Wharfedale EVO 5.3 Floorstanding Speakers

A 35 x 70 mm AMT, dedicated soft-dome midrange, dual 5" woven-Kevlar woofers, and three-directional slot-loaded bass port

The Wharfedale EVO 5.3 is the more compact of the two floorstanding models in the EVO 5 Series. Its three-way design combines a dedicated midrange driver with twin 5" woofers, giving it greater bass capacity than the EVO 5 standmount models without requiring the larger cabinet and 6.5" drivers of the EVO 5.4. The EVO 5.3 is sold as a pair.

EVO 5 builds on the architecture of the preceding EVO 4 Series with larger cabinets, revised drive units, redesigned crossovers, and a new version of Wharfedale’s Slot Loaded Profiled Port. The EVO 5.3 stands just under 37" tall but incorporates a 35.4-liter enclosure and two bass drivers, making full use of its floorstanding format while retaining a relatively narrow front baffle.

A Larger Air Motion Transformer

The EVO 5 Series uses a 35 x 70 mm Air Motion Transformer, increased in size from the 30 x 60 mm unit in the EVO 4 Series. Instead of moving forward and backward like a conventional dome tweeter, the AMT’s lightweight pleated diaphragm contracts and expands to move air. Its large radiating area and limited diaphragm travel are intended to provide wide horizontal dispersion with low distortion and fast transient response.

Wharfedale adds SilentWeave, a cotton-and-felt damping material, to the chamber behind the diaphragm to absorb internal reflections. An elastomer ResoFrame surrounds the driver’s front plate, with an additional damping gasket between the AMT diaphragm and front plate to reduce mechanical resonance.

A Dedicated Soft-Dome Midrange

A 2" soft-fabric dome handles the midrange rather than asking the woofers to cover the critical vocal region. The dome is aperiodically vented into a shaped rear chamber designed to scatter and absorb energy from the back of the diaphragm. Its wide operating range allows it to meet the AMT at 4 kHz while crossing to the woofers at 825 Hz.

The midrange and other drive units use Wharfedale’s elastomer ResoFrame to damp resonances in their front plates. SilentWeave damping is also used in the midrange driver’s rear chamber.

Kevlar Woofers With Additional Damping

The EVO 5.3 uses two 5" woven-Kevlar cones driven by low-distortion motor systems derived from Wharfedale’s Elysian development. Kevlar combines low mass with high stiffness, while low-loss rubber surrounds allow the cones to move freely through their operating range.

Each woofer incorporates ResoSeal, a low-mass elastomer ring applied to the rear of the cone where it meets the surround. This ring damps reflections at the cone edge and smooths the driver’s response as it approaches the crossover region. SilentWeave material behind the diaphragm and voice coil provides additional internal damping.

Redesigned Crossover and Cabinet

The three-way crossover is divided between separate bass and midrange/treble circuit boards to reduce electromagnetic interaction between the high-current bass section and the lower-level signals feeding the upper drivers. The network uses polypropylene capacitors and air-core inductors in the midrange and treble section, along with a revised circuit-board layout that shortens the signal path between the input terminals and drive units.

The cabinet uses layers of wood with different densities to control panel resonance and reduce the transmission of energy from inside the enclosure. Radiused baffle edges help the drivers’ output transition around the cabinet, while a hybrid metal-and-wood plinth adds rigidity and houses the bass-port vents.

Three-Directional SLPP Bass Port

Wharfedale’s Slot Loaded Profiled Port routes the output of the internal port through openings in the speaker’s plinth. For the EVO 5 Series, the system has been redesigned to vent in three directions—to the left, right, and rear—rather than the two-directional arrangement used in EVO 4. Distributing the airflow around the base helps reduce port turbulence and makes the speaker less dependent on a conventional front- or rear-facing port opening.

Features

• Three-way floorstanding design sold as a pair
• 35 x 70 mm Air Motion Transformer with SilentWeave internal damping
• 2" soft-dome midrange with aperiodically vented rear chamber
• Dual 5" woven-Kevlar woofers with low-loss rubber surrounds
• ResoFrame elastomer damping on all drive-unit front plates
• ResoSeal elastomer cone-edge damping on the woofers
• Three-directional Slot Loaded Profiled Port
• Separate crossover boards for the bass and midrange/treble sections
• Layered cabinet construction with radiused baffle edges
• Hybrid metal-and-wood plinth
• Single set of five-way binding posts
• Available in Walnut, Black, White, and Lunar Grey

Specifications

Model: EVO 5.3

Speaker Type: Three-way floorstanding

Enclosure Type: Bass reflex with Slot Loaded Profiled Port

Treble Driver: 35 x 70 mm AMT

Midrange Driver: 2" (50 mm) soft-fabric dome

Bass Drivers: Two 5" (130 mm) woven-Kevlar cones

Cabinet Volume: 35.4 liters

AV Shielded: No

Sensitivity (2.83 V at 1 m): 88 dB

Recommended Amplifier Power: 25–150 W

Peak SPL: 106 dB

Nominal Impedance: 4 ohms (8-ohm compatible)

Minimum Impedance: 3.5 ohms

Frequency Response (±3 dB): 46 Hz–24 kHz

Bass Extension (–6 dB): 40 Hz

Crossover Frequencies: 825 Hz, 4 kHz

Dimensions (HWD, Including Plinth, Spikes, Grille, and Terminals): 36.7" x 10.5" x 12.8" (933 x 266 x 325 mm)

Weight (Each): 47.4 lb. (21.5 kg)