Yeah man I hear ya! These Amphions seem to be a really good balance of musical and detailed.

To just add a little more to the thread after chatting to Anssi at Amphion...

Regarding my comment about treatment between the speakers and distance on One18...

Simply put, the speaker sounds large and the waveguide delivers smooth off-axis sound around the room with height and width, a big sweetspot really. If you need to place your speakers close together or close to a reflective surface such as a window or wall, make sure you try some treatment there.

Some speakers are really direct and cut out some of the early reflection shit (by dropping HF rapidly off axis, albeit normally in an ugly break up pattern)... the Amphions and Geithains for example really maintain the off-axis sound and thus require some careful attention to early reflections in rooms that are not your typical world-class control room.

I've found the One18 in rooms with minimal treatment (like large listening rooms) to need distance and space and they sound huge, punchy and open. In a smaller space, much like my now for sale Geithain 904 - some absorption between the speakers really helps preserve what comes off the speaker so well.

I suppose my only point - is as much as this thread writes quite lyrically about different speakers, you gotta mess with placement, treatment changes and working for some time to really unlock the potential of tools this refined and hi-end.

-T

Interesting thread. I guess my only comments would be if some of you are hearing Focal as "dark" you need to see an audiologist to have your ears checked. Other speakers may boost mid range to give the "appearance" of more detail, but that is not what you want in a monitor - you want a linear frequency response and as little distortion as possible. This may not result in the "best" or "nicest" sound, but it will result in the easiest translation when you are done mixing or mastering.

I get the feeling many of you are new to the mixing/mastering world. That's fine and you should get whatever you like best, but it's really hard to judge a monitor until you work with it and see how it translates.

ps - I have never heard or mixed with Barefoot or PSI, but would love to. No stores carry them where I live unfortunately.

Well there may be a few guys here finding their way, but the thread seems full of several really experienced pros who I know in the outside world too.

I 100% agree with the comments about trying them out and learning the translation, it's the only way and why there's about 4-5 of us here who have been swapping speakers and mixes to figure it out for ourselves and slightly hijacking the thread in the process!

The results have been surprising and absolutely room dependent and many of us are at complete opposite end choices too... it's fascinating!

-T

@ TRW

Which one of this speakers, one15/18, rl906, v2108, plays in the most natural tonality (reproduces what has been recorded the most accurately)?

Agreed. I meant no offense to the experienced engineers on the thread - and you are right that there are quite a few on here. It is fascinating how really experienced musicians and engineers can disagree on monitors. I work on Focal Twins and KH120s, which is why I was surprised by some peoples responses.

Anyone tried the new MkII version of the ATC SCM20ASL? Looks interesting (new ATC tweeter, closed cabinet). Same price as the Quested V2108 where I live.

Also @TRW

How did you feel about the headroom of the One18? Are they able to handle decent amounts of sub bass, 808s, hiphop stuff for example? Not talking super loud, just decent levels without crapping out, chuffing etc...

Thanks !

That is a tough question and one that I can't truly answer for you as I've been mostly mixing/mastering in my tests. Really you'd need to track in the room and then hear playback immediately...

I'll say that the 906 and Amphions both seem pretty natural in tonality but neither of them produce the lower midrange body and warmth of the 2108. I would say the 2108 is either adding a bit more velvet body to the sound or just presenting is a way that has a bodiful presentation of the source... it doesn't sound fake, just naturally warm. However the topend on the 2108 can be a bit detached so I'd still think 906 and Amphion sound more neutral, but as I say no tracking here so I'd be making it up if I went further. All three are pretty much excellent speakers in different ways.

FYI - the Amphions show compression like I've not heard so much before, you can really tell if your attack is ruining the front and release ruining the depth...
906 can be a bit harder to hear compression on, the 2108 makes it fun to balance stuff and you can get a bit "creative" on them.

-T

One18 has epic headroom, they will go very loud... as in I heard them tear apart a pair of Rocks and an Avalanche system (2.1) on their own. The woofers will reach a point of danger at well above 100dB if you have some uncontrolled dance music kick drum action going on.

One15 still plays deep and loud but if you want something that can impress a client or club check you're going to want to try the One18. One15 will hit the wall a good 10dB sooner.

-T

I'm confirming the headroom of One18. It's awesome on electronic music.

Sounds very promising guys, thank you.

Thanx TRW!

yes. i could swear i've read somewhere on gearslutz that someone did exactly that and that the v2108 was the most natural in his test but i can't remember what other speakers he used in comparison

Hi guys,

I have the Amphion One18 and One15 around. They are a very nice speakers. My previous ones, the Mackie HR824, sound pretty good with my software re-eq and room correction. The One18 sounds great from the start, natural, detailed and open. My BIG complain now is the bass response. One18 range starts at 48 hz, what is to high for my tastes and my work. Most of rock and pop stuff are delivered correctly, but most modern staff sounds weak. Songs like Jason Derulo's "Talk Dirty" sounds almost pointless in this speakers.

I've been testing them with a Adam Sub8 and the result is pretty good, recovering the low-low end. I'm going to calibrate them with the room (I have tons of traps in my room, but it seems to sound better with some software correction) and see how it works.

By the way, Anssi, the owner of Amphion, provides THE BEST support I've ever received from any company, so far.

Regards.

-----

ADDENDUM: I was wrong with my tests: the room has some weird low end cancelation. After some room correction, the sub is not necessary anymore.

I hope One18 has enough bass for modern electronic music because I just ordered a pair, and I dont like to use subs!

Hi Antonio, did you replaced the stereo ones or the complete surround?

Of course they work for modern electronic, in fact, they are damn good, but don't expect to have low-low bass response, nothing under 48 hz.

I'm going to replace the complete surround setup, but, for now, I'm just testing the 2-buss.

I am finding my one15's to be useful outside of their range, technically speaking, as rooting around in things lower than they can reproduce still gives plenty clues in the upper harmonics of said subs you're rooting around in, so perversely they are actually damned good for tweaking bass all while not pumping out large amounts of actual sub into my room. Which is the best of both worlds at once for me.

I would say don't dismiss them based on what you think you can hear until you try to mix on them and listen back to the results on speakers that go lower to see how it ended up. You might be surprised. Also, I would take the 48Hz with a bag of salt with the one18's.......tend to actually go a bit lower I think.

The reported deeper bandwidth of the Amphions is a bit surprising to me, especially since they use a passive radiator design, which normally would mean an even steeper drop off than a bass-reflex cabinet. I guess that just shows that you can never completely rely on specifications in this game

I haven't measured anything so I wouldn't 'report' deeper bandwidth as fact, but it feels like in practice they let you root around lower than you expect to from first listen quite effectively.

I was wrong with my tests with the Amphion One18: the room has some weird low end cancelation. After some room correction, the sub is not necessary anymore.

Yoshi - how are you faring with the low end for hiphop, pop etc? Headroom?

I don't know what you mean with faring.

The low end is solid and clear and I haven't found any problem with the headroom. My reference playlist sounds better than ever. I'm able to listen to new details in all the mixes. This week I'm going to start mixing using them as main speakers

By the way, anybody has tried rePhase to mess with the phase of the monitors?

rePhase | SourceForge.net

Looking forward to hearing what you think after you've done some mixing on them. That is when they really start to show their true colours......

I also have the One15 for testing, but not for this week heh

....then I will also look forward to your opinions about which you prefer and why. heh

Have you got any of their amps?

Yes. It's as light as an iPod (not that light heh) and sounds GREAT.