Endeavor Special Edition on the cover of Image HiFi (Part 2)

Leif S

Industry Expert
Feb 13, 2015
770
166
180
California
www.vonschweikert.com
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Perhaps this difference is noticeable after all, at least in the interaction of all factors. Because with the Endeavor SE I find myself listening to music in a different way to normal. Jacques Brel’s Ne Me Quitte Pas (Philips 6680 259, Succes 2 disques, France 1979, 2-LP) is on the platter of the brilliantly reworked Brinkmann Oasis, and Brel gives a private concert just for me. What the man really does with his voice on "Au Printemps“, for example, his phrasing, I now fully understand for the first time. I am moved to tears by "Ne Me Quitte Pas“, which is truly not a foregone conclusion, despite the unbelievably emotional density of this immortal classic. If something is wrong in the playback chain, it can quickly become kitsch and banal. Until now I have never understood the true purpose of the musical saw on this piece. Even though I’ve heard "Ne Me Quitte Pas“ a lot, only now have I grasped and understood the song in all its genius for the first time – and that’s all thanks to these fantastic loud speakers. From the Fauré Quartet I play Pictures At An Exhibition (Berlin Classics 885470011196, D 2018, LP).

With the first piano notes, an almost infinite space opens up with an insanely long reverberation. Dynamically fast and direct, the first cello notes aim directly at my nervous system: almost frighteningly realistic, dark, threatening and then again beautiful. I perceive with all my senses the finest string vibrations on "Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuyle“ and can’t get enough of the tremendously silky high frequency reproduction of the Endeavor SE. By the way, these listening samples were created in combination with the Audiospecials phono preamp AS Phonolab 1.0 and the large T+A amplifiers – a dream combination. The Endeavor SE also plays beautifully with the pair of Trilogy Audio 925 integrated amplifiers and the small Gold Note PH-10 phono stage used at the beginning.

A word about positioning: if the speakers are not optimally positioned, they behave somewhat ineffectually, diffuse in the bass and spatially miles away from their full capabilities. But about 1.10 metres away from the back wall of the image listening room and toed in by a few degrees, the "holodeck“ called Endeavor SE appears. Leif Swanson described a comparable effect that will materialize at some point during fine tuning: "You know it’s right when the sound becomes holographic, and no longer appears to come out of the speaker cabinets. The mechanical aspects dissolve into the illusion of a live performance. You can’t measure it (yet), but you can hear it very clearly.“ In fact, the Californians have achieved what to my mind is an ideal mix of technical perfection and musical truthfulness. All VSA enclosures are equipped with non-parallel walls, braces and separate chambers for the drivers. The housings are made of different materials in so-called "Multi-Layered Constrained Damping“ technology. Damon has told me that they use a highly compressed phenolic resin and composite stone with special insulators that are pressed between the layers. The purpose of it all is to use the different vibrational properties of the materials, whereby resonances should be maximally eradicated.

The drivers for the Endeavor SE are Modified to VSA's specification and uses the frames for the woofer and midrange from two different manufacturers and the rest of the parts from Scanspeak. The Americans use a technology mix from Scan-Speak’s wealth of experience (the company was called Viva, Tymphony and Peerless at different times) for the woofer and midrange driver. The tweeter is a pure Scan-Speak and the backwards-firing ribbon is a hybrid of different manufacturers. Damon and Leif spend a lot of time selecting each driver. Leif emphasizes, however, that perfect measured values alone, such as a dead-straight frequency response, cannot say much about how such a driver will ultimately sound. So they listen to the bare drivers before they give their order to the suppliers and before they have ever "seen“ a cabinet. Their immense experience tells them exactly what will work in which housing. In the case of the Endeavor SE, these are two 175 mm bass drivers with anodized aluminium diaphragms, whose double magnets and voice coils are fitted with so-called Faraday rings. These are copper rings which concentrate the magnetic energy more strongly on the air gap, thereby reducing the distortion factor and linearizing the impedance curve. In addition, there is a 165 mm Kevlar midrange driver, which is also equipped with Faraday rings. The midrange driver is loaded by a tapered transmission line construction and sits in its own chamber like the other driver. The tweeter is also something very special: a metal dome on a beryllium carrier layer with ceramic damping, neodymium drive and backward damped absorption chamber. To complement its transient response and phenomenal tonality, the 75mm rear ribbon functions with a neodymium magnet, which is supposed to sound particularly distortion-free and extended. The Endeavor SE’s cabinet tuning is also far from standard. Leif Swanson says that the opening at the back may look like a bass reflex tube, but it is not a bass reflex design, but rather a kind of irregular leak ("tuned aperiodic vent“). He doesn’t want to reveal exactly what this means, but he goes on to explain that all the great drivers and a perfectly tuned crossover are of no use if you mess up this part of the design – the loudspeaker simply won’t sound right. Yes, sir!
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And how good it sounds! Dizzy Gillespie’s BIG 4 (Pablo 2310 719, USA 1975, LP) is a great record which I have owned for more than 30 years and which I use again and again as a reference for fine and coarse dynamics. Listen to "Frelimo“ for once. What a wonderful dramaturgy and tension builds up here! At the beginning Mickey Roker sets the beat with a tambourine, which Joe Pass’ guitar and Ray Brown’s bass then intensify. Then Roker grabs his brushes and lets them flow over the skins before Dizzy introduces the theme. These flowing brush strokes alone I hear more vividly than ever before and I am more enthused than ever by Mikey Roker’s phenomenally agile drumming, which has me constantly bouncing my feet. After a little more than one and a half minutes there is a short break and then Dizzy slowly moves out of his dynamic comfort zone with his trumpet, still casual at mid tempo, but extremely expansive particularly in the highs. The way the Endeavor SE casually floats this into the room, while actually making itself completely forgotten, has a reference character for my ears. Now, for the first time, I am consciously listening to Ray Brown’s bass playing and can follow the other sound events simultaneously with ease: now that’s high-end. At the very end I enjoy Damon Albarn’s Everyday Robots (Parlophone 825646331291, Europe 2014, LP) without making any more notes and revel in the fat grooves, the deep basses, these blissful melodies and the unprecedented finely integrated details. Oh, so beautiful! In all my conversations with the two VSA developers, they repeatedly expressed their conviction that physics, technology and measurements alone cannot produce a top speaker. This can only be achieved by a successful mixture of technology and sound tuning – and in my experience, Von Schweikert Audio with their proprietary technologies such as AIR and G.A.I.N. have a real advantage over other manufacturers. In addition, there are intensive listening sessions in which live music is repeatedly listened to via the loudspeakers with a wide variety of instruments. For me the Endeavor SE is one of the rare facilitators and mediators of au thentic musical content, music heard with them sounds real and never reproduced. The "Von Schweikert boys“ are magicians, and it doesn’t seem to matter how big or complex their loudspeakers are: Albert, Damon and Leif have the magical elixir at their disposal, with the help of which grandiose loudspeakers can be built. In addition they have the crucial points of speaker design in hand, such as drivers, crossovers and cabinet design, and have a deep understanding of (live) music and psycho acoustics and bring everything together with such ease that ultimately, only one thing remains: music. – Brilliant.
 
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