Ya I was in the same boat I had Munro Egg’s which are very polarizing some felt they had issues others got on with them great. I actually liked them a lot they paired really well with Focal Spirit pro headphones.


But….. I ran into Dave B at Namm and saw he had started repping Amphion’s and I was like Dave show me these Amphion’s ( had known Dave for years) He took me over to the little booth in the circular room where most of the DJ stuff is and their was Annsi and his speakers. I immediately noticed something going on with them even in that room.

Fast forward I wound up checking out the One 18’s One 15’s and Two15’s . Got on well with the Two15’s of course that was like 7-8 years ago now. Funny how time flies. I was a bit more financially constrained back then and settled on the One 18’s for the fact that they covered a fuller spectrum freq wise in a sense . I could not afford the Two15’s .

So I took a pair of One18’s back to my room and mixed on them for like 3 weeks at the end I put the Eggs back up and in like one whole verse of a song I was like ya Eggs are out the door they sounded broken compared to the Amphion’s like someone had dropped a veil over them.

I used those One18’s for a good 6 years only sold the because I switched to One15’s and got the Barefoot FP01 for composing and playback. Ya I had early One18’s and was paranoid about blowing them up with my synths.

Now I am thinking Two15’s or possibly Two18’s and a Flexbase and selling the Barefoots because truthfully I love the sound of Music through the bigger Amphion’s combined with a flexbase or BaseOne25 .

So ya I have told this story before hundreds of pages back in this thread and I figured I would reiterate it because ya love my One15’s for mixing and amazed how they do tell what’s going on with bass even if they should not.

Oh and ya love the One18 it was a joy but their is something about the One15 though both sizes do tell you what’s wrong with stuff and I love that.

Sorry to beat a dead horse about this, but I'm genuinely curious. You swapped from the 18 to the 15? Do you feel the 15 translates better? Or just makes more sense to use alongside the FP01s, whereas the 18 is better if you only have one set?

Side note, how are you liking the FP01s for composing? My main thing is composing so I'm curious about your switch.

Thanks so much!

In short I heard the FP01’s originally and was not I gotta have these. The first time I heard them was on the Namm floor not the best place to hear monitors.
The second time was during a Sequential Prophet X demo at Vintage king. What got me was the demo was just slamming the synth through the FP01’s and they were not breaking a sweat.

I was a One18 user and had managed to push them pretty hard but it was not without fear. No limiters so yes you could blow them up and people had.

I bought the FP01’s for that and decided to jump down to the One15 knowing that I would be using them for close in critical mixing .

I was pretty surprised when I discovered how they handled Bass . I mean I looked at them and went wait what?

I realized I could compose on them. Not only that but for some reason perhaps being smaller and tighter the Bass did not torture them as much of course you could not hear the fundemental but you could feel it and see it. The upper transients of it you could hear though.

It’s quite and experience and ya they sound completely different from each other.


Funny thing happened recently too. I got an Apogee Symphony MKII 8x8 off another GS member for a fairly good deal. I could not resist as I have been a long time Apogee user and had eyed a Symphony for awhile.

I had switched out a Thunderbolt Ensemble for a UAD Apollo X8 due to Apogee not being ready for Apple Silicon last spring/ summer.

Not really upset with the Apollo soundwise but not really a UAD plug-in person and not liking the latency it has because though UAD works… it works under Rosetta and is not native as far as I know. Oh and ya Symphony great deal buy it!

Oh and yes between this time Apogee went Native on Apple Silicon.
So it turns out I tested the two converters against themselves and used my One15’s. Ya the Symphony beat out the X8 not by as much as some might expect .

Latency? much less, and sound well the Symphony and One15’s work well together and I am actually working on a new piece and it’s on the One15’s through the Symphony. Have not fired up the Barefoots in a minute.

So ya thinking of kicking them to the curb in favor of an Amphion bass system.
Ya total GS maneuver as well as full on Amphion lover. What can I say.

ya that was longer than expected but just wanted to share the experience.

Well, I've done a ton of back and forth tests, and I think the ONE18s won. I do have to lean alllll the way back in my chair to start hearing them click (about 125cm) and I ideally will rearrange my room in the near future to fit them slightly further, but the depth and soundstage and overall smoothness has won me over. I love how the ONE15s are punchy and forward, but every time I listen to things on them I'm thinking "hmmm this would probably sound better on the ONE18" whereas I don't think "man this could be even more punchy" on the 18s. The 15s I think technically fit my current positioning better but I just can't get over how SMOOOOOOOTHHH the 18s are. My main thing is orchestral and the ONE18s seem to really shine in that genre over the 15s.

MY ONE CONCERN: a lot of people seem to prefer the 15s over the 18s for mix purposes and I'm wondering if the 18s are just presenting things in a nicer way and the 15s will actually make me focus on problematic parts. I've only had time to do one track on them so far and I foolishly swapped between both of them multiple times during it so I don't really know how it translated LOL

Anyways, the Amphion line seems to be excellent in all aspects and I don't really think there's a "wrong" choice. Time to actually write music again!

(Massive props to Oliver from LA Pro Audio for being the chillest guy ever.)

For me the 15's put the mids on the tabIe in a better way, and for mixing I need that. I hate having to 'reach in' to grab stuff to yank around on it.

But yeah, for orchestraI the 18's wiII give you a taIIer and much deeper image. The biggest difference is how the image on the 18s is from the speaker and away, behind them, and the 15s reach out for you and go around you. Makes you sit inside a bubbIe of the image IoI as opposed to Iooking over at it over there behind the speakers.

But imo to reaIIy get the 18's you need far more space than their box size suggests, an then if you put them so wide apart that it Iooks comicaI and step right away they open up a massive worId. Sort of Iike midfieIds that Iook Iike their boxes are too smaII.

I had both for some years. Mostly used the 18's. Both are fine for mixing. Yes, the 15's are faster and more focused, but if you are going for a one-speaker-does-all thing I recommend the 18's. Mastering is a lot easier on them, and they have more weight for producing.

With that said, I moved to a small room where the 18's didn't get enough space/distance. There, the 15's worked very well. Sold the 18's. Later I moved to a large room (larger than the first), and the 15's are still doing good here. Mastering is still their weak point. In contrast the 18's give that beautiful objective/top down perspective which let's you fine tune the overall frequency balance easier.

For orchestral, I'd lean even more towards the 18's to be able to judge the "naturalness" of the recordings.

Finland

Impressions so far:
Both excellent speakers, that don't sound a million miles away from each other despite the completely different design and technology. As you might expect the Genelecs extend further in both directions, bigger lows, more detailed highs, and more perception of depth as well. As well they should for nearly twice the price. 

The Amphions excel in showing you what matters in a mix IMO - the feel and vibe with their fast and punchy transients, and the super clear and tangible midrange. The 'mix tool' reputation is definitely not unfounded. The Genelecs give you a bigger picture, more of almost a 'mastering' scenario for me, but can also zoom in on extreme details like a single track being slightly out of phase etc. The Amphions imaging is also quite incredible for a 2-way, but not quite the insane holographic panorama of the point-source Ones.

All in all could work easily on either one, but why not both! 

The Genelecs look like what you’d get if you asked my 5 year old to draw the Amphion next to them

Nice. Which Genelec are these? The 8341?

8351 and Amphions are One15

that must be a killer combo

I self tested my hearing recently, and depressingly couldn’t hear a tone past 11.5 kHz. In defiance, I ordered a pair of One 15’s. These things sound incredible…. I’ve never owned this nice of a speaker before. The only possible issue is that I sorta cheaped out on the amp, and got the Behringer A800 to hold me over until getting a better amp.
I guess my main question here is that when I turn on the 800 with volumes completely down, there is a pop/click a second or so afterwords. I did a quick and dirty iphone dB measurement, and get around 67 dB in C weighting around 6” away. It doesn’t sound too loud, but wondering if this will be bad for the speakers? Is that normal for these amps to do that?

I have two of the A800, I do not get a pop or anything on powering up. I have mine set for monoblock mode and the volume control is set to maximum because I use a preamp with them. I would contact the dealer (or Amazon) and ask for a replacement.

You could also do a test: Try disconnecting any input to the amp and power it up. If you have a slight ground loop issue in your setup, that might cause the pop. You could also turn the volume up a little bit (with no input connected to be safe) and see if you get a pop. As I mentioned, I have mine set to maximum all the time, just like a raw power amp with no volume control.

Close in size maybe, but not in price!

Genelec 8351 = €8,000/pr

Amphion One15 = €2,000/pr

Hey, I followed DigitalGrease on the A800, I usually run two in monoblock, but I am in a temporary room with only one in stéréo.

It does a slight click when turning on, whatever the volume position, whether if I have input cables in or not.

Not sure if it does anything to One15 as it is not loud, more like a dry hihat tick at moderate volume.

Add another 2,500 for an amp and cables to the Amphion but yeah. The Genelecs are also significantly larger that was just the angle.

I would not worry about a slight click. A moderately loud pop indicates something else, whether ground loop or a DC bias of some kind.

When I switch my preamp from headphone to speaker I get a very small pop, but that is from the preamp. Most amplifiers I have owned have some level of click or small pop when powering on. Many have a delay circuit that waits a few seconds for the circuits to stabilize before activating the output. I mostly would not worry about it unless it is loud. Little clicks and low level pops are not a big deal in my opinion.

Hello,

What does the One 15 brings you that the 8351 do not ?

Thanks for sharing your experience

Sergio

I tried all the suggestions, verified ground on the power outlet, and also switched into monoblock with one speaker, and there still is the click. I guess maybe Im freaking out for nothing. I thought I read a couple things where some people were giving up on Amphion since they had to repeatedly replace drivers (and/or tweeters…?).

I understand. One thing that most people do not know is that in order to blow a driver, you need quite a bit of energy over some period of time which varies with the driver.

Tweeters, having the finest wires in the coils, are most sensitive. The Amphion tweeters are crossed over lower than most tweeters which has an advantage that Annsi described in the past. This does make the Amphion tweeter SLIGHTLY more susceptible in a mathematical sense. In practice the issue is actually the overall speaker sensitivity.

Amphions are typically 84 db sensitivity. It takes twice as much wattage to get the Amphions to sound as loud as an 87 db rated speaker. Every 3 db lower sensitivity requires twice the energy for the same SPL.

This is why everyone I know of regards Amphions as wonderful mixing tools, but not great for tracking. You have to push them too hard to get a room filling tracking vibe in most situations. The smaller the room, the less trouble.

Clicks and pops: These are typically very short duration. Even moderate pops should not measurably shorten the life of the drivers. The wires on the coils need to heat up and melt in order to die. Extreme bass can damage the centering structure, or spider, on the mid/bass driver, but I don't know how often that can happen. The surround on the cone is really robust, so I don't see that being at risk before the coil vaporizes.

Essentially, if you are not trying to run a private Rave in your studio, you should be just fine for life.

If your small pops and clicks are not loud, you should be fine. There is a formula for how much energy over how much time is required to burn out a voice coil and that varies per driver and per frequency of the energy. The shorter the time, the greater the energy required for burn out.

I hope that helps.

I think I covered it pretty well in the post. I could work with either one. The Genelecs are objectively 'better', but not everyone is listening on a system of that quality, so there is some more subjectivity to translation etc. I think that's true with any speaker though, that's why one needs to reference and mixing is not easy, for me anyway. I find the Amphions are good for focusing on what's important because of the way they present things.

Well, one of the strengths of the Amphions – and indeed passive monitors in general – is that you don't need to spend anything like €2,500 on amplification & cables to be able to mix on them. Not discouraging anyone from spending €4,500 on a bespoke Amphion system of One15s + Amp700 but viable, used alternatives can be had for way less than that, e.g Quad, Adcom etc.

On a related note, my One15s cost me €1,200 six years ago and until now I had no idea the current price was €2,000 - insane how everything is so much more expensive these days!

True! I also got a good deal on my Genelecs here in Canada, around 6K Euro for a demo pair. They have now gone up here as well though!

One non audio benefit of a Amp700 + cables system is you don’t need to upgrade/downgrade it if in the future you change to bigger/smaller Amphion’s

Having a single amplifier that covers the whole range is a very cool thing IMO

Don’t get me wrong I loved my One18’s and originally when I tested models One15 Two15 One18 it really was down to the One18 or the Two15. The One15 did not seem to cover enough range for my liking at the time in the room I was demoing them in. The Two15’s really rocked my world honestly. I got a a kick out of them. ( no pun intended)

I took the One18’s because of the full range I heard out of them and I did not have the scratch at the time for Two15’s. I am seriously eyeballing a set of Tw015’s right now with a amp 500 and cables.

I bought my floor demo used One15’s with a amp100 for a pretty smoking deal and sold the amp100 with my One18’s as I use a Jim Williams modded Adcom 545 MKI .
So in other words I probably will not sell my One15’s even if I buy Two15’s .

The way prices are for Barefoots right now I am really tempted to kick them out the door and ya I am still thinking flexbase or Bassone25 lol. I cannot seem to get away from Amphion’s.

I do like what they deliver and don’t let anybody fool you the One18’s still tell you what to do as they show the problems glaringly. It’s an Amphion they really do that regardless of model it’s just a matter of the smaller ones put it up in your face a bit more.

Oh and don’t mind my slightly obsessive approach to monitors . I analyze a lot before purchases.

That's true, and of course the amp proportion of your overall 'system spend' goes down as you move up their range of monitors.

Amp700 is still a fair chunk of outlay down at the One12/One15 end of the range though for someone starting out, and would make it seem like they couldn't compete with similarly priced actives, which was really all I was addressing. I'd be willing to put my (now) €2,300 Amphion One15 + used Quad 306 system up against just about any model of €2,300 actives! It's all good!

A modded 545 does the whoIe range too though, as previousIy estabIished by others in the thread.......that thing is a current beast. Cone dominator. IoI

Ya I was part of that. It’s why if I get the TWO15’s I would probably sell the Amp 500.