Everse 8 Preliminary Impressions.
This is the first installment of my review that compares the
Everse 8 to the QSC K8.2. My main motivation in trying out the EV is due to weight. It weighs 16.8 lbs/7.6 kg compared to the K’s 27 lbs/12.2 kg. I understand EV is marketing this as a DJ/Busker speaker for battery use, but I think it has potential as a high quality keyboard amp that just happens to be battery powered.
I primarily play piano for a few big bands, as well as some small combo jazz groups. Acoustic piano is my main sound, but I do use Rhodes sounds as well as B3 from time to time. On my Nord Stage, I primarily use the White Grand and Amber Upright samples. My main EP is the EP2, Mk I Suitcase Close Ideal with a few tweaks. For the B3, I tend to favor a Jimmy Smith type of sound profile.
I don’t play rock at all, so there will no volume wars content in this review. The closest I came was playing in a jazz fusion band, but it’s been a few years and we will most likely not revive it anytime soon. The point is that my goal is never to “cut through the mix”, but rather to blend in, compliment the band, and stand out for my solo moments. Overall, I prefer a warmer, darker acoustic piano presence.
Nord keyboards are notoriously fussy about their amplification (no secret to anyone here), and the K series has been generally accepted as a standard bearer in this price range. That being said, it’s taken a little bit of EQ tweaking on the speaker to reduce the “honkyness” that seems to befall most other amplifiers/speakers, although it’s not completely gone. The upside is that the K’s are plenty powerful and have great projection. They sound better from 10 meters away than they do from 1 meter.
This review is purely a subjective impression about how the EV compares to the QSC for my particular application. I’m not going to talk about specs and things you can find elsewhere, but rather focus on what I’m experiencing and hearing. I will also not try to record a sound quality comparison, as that is an exercise in futility.
My typical configuration is to run audio cables from Outputs 1 and 2 (the default L and R) on the Stage into the A and B inputs on the speaker. This connection method will continue for the time being.
Initial Setup - Home
The first thing that impresses you about the EV is the weight - it’s amazingly light, making you wonder if it can really handle a load. It’s also a bit shorter than the QSC:
Both speakers have a floor monitor mode, where they kick back horizontally. The upside on the EV is that you can still access the connections and controls; this is not really possible on the QSC due to the angle of the panel when set up as a floor wedge.
The EV also has a vertical “kickstand” mode, which may be good for buskers; the QSC can’t do that on its own.
For the initial home test, I connected my Stage to a small mixer, put each speaker on a stand, sent the mixer’s L output to the QSC and the R output to the EV. Both were placed right next to each other about 2 meters away and facing me directly. The QSC channel gain is set to the level I keep it at for rehearsals (at about the 1:00 position), and left the EV to its default volume setting (0 dB according to the display). Both EQs were set to flat to start. My normal setting for the QSC has the treble and midrange (1kHz) turned down a bit to reduce the shrill.
I set the EV to “Live” mode. The DSP offers four sound modes, which the frequency response chart in the manual details. I could not make out a significant sound difference on my piano samples between the “live” and “music” settings.
To compare them, I simply played through one, turned it off and other other speaker on, and then played some more. Not incredibly scientific. The volume levels seem to be very similar from that distance, which is a good start. The true volume test will be at Monday’s full band rehearsal.
The sound quality difference was much more noticeable. The QSC has a much brighter treble in the flat setting, while the EV yielded what I consider to be more natural and warmer acoustic piano reproduction, very similar to what my studio monitors produce. While this was more pleasing to my ears, I have a suspicion that the crispy nature of the QSC is what allows the treble to project over distance in a live setting. Also, at flat EQ, the honkyness of the QSC comes out more emphatically. Again, this is, to me, part of why Nord keyboards are so hard to amplify. The K.2’s have been much less offensive than other products, but the EV outshines it here.
Nord EP’s are less fussy about their amplification, and they play very well though the EV. Clarity and richness all come through quite well across all the EP samples. For the B3, the body and gutsiness come through nicely. It’s a bit bright at the flat setting, but that is very easily taken care of on the Nord.
I tried some other sounds in clouding B3, sampled bass, some strings and sample synth sounds. Bass is surprisingly abundant and not what I was expecting for the size and weight. Everything else sounds just as good as through the QSC to my ears.
Again, Monday’s rehearsal will reveal more.
The DSP and the App
Pretty comprehensive DSP in the
Everse 8. I’m not going to detail everything here, but want to just mention the EQ. In addition to the top level low/mid/high settings, there is a global EQ in the mixer section that can work in either as a graphic or parametric EQ. THE GEQ supports 7 bands at 63, 160, 400, 1k, 2.5k, 6k and 12k. Simple up/down sliders here and EV doesn’t mention the Q settings, but I assume they’re nothing out of the ordinary. The PEQ is also 7 bands, defaulted to the frequencies in the GEQ, but you can adjust the center frequency, Q and curve type (low/high shelf/low/high pass or just a regular curve). So you can go as simple or as deep as you’d like on sound shaping.
The speaker also has a decent selection of 30 effects, mostly reverbs, echo, delay and chorus with some combinations. The level is selectable for input channels 1 and 2. Doubt I’ll use these, so I’m not going to comment on them here.
The EV has an available app called “QuickSmart” which allows you to manage most settings over Bluetooth. It allows you to dig deep into the speaker’s OS and modify all the settings from your device. Nice to not have to dig through menus from the behind the speaker when you need an adjustment.
I should point out that there are three types of Bluetooth connections supported by the EV. The first is the control connection to use the app, the second is the streaming connection to send music to the speaker from a phone or tablet, and the third to connect wirelessly to another EV speaker. The speaker-to-speaker connection is not restricted to just another
Everse; you can connect to several EV Bluetooth speakers. From what I understand from others, the speaker-to-speaker Bluetooth feature only works when you're streaming music via Bluetooth; it doesn't work if you're hardwired into one speaker and the other is wireless. If I ever own two, maybe I'll test this out.
I'll make another entry after Monday's rehearsal with the big band.
