Red Sound Elis8 FRFR Review and MF 10 Comparision

Update: I've had very little time to put the Elis.8 through the paces, but what time I have spent playing through them, they are all that and a bag of chips. Let me also mention Mirko and the excellent communication and service throughout the process. It also took less time for them to arrive from Italy to my location in Maryland than from California to Maryland arriving a day early.

I will be buying another bundle within the next few months. They sound every bit as good as my CLR's, weigh less and are easier to haul around when the time comes and take up very little real estate. For those on the fence, I suggest you get yourself some and soon!
 
Update: I've had very little time to put the Elis.8 through the paces, but what time I have spent playing through them, they are all that and a bag of chips. Let me also mention Mirko and the excellent communication and service throughout the process. It also took less time for them to arrive from Italy to my location in Maryland than from California to Maryland arriving a day early.

I will be buying another bundle within the next few months. They sound every bit as good as my CLR's, weigh less and are easier to haul around when the time comes and take up very little real estate. For those on the fence, I suggest you get yourself some and soon!
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/studio-slips-gig-bags-for-red-sound-elis-8-bundle.172170/
 
Update: I've had very little time to put the Elis.8 through the paces, but what time I have spent playing through them, they are all that and a bag of chips. Let me also mention Mirko and the excellent communication and service throughout the process. It also took less time for them to arrive from Italy to my location in Maryland than from California to Maryland arriving a day early.

I will be buying another bundle within the next few months. They sound every bit as good as my CLR's, weigh less and are easier to haul around when the time comes and take up very little real estate. For those on the fence, I suggest you get yourself some and soon!
Glad that you like them 👍🏻
Rock them hard 🤘🏻
All the best,
Sash
 
Greg, you're not helping my wallet!
I did computer tech support and tech support management for years, and learned that having well made bags was a good idea. I saw what happened when people used ill-fitting or poorly designed bags; their laptops were damaged in no time, so for my own gear I decided that it was reasonable to pay 10% of the price for something well designed.

That’s my thinking with my gig bags for my guitars and equipment. I hate paying to replace or repair things; accidents happen but it’s my job to reduce the damage.
 
I will be buying another bundle within the next few months.
Are you stacking them, or keeping a pair for home and one for rehearsal/gigs?

I suspect that stacking them on their sides, two per channel, would result in a very solid and clear sounding system using the idea of a line array, basically reinforcing each cabinet's output. That would definitely move a lot of air.
 
Are you stacking them, or keeping a pair for home and one for rehearsal/gigs?

I suspect that stacking them on their sides, two per channel, would result in a very solid and clear sounding system using the idea of a line array, basically reinforcing each cabinet's output. That would definitely move a lot of air.
I‘ve done that with my MF10 and Elis8, it’s a f...ing Wall of Sound 🤘🏻😎
 
Are you stacking them, or keeping a pair for home and one for rehearsal/gigs?

I suspect that stacking them on their sides, two per channel, would result in a very solid and clear sounding system using the idea of a line array, basically reinforcing each cabinet's output. That would definitely move a lot of air.
Keeping a pair for home and one for gigs. I may go with 10's. Thoughts?
 
Keeping a pair for home and one for gigs. I may go with 10's. Thoughts?
I haven't played or heard the 10s. @Marco Fanton uses them for his live work and was instrumental in the development of the ELIS.8 so he probably has the best insight. His video of the ELIS.8 was what sold me, so maybe he can do a similar video comparing the two.

My Headrush 112 FRFR is a lot more boomy than the ELIS.8, but that might be something in their design, not because it has a 12".
 
I haven't played or heard the 10s. @Marco Fanton uses them for his live work and was instrumental in the development of the ELIS.8 so he probably has the best insight. His video of the ELIS.8 was what sold me, so maybe he can do a similar video comparing the two.

My Headrush 112 FRFR is a lot more boomy than the ELIS.8, but that might be something in their design, not because it has a 12".
Greg: Is the ELIS.8 as loud as the Headrush? I am waiting for a 2nd Headrush 108 as one of the pair I got from Guitar Center won't even power up. GC made me pay for a 3rd one. I may end up refunding all 3 and getting the ELIS.8's. The single Headrush 108 seems like it won't be loud enough with a drummer. Are the ELIS.8's louder do you think? They are over twice as expensive.
 
Greg: Is the ELIS.8 as loud as the Headrush? I am waiting for a 2nd Headrush 108 as one of the pair I got from Guitar Center won't even power up. GC made me pay for a 3rd one. I may end up refunding all 3 and getting the ELIS.8's. The single Headrush 108 seems like it won't be loud enough with a drummer. Are the ELIS.8's louder do you think? They are over twice as expensive.
I don't know; Headrush is playing games with their wattage specs so I can't compare the numbers.

"twice as expensive" needs to factor in a lot more than the initial cost. Your time and aggravation have a price too.

I do know that I'd much rather listen to the ELIS.8 all day than my Headrush 112 and if the ELIS.8 weren't loud enough I'd happily step to their 10" cabinets or buy a second pair of the 8".
 
Fellas, just when I took the chance to test a newly developed Blueamps (german high class boutique manufacturer) active stereo cab, I got the news that the Elis.8 arrived at G66, since I was on the waitlist, but rather planned to go with a Blueamps. Jacques sent me an Elis.8 bundle to test it. So I have three cabs in my small room and I played away with a new modeller from NDSP.
Elis in a nutshell: Great sounding cabs with a serious punch and great dispersion, a pretty tight bass response, very clear highs and upper mids. They fill the room easily with a big sound, and I was astonished that the bass did not fart out at pretty high volume (all this said with my limited experience with the Dynacord wedge, a Xitone 10“ and another very small and light Blueamps cab).

I still think that the new Blueamps cab nails the Fender sounds I am after a little better (still have a Reverb Deluxe), using the QC presets and cabs. The Blueamps delivers strong and warm lower mids and bass, at first I missed the highs, the so-called blanket came to my mind. In comparison the Elis delivers very clear and strong upper mids and highs plus a very tight bass. Definitely pushes more air whereas the Blueamps starts to compress a little earlier. All in all I had to use the EQ quite a bit more with the Elis, there is a little bit of „honk“ in the mids I had to pull out at around 1 khz and some highs also. With the Blueamps I often did not need the EQ at all. It sounds silkyer and smooth. The same happened with acoustic guitar. Just used a preamp, compressor, EQ and reverb block, no IR. Two of my acoustics - a Martin and a Santa Cruz (both with a simple passive Schatten pickup inside) sounded a bit more natural with the Blueamps, the third (McIlroy) better with the Elis. On the other hand, because of the sheer push and power, the notes just „jump“and ring out from the Elis cab. All of this in a contest where I find both brands very very usable and on a very high quality level.
I have a hard time to decide which one to go with: Silky smooth sound with a warm deep bass which sounds good right out of the gate versus pushed air like from a loud guitar amp, clear mids and tight bass with more work on the EQ - at least for me.

I wonder if the Elis start to break in after some usage. I hope they do. Even if I heard you guys saying the Elis sounds so smooth and not at all harsh (that is also my observation compared with other brands, but those clear and strong upper mids and highs are still a wee bit too present for my taste), do you think the speakers break in after some usage? I read in a post about a „burn in“ at Redsound but I wonder, if Redsound really gibves them a treatment, because this usually takes days of constant play in my experience.

What a though decision!

Please chime in and let me know what your „ears think“.
 
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Fellas, just when I took the chance to test a newly developed Blueamps (german high class boutique manufacturer) active stereo cab, I got the news that the Elis.8 arrived at G66, since I was on the waitlist, but rather planned to go with a Blueamps. Jacques sent me an Elis.8 bundle to test it. So I have three cabs in my small room and I played away with a new modeller from NDSP.
Elis in a nutshell: Great sounding cabs with a serious punch and great dispersion, a pretty tight bass response, very clear highs and upper mids. They fill the room easily with a big sound, and I was astonished that the bass did not fart out at pretty high volume (all this said with my limited experience with the Dynacord wedge, a Xitone 10“ and another very small and light Blueamps cab).

I still think that the new Blueamps cab nails the Fender sounds I am after a little better (still have a Reverb Deluxe), using the QC presets and cabs. The Blueamps delivers strong and warm lower mids and bass, at first I missed the highs, the so-called blanket came to my mind. In comparison the Elis delivers very clear and strong upper mids and highs plus a very tight bass. Definitely pushes more air whereas the Blueamps starts to compress a little earlier. All in all I had to use the EQ quite a bit more with the Elis, there is a little bit of „honk“ in the mids I had to pull out at around 1 khz and some highs also. With the Blueamps I often did not need the EQ at all. It sounds silkyer and smooth. The same happened with acoustic guitar. Just used a preamp, compressor, EQ and reverb block, no IR. Two of my acoustics - a Martin and a Santa Cruz (both with a simple passive Schatten pickup inside) sounded a bit more natural with the Blueamps, the third (McIlroy) better with the Elis. On the other hand, because of the sheer push and power, the notes just „jump“and ring out from the Elis cab. All of this in a contest where I find both brands very very usable and on a very high quality level.
I have a hard time to decide which one to go with: Silky smooth sound with a warm deep bass which sounds good right out of the gate versus pushed air like from a loud guitar amp, clear mids and tight bass with more work on the EQ - at least for me.

I wonder if the Elis start to break after some usage. I hope they do. Even if I heard you guys saying the Elis sounds so smooth and not at all harsh (that is also my observation compared with other brands, but those clear and strong upper mids and highs are still a wee bit too present for my taste), do you think the speakers break in after some usage? I read in a post about a „burn in“ at Redsound but I wonder, if Redsound really gibves them a treatment, because this usually takes days of constant play in my experience.

What a though decision!

Please chime in and let me know what your „ears think“.
I know Blue Amps very well, they make Great stuff yes!
They Sound like your description, they tent Tonne more like warmer sounding, like a Friedman ASM etc. That’s fine if you are exactly after this sound but that makes them unusable (for me) for everything else.

I can only say, that I can easily nail the Sojnd of our deluxe reverb and an original AC30 from the sixties with the Axe and my Elis 8.
The Deluxe really shines with the new Speaker dynamics from the Cygnus Firmware.
Did you try to reduce the presence at higher volume or a high cut at the advanced parameters?
Which IR are you using?
I love the Deluxe Reverb IR from York Audio.

If you want to know more about the Elis and or if they have a break in period, I would suggest that you should contact Mirko from Red Sound.
He responds very quick and he is also the developer of the Elis8 / MF10 etc.

Stay healthy and all the best!
Sash
 
I got the Ellis 8 set yesterday. Sounds and feels very much like playing through an amp, and compared to sounds on my Neuman monitors, I need less highcut in the cab. Smooth, full sound from the first use, and I think loud enough for small rehearsals and gigs. And only 8kg a piece.

I also got a Eastman guitar this week, so this is my jazzing it up yesterday through the Ellis (backing programmed on Roland Fantom)


Jan
 
I know Blue Amps very well, they make Great stuff yes!
They Sound like your description, they tent Tonne more like warmer sounding, like a Friedman ASM etc. That’s fine if you are exactly after this sound but that makes them unusable (for me) for everything else.

I can only say, that I can easily nail the Sojnd of our deluxe reverb and an original AC30 from the sixties with the Axe and my Elis 8.
The Deluxe really shines with the new Speaker dynamics from the Cygnus Firmware.
Did you try to reduce the presence at higher volume or a high cut at the advanced parameters?
Which IR are you using?
I love the Deluxe Reverb IR from York Audio.

If you want to know more about the Elis and or if they have a break in period, I would suggest that you should contact Mirko from Red Sound.
He responds very quick and he is also the developer of the Elis8 / MF10 etc.

Stay healthy and all the best!
Sash
Hey Stash, thanks for your great Elis review by the way!
Sorry to say, I cannot talk about Cygnus and its settings since I came from the AX8, but currently I am using the new modeler from NDSP. However, reducing the upper frequency or applying a lowpass filter won’t do in my case, maybe the Elis is just a bit too forward in the upper mids compared to the Blueamps. There is something around 1 khz that does not please my ears. Seems the Elis were voiced a bit more midfocused so they cut through the mix. It is rather not the highs as I first suspected, both cabs do fine here. I also rule out the modeler as the source, because the Blueamps sounds fine as is, just with a deeper warmer bass that is definitely less tight, so maybe a bit too soft. Man, sound issues are so subjective...
I also asked Mirko about the break in time, I guess he did not understand my question since he replied they check every speaker for at least 30 minutes and „when it arrives at the customer it is ready to be played very hard“, to quote him.
I am interested to know what your take is: Do the Sica speakers of the Elis have a break in period of some days of playing like other new speakers have? And how do you compare the Blueamps to the Elis?
However, both cabs are top notch, better than anything I ever tried or possessed before. I could live with both I guess, just don’t want to throw a coin ;-)
 
Hey Stash, thanks for your great Elis review by the way!
Sorry to say, I cannot talk about Cygnus and its settings since I came from the AX8, but currently I am using the new modeler from NDSP. However, reducing the upper frequency or applying a lowpass filter won’t do in my case, maybe the Elis is just a bit too forward in the upper mids compared to the Blueamps. There is something around 1 khz that does not please my ears. Seems the Elis were voiced a bit more midfocused so they cut through the mix. It is rather not the highs as I first suspected, both cabs do fine here. I also rule out the modeler as the source, because the Blueamps sounds fine as is, just with a deeper warmer bass that is definitely less tight, so maybe a bit too soft. Man, sound issues are so subjective...
I also asked Mirko about the break in time, I guess he did not understand my question since he replied they check every speaker for at least 30 minutes and „when it arrives at the customer it is ready to be played very hard“, to quote him.
I am interested to know what your take is: Do the Sica speakers of the Elis have a break in period of some days of playing like other new speakers have? And how do you compare the Blueamps to the Elis?
However, both cabs are top notch, better than anything I ever tried or possessed before. I could live with both I guess, just don’t want to throw a coin ;-)
Yes the Elis 8 are indeed a bit more forward in the upper mids.
You should try the MF 10, as you can read in my comparision, this is exactly the point. The MF 10 are a bit wider sounding and the Elis 8 have a bit more upper mids.

I'm using the Elis 8 / MF 10 for around 8 weeks now and I didn't recognise any break in. I turned them up on high volumes around 8-10 times.

Best Wishes
Sash
 
Thanks a bunch Sash, exactly what I needed to know!
The MF 10 are still considered small but too big for my purposes, and I would not want to give up going stereo ;-).
Have fun with your rig!
 
Elis owners, one thing I forgot to ask and was curious about: which styles do you play and what are your cab reviews based on? Makes a difference imho, but this is debatable.
Me: playing rather clean, edge of breakup, low overdrive stuff, occasionally mid OD. Talking funk, soul, jazz, classic rock here. Rather dynamic than compressed sounds, so only low compression ratio (ratio max. 3) used, if at all. Less ambient sounds, also using acoustic guitars by the way. So, no metal, high gain or rather compressed sounds in my case.
If you guys play rather overdrive and high gain tones - like many do, you may expect a different „attitude“ from your cabs, when it comes to compression, pressure, sound character, so it sounds good for your styles. Are you happy with the Elis playing clean, dynamic stuff?
 
Like you, edge of breakup w/ Vox and Fenders. Got the Elis.8 during the Cygnus upgrade. So I’m still in the process of getting used to it while also tweaking Cygnus amp settings while also going back through which IRs now sound best. So I’m in a bit of no man’s land at the moment. I will say that just the stock Fender presets sound really good. Sound and feel like a real amp to me. I’m not there yet with the AC30 - largely b/c I’m suffering with a certain sound I can hear in my head that I can’t quite find yet no matter which frfr I use. I will also add that I haven’t had the elis8 very long and haven’t committed very much time to what I wrote above. And I’m pretty sure I don’t have your guitar talent or your ear. No being falsely humble - just a fact - I’m a self taught hobby player who still uses tabs to learn songs I like. So many guys on here are working musicians or have been at one time. So factor that in as you have read this b
 
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