Hello Troels,
 
Since the Viawave GRT-145 became available again last year, I started building an Atell-3 in May 2025. I prefer the Atell-3 over the Ellipticor-2F8 because of its passive bass radiator and the first-order crossover filtering in the midrange and treble sections.
 
For 17 years, I owned a Verity Audio Parsifal Ovation. I adapted the Atell-3 design to follow the profile of a Verity Audio Sarastro, the larger sibling of the Parsifal. The bass and mid/high enclosures are completely separated, with the external plate damped by eight Sorbothane pads. My design contains no 90-degrees angles at all; consequently, many parts had to be cut and routed at different angles, which significantly complicated the construction process.
 
All side panels flare outward toward the rear at an angle of 4 degrees. At the front, the bass enclosure is 284 mm wide, giving the speaker a relatively slim appearance, while the rear is 350 mm wide, providing sufficient space for the massive Audio Technology 10C77. The mid/high enclosure was also modified, while preserving the original baffle geometry as much as possible and respecting the design choices made in the crossover network.
The crossover uses Jantzen Audio Amber capacitors for the high-frequency section. The speaker terminals have been upgraded to Mundorf MConnect terminals and are installed on both the bass and mid/high enclosures.
 
Two weeks ago, after approximately 800 hours of work, I finally completed the speakers. The first listening impressions were disappointing: the sound was very dull, the presentation was messy, and the bass and midrange sounded colored. Were the tweeters connected correctly? Was the Scan-Speak Ellipticor driver connected with inverted polarity? Were there cabinet resonances? None of these turned out to be the issue, yet the overall performance was far below that of my old Parsifals.
 
After two weeks of break-in, however, the picture has changed completely. The treble has suddenly come alive and sounds wonderfully subtle, refined, and full of contrast. I am now hearing the smallest details and overtones of instruments that I had never noticed before. The midrange has gained energy, dynamics, and articulation. There is also the effect of the Ellipticor 18WE8542 combined with the PR-23 passive radiator: the lower midrange has become clearly audible, which was a weak point of the Parsifals. The bass can still sound somewhat boomy at times, but I expect this to improve with further break-in of the 10C77 (around another 500 hours), or by experimenting further with speaker placement or mounting them on IsoAcoustics feet. The spatial presentation is astonishing: the speakers have already completely "disappeared" from the room, most likely thanks to the excellent time-domain behavior resulting from the first-order crossover design.
 
I would like to thank you once again for providing the Atell-3 crossover specifications and for sharing all of your wonderful designs.
 
Kind regards,
 
Mike
 
Arnhem, The Netherlands.