The Endeavor E5-My Visit To Leif's House

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
To be honest I had never heard the Endeavor E5 until last week when I got an invitation to visit Leif's new house and to hear his system in his new digs. Wow, was I in for a surprise as, IMO this speaker is truly a diamond in the rough. At an MSRP of $35K for the pair I was hard pressed to think of any speaker in this price range that could even come close to compete with the E5

It was a sweltering southern California day of 105 degrees when I visited Leif but it was worth it. Leif has just moved to a house on Canyon Lake and he was quite excited about his new listening room. Even though he had just moved in , it was Leif's feeling that this was a special room even though he had yet to add any room amendments other than a large bass trap in the front corners of the room.He looks forward to treating the room accordingly but in the interim what I heard was terrific

The room is a generous 16' x 30' x 10'and the speakers were sitting about 5 feet forward of the front wall with a very slight toe in. The speaker is a 3 way that can be driven by a single amplifier and my initial impression that the room looked somewhat bare and underrated in the absence of any sound treatment. Boy was I ever wrong. This is a room in progress and I was hearing the first iteration which I must admit sounded damn good

Some specs first off

The speaker weighs 135 lbs per channel and is 91 Db efficient. The speaker is made from a cellulose composite. It has four 7" black anodized aluminum cone woofers made by Scan Design IIRC as well as a pair of 6.5" mid range Kevlar drivers with a Faraday Ring voice collar also by Scan Design and a Scanspeak Beryllium tweeter. The finish was a very smart looking silver gloss

as I said was not prepared for what I heard. Leif's front end gear that I heard that day was an entry level $7K Audio Alchemy Class D mono amps, a server and an integrated preamp with a built in DAC. The preamp had t'sown separate power supply. All I can say is that this little front end gear played through the E5 speakers sounded absolutely wonderful.
Timber and tone were right on and the air between the strings of the guitar created an openness and ease to the speaker allowing for a giant sized and well dialed in sound stage. As Ron Resnick pointed out in his recent thread on a visit to KeithR's sound room that there is an enormous amount of enjoyment to be gained form an inexpensive and well dialed in system

The digital side of things was entirely via hirez files played through his server and analogue was via reel to reel tape on a J-Corder

The room does have some issues that need taming such as reflection off the glass windows on the front of the room as well as a large sliding windowed door along the left side wall. The reflections off the front windows were easily controlled by closing the window blinds. The left side wall did have some bounce echoes but as Leif correctly points out, the house is new and this is a work in progress.

Whatever Leif played, be it digital via his Audio Alchemy server or analog via his J-Corder I was stunned as to how involved I was listening to this speaker. I loved the sound and the sound stage was wide and deep. As stated my biggest comment bout the E5 was just how relaxed it was and the ease of presentation. The air around the stings and voices made for an open and well defined sound stage. I was very impressed with this speaker's performance

Other essentials used by Leif were Master Built Reference interconnects and Reference power cords.

In my short time there I could see that this Endeavor E5 was a very special speaker and at $35K MSRP for a 3 way speaker gave me pause to think of any comparably built speaker in this price range that was even competitive. I could think of none

In the future Leif is planning to move his simple front end gear off to the side in favor of his heavy weight VAC components and amps.

I am hoping for an invite back to hear the next iteration of his room. I have heard the new VSA Ultra 11 on at least 6 separate occasions both in the VSA showroom as well as at recent shows. Suffice it to say I have been enamored by this new VSA ULTRA line of speakers. I mention this because I understand that Leif and Damon realize the Endeavor E5 is a special speaker, so much so that they are planning on an Ultra E5 speaker to add to their product line in the near future
 
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Al M.

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Thanks, Steve, for the great report and photos, and congratulations, Leif, on your system and generously sized room!
 

RogerD

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Congrats for a fine system and to see such high value equipment.
 

Folsom

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I don't really think the E-3's had anything "rough" about them. I heard them with the full Audio Alchemy barrage. And I know the E-5's are a step above in capability with more reinforcement in the bass and a much better tweeter.

The aluminium drivers are from Dayton. The kevlar unit is HiVi; I don't think it's hard to see why he uses it, looks how damn smooth it is all the way up to a 2khz. Don't know about the BE tweeter as I haven't tried to find it. To be really frank, Leif has shown amazing skill at just how damn good you can make a speaker without going with very exotic drivers you might find in more expensive speakers. The implementation matters the most, as seen here.

The AA amps have a custom class A front end married to a classD Hypex model. They basically cut out Hypex's front end, in order to gain the flavor of a more classic class A sound.

If anything I believe a little bit of AC power improvement is where I would seek any sort of improvement in the system. My Lillies would be pretty ideal for a bunch of SMPS based gear, especially that is sensitive in such a way few conditioners don't cause problems.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I heard the E3's initially when I got there as that was what was set up. In essence Leif was using an $8K speaker with a $7K front end and it was terrific for that amount of money.

The E5's lit up 'my ears' however. Then to throw into the mix the likelihood of an Ultra E5 which Leif is thinking he can get them to 94-95 dB efficient. Now you're talking
 

Folsom

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Indeed. I think Leif will continue to make very impressive speakers. There's a reason VSA snatched him up!

I bet some SET amps on an "Ultra E-5" could be a stellar performance.

These speakers look slightly unassuming since they have that sleak profile but the reality is the sonic attributes of how they are tuned for it are very good. Even the simple roll over edges enhance the quality if a huge swath of the audio-band. Depending in your tastes in music his designs trancend the monitary figure. Those speakers have killer dynamic snap to them, for example. I wouldn't be afraid to say that I would consider them, and especually an Ultra, as a pair I would want to weigh in sound preferance & quality against speakers at any price when investigating a next purchase.

Although I am equally as curious what a $3-4k bookshelve by the mind of Leif could do, given what I would call a tremendous success with these. Maybe not as glamourous, but plenty of people could seriously enjoy a secondary lifestyle system with some of these qualities.
 

DaveC

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Nice write up Steve!

Congrats on the E5s Leif, they are really nice speakers! :b
 

JackD201

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I'm hooked for good on W-M-T-M-W configurations. There's nothing like having mid bass over my head. Bring on that Ultra E5 man!
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I'm hooked for good on W-M-T-M-W configurations. There's nothing like having mid bass over my head. Bring on that Ultra E5 man!

It promises to be a killer speaker

Have you heard the E5 Jack. The Ultra 5 (or whatever they call it) will look like a baby brother to the Ultra 11 and with sensitivity upped to 94-95 Db the speaker can easily be driven by an SET amp

I still bet the Ultra 11 can be driven by an SET but not like the Ultra 5
 

Leif S

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I heard the E3's initially when I got there as that was what was set up. In essence Leif was using an $8K speaker with a $7K front end and it was terrific for that amount of money.

The E5's lit up 'my ears' however. Then to throw into the mix the likelihood of an Ultra E5 which Leif is thinking he can get them to 94-95 dB efficient. Now you're talking

Thanks Steve for coming over and visiting.

This will be a work in progress for sure. I'm glad you got to hear it at this early stage. I will get you back over after I do the gear swap and treat the room. Which reminds me I need to come listen to your system again since you have made some changes.

I really am shocked at the sound so far in my room though considering it is such an inexpensive front end. I do believe the Audio Alchemy gear is definitely high performance vs. its cost which I think is important to be able to show music lovers that you don't have to have $30,000 plus monoblocks to get pretty descent sound. I'm going to put the Audio Alchemy gear in another room with the E-3MkII's to show a relatively inexpensive system and have the main room set up with the E-5's and some tube gear. I like what KeithR did with his sound treatment and that gives me some ideas that I can use for my room. I'm going to give Art a call as well and get some input from him.

It turns out that there are quite a few music lovers here in Canyon Lake who have already come over and are now upgrading their systems so this is turning out to be a lot of fun. It's always fun exposing people to high end although sometimes it's hard to get them to leave lol.

Again...

Thank you for taking the time to come visit and hopefully I can get you back soon after I make some changes.
 

Leif S

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Thanks, Steve, for the great report and photos, and congratulations, Leif, on your system and generously sized room!

Thank you Al M
 

Leif S

Industry Expert
Feb 13, 2015
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Indeed. I think Leif will continue to make very impressive speakers. There's a reason VSA snatched him up!

I bet some SET amps on an "Ultra E-5" could be a stellar performance.

These speakers look slightly unassuming since they have that sleak profile but the reality is the sonic attributes of how they are tuned for it are very good. Even the simple roll over edges enhance the quality if a huge swath of the audio-band. Depending in your tastes in music his designs trancend the monitary figure. Those speakers have killer dynamic snap to them, for example. I wouldn't be afraid to say that I would consider them, and especually an Ultra, as a pair I would want to weigh in sound preferance & quality against speakers at any price when investigating a next purchase.

Although I am equally as curious what a $3-4k bookshelve by the mind of Leif could do, given what I would call a tremendous success with these. Maybe not as glamourous, but plenty of people could seriously enjoy a secondary lifestyle system with some of these qualities.

Folsom,

Thank you for the very kind words:)

I wish we could compete in 3k to 4k price range. It is just to expensive to manufacture here in California. We have been looking at options on how to do this but haven't come up with any solutions yet.
 

Leif S

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Feb 13, 2015
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www.vonschweikert.com

Leif S

Industry Expert
Feb 13, 2015
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www.vonschweikert.com

Al M.

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Although I am equally as curious what a $3-4k bookshelve by the mind of Leif could do, given what I would call a tremendous success with these. Maybe not as glamourous, but plenty of people could seriously enjoy a secondary lifestyle system with some of these qualities.

Or primary lifestyle system, see mine ;)
 

Leif S

Industry Expert
Feb 13, 2015
770
166
180
California
www.vonschweikert.com
I'm hooked for good on W-M-T-M-W configurations. There's nothing like having mid bass over my head. Bring on that Ultra E5 man!

Haha!

You and me both brother! It is so hard to go back to a w-w-m-t after having the other.
 

Leif S

Industry Expert
Feb 13, 2015
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California
www.vonschweikert.com
Or primary lifestyle system, see mine ;)

I have been following your system since I first joined the forum my friend:cool:
 

Al M.

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Folsom

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Folsom,

Thank you for the very kind words:)

I wish we could compete in 3k to 4k price range. It is just to expensive to manufacture here in California. We have been looking at options on how to do this but haven't come up with any solutions yet.

I can see that, you're in an expensive area. I could imagine it being plausible to have someone else make a bookshelve that people can order (I know at least one company does that). The important fact would be if it had your touch that the E-3's have, just without much deep extension. It really doesn't matter to me, it just sounds like something people could use for secondary, some primary, and for surrounds. Your speakers would probably be badass for a HT as well, especially in a smaller area. It's just a point of curiosity to know what you'd come up with for me, so there certainly isn't any pressure to make anything!
 

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