Endow Audio, Bravura, Hegel, iFi

At 32, David Strunk is one of the younger designers and entrepreneurs at the Florida show—and yet he's somewhat of a veteran. Strunk started seriously tinkering with electronics and audio when he was still in britches. Four years ago, he and his father, Tim, started Endow Audio with a hugely ambitious goal: redefining high-end speakers' capacity for sounding just like live music.

In 2019, the Strunks made a splash with their out-of-the-box FS301 point-array loudspeaker. I could describe its otherworldly looks, but it's probably best if you take a gander at the photo that accompanies JVS's quick 'n' dirty review from that year's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Instantly, you'll understand what père and fils were going for.

Though JVS declared that the FS301s blew his mind, commercial success remained elusive. In Tim's words, their scatter-happy brainchild "perhaps lacked in detailed imaging at the primary listening position." The duo then set out to design a speaker that would keep the point-array idea alive while also catering to audiophiles' desire for precision in imaging.

Enter the Bravura 12 ($14,000/pair, 85lb each) and its little brother, the Bravura 7 ($6500/pair, 25lb each). The speakers, with identical carbon copolyester horns that sit atop their respective cabinets, are making their debut at the Tampa show. And once again, they're unusual beasts.

A single 0.9'' textile-dome tweeter sits in the oval horn's center, beaming forward, while nine wide-bandwidth 1.5'' midrange drivers ring the rear base of the horn. The Strunks claim that these outward-firing midrangers provide "consistent sound quality throughout the entire room," and they're not wrong.

The Bravura 7 has a 7" Wavecor bass driver on the baffle, mirrored by a 7" passive radiator on the rear. The Bravura 12 boasts two sealed, side-firing 12" Morel woofers. The latter model's low-end firepower bottoms out around 38Hz at –3dB, which won't please most bassheads but probably isn't an impediment to listeners looking primarily for purity and an extra-wide sweet spot; both speakers provide that in spades.

Coupled with a $12,000 Hegel H590 integrated amp, a $3499 iFi Pro iDSD DAC and streamer, and $700 Bravura speaker cables, both Endow products gave all the music I heard through them a well-defined immersive treatment. Impressive control and a nice wide soundstage are among their other benefits.

I do wonder whether the model 12 (below) is worth the $7500 premium, given that it only betters the bass performance of the li'l sibling by about 10Hz. Viewed like that, the Bravura 7 seems like the better deal, but you can compare and find out for yourself: Endow Audio sells direct to the public via its website, with a 30-day money-back guarantee that includes shipping both ways.

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