Detailed with plenty of Bass. Cabinetry.

May big a little large for those seeking a monitor. They are 19 inches tall.

I had a chance to spend about 1 week with the Ellis Audio 1801’s. I had heard a lot about these speakers in various audio forums and bugged Dave Ellis for about a year to bring a pair over the next time he was in town. I had them hooked to the Latest ‘R’ versions of Audio Van Alstine Hybrid tube gear. 550exr – T7 ecr pre-amp, and Transcendance DAC. The first thing that I noticed was how much bass these monitors had compared to most! No Subwoofer needed here ! Also the mids and highs were extremely articulate and were not smeared by the bass which is often the case with other speakers. One of the extra nice things about these speakers, is that Dave Ellis is a Superb speaker cabinet maker. He will build you a set of these monitors with the wood of your choice. The Front Baffle is made of Solid Wood and the corners are rounded nicely. At $1300, these speakers are a steal! Dave also lists a couple other cabinet makers on his website, that help him out when he is backed up. And they are equally talented! If you can build cabinets yourself these speakers also come in kit form. All in all, these were some of the finest monitors that I have ever listened to. If you are shopping for a monitor, I would go for a pair of these. I have heard literally hundreds of monitors some of which cost up to $5 Grand a pair, and the 1801’s are clearly at the top of the pack!

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Silverline SR-17, Dynaudio 1.3SE, Sonus Faber Signum, Legacy Victoria, GR Research Criterion

Musicality, imaging, tonal accuracy, speed, punch.

You need to set them up correctly (using the WASP technique), reveal the source mercilessly (not really a criticism).

These are 1801f (floor standing versions), with the 1801B crossover with mid-tweeter level, and an 18mm birch ply cabinet. A significant advantage of these 40” high speakers is that I don’t have any ugly black metal speaker stands cluttering up the living room, and that the tweeter is at ear height for the majority of sofas. Overall they are clear, balanced, tonally neutral and packing a fast punch. My biggest revelation has been listening to complicated classical music with vocals at low sound levels (with kids asleep this is necessary) and getting a balanced tone and clear distinction of tones. Other speakers I listened to such as the Dynaudio Contour 1.1 was great when you turned the volume up, but the bottom end disappeared at low volumes. I have found how revealing they are when playing CDs of classical, jazz and old 80s rock which sounded detailed and rhythmic with a great bass beat. These speakers reveal the way a violinist bows, and the poor digital mastering of some 80s classical recordings where the violins are unbearably bright, screechy. The imaging and sound staging are wonderful – whatever is recorded comes out, with a placement front to aft that is extraordinary. The placement of orchestral members is so accurate that different symphonies recorded by the same conductor and orchestra are rendered with a different acoustic and placement according to the recording (Simon Rattle conducting Beethoven) I have a pair of Jecklin Float headphones which were my previous reference for detail, but these speakers deliver more. Another reviewer said they were euphonic. If he meant musical, I agree. Perhaps compared to vastly expensive speakers he is right, but for hi-fi listeners with a more realistic budget they are perfect. Another reviewer said he did not need a subwoofer, and I can agree wholeheartedly with this. Playing the new Nickelback album, gave me all the bass my 16’ by 14’ room could take. I don’t find these lean at all. Comparing them to the Dynaudio Contour 1.1s, and the Quad 11L, they are more truthful and punchy. The Quad is definitely euphonic, and this obscures information. The Contours sound thin on the bottom end by comparison. I did not have the chance to compare them to the Contour 1.3 which might have been a fairer test. I have not heard the Jamo Concert 8 or the Super Eclipses, and are not likely to. If you are in the market for a £750 loudspeaker kit, you can’t go far wrong with this, and it is a LOT better than what is available for under £1000 locally to me anyway. This was my first foray into DIY speaker building and the results have justified the considerable effort, as I rebated every joint in 18mm ply, and had to learn the hard way for veneering and finishing. There is virtually no stuffing inside these speakers (just a fistful behind the driver, but so far I do not wish any more – they sound fast, alive and uncoloured. This must be due to the large vertical brace, meaning that there is very little unrestrained cabinet panel to vibrate. Dave has been the paragon of responsiveness and professionalism, especially as I bought the kit from thousands of miles away. His construction comments, manual and feedback have all been instrumental in helping me through the construction. My equipment is: Hart Audio 80W amps (John Linsley Hood designed) modified to use muCaps and a larger power supply; Rega Planar 3 with an OTC5 cartridge Arcam Alpha CD player – now needs to be upgraded! Silver Signal tape interconnects; Monster speaker cable – soon to be upgraded to UBYTE2 speaker cables.

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Spendor s3/5, Dynaudion Contour 1.1, Celestion SL600I, Mission 776i

Great Overall

None that I can hear.

The Ellis 1801 speakers are a joy to listen to. My favorite music, jazz from the bebop era has never sounded better, especially the vocalists and trumpet players. Such clarity and depth! As an added bonus, the 1801's are the best looking and most sensitively crafted speakers on the market.

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Advent, Boston Acoustics, JBL

They sound awesome, are efficent, have great bass for their size, and are an absolute best buy.

This is being picky beyond belief, but if there is a weakness this is it. You are not getting something for nothing, they cannot compete with a few of the better multi thousand dollar speakers out there, but what would you expect?

Preface; First of all this is the new 1801B with an AuriCap upgrade, not the stock 1801B. Dynamicaps would be better still, they are the best sounding caps I know of, but are cost prohibitive, and the AuriCaps may well have nicer mids, I need to tinker further to be sure. I have some SoniCaps on loan from Dave, but have not tried them at this point. I did compare them to AuriCaps with a more critical speaker which uses a ribbon tweeter, and the AuriCaps smoked the SoniCaps, Dave used the AuriCaps in an 1801B and did not think the differences were dramatic. This may be due to the slightly euphonic sound of the newer crossover, I would think they would make an even bigger difference in the more critical 1801(A) crossover than in the 1801B’s slightly euphonic crossover. These speakers, for the money, simply cannot be topped. Generally, I would state that in my opinion they cannot be topped, but I feel safe in saying that they categorically cannot be bettered in this price range unless you go completely DIY or some such. Even so you will still likely end up at about the same dollar mark. I had wanted to compare them to the more expensive Taylo Reference Monitors, by Taylor Acoustics, as they use the Scan-Speak Revelators, another fine tweeter. This was not possible. Review; As stated, these speakers are ever so slightly euphonic. They are not then the best for comparing gear as they somehow make everything I have used to drive them sound decent. This is an important point as many who will be purchasing these will be using less expensive gear to drive them. As you upgrade your components will hear improvements, to be sure. These are not at all like what I have considered Vandersteens to sound like, speakers with comforters thrown over them. Rather, though they are somehow euphonic, and I cannot adequately explain in what way they are euphonic, they are only ever so slightly so, and in a very good way. If they were a shade or two more euphonic I am sure I could tell exactly in what way(s) they are euphonic. They do not really mask, though they make it harder than some more critical speakers would to distinguish upstream differences. If I were to pick a single word to describe these speakers, it would be the word musical. I must also say that they are articulate. I know when I call them articulate some are going to bristle and say that a euphonic speaker cannot be articulate, but because of the euphonic character being so very, very slight, these speakers still manage to be extremely articulate. I had a meeting of Cincinnati Audiophiles at my home last night, and everyone loved these little speakers. That is certainly not to say that some of these folks did not have nicer speakers, but rest assured that they paid more for them if they do. These speakers may be bettered to be sure, but I do not believe that they can be embarrassed, which is quite a statement. They lack the deepest bass, what would you expect in a 7” driver? They still go surprisingly low for having only a 7” driver… That is a comment I hear repeatedly about these speakers. They are efficient, one member brought over an AKSA 55 watt amp. After a few mods (Black Gate caps), the amp sounded darned good. It drove the 1801B’s well, I had not expected the 55-watt amp drove with finesse. We, Chris and I, first moded only one channel, and we did not tell anyone which was which, everyone quickly identified the channel with the Black Gate caps, and the difference was not subtle! They are just euphonic enough to make the unmoded AKSA amp listenable even before these mods. These speakers have replaced my $3800 Acoustat Spectra 3300’s, a speaker I have lived with for 10 years, I have used various Acoustat speakers since 1983, nuff said? Gear; I have moded all this gear, and often in a major way. Nevertheless, just consider this gear to be on serious steroids and factor that in…. Sony CDP-707ESD CDP Conrad Johnson PF-R preamp Threshold Stasis 2 amp Music Metre and or Lat International IC’s Goertz Pythons or Music Metre speaker cables

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I have listened to Thiels, B&W, and a plethora of others.

Detail is fantastic. The speaker is extremely 'fast' and reproduces musical transients faithfully. Overall a very smooth, quick, non-fatiguing speaker.

Not the most efficient -- can use up all of my Bryston 3B-ST under certain conditions.

I purchased the 1801 kit with upgraded crossover components from Dave Ellis in November 2002. I have 1801A.5 version -- it has the original crossover design, but SonicCap capacitors in the high pass network. These speakers are used in a purpose-built 2-channel listening room, NOT a home theater environment. The verdict? An extremely accurate and enjoyable loudspeaker. Imaging is superb. My 5-year old upon first listening stated, "Daddy, the music is coming from BETWEEN the speakers!" Detail is outstanding; I am currently going through my CD and LP collection, and finding gems in my music collection with detail and imaging I had never heard before. Low frequency extension and dynamics is not a problem for my listening material, which ranges from AC-DC right through to Diana Krall, Dire Straits, Classical, Blues, Country, and 'New Age'. I have no desire to add a subwoofer to the mix based on my listening material. These speakers are the closest equivalent I have ever heard to my Sennheiser HD600s, and as such, they do not cause fatigue from long periods of listening! The kit building experience was enjoyable, and not that difficult, even though I took on the project with minimal prior woodworking experience. The construction plans were provided in a Word document, and were very clear. Dave provided near-realTime assistance via e-mail, and often provided helpful suggestions. I learned a lot about the physics and mechanics of speaker enclosure design by doing it myself. Overall, an excellent speaker, and an excellent value, especially in kit form.

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Magneplanar 1.6QR, Oracle Mentor, Linn Ninka, KEF 201, Monitor Audio Gold, Koss CM-1020

Liquid mids, smooth silky highs, and the best midrange, and midbass(quality wise) I've every heard.

Don't like bad recordings too much, but this is the case with any great speaker.

I had these speakers for a 2 week audition. I loved them so much, I bought them. Since the wait is about 1 year to get them, I ordered the kit from Dave Ellis with the crossover already assembled, then I had Darren Thomas from Thomas Woodcraft (www.thomaswoodcraft.com) make me a pair of gorgeous enclosures with real Mahogany baffle, finished with hand rubbed Boiled Linseed Oil and about 8 coats of gloss lacquer sprayed on and rubbed out to a flat glossy finish. You will not find to better people than Darren and Dave. To top it off, they are as talented as they come in their respective fields. Enough about the beautiful enclosures, how do they sound? They fit any audiophile term you can throw at them. They image in 3D, create a holographic soundstage in the right room, and have a midrange, and highs as uncoloured as any I've heard. They are smooth, and liquid, and can make you see right through the performance. With the right gear, you'll be 'right there' in the performance. Dave Ellis has thrown what many consider to be the best midbass in the world (Seas Excel W18), and the best dome in the world (Hiquphon OW1), and hired Dennis Murphy to make a seamless crossover. The end result is a huge success, and it is a benchmark at the $1300 price.

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ProAc 2.5, SoundDynamics RTS9, Axiom M22Ti, Magnepan 3.6, Revel F50, Linn Espek, Totem Forest, Totem Staaf

- detailed highs - excellent mid-range - tight/controlled mid-bass and bass - beautiful finish

- High end just slightly less revealing revelator 9900 - Sensitive about placement

I listened to these for about 1 month before writing this review. The short story is that they're truly excellent speakers and you should really just sign up for the audition or buy them "unheard". I powered these sometimes using a Musical Fidelity A3 amp and other times two nOrh Multiamp's (bi-amped). Silver Serpent interconnects and custom made speaker cable. I tried `Ah! Tjoeb` and Sony SACD sources. Music ran a large gamut. Some of the artists (to give you a feel): Gladiator soundtrack, Norah Jones, Charlie Hunter, Murray Perahia, Galactic, Natalie Merchant, MMW, Azam Ali, Fiona Apple, ... The 1801 cabinets are rock-solid. They have a very warm, rich finish - just beautiful. I believe you can get a variety of cabinet material and two "classes" of finish, if you wish. Dave's woodworking is top-notch. I initially had some difficult with placement as they replaced speakers with lesser bass response. I ended up with them slightly toe in, and tweeters at or above ear height. I felt they were very nicely balanced and quite clear. On female vocals, they really bring you into the performance. I felt that the high end wasn't *quite* as revealing on female vocals as the ScanSpeak Revelator 9900 I can compare against most directly. In discussion with Dave, he mentioned that he had padded the tweeter just a bit in response to feedback complaining about brightness. I say ask him to unpad for you. This was a rather subtle difference, and required several sessions of back-and-forth speaker switching to be noticed. I felt the bass and mid-bass was a dramatic improvement over what I was listening to. The mid-bass was just slightly lean, although I found it very enjoyable. My comparison speakers are rather lacking in that range, so I suggest listening for yourself. I could find no discernable difference between the "black hole 5" and "packing foam" variants. In a nutshell, they're great speakers with fantastic sound. Period. There's one heck of a long waiting list for these speakers, and that's for a very good reason.

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nOrh 9.0 wood, nOrh 9.0 marble (ScanSpeak Revelator 9900 tweeter, ScanSpeak Revelator woofer), Dynaudio, B&K, etc..

- Great sound in a fairly compact package - Excellent value for money compared to other speakers of this quality - Available as a kit for a little more than half the price of the finished speakers if you are a woodworker - Excellent quality woodworking and finish.

- Since these are, after all, 7" woofers, the bass has some limits. If you listen a lot to material with heavy bass material (whether home theater, rock, or church organ music) you may want a high quality subwoofer for best results. Emphasize **high quality** though. Don't use this with cheap boom box. And set the hi pass to roll over low, between 40 and 80hz or you'll interfere with the 1801's woofers. - Right now there's a waiting list to get a finished pair built by Dave Ellis

These are gorgeous speakers. The tweeter has exceptional clarity, responsiveness, and power handling. The magnesium wooofer has an exceptional rigid cone and so it is amazingly distortion free over its usual freqency range. Play a well-recorded live ensemble jazz album like Diana Krall's live in Paris, and it sounds like you're right there; amazing sparkle and air without a hint of sibilance. Play a rich symphonic orchestral texture and you'll hear detail and clarity you never heard before. They are capable of more volume than you'll want (in a small living room at least)and are not finicky about how you drive them. I was using a 85W/ch Denon receiver.

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Boston Acoustics Sub Sat 7 and ADS

Imaging, fluid mids and smooth highs. Quality of workmanship, great components and natural sound with voices, piano, jazz and classcal.

Nothing major. I like alittle more bass but, the overall sound more than makes up for it and to make them sing you need fairly good equipment but I would think this is required for alot of high end speakers such as these.

Since Sept of 2002, I have had the pleasure to own the 1801's. I love these speakers. They are a true value in Hi Fi. Upon first listen, you really realize how important source equipment and the quality of is. After hooking them up, I noticed a rather disconnected presence in the highs in relation to the overall sound. Fortunately, Dave Ellis had sent me an additional set of resistors to replace the existing one's connected to the tweeters calming them down just enough which resulted in the seemless quality of the drivers and crossover. Since these are monitors, dont expect deep or over exaggerated bass but the imaging and smoothness of detail are excellent along with the fit and finish( Dave is one heck of a cabinet maker and you can really tell he cares about his product) Well worth the wait...

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Vandersteen 2ci's and various other's I have listened to.

Soundstage, palpability, revealing, no listening fatigue.

35Hz and down.

I would like to thank Dave, Dennis and Jeff G.(Soniccraft.com) for all the great service and extremely prompt responses to any possible questions that may have occured. These are all great people to deal with. These were my first pair of DIY speakers. I had no idea of what the sound would be like but jumped in with both feet after studying possible designs for almost a year. These were very straight forward speakers to build if you have any experience with woodworking. Dave also includes very detailed instructions. When I was finally able to fire these 1801's up I was amazed!! Everything said about these is true. The soundstage is incredible. There is a great 3-D quality to the image that I have only heard in a few other speakers. These have a very fine balance that is extremely difficult to find in speakers; revealing and listenable. The OW1 and W18 will reveal the most subtle nuances which I love. At the same time this is the most relaxing speaker that I have heard. One that never gets boring, one that makes you pull out all the music you can get your hands on. The music is what you fall in love with again, just sweet music. This, I believe is one of the best complements someone can give any equipment. I have seen many live performances and been around a lot of instruments for many years of my life. The 1801's reproduce the sound with ease. I cannot hear or sense any sort of coloration from them. Dead on correct. If you can audition these gems then do so; it will be well worth the time. One thing I would say is give them a chance. At first I have found most peoples reactions to be that they lack bass. I find this to be incorrect. I feel the bass is true to the music. Way to many people have lived with distorted bass for too long. The W18 won't kick you in the chest but in no way does that mean anything is lacking. The bass is just different at first. I have grown to love it. The only music that I have found the 1801's not able to reproduce well is rap. 30Hz and down is not it's strong suit. Unlike others, I have not found these speakers to make bad recordings sound terrible. I get the feeling that they make them sound like they were recorded. Some smokey bar jazz like Ella and Duke and early Rush and Led Zep sound just like they were recorded, nothing added or subtracted. 95% of my music which includes a lot of pirated stuff sounds outstanding. That majority lets you look through a window at your music. As if standing outside window-shopping, being able to see everyone play their individual instruments on the soundstage. Associated Equipment: Stan Warren Modded Adcom 5400 Stan Warren Modded Pioneer DVD 343 Scott Nixon TubeDAC S&B TX102 TVC DIY cables: Stan's recipes and Max Digital Last time I was home I was able to stop into a nice highend shop for an audition. They had the beautiful Oris Horns as well as a single ended Valve Art tube amp. I was quite excited because I wanted to hear this exact type of setup for a long time. All I can say is ouch! I did not enjoy the experience at all. I wanted to hear my stuff again but it was 7 hours away. Had to start driving. Have also heard first order speakers, digital, fourth order, ribbon and hybrids and can say that in my world I own the best!! Thanks Dave and Dennis...

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auditioned: maggie's martin logan B&W Wilson Eggleston Thiel Oris Meridian(great) ProAc(warm but good) Vanderstein(analytical) As well as many other typical lower end lines.