Dynaudio Evoke 20 – Bookshelf Speaker (Pair)

Evoke 20 is a full-size stand-mounted speaker designed for almost any sized space. Its powerful 18cm mid/bass driver ensures it can flex its muscles when there’s heavy lifting to be done, while its 28mm soft-dome tweeter takes care of the fine detail. And, of course, its Danish design looks fantastic wherever you put it. It’s an ideal match.

Evoke 20 has been designed by people who love music. They’ve crafted it from hundreds of hours of intensive measuring and listening – real listening, to real music, in real rooms. So when you play your collection, you know you’re hearing what they heard… something new.

The new Evoke family will be on-sale in Europe in February 2019. It will arrive in other markets in April.

Advanced driver technology
The 0.4mm thick, 18cm Esotec+ woofer is made from MSP (Magnesium Silicate Polymer), a proprietary material that we’ve been using in our speaker cones for decades. It provides the perfect balance of lightness, stiffness and damping that, combined with its new strontium carbonate Ferrite+ ceramic magnet system, reproduces midrange and bass frequencies in perfect balance.

The whole diaphragm is made from one piece of MSP. Rather than gluing on a dust cap or just leaving a hole, this construction makes the cone far more rigid – and means far less physical distortion. It gives a much better physical connection to the voice-coil, which means more of the coil’s motion energy is transferred to the diaphragm via the Balance Ribs around the centre.

Evoke 20’s 52mm voice-coil is made from aluminium. We chose that over copper for this speaker because it gives the correct balance of weight and winding height to give bass frequencies power and enough mechanical and electrical damping, while also letting midrange frequencies (where a vast amount of musical detail lies) sing through clearly.

A Nomex spider keeps everything centred and moving the way it should, while the new, seamless Contour-derived surround allows a longer throw ratio for greater power and punch.

The all-new Cerotar tweeter
The tweeter is brand new. It’s called Cerotar, and is based on key technologies from our award-winning Esotar Forty anniversary tweeter and the mighty new Esotar3, which you’ll find in the top-of-the-line Confidence series.

Like all our other tweeters, it’s a 28mm unit and uses a precision-coated soft dome. This coating is applied in exactly the correct places and thicknesses to optimise high-frequency performance – it’s a process derived from the development of our most exclusive speakers.

But that’s where the similarity to everything except Confidence ends. Hidden behind the dome is a part called the Hexis: a special inner dome that shapes airflow to smooth-out the frequency response and eliminate unwanted resonances that would affect high-frequency performance.

As with the Esotec+ woofer, it’s driven by a new strontium carbonate Ferrite+ ceramic magnet for increased sensitivity, improved detail resolution and a natural, dynamic response.

That’s all a posh way of saying “it sounds really sweet, and you can listen to it for hours without even a hint of fatigue”. Time to get those prog-rock quadruple gatefold albums out of the attic…

A design for life
Our design department took field trips to show-homes, home-interiors stores and real-life dwellings in Denmark to hone Evoke 20’s look. It was important for them to be able to imagine the speakers in a variety of living spaces – because, after all, that’s how most people listen. They’re on a couch, with a coffee, and a dog… these speakers had to be hygge.

That’s why the four finishes are so relatable. You can choose from Black High Gloss and White High Gloss (which both use new lacquering techniques for a stunning glass-like surface), as well as the warm and organic open-veneered Walnut Wood and Blonde Wood styles.

The cabinets themselves are tapered and rounded in a nod to the Contour and Confidence ranges. The mounting screws are hidden behind stylish one-piece trim rings. And because good design doesn’t age, you know they’ll look every bit as stylish when you’re still listening to them in 30 years.

Which, we hope, you will be.