Excellent imaging and stunning mid-range clarity.

Pair with a good subwoofer or two for world-class performance.

If you are considering the Ellis 1801's, either in kit or finiahsed form, pull the trigger and make your purchase. You will not be disappointed. I purchased the standard kit as I wanted to test them. I have already begun building my second pair and will go for the upgraded crossover components. I can't wait to hear what they sound like. I will forgo the standard review as there are plenty of glowing reviews for you to read. Rather, I will relay experiences I had with these speakers. When I completed them, I set them up in my home theater room which has a surround sound system installed. I asked my wife to listen and let me know how the 1801's integrated with our home theater center channel. After playing a single cut, she said it was amazing how well these speakers worked together, even though they weren't the same. Then I broke her the news. I wasn't using the center channel. She simply could not believe it. She was sure she heard sound coming from the center channel. About a week later, a friend came over. I played two or three cuts and she asked me why I used the 1801's with my center channel. I told her the center channel was not being used. She did not believe me. After I finally convinced her that the center channel was not being used, she suggested that whenever I audition the 1801's for someone, I remove the center channel so as not to confuse them. That is how good these speakers image. I have read speaker reviews that reported sound coming from "beyond the speaker enclosure." With the 1801's, unless the audio is panned hard left or right, the sound does not appear to be coming from the speakers at all. That is a sign of a great imaging speaker. I have worked as a professional recording engineer for over 30 years and have worked with reference monitors costing overf $65,000. The 1801's won't generate the SPL of this type of monitor, nor will they play as deep. But I have never heard a speaker that produced a stereo image more convincing than the 1801's. Dave Ellis should be congratulated for offering what I am absolutely certain is the best audio value ever. Strong statement. Strong product.

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Genelec, JBL, Electrovoice, Westlake Audio and other world-class recording studio reference monitors.

My quest for Home Theater Audio Bliss started at Best Buy, and eventually took me to the high-end botique stores for PSB's, Paradigms, and B&Ws. Big Bucks! My "best bet" after this was Diva 6.1's for $1300/pr which I sent back after a preview because they still had a rather 'muddy' midrange. A few hundred bucks more netted me a full 6 channels of this 1801 bliss, and they take up a heck of a lot less room, too! Ack, and to think I almost spent even more than that on Paradigms...

There's only one problem that I have with these 1801's so far, and that is that I now know every single poorly recorded audio source I have access to. These are total upgrade magnets; I await to see what I can to to really bring out the full potential in these magnificent units. Also, while the bass response on these units is more than sufficient to "reproduce" the low end of the source, I added a subwoofer to fill in the low end with a palpable 'thump', because I'm a bass junkie. But these are still put out some of the best bass I've heard from what would be considered a 'bookshelf' speaker. I can turn the sub off a lot of the time and not notice for a while on the non-home-theater sources.

I just had to write to say how fantasically pleased I am with these speakers. Every time I turn on the receiver, I'm stunned again at the absolute quality of these units. I never imagined I could have sound like this in my own home -- it's like the whole room fills with sound, liquid smooth and clear. And that's with my "mid-fi" Yamaha VX-1100 too! :) These units have a major 'whoa' factor.. I still find myself repeatedly muting the audio to make sure that sound I'm hearing is from the speakers, and not from something creeping up from the next room. And I still can't believe the imaging on the right sources, again, I find myself having to turn the audio down to make sure the sound is really coming from the two boxes in front of me!

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Paradigm Studio (20, 40, 60) PSB Image 4T, 6T Diva 6.1

Musical Accuracy No speaker, not even the $20K+ jobs, reproduce the midrange and upper end more accurately.

Bass and sound could be bigger

I purchased the 1801 kit from Dave Ellis and included the premium crossover. I made the cabinets myself from Dave's plans, for an additional $100 or so. I have them placed on Sound Anchors 16" stands. The 1801 stand mounted speaker is one of the truly finest stand mounted speakers in the retail, or DIY, market. The Seas W18 driver and Hiquphon OW1 combination is one of the most accurately musical speakers, bar none. If one uses live classical music as a musical reference, the 1801 reproduces the tonalities and timbre of musical instruments with astonishing accuracy. I listen mostly to classical music, both live and on my music system. The 1801 is more accurate than most any other speaker I have heard. Popular musics, always heard live through a concert sound system of some sort, do sound fairly well with the 1801. The music comes out with a nice acoustic naturalness that many may not be used to, but I find very pleasing. It is also a 7" stand mounted speaker and does have it's limitations. It is somewhat insensitive in terms of efficiency. Thus, a bit of power is needed here, and the soundstage, though very precise, is not as big as a more efficient speaker would reproduce. The bass response is typical of a 7" stand mounted speaker, accurate and nice but down a few decibels in volume. I have listened to many many speakers and have,still own, big floorstanding speakers that put out a lot of sound. But none produce the faithful musical accuracy of the 1801. One can come home from the symphony, or any other concert I might add, and listen to the same piece of music on the 1801 and will be easy to listen to and sound surprisingly similar. Can't do that on a great many speakers. System: Balanced Audio Technology VK D5SE cd player VK 30SE preamp VK 60 amplifier Coincident CST 1 cabling

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Harbeth, various models Waveform Mach Solo

I’m a firm believer in DIY audio, especially speakers. A couple of years ago, I built a pair of Shamrock Audio SE-1 two-ways using the venerable Vifa D27 tweet and the P17 midwoofer. Mike McCalls design is excellent, the drivers are very well integrated. Nonetheless, I have often wondered whether spending more on top-of-the-line drivers might result in higher fidelity and more fun. I borrowed the 1801s Dave Ellis has touring around the country in a big ol’ crate. I hooked them up to my system (Pioneer 434 DVD Player, MSB Link DAC II, NAD C740 receiver) and I listened to them for hours. I compared them extensively to my SE-1s. This is what I heard: You get what you pay for, and perhaps then some. The 1801s are incredibly revealing compared to the SE-1s. I could hear, and enjoy, my music collection with much greater fidelity. I listen primarily to amplified music and jazz. I have not heard a better rendition of Ella Fitzgeralds voice on any system. Fiona Apples album “When the pawn…” was full of tasty studio wizardy as well as highlighting her lovely vocals. Led Zepplins “No Quarter” was revealed as a mighty, mighty, rock recording. The 1801s pump out an extremely high-resolution reproduction of the source recording. I was duly impressed. Therein lies one danger with such a speaker. Dave Ellis and Dennis Murphy have designed a loudspeaker that outperforms most commercial speakers you could buy at many times the price. They did not sweeten the sound in any way. Well, they do have a “BBC dip”, but I can’t claim I could, in a blind comparison, tell you which systems have been designed with a BBC dip and which haven’t. Regardless, the 1801s ruthlessly reveal deficiencies in poorly-recorded music. Apparently, a lot of the albums in my collection are poorly-recorded. Its not fun to listen to what Jimmy Page could not hear on his at c.1970s studio monitors as he tweaked the “The Rain Song” mix. Or maybe he was just too high to notice. If you listen to popular music, you may find the 1801s take a bit of fun out of your collection, unless you have other equipment in your system (a tube preamp, for example) that sweetens the sound a bit. The same can be said of many high-end speaker systems, though, so I wouldn’t call this a design flaw. Its an artifact of three decades of audio technology advancements revealed by a very impressive speaker design. Caveat emp

Detailed and uncolored sound. The best parts quality available. Deep and wide soundstage. True high end.

Lean mid-bass. Lower bass is a bit out of cotroll. These weaknesses are minor.

Let me say upfront that I gave up on commercial speakers years ago when I discovered diy audio. For the exception of electrostatics, high quality conventional driver based speakers can be had with diy designs. The cost savings (price/performance ratio) is unbelievable. My current systm consists of the following: Audio Research LS-1 McCormack DNA 0.5/Rev Mod B Cal Audio Sigma II Dac/Delta Transport Adcom ACE 515 Marchand Active Crossover(for subwoofer) DIY Lambda Acoustics Sub Diy cables and interconnects The strongest impression these speakers have on me is how different they sound from conventional designs. They are possibly the most uncolored and detailed box speaker I have listened to. They posses an electrostatic-like quality in detail and lack of coloration. Driver integration is seemless, and the magnesium SEAS driver is one of the best high end drivers in exsistence. In spite of their detailed sound they are still very listenable for long periods of time and will not fatigue. You will only find the magnesium cone drivers in commercial designs costing much more $ than the 1801. The Hiquphon tweeter is among the best dome tweeters available. Each tweeter is hand made and measured from a guy named Oskar somewhere in Europe. Based just on the parts quality, the 1801 is head and shoulders ahead of anything in its price range. The magic of a speaker is of course in the design and these are of the highest quality that I have listened to. The overall sound of these are detailed, uncolored, and true to the sound. They can at times be revealing so bad recordings beware. They excel in the upper to mid frequencies but can sound a little thin in the lower mid-bass. They are a vented design so the sound goes from lean in he mid-bass to sounding slightly uncontrolled in the lower octaves. This presents a slight inbalance in presentation but nothing at all offensive. I have mine crossed over to a subwoofer which solved my problem. I think this speaker is happiest with a sub, but great results can be had without one. I give the 1801 the highest rating due to their price/perfomance ratio and qualtiy. You will have to spend much more $ to get comparible results.

Accurate and musical from top to bottom.

A little more kick in the chest would be fun. May stimulate your appetite to upgrade your other components.

Because I believed the upstream components to be of greater importance than speakers in the audio chain, I wasn't sure my CD67se/Yamaha AX570 combo was up to the task of doing justice to Dave's speakers. I initially hooked up one 1801 and left my modded Paradigm 5 hooked up to the other channel and played a couple of cuts. The first impression in the extreme nearfield favored the Paradigm, but when I moved across the room, the 5 was very directional and the 1801 disappeared. While the 5 seemed to have more bass impact(it does have a larger woofer), this was found to be due to an efficiency difference. Once both 1801s were in place and the volume adjusted, they began to sound really nice, but still slightly bass shy for my tastes. In fact Coltrane's My Favorite Things sounded just plain bad-- tubby,under water, one-note bass. I was afraid I would be the bearer of bad news to Dave. Then I played "Run on for a long time" by The Blind Boys of Alabama. Now we're cookin'! As with all excellent components, the difference between good and bad recordings was now very evident. Ray never sounded better, (Charles-is there another Ray?) and the Hiquphon "ow-ees" really sparkled on "Trad at Heart",a very nice compilation of Irish music(Darte CD 171). Cannonball Adderly's alto was right in the room with me and I'd never heard Roland Kirk snapping his fingers and humming on "Raoul" before. I hadn't had this much fun listening in years! I did notice that the bass is more prominent from behind the speakers where the port is located, but after a few days with these babys, my penchant for chest-thumping bass is on the wane. This bass is much cleaner and more accurate than I'm used to, and possibly lower. While I still believe source components to have the greatest effect in a system, speakers must be at least as important as amplification! Great job Dave and Dennis!

Strengths: See review! Awesome 3-D imaging, very wide soundstage, workmanship, top-notch design and components, best midrange and high frequency reproduction I have ever experienced. I am a vocal enthusiast and these play vocals better than speakers I have auditioned at any price. IMO, best value on planet!

Weaknesses: Relatively low efficiency (I believe 85 dB), sub 40 Hz bass reproduction, stand mounted, not the “loudest” playing speaker, can very revealing with poor source material.

My system: Foreplay Preamp (fully modified with active load circuitry, stepped attenuators, Doc’s magnet wire, and NOS 50’s era Tung Sol NOS tubes), Nordost Flatline and Alpha Core Goertz MI1 bi-wire cables, Goertz Micro purl IC’s, QDS-15 CDP (nOrh was sold out of CD-1!), Odyssey Stratos amp (non-cap upgrade), 24” Atacama stands filled with sand and buckshot. Music: I listen to EVERYTHING, however I used the following CD’s to test speakers and associated equipment: ? Grant Green: Idle Moments (Zen-like Jazz guitar, Grant was the master) ? Diana Krall: Look of Love, the CD before that one (can’t remember, it’s in my car!) ? Steely Dan: Two Against Nature, Aja (remastered) ? Michael Brecker: Nearness of You (Awesome CD! Great reference recording.) ? Sade: Lover’s Rock, Greatest Hits (don’t laugh, good stuff!) ? Clapton: From the Cradle, Unplugged, Reptile ? Lucinda Williams: Car Wheels, Essence (Lucinda, if you are reading this, I love you!) ? Johnny Lang: Lie to Me ? Gillian Welch: Time the Revelator (Is she talking about the tweeter?) ? Los Lobos: Just a band from East LA ? Santana: you know the one ? Stevie Ray Vaughn: Live from MSG, Couldn’t Stand the Weather ? James Taylor: everything ? Paul Simon: his latest album. Good music. ? Van Morrison: Too Long in Exile (great blues album), Astral Weeks, lots of stuff. ? Mapleshade Samplers: if you haven’t tried these and you like jazz, what are you waiting for? Very good recordings. Treble: The Hiquophon OW1 is regarded by many as the best dome on the planet. It is a ¾” tweet that does not use ferro fluid and is very flat across its frequency spectrum. Who cares? I love the way it sounds. Unlike many tweeters that are this revealing, it causes no fatigue (to my ears at least) at all. Highs just sound “right”. I’m not a technical guy (you’ve probably already guessed that) and I will not dazzle you with HIFI-speak. The high frequency reproduction from the 1801’s is as good as I have heard from speakers at any price range. Listen to track 3 on the Brecker CD. The lightning fast cymbals are reproduced effortlessly. Midrange: The magnesium Seas midrange drivers are incredible. They have the speed and 3D imaging I have always associated with good electrostatic or ribbon speakers. They also integrate perfectly with the Hiquophon. There is NOTHING slow about these drivers. They provide

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Speakers Tested: Paradigm Studios (40’s, 60’s, 100’s): Probably best HT speakers for the $$$. A little “hot” for my musical taste. Quad ESL’s: Really fast, great soundstage. Like them a lot. See W

Detail retrieval

I felt they were much better balanced with a good subwoofer. Dynamics and bottom end complemented the top

First of all, congrats to Dave Ellis for getting 10 perfect reviews "in the can".Secondly, a little background info. is in order. During the day, Dave is a captain in the U.S military. At night and on down time, Dave morphs into super speaker builder and Diy- selfer extraordinaire. I first heard about Dave on the Madisound Discussion Board when I was directed there from AudioAsylum. Dave is a frequent contributor there and is always eager to help out the beginners. Dave built my first set of cabinets for me when I decided to build the Selah Audio STS kit. In addition, Dave has a first-rate website chock full of great information. It is http://home.attbi.com/~ellisaudio/index.htm. If that doesn''t work try the Madisound discussion board for the link. Rather than repeat what others have said, I would like to fill in a few holes that I feel are still left. It seems these days that speakers are getting better and better. All of the last 5 speakers I have auditioned have done excellent jobs at recreating depth, width, height and all of the superlatives that audiophiles expect. So what differentiates them from each other. Basically, I would have to say it would be tonality, detail retrieval and dynamics. The 1801''s excell in the area of detail . If you are the kind of person that relishes getting everything available out of the grooves then these will do it. To give you a reference point on this, imagine a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the absolute most detail I have ever heard. I would rate Martin Logan Aerius a 2, STS a 3, Von schweikert VR-4Gen2 a 4, 1801 a 4.5 and Zalytron Jupiter (which uses a Raven R-2) a 5.This raises another topic on musicality versus detail retrieval. To me ,musicality lies in the area between 3-4. When it goes beyond this point, it reaches the analytical zone where I spend more time thinking about the sound than getting caught up in it. I realise that this is purely subjective, but has been the case with me time and time again. As to how the 1801''s worked in my system I would have to say quite well.They were hooked up to a set of Golden Tube SE-40''s (80wpc) tube amps and were anything fom rolled off. These speakers showed excellent fullness in the mids and the highs were very lively. I would say they work very well with tube amps. Basically, I would describe them as neutral with no euphonic tendencies whatsoever. When I

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Selah Audio STS

Imaging, soundstage, accuracy of sounds. Competes with speaker systems costing several thousand dollars more.

Not a lot of bass extension for sealed design, but that''''s why I built a subwoofer.

I started getting interested in the 1801''''s in September 2001. I decided that I wanted speakers for mainly music, but also some Home Theater use. I set my emphasis on building a set of main speakers and a subwoofer. Later I would add the rear speakers. I had read several books on speaker design the previous year and followed several discussion groups on the web. I decided the style of speakers I wanted were sealed rather than vented. The 1801''''s as they existed were vented design. I contacted Dave Ellis and ordered the woofers and tweeters from him, along with the crossover schematic. Dave took the time to run tests on the woofers so that I had the proper specs to work with to design a sealed box speaker. The parts for speakers, crossovers, box materials were about $600. My labor was free. So off I went designing a sealed box with various programs available on the web. After consulting with Dave I decided to make a test speaker box and adjust the volume until I had the ultimate sound I was after. I then built the boxes out of MDF and oak faced plywood and solid oak corners. I bought crossover parts that were similar to Daves premium package. I set up the speakers and ran sound tests, followed by listening tests. I was completely excited over the excellent sound of these speakers. They image well and everything you have read from previous reviewers is true. This is an absolutely great design. If you aren''''t handy at building things then by all means consider buying the complete system from Dave Ellis. He makes excellent cabinets. But if you are so inclined these make a great DIY project with excellent results.

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Listened too many audiophile, expensive systems. Own top of the line Polk, Infinity, KLH speakers that don''''t measure up to the 1801''''s.

The Ellis 1801’s I had the opportunity to have a pair of the Ellis 1801’s for about a week. These were the 1801’s that travel around the country. Included in the crate with the 1801’s: Premium crossovers: Mills or Ohmite Resistors, Alpha foil air core inductors, and AudioCap PPMF capacitors Standard crossovers: Eagle resistors, Solen or Madisound air core inductors, and Solen or Aeon Capacitors Assorted tweaks and goodies: Goertz speaker wire, banana plugs, resistors to pad down the tweeter to you or your room’s liking. You are responsible for the cost of shipping the speakers and assorted other parts to the next user. When I first got the 1801’s, I set them up in basically the same place as my current speakers (JBL L110’s 1978 vintage). The were about 9 feet apart, about a 1 foot from the back wall with the tweeters at 33”, and I listened at about 9.5 feet away. I listened to them first without any tweeter padding. I listened this way for about a couple of hours to get a general feel for the speaker and try to get them set-up correctly. They were a little bright for my liking, so I padded the tweeters with a 30 Ohm resistor in parallel to the tweeter (this was provided in the crate). At this point they sounded much better, but I couldn’t seem to get them to image properly and there seemed to be a slight dip in the mid-bass. They are small monitors, so I figured the imaging should be as good or better than the L110’s. I e-mailed Dave Ellis and Dennis Murphy (the speaker designers) and they told me that because of the excellent off-axis response of the Hiquphon tweeter, that the speakers should face straight ahead. I found it hard to believe that this would work in my room which is L-shaped, having a wall 3.5 feet away from the speaker on the right and 16 feet away from the speaker on the left. I tried this though and voila, the imaging was much better. I began playing many CD’s through the 1801’s. My musical tastes include everything but country and rap. Every CD was a new experience, even having listened to them on several different hi-end systems. The 1801’s are the first set of speakers, which could play my Steely Dan: Decade of Steely Dan without it sounding bright, or overdone. Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable sounded like Natalie, and the Duet of Unforgettable which she did with her Father , Nat King Cole (via Modern Technology) was

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Have listened to Paradigm, vintage JBL, vintage Infinity, B & W....etc..