I just tested this Wi-Fi-connected speaker — and it's one of the best things I've ever heard

Arguably Meridian invented the powered speaker that we know and love today. The Meridian M1 was first released in 1977, and despite a complete lack of anything ‘smart’ or ‘digital’, it’s still recognizable when you compare it to modern powered speaker systems. A pair of speakers, hooked up to power and each other, and then no amp in the middle.

The Ellipse takes the legacy of those M1 speakers, and distills it into a single box that you can place in a living room, a bedroom or even a kitchen. It’s up to date too, with a couple of caveats, so you don’t have to worry about any incompatibilities or weirdnesses with your current home audio system.

While it might lack voice control or other ‘smart’ features, the Ellipse is smart in other ways — and it’s all about making it sound as good as possible no matter the shape, size or setup of your room.

But it’s not cheap. So, how does the Meridian Ellipse stack up against the best smart speakers around, and should you consider adding one to your home audio system? I tested it, so allow me to walk you through Meridian’s Ellipse powered speaker unit.

Meridian Ellipse review: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? A stylish, compact micro HiFi unit
• Who is it for? People looking for a stylish, luxury speaker unit for their living space
• What does it cost? $3,000/£1,999/AU$4,999
• What we like: Excellent sound, stunning looks, clever audio trickery
• What we don’t like: The price, and the lack of voice control

Meridian Ellipse review: Price and Availability

Let’s get one thing out of the way — the Ellipse is not for the financial faint of heart. No matter where you are in the world, it’s going to set you back multiple thousands of your local currency. Buyers in Meridian’s homeland of the U.K. get the best deal, where it costs £1,999.

The U.S. has a price hike up to $3,000, making it more expensive than the Naim Mu-So and the Cambridge Audio Evo One. The Australians have it the worst though, where potential owners will need to lay down 4,999 of your finest Australian dollars to own one.

Whether it’s worth it or not is going to be down to the potential purchaser. This is a lot to pay for anything, let alone a WiFi-connected speaker system. For the same money, you could get a very competent HiFi separates system, or even multiple Mu-Sos for the same price. But then you wouldn’t get the compact size and clever audio innovations packed into the Ellipse.

When thinking about the Ellipse, you have to think about the kind of place it's going to find itself. It’s likely not going to be placed in the humble abodes of many, but the sumptuous styled living room of the wealthier buyer who wants to have a system that sounds big, looks amazing, and doesn’t take up too much space.

For those people? The Meridian Ellipse is a comparative bargain when stacked up against the competition from the likes of Devialet and Marantz, which cost even more and feature even more outlandish designs. For that buyer? The Ellipse is an excellent purchase that will serve them for many, many years.

As for getting hold of one — you’re going to have to go to a dedicated HiFi retailer rather than Amazon. And, as with anything at this price, you should go and have a listen before you drop the dollars.

There are some excellent options at this price, and you’ll want to make absolutely certain you’re buying the right unit. I think you’ll be going home with the Ellipse in the end though.

Meridian Ellipse review: Design and Build

• Simple, sleek design
• Wonderful speaker mesh
• Compact compared to rivals

Like a kind of 50s UFO, the half-a-flying saucer-shaped Ellipse certainly looks the part. The main body is made of some very premium-feeling plastic, meeting in a seem that makes its way around the entirety of the speaker's outer edge.

There are two metal feet that sit beneath the speaker, raising it slightly off the supporting surface below, adding to the landed alien spaceship vibe.

You’ll notice that, as the name suggests, everything is done with ellipses. The ovular frontal shaping, the rounded button panel, the rounded feet and the metal grille that covers the speaker drivers within.

That grille is perforated by little ellipses, only interrupted by the Meridian logo breaking up the sonically transparent front panel. You’d hope that for the price Meridian would make a speaker that looks good, and I think it’s done a great job with the Ellipse.

I also think the Ellipse is reasonably understated when compared to its closest rivals. Unlike the Marantz or Devialet alternatives, the Ellipse is a classier option, fitting into a greater array of room decors.

If you want something that doesn’t scream “this is an expensive speaker” but retains a degree of class, the Ellipse is most definitely the way to go. I certainly love the way that it looks. The Ellipse could easily fit into any living room, dining room, or kitchen.

Or drawing room, library, or games room. Whatever suits your needs (and mansion).

This would all fall down if the speaker wasn’t built well, and thankfully for the Ellipse, it's more good news. The seams are all precise; the plastic body feels great; and the metal feet go a long way in making the whole thing feel like a quality device.

It’s weighty too at nearly 9 pounds, so you’ll likely want to find a home for it and leave it there unless you want a decent workout every time you want to listen to music. If you’re thinking of putting it on a shelf, make sure that it will take the weight — otherwise, you’re going to have a very expensive tumble when it gives way.

Meridian Ellipse review: Controls

• Glass top panel
• Touch controls
• There's an app, too

On-device, you’ve got some simple controls. There’s a glass panel that lives on the top of the speaker in the middle, and you’ve a couple of different options.

There are volume up and down, play/pause, skip and rewind, and a Bluetooth connection button. The Meridian logo turns the speaker on and off. They all glow when the speaker is turned on, and they are relatively easy to work out in a dark room.

What would make them better is something like the extremely elegant touch controls on the Naim Mu-So. These turn off when not in use, but illuminate when you bring your hand closer to use them.

I’d have liked to see something similar on the Ellipse, but what we’ve got works well enough. You won’t be wanting for controls, let’s put it that way.

The bulk of the control options are built into the very solid Meridian Control app, which lets you control different aspects of the speaker. There are the normal playback and volume controls, as well as source selection and all the network settings.

Meridian Ellipse review: Features

• No smart assistant
• Great DSP adjustment
• Good IO

If you hop into the settings menu, you can play with the sound settings, and there’s some very cool stuff that Meridian has packed into the Ellipse so that you can really dial in the sound of the speaker for your specific spatial needs.

There are the standard treble and bass controls, but then there’s the image focus slider. That lets you change the stereo imaging focus of the speaker, if you’re sat at an angle to the speaker.

It works super well, and makes placing the speaker much easier. Scroll down and you get the phase control, which changes the phase of the bass for better room playback.

You can really fill any room with music. The free-q settings let you tell the speaker where it is, like near a wall on a shelf, and then change the sound to match.

The following bass and space settings increase the low end and aim to widen the soundstage. Finally, image elevation aims to make music sound bigger in your space — adjust accordingly.

These are so-called “DSP” settings, or “digital signal processing”. Do they work? In a word: Yes. Bass & Space increases the warmth, and makes the sound much bigger than the speaker would first suggest.

It’s a great way of mitigating the stature of the Ellipse. The other settings work very well in making the speaker sound its best no matter where it finds itself. They’re fun to play with too, and you’ll quickly dial in the sound to your liking.

Other features include internet connectivity in the form of AirPlay and Chromecast. Spotify and Tidal Connect support are on board, and for audiophiles with a subscription, the unit is Roon-ready as well.

It’s well-implemented and very easy to use — the Ellipse has not let me down throughout my testing. Wi-Fi haters can plug into the internet directly with the Ethernet port.

Bluetooth 5.3 rounds out the wireless standards, and you can hook USB storage devices or a separate DAC with the USB connectors at the back. Well-rounded IO.

There’s just one omission that I would’ve liked to see from the speaker — and that’s support for at least one smart assistant. As it stands, there’s only the on-device controls and the app that can control the speaker, so you either need your phone on hand or you’ll have to stand up to go and control playback.

Just having Alexa, for example, would have made it slightly easier to control playback or ask the speaker for a specific track. To be fair to the Ellipse, this is the same with most speakers of this price and feature set, but I’d say the same about them.

Meridian Ellipse review: Sound Quality

• Big, deep bass
• Dynamic energy
• Great highs

As you might expect from a speaker that costs several thousand dollars, the sound of the Meridian Ellipse is to be envied by many.

It’s not as in-your-face with its bass reproduction as the Devialet Phantom line, instead demonstrating an incredible level of control and restraint. It’s not boomy, especially if you use the excellent “Bass & Space” and “Free-Q” settings.

That doesn’t mean there’s no bass at all — far from it. For something that is, for all intents and purposes, pretty small, the way the Ellipse reproduces the low end gives some excellent weight to your listening.

It’s warm; its welcoming; and it goes all the way down. But it doesn’t overstay its welcome, adding to the performance rather than dominating it.

Thanks to that control, the highs are given plenty of space to breathe, and as a result, they’re crystalline and clear. Cymbals are well-defined, and soaring guitar solos are given plenty of presence and scream. The high range avoids being fatiguing, and, much like the low end, feels effortless.

The mids are where the Ellipse speaker is at its strongest — acoustic guitars sound great, and vocals and classical music show what the speaker is truly capable of. The speaker puts in an incredible performance throughout the frequency range, and mixes them all together for a lovely energy.

My chosen test tracks were all streamed over AirPlay from Qobuz, giving the speaker some top-notch streams to prove itself with.

Ichiko Aoba’s haunting Aurora surrounds and envelops the listener as the softly pronounced vocal line builds on the plucked acoustic guitar. Thanks to the speaker's extra settings, the song fills the space with effortless depth, without making anything sound synthetic or overworked.

The quiet parts sound refined, and the changes to the louder sections are well-represented, showing some good dynamic shifting as well.

Kirisute Gomen from Trivium brings the heavy, distorted guitars, and the low-end kick drum makes the room shake. It manages to avoid the typical pitfall of overtaking the rest of the ensemble however, with the distorted, furious guitars cutting through the mix and the vocals layering well over the band. Matt Heafy’s screams are easily discernable as well — an impressive feat for any sound system.

Finally, NewJeans OMG brought the bass and the dance in spades. There’s some delightful energy to the track already, and the Ellipse was more than willing to oblige in bringing the fun.

The girl's vocals sit perfectly atop the synth lines and sampled drum beat, while the pulsing low-end shook the room right the way to my seating position. It’s not the widest mix in the world, but the Ellipse still managed a good job of placing you in the center of proceedings. Loads of fun.

Verdict

The Meridian Ellipse is the kind of speaker that you look at and wish you could add to your home setup. Trying it out in the shop will impress even the hardest-hearted audiophile, with its excellent presence and sonic control.

It’s the speaker that will widen the eyes of people who see it in your house. “The music is coming from that? That’s cool.” It’s easily worth the high asking price, with a spectacular build and incredible audio quality.

But that price must be taken into consideration, along with the lack of voice control. $3,000 is a lot of money for any kind of device, no matter how well it plays my favorite K-pop playlist.

There are cheaper options out there that get close to the performance of the Ellipse, like the now much cheaper Naim Mu-So or the 5-star Cambridge Audio Evo One. If you want something similar but can’t stomach the price, you may want to look at those options instead.

If you can afford the Ellipse, though, you’ll be very well served by Meridian’s streaming all-in-one. There are nearly 50 years of legacy on display here, and you can feel every single one.

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