It’s nearly a case of six degrees of separation. Considering my involvement with speaker brands that he has designed for, it was only a matter of time before Kevin Malmgren and I would meet. As a speaker designer, he has worked with Egglestonworks, a speaker brand that I have admired from a distance and has sounded correct to my ears. I reviewed the Von Schweikert VR-4 SR MKII Floor Standing Speaker in 2007, long before I was aware that Kevin had done some design work for the company.
Something that Kevin may not know; after I reported on Evolution Acoustics in my CES 2010 show report, I sought a review of the MMMicroOne and had extended conversation with Jonathan Tinn, who was at the time the owner of Evolution Acoustics. The speaker was in development and noteworthy, and while over the months the discussion about the review lagged, eventually I saw an article about the speaker in a print publication. When one of my review inquiries never seems to get going for mysterious reasons, the odds are good that a print magazine showed interest and that took priority. In the aftermath of shows, a lot of words are spoken and promises made, but time and limited quantities of demo units can indefinitely postpone a promised review. Among the hundreds of contacts I have made, perhaps a handful of manufacturers and dealers were direct in stating they did not need or desire a review. Most would like to keep their verbal commitment. However, what is said on day one of a show often becomes overshadowed by what is said by someone else on day two or three of a show. Early on in reviewing, I took it hard when my interest was softly declined, but now I hardly concern myself with it. There are so many marvelous products in the industry that there is always something worthwhile to review. I am at the point now where manufacturers are approaching me to conduct a review.
Kevin became partners with Jonathan, and after Jonathan’s death, Kevin bought the company outright and now runs it with his wife, Florence. Recently, Jeff Wells, whose components I have reviewed (https://www.dagogo.com/wells-audio-akasha-stereo-amplifier/#google_vignette; https://www.dagogo.com/wells-audio-innamorata-signature-stereo-amplifier-review/; https://www.dagogo.com/wells-audio-commander-preamplifier-review/#google_vignette; https://www.dagogo.com/wells-audio-cipher-tube-dac-review/), called and informed me that he recommended me to Kevin to conduct a review. Would I have interest in working with the Evolution Acoustics Model One, the introductory speaker of a newer line of Evolution speakers? A glance at the speaker told me that the DNA of the company was intact, and the circle of connections was completed!
Though small in appearance, the Model One is powerful in build and performance. It is a brick of a speaker, with impressively solid bones. By that I mean the cabinet and driver set are not lightweights, not cheap in materials or build. This is a speaker that can take higher levels of playback and not sound like it will fall apart. It does not have a cabinet thud, as is typical for less robust small monitors. The knuckle-rap test used informally to consider a speaker’s cabinet sounds more like it should be associated with a large, very high-priced tower speaker. Given that Evolution Acoustics builds such speakers, it hints that the company has not skimped on the build of the Model One. In depth discovery of the speaker shows it is a very serious transducer.
A new line of speakers from Evolution Acoustics
How different is the Model One, the smallest of the MODEL series, from the MMMicro One, the most diminutive of the MM series? When I discussed these two speakers with Kevin, I was surprised at how much they vary. Common to both is the ceramic-aluminum-ceramic sandwich mid-bass cone. But nearly everything else is novel, including the overbuilt CAMDAL cabinet which is best left to Kevin to explain:
“The fully cross-braced enclosure wall thickness ranges from 1-inches to 2-inches and is comprised of a combination of carbon fiber, high density wood fiber panels, and grade 6061 T6 aircraft aluminum, all bonded together with a high shear modulus industrial strength adhesive compound to further mitigate energy transmission. The composite sandwich walls are undeniably rigid and dense without any one characteristic ring or resonance typically exhibited by solitary material construction. Leaving no stone unturned, these panels are further damped inside the enclosure on all surfaces by a proprietary constrained layer damping pad assembly containing precise thicknesses of butyl mastic, mass loaded membrane, aluminum, and two differing densities of wool felt. This produces a cabinet wall cross section with as many as eight layers, effectively obliterating any resonant signature.
Based on the sound of the speaker, the cabinet does its job well. Though the speaker uses a smallish 5.5” driver, tonally it has more in common with larger tower speakers than small bookshelf speakers. I tried the supplied bungs (foam cylinders which can be placed into the rear ports) and felt that while they tightened the bass a bit, they robbed the speaker of a goodly portion of its low-end presence. A smaller speaker needs every bit of oomph in the bass it can get, and I concluded that the smidgen of extra cabinet contribution – yes, all dynamic speakers have characteristic cabinet colorations – was acceptable for the increased dynamics of the ceramic driver.
Speaking of dynamics, the cone driver used in the MMMicro One is overhung, but the driver in the Model One is underhung and has a more robust, longer excursion diaphragm. The new driver has four times the handling capacity of that used in the previous MMMicroOne! It has extreme dynamic capacity with little compression.
The MMMicro One’s AMT ribbon tweeter is a Mundorf product made for Evolution Acoustics exclusively. Per Kevin, “The technology employed in the statement SYSTEM line of speakers uses a proprietary silk textile AMT which is too expensive to use in the Model One. The Model One, in turn, is equipped with our proprietary soft pleat AMT, which is costlier than the Mundorf used in the MMMicro One. The Mundorf AMT had a built-in enclosure, and we use the same specially tune acoustic chamber inside the cabinet for the Model One as our statement SYSTEM speakers to finely control the response of the driver.”
The back of the PDAV (Pleated Diaphragm Air Velocity) tweeter in the Model One is open. Kevin: “The back of the AMT being open allows the tweeter to breath better as if in a dipole space, and the acoustically tuned enclosure helps control the frequency response.”
I have heard a fair number of ribbon tweeters which have ranged in size from 1” to 4”. The 2” PDAV ribbon of the Model One is nuanced and more palatable than most I have heard. Part of that credit goes to the EXACT constant voltage series crossover employed in the MODEL line of speakers. Called a “filter circuit”, it is best explained by Kevin:
“Unique to series crossovers, transients and dynamic contrast are maximized due to the drivers of the speaker being connected in series and directly to the amplifier outputs without any parts in the direct signal path to smear or color response. As a result, this type of crossover cannot be bi-wired since all of the drivers are connected to one input. Most speakers use parallel crossover networks which allow bi-wire. However, in these networks the signal must go through capacitors or inductors before reaching the terminals of the drivers. While there are many extremely high-quality and expensive capacitor and inductor or even resistor options available, nothing sounds better than bare wire. Only the finest parts are used throughout our crossovers including reference grade film and foil capacitors (no electrolytics), high purity copper air core inductors, copper-nickel wire wound resistors, and foamed dielectric solid core copper wiring. All these parts are hand matched and soldered in our EXACT constant voltage crossover circuits on specially designed anti-vibration and multi-tiered circuit boards.”
The following is a direct quote from the official website for further elucidation:
“The EXACT constant voltage series crossover is a tour de force in engineering. Far from a conventional dividing network, the EXACT filter circuit elevates performance to the outer limits of sonic possibilities, delivering much higher emotional content, not by added tonal warmth or artifacts, but by allowing the signal to be fully rendered, keeping it pure and completely faithful to the artistry of the original event. This dramatic improvement is accomplished by isolating all the mechanical distortion nodes of each of the drivers and suppressing their influence on the overall sound, generating ruler flat frequency response, with incredibly low distortion. The electrical performance of the system is made more linear, yielding much tighter impedance deviations, or smaller phase shifts. This combines to create a loudspeaker that is more accurate, both sonically and electrically, resulting in much greater realism in both tonal reproduction and sound stage presentation.”
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