SMART STEREO AMPLIFIER
The Evo 150 is the more powerful and the better equipped of two new all-in-one solutions — smart streaming amplifiers — from the UK’s Cambridge Audio. The Evo 75 looks exactly the same as its pricier sibling from the front, with the same 32cm-wide black anodised aluminium chassis fronted by a 17cm full-colour LCD panel, and the same luxurious two-section knob available for control on the right of the fascia. But moving up to the Evo 150 doubles your available power from the Hypex Ncore Class-D power modules within, and adds significant facilities around the back — the Evo 150 gains a phono stage where the Evo 75 has none, a computer USB-B connection too, a pair of balanced XLR inputs enabling a better class of component to be connected, RS232 system control, and two sets of speaker binding posts rather than one. There’s also a DAC upgrade from the Evo 75’s ESS Sabre 9016K2M to the 9018K2M. All of which makes the Evo 150, on the pretty face of it, a highly attractive proposition
Streaming smarts are now on even the most plain-looking of integrated amplifiers (amplifiers without even Bluetooth now tend to be described as ‘purist’ or ‘bare boned’). But few companies have managed, as Cambridge does here, to integrate the streaming front and centre of the whole
