Stunning visuals need stunning sound if your movies are really going to thrill. Prepare to be stunned
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Wharfedale Evo 4.4 5.1 pack £2799
Developed concurrently with the pricier Elysian range, Wharfedale’s Evo series is packed with technology borrowed from its bigger sibling and includes floorstanders, bookshelf speakers and centre channel speakers of varying sizes.
Our Award-winning package consists of the Evo 4.4 floorstanders (£1199), the Evo 4.2 bookshelf speakers (£649) and the Evo 4.C centre channel (£499), all partnered with the SW-12 sub (£496). Bought together as the Evo 4.4 5.1 pack, the set is available for £2799.
The Evo range is elegantly designed with bowed cabinet sides and rounded corners and comes in three smart wood grain finishes – black, white or walnut. Bear in mind though, that these are relatively large speakers, and will be tricky to house for anyone who doesn’t have the luxury of a dedicated home cinema room. Of course, there are smaller options available, but having not tested them, we can’t vouch for how well they would integrate as a system.
We start playing Dune in 5.1 and are struck by the detailed precision and fluid transparency in evidence here. In a post-apocalyptic desert beset by giant worms and dubious farming practices there is an authenticity and ease to the soundscape as it is rendered by the Evos, making this unhurried sci-fi saga a touch more captivating than when heard on a lesser system.
There is plenty of refinement in the high frequencies of the tinkling ‘spice’ dust without it sounding overly granular or etched. The capable low end delivers plenty of well controlled power that gives cinematic weight to the destructive giant worm but is engagingly dynamic, bringing depth and subtlety to the grandiose Time Team-esque score and the fluttering purr of the ornithopter.
Watching Ready Player One, we are impressed that tricky voices, such as the rather flat opening narration, retain their expressiveness, while the integration across the system as traffic zips all around us feels thrillingly seamless. When things get busy, the spaciousness of the Evo 4.4 system is obvious, with every sound given adequate separation.
We already know that the Evo 4.4s are excellent musical performers, but on John Batiste and Cory Wong’s extensive improvisation Meditation – where the space around the notes is almost as vital as the notes themselves – the Evos do a wonderful job illuminating the long ambient reverb tails of guitar and piano,
