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Loudspeakers
Fort Worth boutique loudspeakers pairing in-house Tandem-Drive ESL panels with Purifi and Satori drivers.
where to hear it
about toby speakers
Toby Speakers is a Fort Worth, Texas boutique loudspeaker maker whose flagship TrueSound line stakes out a singular technical position in high-end audio. The Narwhal Monitor is a self-powered, all-in-one full-range hybrid that pairs a Satori beryllium tweeter in an exotic waveguide with a Purifi Audio 8" long-stroke woofer (20mm linear, 30mm xmax) reported at 30 to 80 times lower distortion than typical 8" drivers. Onboard amplification and DSP come from Hypex Fusion plate amps, augmented by FIR phase correction developed in collaboration with aerospace engineers. The larger Narwhal EVO extends the platform with an in-house Tandem-Drive electrostatic panel covering 250 Hz to 20 kHz, whose dual-diaphragm architecture delivers roughly 6 dB more efficiency than a conventional ESL while preserving electrostatic transparency. The company was founded in 1968 by jazz bassist Toby Guynn, who began by building custom musical-instrument pickups and amplifiers before turning Toby Corporation into a full-time speaker shop on Camp Bowie and, later, Montgomery Street in Fort Worth's Cultural District. For decades the brand was a regional name; the TrueSound program has reintroduced it to the wider audiophile press, with the Narwhal and Narwhal EVO drawing strong notice from Positive Feedback and Enjoy the Music at THE Lone Star Audiofest 2025, where the EVO was singled out for its ease, low-distortion clarity, and uncommon dynamic impact at concert levels. Where Janszen, Quad ESL, and Sanders rely on passive ESL designs paired with separate amplification and external bass, TrueSound integrates the panel, dynamic woofer, Hypex amps, and FIR-corrected DSP into a single calibrated, self-powered cabinet. The result is an electrostatic hybrid that ships ready to play from balanced or digital sources, eliminating the impedance, sensitivity, and crossover-matching tradeoffs that define the rest of the ESL category.