Recording - March 2015 - 26

B Y PA U L V N U K J R .

Amphion One18 Passive Monitors
(and Amp100 Power Amplifier)
An unusual approach to monitor design yields a truly remarkable listening experience
Amphion is a speaker manufacturer
based in Finland. The firm has been crafting
home hi-fi speakers of all shapes and sizes
since its start in 1998. Recently the company has moved into the realm of professional
studio monitors, and has just started US distribution. To say that these speakers have
made a rapid and indelible impression on
many of the popular gear forums with a
broad range of engineers would be a colossal understatement. Seeing as this is our
issue dedicated to monitors and monitoring,
I knew we had to wrangle a set to try.
Currently the Amphion pro audio lineup
includes 5 models: The One12, One15,
One18, Two15, and Two18. The models
with the One designation feature single 4.5",
5.25", or 6.5" aluminum coned low frequency drivers, respectively. Those with the
prefix Two have a pair of 5.25" or 6.5"
woofers per speaker. Regardless of size,
each model uses the same 1" Titanium tweeter and shares the same basic look and internal design. For this review, I was provided
with a pair of the One18 monitors.
Breaking out of the modern mold
In the past decade, the prevailing speaker
design trend has favored models with composite molded cabinets. Sharp edges have
given way to contoured corners and rounded
bulbous tops and sides with unique inbuilt
waveguides. Also, most modern monitors are
active models with power amps on board.
There isn't anything wrong with any of the
above trends and there are some stunning
monitors out there, but interestingly the
Amphion line returns to a standard rectangular box design. Further, Amphion speakers
are passive, requiring an external power
amp (we were loaned Amphion's own
Amp100 for this review). It's almost a return
to vintage speaker design principles... or is it?
Black and white simplicity
Visually the Amphions are a beautiful balance of no-frills simplicity and European elegance. The One18 is a 2-way passive monitor, a sealed-cabinet design with a rearmounted passive radiator. The cabinet is constructed of standard MDF and finished in a
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RECORDING March 2015

gently textured matte black. The cabinet measures approximately 15" x 7.5" x 12.4" and
weighs just shy of 26.5 pounds.
Each tweeter is recessed in a white Corian
waveguide that is almost the same diameter
as the woofer. Hookup is handled by a pair
of rear-mounted screw-style speaker clamps.
Specwise, the One18 has a crossover
point of 1600 Hz, an 8 ohm impedance, a
sensitivity of 85 dB @ 2.83V/1m, a frequency response of 48 Hz-20 kHz ±3 dB, and
handles 30-150 W of power.
The tweeter, waveguide, and wide
open spaces
In a conversation at the recent Winter
NAMM Show, I asked company owner
Anssi Hyvönen why Amphion went with the
design choices they did, such as standard
rectangular cabinets. His answer was that
"they believe better results are achieved by

focusing on getting the acoustical design
right, so that one does not have to try to solve
problems in the electrical domain."
To accomplish this, Amphion implemented
a few notable design choices. First, an
Amphion speaker's tweeter is recessed back
into the waveguide to the point where it is
perfectly time-aligned to the rear point of the
low/mid driver. This ensures that sound from
both drivers hits your ears at the same time.
As the waveguide also helps keep the dispersion of the tweeter and woofer similar
over a wide frequency range, it gives you a
very large sweet spot and phenomenal offaxis sound.
Whatever voodoo is happening in the
waveguide, these monitors are some of
the most sonically consistent that I have
ever heard. As I walked around my studio
with music playing, the highs and mids
stayed tonally similar, with little rolloff or

Recording - March 2015

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