I’ve heard only praises for this speaker. Waiting for an opportunity to try out.
Speaker suggestions.
- Thread starter aeroash
- Start date
Dunno about Bloom, but I am coming
With the cost of the Crossover and duty to be paid, this might cost more than the Audiofy price.
Way out of my budget.
I'd want to start by saying thank you to everyone who offered suggestions. I'm grateful.
The speakers had to meet the following requirements: (I did not make this clear enough in the opening post, but peppered around in the thread, so apologies).
1) Compact.
2) It should sound great at low volumes.
3) Suitable for a near-field listening environment.
Amphion Helium 410 and Sonus Faber Lumina 1 were the recommendations that best met the requirements, with Kef LS50 Meta coming in third.
LS50 Meta by KEF
I decided against the KEF LS50 Meta for a few reasons.
Their requirement for plenty of power to shine, according to my limited reading, and are at their best at higher volumes.
The other important contributing factor is their dual-concentric Uni-Q drivers' rubber-surround failure. There have been at least three occurrences of it on this forum. These incidents might be few and far between, but there were enough to be unsettling.
Helium 410 by Amphion
The Amphions were all the rage back then, at least among a select few, and I first learned about this Finnish company in this forum in 2013/14. However, this forum's first review of the Amphion debuted in 2009.
https://www.hifivision.com/threads/amphion-prio-620.6176/
They seemed interesting, as their USP was this "innovative" waveguide, and they promised to sound "great" at all volume levels while keeping a compact footprint.
Madam Wiki says:
"In their designs, they emphasize controlled directivity to minimize the effect of room reflections on sound quality. They call this principle uniformly directive diffusion. The company's signature design approach is the use of a specific waveguide and very low crossover point (audio crossover). The low crossover point (at 1600 Hz) puts it outside the human's most critical hearing range (between 2000 and 5000 Hz) which makes the crossover between the tweeter and woofer undistinguishable. Waveguide is also used to align the drivers timewise and unify their dispersion throughout a wide frequency band. Amphion's home loudspeakers and studio monitors work as point sources and in phase coherent manner."
Creative copywriting is generally not something that influences me, but further reading about the magic of these waveguides "seemed" to be "legit". For those who are curious, Amphions began the distinctive waveguide look 20 years ago, much before the Buchardt. Additionally, they have a similar appearance!
I initially focused my search on the Helium 410 because it met all my criteria, had a "different" sound from what I'm accustomed to, and was a risk I was willing to take without auditioning.
In the interim, I chose to start this thread to explore any potential alternatives.
Sonus Faber Lumina 1
I'm glad @vkalia brought these up. They are perfect in all respects. I'm familiar with the SF "house" sound, so these would not only be a safe buy but, most importantly, check all the boxes.
Immediately after I finished the transaction for this pair, an FM emerges with a proposition for a used pair of Helium 410. Who in their right mind would want to own another pair of bookshelves when you have just purchased one? So I also bought the Heliums.
I now have a Sabaj A30a and two pairs of speakers coming my way. It's the same joy as a kid with candy.
I'll also be visiting @DB1989 this week, mainly for auditing purposes, that is to count the number of speakers currently in his possession!
The speakers had to meet the following requirements: (I did not make this clear enough in the opening post, but peppered around in the thread, so apologies).
1) Compact.
2) It should sound great at low volumes.
3) Suitable for a near-field listening environment.
Amphion Helium 410 and Sonus Faber Lumina 1 were the recommendations that best met the requirements, with Kef LS50 Meta coming in third.
LS50 Meta by KEF
I decided against the KEF LS50 Meta for a few reasons.
Their requirement for plenty of power to shine, according to my limited reading, and are at their best at higher volumes.
The other important contributing factor is their dual-concentric Uni-Q drivers' rubber-surround failure. There have been at least three occurrences of it on this forum. These incidents might be few and far between, but there were enough to be unsettling.
Helium 410 by Amphion
The Amphions were all the rage back then, at least among a select few, and I first learned about this Finnish company in this forum in 2013/14. However, this forum's first review of the Amphion debuted in 2009.
https://www.hifivision.com/threads/amphion-prio-620.6176/
They seemed interesting, as their USP was this "innovative" waveguide, and they promised to sound "great" at all volume levels while keeping a compact footprint.
Madam Wiki says:
"In their designs, they emphasize controlled directivity to minimize the effect of room reflections on sound quality. They call this principle uniformly directive diffusion. The company's signature design approach is the use of a specific waveguide and very low crossover point (audio crossover). The low crossover point (at 1600 Hz) puts it outside the human's most critical hearing range (between 2000 and 5000 Hz) which makes the crossover between the tweeter and woofer undistinguishable. Waveguide is also used to align the drivers timewise and unify their dispersion throughout a wide frequency band. Amphion's home loudspeakers and studio monitors work as point sources and in phase coherent manner."
Creative copywriting is generally not something that influences me, but further reading about the magic of these waveguides "seemed" to be "legit". For those who are curious, Amphions began the distinctive waveguide look 20 years ago, much before the Buchardt. Additionally, they have a similar appearance!
I initially focused my search on the Helium 410 because it met all my criteria, had a "different" sound from what I'm accustomed to, and was a risk I was willing to take without auditioning.
In the interim, I chose to start this thread to explore any potential alternatives.
Sonus Faber Lumina 1
I'm glad @vkalia brought these up. They are perfect in all respects. I'm familiar with the SF "house" sound, so these would not only be a safe buy but, most importantly, check all the boxes.
Immediately after I finished the transaction for this pair, an FM emerges with a proposition for a used pair of Helium 410. Who in their right mind would want to own another pair of bookshelves when you have just purchased one? So I also bought the Heliums.
I now have a Sabaj A30a and two pairs of speakers coming my way. It's the same joy as a kid with candy.
I'll also be visiting @DB1989 this week, mainly for auditing purposes, that is to count the number of speakers currently in his possession!
naj
Active Member
Hello,
I have purchased a CD player with them and its 40 days and still yet to receive.
They are giving me fake excuses and are non committal with the delivery. Will avoid them in the future and hope they deliver.
Thanks- naj
A beautiful, well-constructed speaker with class-leading soundstage, imaging and bass that is fast, deep, and precise.
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