CAMBRIDGE AUDIO EVO 75
Having spent more quality time with the Cambridge Audio Evo 75 in recent weeks than with our colleagues in the past year, one thing sticks in our mind: this just-add-speakers streaming system is very good company. It doesn’t talk to us like many products do these days, and it doesn’t make us laugh (unless we’re playing “Weird Al” Yankovich through it). But it is pleasant to be around, and that’s because its design has been so well thought out.
Today’s streamers are expected to be as extensively furnished as an IKEA showroom, and the Evo 75 (its output is 75W per channel) is determined not to be out-featured at this level. Cambridge’s Streammagic platform is an inviting gateway into streaming from Tidal, Qobuz and, via DLNA, any networkstored music drives.
Playback options
Spotify Connect and the new Tidal Connect (complete with MQA support for streaming hi-res Tidal Masters) are on board to allow subscribers to play and control those services’ libraries from the native apps, while Google Chromecast offers native app playback for the likes of Deezer, Youtube Music, Apple Music and Tunein Radio, too. Airplay 2 allows one-touch casting from Apple devices, and aptx HD Bluetooth offers an ‘offline’ streaming method, while support for Roon Ready completes a comprehensive streaming connectivity list.
There is also the opportunity to add external sources to the set-up, whether that’s a TV, CD player (Cambridge plans to launch an Evo CD transport later in the year) or storage drive, via the Evo 75’s
A built-in 75W-perchannel amp makes this a neat just-addspeakers system
RCA, USB, coaxial, optical and HDMI ARC sockets. There’s no phono stage though. Vinyl-loving Evo 75 owners will have to connect a deck with a phono stage to the RCA input, or buy a separate stage.
This device is quite a looker, and its black anodised aluminium chassis – somewhere between half and full-width size – features magnetically attached side panels that can be swapped out at the owner’s discretion. The included panels are walnut wood.
The colourful display prioritises album artwork and, providing you are close to the box, it’s easy to read the accompanying playback info (which includes file size and type).
The remote is a substantial tool – not the tiny credit-card style we sometimes see boxed with modern components – with a finger ridge on the rear that shows Cambridge values the small things. Presets offer an easy way to access some of your favourite music sources.
As well as being useful during set-up and for accessing settings, the reliable and speedy dedicated app is also on hand to navigate your local, USB or NAS libraries, as well as Tidal and Qobuz.
If you are mostly streaming from native music streaming apps (via Chromecast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect or Airplay 2) or are a Roon user, you may not need the Streammagic app – but it’s there, and reliable, if you do.
The Evo 75 is the sonic success its spec sheet deserves, sounding insightful, open and musical. The clarity and breadth of this unit’s soundstage are instantly apparent. We ease our way in with Penguin Cafe’s At The Top Of The Hill, They Stood instrumental, and the Evo’s rendition is graceful at every turn. It’s here we get our first hint of the Cambridge’s midrange articulacy, with a lovely fluidity and warmth to the melodious piano and melancholic strings.
Drive and rhythm
There’s a rousing drive to Anderson . Paak’s Come Home (feat André 3000) that’s complemented by a solid sense of rhythm, the Evo punctual and dynamic in its handling of the track’s buoyantly bluesy instrumental. And detail resolution is generous and spread evenly across the frequency range, too. While the Evo’s vocal delivery isn’t the last word in naturalness, it has a lush and solid character that’s hard not to like.
Similarly with Kate Bush’s Babooshka, the Evo 75’s rendition has the punch and dynamic scrutiny to communicate the production’s jauntiness, as well as the transparency to get under the delicacy and drama of her eclectic delivery. We plug the Grado SR325E and Meze Audio 99 Classics into the Evo’s front-panel 3.5mm output, and while there’s a slight loss of clarity and refinement, the sound is still informative and entertainingly forthcoming.
If you’re looking for the ultimate convenience in a superb-sounding, well-featured parcel, and can’t stretch your budget to the Naim Uniti Atom, the Evo 75 is simply the best system of its kind to spend quality time with.