 The Cambridge Audio EVO 150 is a network player, analoge en digitale preamp en poweramp. Het sport alle soorten streaming services en protocols, maar het heeft ook een phono-input. In short, het doet meer dan veel nodig en het is een looker. Laten we zien hoe het in jouw stereo gaat, wat in dit geval wel simpel is. De EVO is om een paar luidspeaker en jouw huisnetwerk te beperken. Een computer kan je router verbinden en als het muziek in een gevaarlijke volume ontstaat, kan je muziek vanaf daarnaast spelen. Alternatief kan je een computer of laptop van de USB2 direct aan de EVO verbinden. Geven de meeste ingangen, kan je bijvoorbeeld een cd-player over speed of tosteling of analoge connecten en een tv over HDMI-R of tosteling. Hetzelfde gaat voor een game console, dvd-player of blu-ray-player waar audio is geconcerned. Het is best om een smartphone of tablet te gebruiken als een remote-controle, waardoor een wel-desigd infrared remote-controle is geïncluded. Dat is alles wat je nodig hebt om internetradio, Spotify, Cobus, Tidal, DNLA, Apple Airplay, Chromecast, Bluetooth APTX en Roon. Het doet ook MQA decoding en rendering. Normaal kom ik niet op de design van een device op de test, maar dit keer moet ik zeggen dat de EVO heel veel naar mijn geest is. De grote display en ditto volume knob en de Cambridge Audio logo op een aluminium stripp op de bovenkant geven een riche gevoel aan. Twee types van site-panel zijn gegeven. Walnut en zwarte met de structuur. Ze zijn gehaald in plaats van magneten en dus is het makkelijk om te veranderen. De kabinet is van moderne deel, meisering 317 x 352 x 89 mm. Het waait 5 kilo. De 7 inch color LCD display neemt een groot deel van de front. Het heeft 3 modes om te laten zien wat je speelt. Dit is de manier waar ik het meest vind. De grote front maakt het readbaar tot een deel van 2,5 meter of 8 ft. Het bezoekt de source, in dit geval, samplingrate, bitdap en MQA mode, naast de cover art, trackname, albumname en artist. Toe de rijk van dit display is strippend illuminatieve iconen die de functie van de bovenkant aan de rijk van het. Vanaf de top tot de bovenkant spelen paus, skip voor, skip terug, info om de display mode te selecten, switchen naar speaker set A of B of headphones en stand by. Inbetween the latter two symbols, the infrared sensory is situated. De silver ring behind the black knob lets you select the input mode and the black knob itself lets you set the playback volume. Further to the right, the 3.5 mm headphone jack. De back is rather crowded. On the right, the left speaker terminals for pair A and the same for pair B. In the preamp output, the subwoofer output, the phono input for moving magnet cartridges plus ground terminal, the aux input and the XLR inputs. Then the digital inputs, two times tozzling and one speedif. Like for the left channel, the right channel also has terminals for pair B and pair A. The power cables be connected to the IEC mains inlet. De top row of connectors start with one that is intended to be used with the EVO CD player, although an EVO CD player is not yet introduced. De tv kan be connected over ieder, eerder mentioned tozzling of over this HDMI arc input, provided your tv supports arc, audio return channel. All modern tv's do. A computer, tablet of smartphone, can be connected over the USB beef socket. It can be set to USB audio class 1 or 2 in software, while the ground switch has 3 positions to avoid grounding problems. De USB A connector next to it is for connecting a storage medium holding music. De network is connected here while other equipment, like an extra power amp or CD player, can be switched on using the trigger output. De trigger input can double as an input for an infrared receiver, when the EVO has no direct line of sight to the infrared remote. De RS232 serial bus allows for high entry mode controls, as used by custom installers. De inside is rather crowded, with below this warning label, de Meanwell 5V 4 Amps switch mode power supply, that powers the entire EVO with the exception of the power amp. All digital electronics can be found on this board that carries the Cambridge Audio Stream Magic streaming module piggyback style. De Stream Magic unit kan be found in other Cambridge Audio devices with streaming functions, so it is trial and tested. It is connected to the two antennas on the right side. Bluetooth is handled by this module and the antenna is mounted outside the frame and shielded off. The HDMI module is on a small separate board. De analogue audio is hidden below de digital board. Ik had to leave that for what it is, since it would take quite some dismantling to get to it. I can tell you that it holds the ES9018K2M DAC chip. De power amp is the NC252MP Encore by Hypex. It is a unit that includes both switch mode power supply and class D amplification and delivers 150 watts in 8 ohms en 250 watts in 4 ohms per channel. Although the primary functions can be controlled from the front and the infrared mode, the best way to control it is using a smartphone or tablet using the Stream Magic app. I used the iPad Pro. Directly after the EVO app started, the EVO 150 was found and I was invited to step through an update and some initial settings. Like naming your EVO in, for instance, Living Room, choosing the standby mode and accepting Google's privacy terms for Chromecast and then setting up Chromecast if you like. You can select the inputs you intend to use to avoid long lists of unused inputs on the input screen. Per input you can set the gain to equal levels between sources and change the name. When all settings are done you can for instance play music from your computer or NAS using DNLA. Let's for instance look for Pink Floyd's dark side of the moon. If you are subscribed to Tidal, you can log in and look for Bob Dylan. The Roon user can select the EVO as Roon endpoint. When you select the RoonRoute input, the Roon app is automatically started up. Internet radio is no problem either. The app searches for local and national stations automatically, hence the Dutch stations here, but you can search for stations outside your region as well. I could easily find BBC from the UK, WDR from Germany, Rai from Italy, New York Radio FM from the USA or J-Pop Powerplay from Japan. When a source is chosen, the EVO automatically selects the relevant input. So when an internet radio station is selected, the internet radio input is made active. This also goes if you use Roon and select the EVO as endpoint. Roon lets you set the volume as well and the EVO remote lets you start, stop and skip tracks. If your TV has the audio return channel feature and CEC on your TV is switched on, the HDMI input is automatically chosen when you switch on the TV while you can use the TV remote to change the volume of the EVO. All in all, the EVO is not only very versatile but also very easy to use. I evaluated the EVO in my setup 2 first. It was connected to a pair of acoustic energy radians 1 loudspeakers over Kimber 4 PR cable. The REL T5 subwoofer was connected using REL's own cable. I did not use the sub out on the EVO, but rather used the REL advice connection to the loudspeaker terminals. I used the normal CAT6 patch cable to the AcuFox AcuSwitch SE. The music came from a Samsung T7 SSD USB drive, the DNA server on a Synology DS119J NAS and from Roonrock on an Intel NUC 10i7 FNH. KMT Audio is known for its quality reconstruction filter in, for instance, the Azure series. Here I expect the MQA filtering player role even when no MQA music is played. I have seen or rather heard the same sound character with my tech DACs. The D2A conversion sounds different and even better than I remember from older CD players in the Azure series. But that could just as well be due to better insights and components available to designers nowadays. For the EVO sounds impressively clean and yet musical. This is helped by the quality of the NCore power amps. Like all class D amps, they offer powerful and very well controlled lows. But unlike early class D amps, they now also sound great in mids en highs. Compared to my Moranze Kiper Lite with the LO USB signature, powered by the LO Shanti that drives the Denafrips Aries 2 DA converter, the LO was more upfront, slightly more open, more powerful bass, equal resolution and stereo image. The Moranze was somewhat more relaxed, the EVO was more on top of things. All in all I could not declare a winner. It depends on the music playing if I preferred the one over the other. I couldn't resist placing the EVO in my setup 1. The audio-physics Scorpios were connected to the loudspeaker terminals over Kimber 4PR cable. The network connection was made over CAT 6 patch cable, to the SOVDM SNH10G network switch and over the network to the Rune ROX server. Again I used both the EVO app and Rune. It was impressive how well the lows were controlled while the Scorpios used four woofers per speaker. It did not deliver the quality of the Mitek Brooklyn DAC with FAMH4 power supply of course. Of dat combination cost more than the EVO without having a streamer or amp. But it was remarkable how well the EVO sounded. There were no bad behaviors, like coloration of the midrange, something early class D suffered from. Or two digital problems like poor lows and stereo imaging or sibilance control. Soundwise it is a very balanced design that I scale in at the top of setup 2. What's not to like? It's enormously versatile. But inputs not used can be hidden to make it easy for everyone to operate it. Actually, it's even easier since you don't have to select the inputs for all major functions like TV sound, Spotify, Kuboos or Tidal. Input switching is usually automatic. The aesthetic commission can't really complain either, for it's a looker. Even if it needs to be placed out of sight, it can be operated from the smartphone or tablet over the network. In fact, that is the best way to control the EVO. And it sounds right. The encore power amplifier allows for less efficient loudspeakers, like is often the case with quality bookshelf speakers. At € 2.499 euros it's a lot of quality and a lot of design and a lot of versatility. For those that need less inputs and can live with 75 watts per channel, there is the EVO 75. It looks the same but has no phono input, no XLR input, only one instead of two tozzling inputs and no USB B for connecting it to the computer directly. It also lacks the loudspeaker B output. But it functions almost the same and costs € 500 less. Which brings us to the end of this video. As usual, there will be a new video on next Friday at 5 p.m. central european time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up or link to this video on the social media, it is much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and lets me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.