DIY Ellam 9800 MKII

DIY Ellam 9800 mkII by Troles Gravesen. Excellent sounding speakers. The best components used.
Dimensions: 13.5'' x 8'' x 12''.

Several years ago, I was shopping for good quality speakers on a budget. I’ve already had tried several well known vintage speakers. There was a pair of DIY speakers listed on Audiogon for less than $2K. The person selling them was a few hours away from me and was kind enough to offer to bring them to my house to audition them - that’s how sure he was that I would like them. They were Jenzen SEAS ER designed by Troels Gravesen.

I sold most of my vintage speakers and started auditioning high end speakers that cost 10K+. It was unbelievable how good these DYI speakers were. They were outperforming many of the speakers I auditioned. And that was not a high end model DYI speaker. And very affordable - cross-over, drivers, and materials were around $1K.

The advantage of DIY speakers was immediately clear to me. Manufactures make a lot of compromises when designing speakers. I don’t want to make a bold statement, but in my opinion the parts of a commercial speaker are on average less then 10% of the cost that the end user pays. The rest goes for engineering, marketing, dealer fees, profit for the manufacture, etc. Having some DIY skills I would prefer to spend my money where it matters - quality drivers, quality cross-over parts, good materials, and good engineering. The result is amazing sounding speakers for the fraction of the price of commercial products.

Fast forward a few years and I have several DIY speakers and many other DIY components, including my turntable. I went to many audiophile shows, and honestly I’ve only heard a handful number of rooms that sounded better than my system. And the price of these systems was close to the price of my entire house… All the speakers I built were based on Troels Gravesen’s designs. They all sound amazing, and I found it very difficult to sell any of them. There are two problems with that though: 1) I live in a very small place; and 2) I want to build something new. DIY can be an addictive hobby.

I pulled the trigger and decided to sell some of my speakers to make room for new projects. This listing is for the Troels Gravesen’s Ellam 9800 MKII I built. They are excellent sounding speakers with the best components I could get - Superior Z caps, silver wires, silver solder, and all the best quality parts I could get. The kit costs about $1500 with shipping to the US. The rest of the materials and painting was another $500. I am only asking $200 for my labor, which was a lot of hours.

You can see more info about these speakers here:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Ellam98-mkII.htm

I can explain how these speakers sound, but I was very surprised how much bass you can get from a small speaker like this, and in general how good such small speakers can sound. I've always been a fan of big speakers, but that project change my perception.