Shocking – Electrovoice EV4
Electrovoice EV4s
These came home not long ago from an estate sale closeby. They looked huge and from the outside in good shape. My curiosity and it being ‘half price’ day made them too compelling to pass up. So they came home.
There’s not a lot online about the EV4s – mine seem to be early non ‘a’ models with a 12″ woofer with a cast aluminum basket, an alnico midrange horn, and a small cone tweeter. Later models evidently replaced the horn with another driver. They are not generally well received and others are noted as better performers in the EV line.
Inside EV4s. Crossover under woofer
With that research out of the way I wasn’t expecting much when I plugged them in. So I was really surprised.
First of all, I had them on the ‘b’ posts of my Pioneer SX1250, with my restored Polk Monitor 7s on ‘a’. Doing A/B testing was very revealing – upon first listen these EVs were really great to listen to! The best way to describe them is ‘pleasant’ – they are voiced to give a slight glow to music. Perhaps they are a bit rolled off on the highs and lows but when compared to the Polks and when you’re not listening hard, the EVs are super nice. They are definitely not audiophile speakers and likely are subject to being paired to the right receiver and material but I was amazed. They remind me a bit of my KLHs in their vintage sound, but in contrast to the KLHs, here it is clear that the designer when into building this system with a specific voice and sound in mind, not to cleanly and accurately pass on source material. But these are all the better for it.
EV4 removable rear panel. Cool instructions!
The EVs do have some shortcomings. First off, they are pretty big. They are gorgeous in a Mad Men type of way with a nice tweed grille (non-removable – you get to the drivers and crossover through the back panel) and thick matched walnut veneers. Also, with higher volumes or more dynamic passages these speakers can sound a little boxy. But that could be due to the aged capacitors in my set.
EV4 layer of insulation
Overall I was very surprised how much I liked the sound of these speakers. I was expecting much less.
EV4 nice veneers
silverfacestereo 
They DO sound quite good for a mid sixties speaker. Decent deep bass, very clear and clean mids that project in a nice way, and smooth treble. Not perfect for sure, but so listenable and nice!
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A very nice sounding speaker, that does not have exaggerated boomy bass, but can do somewhat deep bass at times. Your caps are surely bad at these speakers are about 50 years old!! Also the 2 switches on the back are known to get bad with age and need cleaning.
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