Traditional approach

Crossover point 2000-3500 Hz

One is trying to join two which have very different characters (differences in moving mass/materials used/size and other physical properties). at a point where ear can hear up to differences up to 0.1 dB.

Extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve dirver integration

Amphion

Crossover point 1200Hz or 1600 Hz

To integrate the drivers perfectly the seam i.e .crossover point needs to correctly located. As human hearing is at its most precise between 2000-5000 Hz (so called critical hearing area) the crossover must be either below of above this area, never inside it

Placing crossover where hearing is at ist peak is like placing a ugly looking seam where everybody can see. We prefer to hide it.

Driver placement - Vertical axis

Ttweeter mounted to the enclosure so that he front is at the same level with the midwoofer. As the voice coil of the woofer is much further back than that of the tweeter the signals originate from different distances from the listener. Therefore they will also arrive at different times to the listening creating timing effors, which brain can easily detect.

Driver placement - Vertical axis

By mounting the tweeter to the waveguide its voice coils is recessed towards the same vertical axis as the midwoofer´s voice coil.

Aligning the voice coils greatly improve the timing properties of the loudspeaker.

Driver placement - front projection

Two separate sound sources

Due to distance between the acoustic center points of tweeter and midwoofer and too high crossover point used ear can sense two separate drivers

Driver placement - front projection

Point source sound pattern - perfect driver integration

As at the crossover point the lenght of the sound wave is longer than the distance between the center points the drivers work as unison and the ear cannot locate two different drivers.

Low direct vs in-drect sound ratio - Listening to sum of room reflections

The tradional speaker (sometimes even referred to us omni-directional speaker) radiate sound evenly in all directions. Thus the amount of sound coming to the listener directly from the loudpeaker is small part of the total sound. This is desribed as direct vs indect sound ratio.

As the amount of indirect sound with the traditonal speakers is always high many times these uncontrollable reflections define how the loudspeakers sounds in the listening room.

Higher Direct vs in-drect sound ratio - Listening to more of your speakers and less of your room

As the dispersion of Amphion speakers is more controllled the amount of direct sound is increased and the reflections reduced. The amount of pure, uncoloured sound coming directly from speakers to listener is increased resulting

Dealer demo - home demo

The acoustic properties of listening room play a major part in how the speaker sounds. With trational speaker that radiates sound evely at 360 degrees the sonic difference with identical systems between an acoustically treated dealer listening room and home environment can be drastic.

In many parts of the world home demos are difficult or impossible to organize and one must rely on how the product sounds are shows are dealers demo room. For convenience reasons and lack of space the speaker placement in the shop often drastically differs from that of the home.

The unfortunate and challening part of this is that some of the bigger manufacturers voice their products so that they work best in such settings. Therefore we advice especially those who are looking for floorstanders to place them like they would at home. What sounds like convincing bass energy in the middle of the two story shop can turn into one noted sickening boom-boom in customers living room.

WHEN EVALUATING A SPEAKER ALWAYS TRY TO USE HOME TYPE PLACEMENT!

Less room dependancy

The listening room has less influence on the sound of the Amphions due to controlled dispersion. This means that if you like what you hear at the dealers place the changes are you will like it at home as well - this leads to less disappointments in case home demo before purchase is not possible. This also means that the speakers are less critical regarding placement and can be positioned closer to the back wall of the room. .

The voicing of Amphion loudspeakers aims at maximizing the performance

Speaker placement

As traditional speakers radiate sound evenly in all directions they work best when place as far a way from the walls and other room boundaries as possible

This is only possible in dedicated listening rooms. If hifi system is meant to be enjoyed by all members of the family the demands of the daily living often dictate the speaker placement. The traditional speaker suffers tremendously if they need to be placed relatively close to the back wall like one normally does in the normal living room placement.

Driver placement - front projection

Two separate sound sources

Due to distance between the acoustic center points of tweeter and midwoofer and too high crossover point used ear can sense two separate drivers

Point source sound pattern - perfect driver integration

As at the crossover point the lenght of the sound wave is longer than the distance between the center points the drivers work as unison and the ear cannot locate two different drivers.