Amphion One15 Speakers: Never Struggle With Mix Translation Again!

[@EdThorne]

🎬 ACOUSTICS & TRANSLATION SERIES 🎬 1) Stereo Vs Mono Subwoofers & Is Trinnov Nova Broken? kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHK8qqWLbZmEsK8 2) Room Acoutsic Problems? kzbin.info/www/bejne/javVimdjn8epjNU

[@bingybeats189]

I owned the one15s before being forced to sell them for financial reasons. I absolutely LOVED them. Issues in a mix would scream at me and they almost guided the mixing process. And mixes just translated. My room wasn't even optimally treated either. There was treatment but I wasn't all scientific with it.

[@EdThorne]

Exactly how I feel about the Amphions

[@bingybeats189]

​@@EdThorneIf only I could find a pair of headphones that were like this, I'd be in heaven!

[@EdThorne]

@bingybeats189 I’m really enjoying working on the Hifiman Ananda Nanos and Audeze MX4s. Across them, the PSI and these Amphions I feel I’m hearing everything I need to.

[@MariJu1ce]

Same, had them, sold them to pay a mix for a record I was making.. was worth it but still miss them. they were the only monitors I've had that kinda worked well in my not-so-optimal room.

[@PrincipalAudio]

You're so right about the PSIs. First thing I noticed was bad edits! i.e. Vocal parts that had been prematurely cut with a fade that's too fast. I also immediately noticed the reverb tails going way down, even though other sounds would usually cover them up. The separation of one instrument from another, even if panned in the same way, is absolutely insane. Never heard anything so precise. Thanks for your review on the Amphions. I've always been curious about these as I've seen them in some pretty kitted-out studios.

[@EdThorne]

The Amphions have a wonderful habit of highlighting different things to the PSIs, it’s mad.

[@PrincipalAudio]

@@EdThorne That's always a good thing! I'm still running KH120s beside mine, but they really don't show anything I can't get from the PSIs, so I've decided to sell the 120s. Will definitely be considering Amphion.

[@EdThorne]

100% do that! I had the KH120s and hated them. The Amphions are a much more enjoyable beast for the kind of mix translation the Neumann’s offer.

[@DerekPower]

Nice “prologue” to the ongoing audio journey, especially regarding monitoring and mix translation. The only thing missing was the ginger bombshell 😉

[@EdThorne]

Haha. He’s always around somewhere in spirit to annoy me🤣

[@restlessnoisestudio]

Wish I could afford a pair of these! I recently bought a pair of CLA 10as and paired it with a Yamaha sub and my mixes translate really well!

[@EdThorne]

I haven’t heard the CLAs. The Amphions are great for translation to modern consumer devices.

[@huberttorzewski]

CLA10as are great. Even Mike Plotnikoff swears by NS10s, arguably the best recording engineer in rock/metal in the last 25 years. He also have Amphions but he treats them as the second check because he trusts NS10s more. Very interesting stuff

[@VladBornuz]

You should try CLA 10s with a closed sub. Like the dynaudio 9S. The difference is massive. It'll sound way more precise.

[@richertz]

Love my Amphions (one18) they sound great but are for mixing I used some iloud MTMs for the detail precision like listening into sounds but the Amphions help me slot it all together.

[@EdThorne]

Heard good things about the MTMs.

[@RobinZV1]

Insightful, as always. Cheers, pal 🍻

[@EdThorne]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@steppbrooEFT]

the gen2 Neumanns are a total different animal, worlds apart, I'm on the KH 120 II, and the power and driver capabilities coupled with the DSP means that you get everything that was missing on the gen 1, insane transient accuracy, image sharpness and separation, and loads and loads of power for frequency fullness and tightness. It's crazy how they sound for their size now, they sound at least 3 times as big. I prefer the 120 over the 150 as well as they sound a bit more focused and detailed and plenty powerful enough for my use case. Of course, they're only as good as they are after the MA-1 tuning and manual finetuning. And yes, I'm aware that you've tested them, but I'm not sure if they were presented the best in the circumstances they were in.

[@steppbrooEFT]

Of course I don't 'mean they're as good as the PSI"s range of speakers, but they can be in the right room and dialed in properly. I've quite frankly (and quite unfortunately) not heard a system better than mine, and I've worked in studios with $150k stacked quested mains, stacks of PMC's, Amphions, ATC's and so on, and nothing has been able to give me the same transient response, image accuracy, and frequency fullness these have (of course those larger speakers are also in far larger rooms and often times very overtreated and absorbed). I don't think the 5khz distortion issue is there anymore too, which means with the new power what you're left with is just an incredibly transparent and dynamically true response, and they're actually no longer dull and unexciting. And about translation, my mixes sound exactly like how it is on phone and earbuds playback, down to the vocal compression dynamics, reverb trails and harmonic content.

[@steppbrooEFT]

But I do have to say that the experience on them can vary largely with placement and tuning, due to how big they sound and the DSP nature of it. They actually had to be placed very far apart for me, along with using a converter that carries enough resolution to maintain the fidelity over such width (MT48, beats RME ADI side to side by far btw), and the tuning process is very fussy and extremely finnicky, you have to measure mic placements very exactly. MA-1 tends to overtreat as well so I find myself backing off the tuning for the low-end to a more natural balance. Also it's good to note that with the gen 2 DSP speakers, MA-1 does per driver & (maybe per frequency?) phase correction too, which explains the improved image.

[@steppbrooEFT]

I felt like I have to comment cause you always make it a point how the KH120 wasn't adequate, and not many are aware of how much improved the 2nd gen is, tho very very tuning dependent as mentioned. I feel like Neumann deserve some props as well. I've gave up on my PMC 6-2 dream upon hearing them, and I'm looking forward to the gen 2 KH310 (ported hopefully) & KH420 to be released. If the driver and amps improvements are anything like the 120 & 150, along with DSP implementation they'll be absolutely insane! Also, much love to you and your channel!!

[@MichalMikulskiMM]

In my journey I had first The Rock MK II by unity audio, and then I had Neumann KH310s, and I had same issues, hard to judge compression, volume, overprocessing… Now I have PDP MUM-8s silk. You keep on saying the MUMs have tight bass, it simply has very little harmonic distortion in the bass. It’s designed to be far from the wall, otherwise I found out that there is sub bass buildup around 30 to 40Hz. I get everyones got their own opinion on things. My opinion is that they are the best monitors I own! They punch in the bass like crazy, if that’s a problem for some, it’s easy to be just mindful of it, things should punch in the bass with these when mixing! Very dynamic, amazing mids, and not fatiguing, yet very detailed top. Stereo dispersion on it is simply up there with the the best!! So panning is a cinch, so easy, it’s almost a joke, and sounds so good and dimensional. Even Paul admitted these had the best mids out of all other speakers he heard in Gearfest. The mids are most important, cos that’s what everyone will hear on their devices and whatnot’s. Basically, you want to enjoy Mixing and get it to translate, get the MUMs from PDP! I would also recommend the 6s for smaller rooms, and 10s for big rooms. Mine is nearly medium size so I have 8s. Anyways, Ed thanks for the content, and I wish you all the best in your journey with sound! 😎 Let’s keep on doing our thing. ;)

[@EdThorne]

Yeh, the MUMs are great. I may try the 6s in my room. It’s becoming apparent my biggest problem is my desk but that’s a huge hassle to change. However, watch this space.

[@TechnoAssassin-vx6zf]

surprised about the rocks……..according to the website (at the time I bought a pair)i think it was like 60 percent of songs have been mixed on them……...

[@industryandaudio]

I demoed them and was having a hard time understanding low end on these monitors. They sound “boring” but I want to understand them better to get the best translation. In the end translation is what really matters for a good mix.

[@bluematrix5001]

WOW, INTERESTING, i had so many great speakers, and had PSI A21 and man, took me forever to mix as well, way too much information, and my mixes were way too smooth.... sold them

[@EdThorne]

That’s exactly what I’ve found. I’m replacing them with Two18s. SO easy to mix on.

[@bluematrix5001]

@@EdThorne two18 are too big and slow on transients,,, two15 are better

[@sylegg]

Hi Ed, thanks for all the excellent content and documenting your journey into this. I’m enjoying the podcast you do with Paul and you are giving vital info that will help a lot of people. I have a question re headphones I know you recently got some hifiman ananda nano and you have used the Neumann headphones not sure if it’s the ndh 20 or 30 but I’m looking for a pair of headphones that compliment my monitoring set up. Kh80 and 750 sub with ma1. I know you didn’t get on with the neumanns for your case but I’d like to know if the headphones mirror that sound as I basically want to be able to use them for checking when I’m not with monitoring set up. Interested in your opinion on how the neumanns fair against the ananda nano. Hope that makes sense. Any help greatly appreciated. 🙏

[@EdThorne]

Hi there. Thanks for the kind words and supporting the channels! The Neumann headphones sound remarkably similar to the speakers (at least the NDH30s I have do). It’s actually quite impressive what they’ve done. I think the KH750 sub and KH80 is the best Neumann combination besides the huge 420s.

[@JMLRecording]

Ive had a pair of One18's for 5 years and they are incredibly directional. Unless I'm sitting within the perfect triangular sweet spot (which they even push a setup diagram for), I am getting different correlations and results. I've been living with this for 5 years because I'm still able to get good mixes but today I was working on a commercial and while looping a piano note that resonates at 439Hz the left front 7" driver makes a horrible vibrational buzzing noise like metal on metal oscillating at 439Hz per second. I know people seem to love these monitors but I sure do NOT.

[@VladBornuz]

Is the transient response better on amphion than psi? As the amphions haves closed enclosure.

[@EdThorne]

The PSIs win in that department. But then they beat most speakers in that department. PMC probably the only other brand better.

[@thecliqueshallsetyoufree8745]

Do you know what your 10 favourite songs of all time sound like? Yes you do. Eq your Amphions so that these songs sound the way you remember them and then do some mixes.

[@TimTheTomato]

Nice 👍 I would really like to hear them myself. 😢

[@EdThorne]

Amphion are not impressive sounding speakers BUT they reveal what you need to hear. They translate so well!

[@sjcongo]

Try with auratones

[@EdThorne]

Might do at some point.

[@TigroGumi]

Interesting, may have to do the same one day. The things about tweeters inside or outside... the main school of thought is about the speed of the frequency information and so tweeter outside so they are reaching you ears closer to the same time as the woofer... with that said, where is the subwoofer?... that kind of gets put the furthest away from your ears, should it the be right behind you chair at head level? if that is the school of thought, then surely that might be true to?... hello can of worms lol

[@EdThorne]

Huge can of worms. Absolute nightmare when you dive down the rabbit hole.

[@TigroGumi]

@@natdenchfield8061 no, the tweeters are further away, unless you have your speakers right next to each other... where did you get this idea from?

[@TigroGumi]

@@natdenchfield8061 what is sounding best best is not accurate... are you a audiophile? this idea is translation when mixing, not just what sounds best... this is not just getting nice sounding speakers

[@TigroGumi]

@@natdenchfield8061 I'm guessing you are a audiophile? the idea is not trying to get the best sounding speakers this is to do with mixing and mastering and your mixes and master translating... this is not about making them sound the best... I guess this is why you think it's the same distance from the tweeter and woofer... if you put your speak upright and have the tweeters at ear level then the other drivers are at a further distance... this is why coaxial speakers were invented... although the issue with those they do not work well unless slightly off axis... you reply is riddled with a audiophile opinion, it sounds like you've come here thinking this is about getting you speakers to sound good.. the idea with mix and mastering is for your speakers to not alter anything... then this is not just theory, this is very clearly things being put in to practice and discovered... if these were speakers in the living room no of this would matter "I love the way it sounds" job done... a lot of audiophile setups do not reveal the music it trying to make everything sound good... there are a lot of audiophiles that like transparency also as they love the music so much they want to hear the quality of the mix and master.. or they want transparent speakers so they can hear the differences in their DAC's, Preamps and Amplifiers. This has nothing to do with what sounds good... do you understand the processing trinnov does with time alignment? There aren't many audiophiles using trinnov accept for Atmos setups (as you have to have time alignment with a Atmos setup otherwise it doesn't work properly, and if you are some that says "you only have tow ears" then ask yourself why you put those two speaker in front of you and not to the side of each ear... you hear in 3D) because they are only worried about things sounding good not completely unforgiving... if you don't worry about such thing in audio engineering, then you will very rarely get a good mix and you can not open a shop where the product is only good some of the time... your comment is not bad as a opinion about speakers but is completely irrelevant in the context of this subject

[@TigroGumi]

@@natdenchfield8061 tweeter information travels quicker than bass information... do you understand that? look at what mate? your a troll and need a life... he did have them in then found it better out as most people do because high frequencies travel faster than low frequencies... you probably think earth is flat

[@twitchbook-1]

do you ever test the kef q300

[@EdThorne]

No. I’ll look into them. Cheers.

[@twitchbook-1]

cheers

[@EdThorne]

👌