Name: Sebina Turner
Company: DJ Sebina Turner
Date of Hire: 3rd August

All DJ's and DJ equipment (speaker) geeks.....

Over the weekend I was given the opportunity to fully test the new Electro-Voice Evolve 50 - the latest column array speaker system from EV.

The gig I used these speakers at was a Hen Party in a large private house.

The first impression - they're super light! And super compact which is always a bonus as carrying equipment isn't my favourite part of being a mobile DJ! They took literally seconds to set up, no wires to feed through different sections of the pole speakers. The system uses contact points for the sound to be transmitted from the sub to the top. I used the smaller riser pole as I was in a house the ceilings weren't high.

On first set up the speakers required some tweaking - one side was a lot louder than the other. This was easily adjusted in the LED menu on the back of the sub. It was easy to find the sections required and it was very intuitive. Once this was complete I stood back and listened to my favourite speaker test tune - Ed Sheeran & Rudimental - Bloodstream (Arty Radio Edit) I had very limited room to set up in the room (so much so I had to get in and out under my booth to DJ!!) which meant one speaker was facing directly away from me and the other was placed in front of the booth at a 90° angle. I felt the sound wasn't compromised by putting one of the speakers at this angle. Upon research, it seems the width of coverage is pretty good.

^^^WOW^^^
I was mightily impressed with the sound coming at me! At this point, the hens of the party were all outside drinking but 2 of them came in and were very impressed by the sound coming out as well as the look of the setup - always great to hear!

When the 2 ladies had finished chatting with me I then explored the system some more. Looking at the menu on the back of the speaker, as well as the EV QuickSmart app.

Initially, I was super excited about the app - how awesome to control the speakers from an external Bluetooth source. However, this was short lived! In short, I was hoping for a solution when providing background music or ceremony music. Control the music from your phone, being sent via Bluetooth to the speaker and being able to adjust the volume, track selection and EQ.

Unfortunately, the app only allows EQ support at this stage. The app was a little hard to set up - I couldn't find the app until I found out what it was called in the user manual. Once downloaded it was fairly straight forward to use, apart from not realising initially the speakers had to both be selected and a group made for both before I could control them through the app. As they were in a group any adjustment made controlled them both. I wasn't reviewing the app so this is just a quick thought with it as opposed to a full review!
 

I was comparing this system to the FBT CS1000 which I was extremely tempted to purchase last December. I am so pleased I didn't after hearing this system! Don't get me wrong, the FBT brand as a whole is preferred by myself, but the sound quality of the EV50 far outweighs the CS1000. I found the low is much more punchy than the FBT, whilst still maintaining clarity of the treble. I do also think the build quality of the EV50 is much better than the CS1000. The riser poles are much thicker on the EV50 and doesn't look so inviting for 'pole dancers' plus looks much meatier than the CS1000. The CS1000 is fully housed in itself for transportation which has a high end feel to it. This can also be turned into modular array system by connecting 2 sets together to give a slightly louder sound as well as a bigger 'throw' - something which may help for larger venues and certainly worth consideration.

Pro's -
*Extremely light and easy to set up - you can't get it wrong!
*The low (bass) is punchy, the treble is clear - I played a lot of house remixes of songs and the system played the songs out brilliantly.
*The inbuilt presets actually adjust the EQ... Sounds strange, but having used preset EQ settings in the past to be left disappointed I did love this. I used the Club preset but turned the mid down a touch. It was also immediate changes to the speakers through the app - yay!
*All connections on the back of the sub make for a dream in the odd time you need to switch to a backup. XLR/RCA and 3.5mm jack inputs (as well as if you have a singer to provide PA for as well as a disco)
*The handles on the back of the tops make for a super easy setup! Plus no greasy fingerprints on the speakers once set up...
*The app makes an easy way to control the EQ and if you're pushing the equipment you can easily adjust this to stop any clipping to the sound.

Con's -
*The small pole I used is an extra cost an extra £99 for the pair. To me, the cost is massively overpriced. If they were priced at around £50 then I feel this would be more acceptable.
*The app, which can be used with a number of EV speakers is very basic. It has the potential to be awesome though as mentioned above!
*The bags for the tops can't contain the small poles in a certain place and so have scratched the tops (not me!!)

So all in all, a fantastic compact system - I'm sure I'll be listening to my gigs through a set in the future!

Thank you, Ollie Potter, of Simply Sound and Lighting in Diss for arranging the test weekend. Fingers crossed I get to go back and see him and Simeon very soon to collect my winnings of these speakers!! If not, I'm sure to be back to A/B the CS1000 and the EV50!

#EVTESTWIN