If you live stateside and hadnt heard ofAmphion Loudspeakers, I wouldnt blame you.
This is in part because Amphion provides a rare option in the speaker world… colors!
Im a sucker for blue, so thats what I went with for my review unit.
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This isnt always preferred, but it can be desirable if you have a particularly bad room.
In terms of tonality, the Argon1 mostly hits the right marks.
This balances out the sound nicely.
Female vocals and brass seemed to shine in particular, with clarity and neutral tonality that was immensely pleasing.
Male vocals were also good, albeit a bit more uneven.
Amphion says it focuses in particular on the region between 2-5kHz, where our hearing is most sensitive.
I was also impressed by the speakers bass output.
Decades of research have shown these to parameters to be the most important in characterizing a speakers sound.
But digging deeper into the data helps us understand Amphions approach.
In particular, there is some messiness from 500Hz to 1.5kHz that I wish werent there.
This seems to be due to interference from the port output (shown in the gallery below).
We can see also see that the mess smooths out substantially predicted in-room response.
There may also be some merit to Amphions approach to emphasizing performance where our ears are most sensitive.
My experience is that this region is also the most responsible for our perception of soundstage and imaging.
Another welcome aspect of the Argon1s design is how well-controlled itsverticalresponse is.
Most speakers prioritize horizontal response, as its far more important for soundstage.
sitting vs standing) or ceiling heights can alter the way the speaker sounds.
The Amphions feature very good horizontal directivity, but are not necessarily better than other competitors with decent waveguides.
For the speaker nerds, further directivity plots and individual measurements of the port and woofer are included below.
Should you buy it?
For a $1,600 pair of well-built, stylish compact passive speakers, the Argon1s are well-worth your consideration.
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