Guitar strums provided detail and insight but also great control while bongo taps offered weight to each trike but also air and space during minor reverb. King’s crescendos provided precision instead of what it normally wanted to do and that’s to blur out on the top end. It also provided a midrange composure that prevented any form of smearing, increasing focus and increasing tonal balance.
Bass enabled the music to roam and venture forth with more self assurance than you might normally hear. The sonic structure was given authority by the bass. It never bloomed or strayed too far from where it should be but it acted like the foundation of a house. As I say, bass didn’t dominate to any great extreme here. Well, it gave music a strength but also a real confidence. So how did this manifest itself during play? The lighter stuff? The upper frequencies and the finesse offered by these Wharfedales lay upon the bass, coating the 4.2 speakers. The wallpaper, the carpets, the soft furnishings? All bass. It occupied the space like a furnished room. It was infused in every part of the soundstage. These speakers didn’t swamp the upper frequencies. With the EVO 4.2s, it’s not like you’re listening to a pair of subwoofers. Well, the 4.2s had that too and bass was that underlying feeling. Whatever is going on in the room appears to rest upon that feeling? Have you ever walked into a room and immediately sensed a feeling? Whether that might be an air of tension or one of joy? The room has an underlying tone. There’s just no getting away from that frequency here. You really have to talk bass from the off, with the speakers.