It’s difficult to get a new loudspeaker brand off the ground in today’s high-end audio market. I should know, since I’ve tried to do it several times as an importer and distributor. You need so much more than a box that sounds good. You need an idea, and you need to tell a compelling story about that idea. Endow Audio of Georgetown, Kentucky has a few compelling ideas, such as their Point Array technology and their Passive Signal Processor (PSP), both patent pending. The story, it seems, is just beginning for this ambitious new company.
The Point Array is the most obvious part of the Endow Audio story–so much so that CEO Tim Strunk placed a sample of the array structure out in the hallway at the 2020 Florida Audio Expo. One look at this spherical structure, shaped to accommodate nine 3″ drivers pointing in different directions, was a call to show attendees to come in and ask questions and, most importantly, listen. Endow Audio was debuting their new T35 loudspeaker, which costs $19,900 a pair delivered. It’s their second product–their first model, the FS301 (starting at $39,000/pair), made quite a splash at the last few shows. This is an effort by Endow to bring the Point Array technology to a more affordable level.
In a system that included Hegel and VAC amplification and digital sources from iFi, the Endow Audio F35s sounded powerful, sporting a wide soundstage and lots of bass. The overall sound was warm and soft, perhaps a bit too soft at times, but every once in a while I would hear a flourish of detail well up into the higher frequencies which led me to think I was listening to a very smooth, embraceable sound that still captured the essence of the music. My notes say “relaxed” and “easy-going,” which isn’t for everyone. But I enjoyed the T35s–since this was my first room of the day, and that gentle quality was appreciated.
In my years as an importer and distributor, I knew that bringing a new brand of high-end audio products to a show was an effective way of getting valuable feedback, especially when a product is still being tweaked here and there for optimal performance. The Endow Audio T35 loudspeakers are close, really close, to being a great speaker–just a little tightening up here and there, and the T35 may wind up being a truly great value among $20,000/pair transducers.
