What’s most important is though, is that we are not feeling that we are dealing with any kind of compromise at any time here. This is also by the virtue of the fact that on Royksopp “Alpha Male” pace and rhythm was really well accented. And at the same time Amphions showed on the whole Norwegian band’s album something different – especially in the vital midrange region. The whole spectacle here was alive, lots of things were happening, and I could feel that the mid band was offering a lot of information here. And also, a lot of music, with everything having just the right proportions. Changing the repertoire a bit, Anita’s Lipnicka voice on the “Sleight of Hand” from the great “Elf” album sounded very well indeed. Especially if we consider the price of hose speakers and the fact that this one particular album can sound brash and shouty in certain configurations. And on some speakers, where the designer left some impurities around the crossover frequency.
Amphions also cope really well with more calm music. “Verses” by the duet of Ólafur Arnalds and Alice Sara Ott was presented with very well balanced proportions, fluidity and rich timbre. And at the same time I could hear a very well balanced presentation throughout and openness. Because while being quite agnostic to what they’re playing Amphions do not sound bland in any way, which is often the case with speakers that have metal membranes, where often a complex crossover is used to remove the resonances of the metal diaphragms. These are eliminated here by other means actually – and that is setting the transition point between the drivers unusually low.
Ampion Argon1 – conclusion
What I should admit here is that I’ve been listening to those speakers for quite a long time. Much longer than I tend to usually. Many factors came here into play, like the holiday season. Nonetheless, what I am coming to, is that when listening to those speakers for that longer period of time I realized why this one particular brand has so good reputation… in a studio environment. Well, contrary to popular belief, this is not the case at all that studio speakers should sound well studio monitor-like. One should be able to actually listen to them without any fear of the proverbial headache. I mention this because, while we are dealing here with a bit more domesticated version, or a more – if someone prefers to call it that way – a more audiophile one, these are really long-term speakers.
They are also, in a sense, an interesting antithesis to the tiring sound of all those speakers that use drivers with metal diaphragms without knowing how to do it well. And it’s quite surprising too how much the Argons with the digit “one” in their name offer from the sound of the bigger 3S model. And, honestly speaking, if we plan to upgrade our system with a dedicated subwoofer (or subwoofers) and we want stand-mounters then this is where “ones” are a great offer indeed. But even without that in mind – they are simply excellent speakers that fully warrant a wholeheartedly recommendation.
Adam Kiryszewski
Manufacturer: Amphion https://amphion.fi/
Price: 800 Euro or 960 USD per piece (1600 Euro or 1920 USD a pair)