A few years ago I was personally invited to visit Endow Audio at FLAX 2020, the first and only other time I covered the Florida Audio Expo. Endow loudspeakers featured an ambitious Point Array speaker technology, which placed several tweeters on a spherical structure so they fired out in all directions. Although I felt the sound was a little soft overall, I felt the design had significant potential. Three years later, we have the more affordable Endow Audio Bravura 12 ($14,000/pr USD), and many of my old reservations have been addressed in a very noticeable way.
Words and Photos by Marc Phillips
The Endow Audio Bravura 12 still features the distinctive and innovative Point Array, but the sphere has been replaced with a horn-like feature with the multiple 22m textile dome tweeters forming a ring around cone-shaped housing. This same array is also present on the smaller two-way bookshelf version, the $6,500/pr USD Bravura 7. (This looks like something that’s in my wheelhouse!) The Bravura 7 also sports a 7″ woofer and 7″ passive bass radiator, while the Endow Audio Bravura 12 has dual 12″ woofers–hence the model designations.
I spent my visit listening to the Endow Audio Bravura 12 with Hegel electronics and an iFi digital source. Once again I was a little surprised at how closely the two speakers were spaced from each other, but I’m sure the Point Array has something to do with that–the Endows had an enormous sweet spot with an impressive off-axis tonality. Bass response was also very impressive, with the Endow Audio Bravura specs stating on-axis bass extension that goes down to 20 Hz, plus or minus 3 dB.
It’s rather obvious that Endow Audio has steadily improved the Point Array and the rest of the design over the last three years. The Endow Audio Bravura 12 sounded like a mature loudspeaker design, albeit one that combines a number of complex ideas (the concentric array, three-way crossovers) and a potentially difficult load (84 dB, 4 ohm impedance and a desire for lots of watts), but for these reasonable prices you can plan the rest of your system around these very intriguing transducers.
If you would like to hear even more coverage from FLAX 2023, check out our recap report and highlights from our audiophile-oriented show The Occasional Podcast. You can stream the episode direct from the embed below, or from your favorite podcast platform including iTunes, Android, Google, Deezer, Spotify, iHeartRadio and more.
