas is one of the most knowledgeable and approachable people in this industry with a wealth of knowledge and know how of what makes great HiFi and most importantly how to make good music sing for your HiFi pleasure through your components.
We managed to talk about all aspects of what sets his brand apart from the usual names in the industry and why his approach takes into account the fundamentals of speaker design and refines the art of building by implementing his technical expertise and technology to reduce unwanted resonances and coloration from his drive units and cabinets to allow them to perform as they should allowing the pure performance of the music through his speakers and carefully matched components.
Build Quality and Features
Build quality of the EVO Four speakers is of the highest quality with a beautifully machined 20mm aluminium front baffle and rear panel that is taken directly from the Reference series of speakers, the EVO Four features a 160mm damped polymer composite bass driver and a 28mm Acuflex soft dome tweeter, there is no screws visible holding the units in place instead AVID uses its compression plate to hold the drivers in situ and with its Tuned Mass Technology (TMT) which helps to redirect energy and resonances away from the drive units allowing for their pure performance and any unwanted vibrations that could normally affect a speaker and the coloration of sound. The main chassis is fashioned out of 18mm moisture resistant MDF panels which is extremely rigid and heavily braced throughout. The cabinet slants to the rear helping to negate standing waves to the rear of the cabinet and the bass reflex port which is placed vertically underneath the cabinet which is then mounted to a diffusing base plate allowing for easier placement of the speakers in any given scenario.
The speakers can be ordered in gloss black or like I have here in gloss white which I think looks stunning they really are beautiful to look at and worthy of any modern living space. Weighing in at 15kg for each speaker they are relatively easy to handle and unlike some of the bigger speakers I have had in my room of late these are nice and easy to manoeuvre and position and when placed on the matching stands they really do look the part, setting up was a breeze with some slight toe in towards my listening position the sweet spot was found relatively quickly and easily.
For connecting up I am using Chord Company Rumour 2 speaker cables connected to the AVID HiFi EVO Four speakers and Epic and Clearway Interconnects connected to the brilliant Chord Electronics Hugo TT2 DAC and M Scaler with the new BerTTi amplifier which is now my reference and resident equipment at The Speaker Shack for reviewing purposes. Source equipment will be from Cyrus Audio CD8SE CD player with PSXR and for streaming music I am using my Bluesound Node with Quobuz, Spotify and music stored on my NAS drives, I am listening to a variety of selected music which I know and love to test the speakers overall performance.
Sound Quality and Performance
My first album that I will be listening to is from the brilliant Julian and Roman Wasserfuhr Relaxin In Ireland with Jong Brinkmann on Cello, this is an album that they released back in 2018 and is a beautifully composed and articulated piece of music featuring their typical Jazz ensemble and sampled at 24bit 96kHz high resolution and this is further upsampled via the Chord Electronics M scaler to an eye watering 768kHz for ultimate fidelity. Track 1 Cello Bello starts off with the piano and trumpet centre stage and the EVO Four speakers have great separation and space of the individual instruments, imaging is wide and spacious with the Cello coming in and each pluck of the chords can be felt and reverberate through you with the feeling of the music being played, the speakers allow you to feel the emotion of the beautiful music fully with this high resolution version and track, it is a wonderful recording and thanks to the quality of this system the speakers portray perfectly what the artists intended. Track 4 Moondance again starts off with the piano and trumpet but with the Cello chords played with a startling clarity and with such a wonderfully wide soundstage presented by the EVO Four speakers, they really do open up the music with layers of detail and musicallity from these talented artists, track 5 Knot In the Belly features a rhythmic and dynamic Cello being played with each chord resonating in the room, the piano notes hit hard with each strike meanwhile the trumpet has such a soothing sound with each pause in breath felt, this is high resolution music at its finest and they are one of my favourite Jazz artists who always write such beautiful music and the AVID HiFi EVO Four speakers allow you to fully appreciate the music that you are hearing with every nuance and detail extracted but with such emotion and stunning clarity.
My next album is the Extended Dynamic Experience Volume 1 CD of various artists that I have been listening to for some time now and has such high quality recordings that is an absolute delight to listen to, it features some incredible music from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Yello to name a few of the artists even a track from Grace Jones and The Sheffield Drumrecords which all sound pretty epic. Track 1 is from the Earth and Fire Orchestra Frames and features some incredible percussion and orchestral music with synthesised sounds which sound stunning, the clarity and definition that the EVO Four speakers project is some of the best I have had in my room from a standmount speaker but what impresses me the most is the amount of bass and its quality that they manage to pump out, I only ever had one other standmount that managed to produce this quality of bass in my room and it was from the Wilson Audio Duette 2 Speakers but these cost nearly 3 times the price of the AVID speakers, the TMT technology manages to keep any coloration and the drivers free from distortion. Track 3 from Yello The Eye album with Don Turbulento which features such a dynamic sound from the AVID speakers and a bass which has waves of pulsating bass energising my room, these really do belie their size and produce a sound which is more akin to a floorstander and so much bigger sounding than their cabinet size depicts, this is a testament to the quality of the AVID speakers design and how well they can perform, track 4 Victor Wooten Live in America sounds incredible with the deep tones of the bass guitar hitting me hard in the chest but with such a musicality and foot tapping induced rhythm I just cannot stop grinning such is the feeling of musical pleasure on offer. On to my favourite track 7 on this album and it is by the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan Roughest Place (Tin Pan Alley) this is one of those tracks that I can listen to on repeat such is quality of the music and never tire of hearing it, SRV guitar is projected centre stage with the underpinning bass guitar notes and percussion set back and the EVOs manage to paint an expansive soundstage with SRV vocals sounding gritty and menacing but with such emotion and conviction, this is blues at it’s best and the I love the way the drums hit wide across the soundstage in certain parts while the guitar notes just seem to hang in front of you, an amazing track and the EVO Four speakers capture it perfectly.
On to my final album for this review and it is from the iconic and stunning movie soundtrack of Blade Runner 2049 by Hans Zimmer which is one of his finest considering the huge list of movies that he has scored for over the years. Track 1 2049 is a dark and atmospheric track that sets out the tone of the movie perfectly with some eerie and haunting music but with some incredible bass that the AVID HiFi EVO Fours replicate perfectly and for a standmount speaker with no sub connected they drop low enough so that you don’t just hear but feel the bass in my medium sized room, it is distortion free and perfectly rendered and at high volume it is very impressive for a 2 way speaker to cope with such a demanding soundtrack with no hint of compression or distortion from the drivers at all. It’s the same with track 3 Flight to LAPD but with a dynamic and hard hitting bass line, they also manage to produce a wide soundstage which seems to be almost cavernous in size capturing what Ridley Scott intended in the Cinematography for this specific track. Track 8 Mesa sounds simply wonderful with the piano notes playing but with an underlying bass note that energises my living space with great affect, this track is reminiscent of the first Blade Runner movie with its sweeping music and synthesised sounds all perfectly balanced across the soundstage, the tweeters on the EVO Fours never sound tiring considering how intense and demanding this soundtrack is, instead you just get crystal clear clarity and a seamless integration between the drivers, this is my new reference for this excellent soundtrack and having listened to it on many different speakers this is the most impressed I have been for quite sometime. Track 13 Pilot has the music spread across the soundstage with an enveloping sound that extends deep into the room such is the scale!
This is one of those soundtracks that played such a crucial part in making the movie work so well and listening to it on the AVID HiFi EVO Four speakers have proved to be such an enjoyable experience as they have managed to capture the setting and tone of the movie perfectly.
Conclusions and Final Thoughts
It’s clear from the stunning build quality and sound that these are indeed a very special stand mount and one that needs serious consideration when looking for a high end 2 channel system, I can only imagine how good the Reference series must be considering the level of performance that the EVO Fours are able to attain and considering the price that makes them a very serious proposition and worthy of your attention.
The Speaker Shack awards the AVID HiFi EVO Four Speakers with a Reference status award thanks to their incredible perfomance and ability to render music in such enjoyable way.
Price at the time of review: £8000
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