wharfedale evo 4.2

[michaeljensen]

Hi. I just want to share my experience with the wharfedale evo 4.2. At this moment i have an audiolab M-pwr power amp running it and as source I use an Ifi dac. I have a fairly small listening room and some of the bass sounds a bit boomy, probably becaurse the room is too small. The treble is VERY low and I dont understand that anybody can recomend them for serious listening without tweaking the highs and the lows. As soon as I got my Eq set by lowering the bass from 60 - 100 hz and gaining the treble above 5 khz, the sound was amazing. I haven´t heard anything that good before but the evo 4.2 without an eq is a no go, unless you´re into jazz or clasical

 

[Gray]

It's good that you're happy with your amazing sound Michael.

However, I dare say that I speak for the majority when I say that any speaker that sounded as bad as you describe, without EQ, would have been immediately rejected - at the home loan stage.

(Though I really wouldn't be surprised to learn that you didn't listen or have a home loan before purchase).

 

[Dom]

Are these brand new speakers? Maybe it will take some time to wear in.

But I'm glad your like your speakers.

 

[michaeljensen]

yes, you´re right. I had seen a lot of great reviews on the speakers, so I thought they would be great. And they are great in many ways, I just think the treble is too weak and some of the bass is too loud. Maybe it´s becaurce I don´t hear so well anymore. Anyway, I´m hapy with them now with the eq on

 

[Stuart83]

May I ask have you tried different speaker placement (room permitting) ?
Speaker positioning with a little toe in etc can have a huge sonic effect and might sort a few things out for you Micheal 😉

I had little respect for room acoustics as a younger self until older when moving into a bungalow with an alcove in my listening/bedroom.

It rendered speakers I loved to bass, bass, bass.
I EQ'd my way around it after Dirac flattened them into dullness to find a cheap wardrobe door and runners (to wall in) the alcove solved the issue immediately.

I demoed the wharfdale Evo 4.4 which are the very similar larger versions and didn't like them at all either.
I somewhat reviewed my opinion on here awhile ago suffice to say after the award steering me subconsciously towards them I found them flat and lifeless.

To quote what I found back then in the demo room-

"The wharfdales that interested me the most came first.
The first thing I noticed was the drivers seeming much smaller than advertised.

It seems they too now use the circumference of the driver surround to boast a larger size.
They are 4.74 inches ( about 5" including actual integral driver surround) the rest is a surrounding aesthetic fascia.
So not the 6.5" specified size.

Once music commenced after the guy in richer sounds after recommended the fyne audio over them that is 🤷‍♀️ I was totally surprised by a lack luster sound.

I thought it was actually a set up issue, that much I found myself checking everything quickly before adjusting the volume and source.

Sitting back again I just knew within a minute they weren't for me despite my head telling me
"Hey they won stuff and are wharfdales they must be good 😂"

There just wasn't any excitement or urgency in anything.
I didn't find them directional because of the AMT tweeter nor fatiguing as assumed by another poster, quite the opposite.

They were very laid back as one or two reviewer's picked up on.
Not in the type of manner best suited to a low volume listening more akin to my father's type of listening preferences but rather in itself lifeless.

I won't go on as I'm genuinely not wanting to cause offence with those who like them.
Suffice to say alongside the floor staff (the ones that like hifi) I found the best polysemous word for them in my opinion is "dull" 🤔 within my personal preferences.
I demoed a lot that day and they were at the bottom contrary to the award they received a night and day difference was achieved with the fyne audio f502's I came home with instead.

I do use a decent EQ on speakers in a smaller room but not because I don't like the sound but because of inherint bass gain whilst streaming certain genras within low quality Spotify, YouTube and sometimes using djay decks when beat matching with an overlap (which I've also found with other speakers) in a smaller room combined with my dislike for a consultation with a laptop containing Dirac it's the quickest solution.

But it's also good you've found a way round it 😊

 

[Gray]

...I just think the treble is too weak and some of the bass is too loud. Maybe it´s because I don´t hear so well anymore.

That's possible of course.
As we increasingly lose the ability to hear higher frequencies, it's bound to tilt the balance we get towards bass.
But, as you've found, there are certainly speakers with unacceptably rolled off, veiled treble - I know - I made the BIG mistake of buying some - based on a best buy review and having owned the brand before.

Back they promptly went.
No chance of so called 'burn-in' helping.....brains adapt to differences more than any burn-in and there was no chance of my brain adapting to the 'symbols wrapped in blankets' effect.

(EQ is never an option for me - natural flatness is my aim - but it's good that it allows you to get the best from your Wharfedales 👍).

 

[AJM1981]

Hi. I just want to share my experience with the wharfedale evo 4.2. At this moment i have an audiolab M-pwr power amp running it and as source I use an Ifi dac. I have a fairly small listening room and some of the bass sounds a bit boomy, probably becaurse the room is too small. The treble is VERY low and I dont understand that anybody can recomend them for serious listening without tweaking the highs and the lows. As soon as I got my Eq set by lowering the bass from 60 - 100 hz and gaining the treble above 5 khz, the sound was amazing. I haven´t heard anything that good before but the evo 4.2 without an eq is a no go, unless you´re into jazz or clasical

congratulations. Personally I find the treble well configured to meet near monitor standards ('near' because I would not really recommend AMT drivers for studio mixing as the dispersion is different and sound perception can slightly change depending on the angle of listening) I like this quirk as a consumer though.

It received some good feedback in various sources; stating that it is not harsh sounding compared to many other AMT tweeter implementations. If a reference is any loudspeaker that has a bit more of a forward configuration, then these personal settings might indeed be welcome.

It is a really versatile loudspeaker due it's dimensions, lot's of headroom, great mids and the vertical soundstage is simply great.

 

[michaeljensen]

That's possible of course.
As we increasingly lose the ability to hear higher frequencies, it's bound to tilt the balance we get towards bass.
But, as you've found, there are certainly speakers with unacceptably rolled off, veiled treble - I know - I made the BIG mistake of buying some - based on a best buy review and having owned the brand before.

Back they promptly went.
No chance of so called 'burn-in' helping.....brains adapt to differences more than any burn-in and there was no chance of my brain adapting to the 'symbols wrapped in blankets' effect.

(EQ is never an option for me - natural flatness is my aim - but it's good that it allows you to get the best from your Wharfedales 👍).

I think my ears are quite well and I just proved it to be right after I bought another amplefier. I got a cayin cs 55 a tube amplefyer and all of a sudden I did not need the equalizer anymore. The boomy bass was gone and the treble was a lot better. I don´t know why there was that big a diference between my ss audiolab amp and the cayin tube amp

 

[Stuart83]

I think my ears are quite well and I just proved it to be right after I bought another amplefier. I got a cayin cs 55 a tube amplefyer and all of a sudden I did not need the equalizer anymore. The boomy bass was gone and the treble was a lot better. I don´t know why there was that big a diference between my ss audiolab amp and the cayin tube amp

Yes there will always be an inherint sound picked up with the integration of hifi components, the two main ones of a hifi being amp and speakers.
The adding/marrying together of other anciliries is how people further taylor their hifi to there specific sound.

You have knowingly or unwittingly made one of the biggest changes to how your hifi sounds by changing amp type.

In short-
The main difference is Tube amps use vacuum tubes to get their sound and solid-state amps use transistors.
Tube amps have an inherint distortion because of this which is very pleasing and musical at high volumes to some and not others.
Solid-state amps do not.
You get a cleaner, more accurate and reliable sound at higher volumes with zero natural distortion Both types of amps have their place with the people who like them.

With hifi it seems some people get where they want to be relatively quickly, others myself included always push for better despite already being satisfied, paradoxically even going backwards to go forwards sometimes whilst trying different kit.

This is part of the mentioned BUG some catch.
The worm that has us over analysing sound to find that higher rung that has us not hearing the music properly until a further goal is achieved for a while, then the cycle repeats.