Amphion will be displaying the One25A, its first 3-way active studio monitor design. The product debuted at NAMM 2023 and has started shipping globally at the end of November 2023 after a year of touring the globe at trade shows including InterBEE Japan, Music China and Gearfest UK. The One25A will be on display and can be experienced at Booth 15514 in the North ACC Hall in Anaheim at the 2024 NAMM show.

The One25A is constructed of a sealed dual cabinet that employs internal bracing to not only stiffen the support structure, but also serve as a physical-energy dispersion filter. The glue-joints of the enclosure and how the sub-driver is connected to the bracing structure allows the mass of the sub-driver to control the resonance of the cabinet. Amphion also chose to place all the electronics outside the monitor in a well-isolated and removable enclosure to further eliminate any physical vibration and magnetic forces between the drivers. Following the same design philosophy as the passive crossover design that Amphion has perfected, the active monitor utilizes a simple, refined signal path avoiding unnecessary digital processing and conversions to maintain the highest possible level of resolution.

For safe user operation, Amphion included specially designed protection circuitry, which is kept separate from the audio signal path and remains inactive until limiting is needed. In order to ensure optimal performance in all rooms and soffit mounting applications, the One25A has an 8-step boundary control system for fine tuning the bass response below 150Hz. These feature sets combined with Amphion’s advanced acoustic design leads to full-range sound with depth and control, which needs to be heard to be believed.

“Excitement, amazement, even a positive shock, have been most general reactions among those, who have experienced the One25A first hand,” CEO Anssi Hyvönen shares. “It has become clear that One25A knows no boundaries, as feedback is equally overwhelming from all continents and audiences, pro and home listeners alike.”

Learn more about Amphion One25A: amphion.fi/one25a/

Following its industry debut at the 2023 NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA, the One25A is the first 3-way active studio monitor from Amphion. The One25A is a powerful full range monitor with a sealed design for the modern studio environment whether it be commercial, educational facilities, post-production, classical recording or film composing. Despite the active design the new monitor stays true to the 25-year commitment Amphion has for advanced acoustic design, a pure refined signal path and meticulous craftsmanship. The brand designed this new monitor with the same ethos as the previous passive speakers by focusing on results.

“The development process of the One25A started in 2019. During this path we left no stones unturned. This sort of crazy dedication, it makes no sense, but we feel that because it’s a statement product we needed to get it 100% right,” says Anssi Hyvönen, CEO of Amphion.

The 3-way active monitor features an innovative sealed dual cabinet, which is designed both as a stiffening support structure and as a physical-energy dispersion filter. It utilizes the mass of the sub-driver, and how it connects to the bracing structure to control the resonance of the whole enclosure to provide superior resolution and clarity. The new tweeter and midrange driver of the One25A are in an isolated sealed chamber to minimize the bass woofer’s negative effects like pressure changes, which leads to high midrange and treble resolution ensuring crystal clear transparency. Additionally, the baffle around the midrange chamber is acoustically symmetrical for a smooth frequency curve and precise imaging. The design also incorporates Amphion’s signature fifth-generation waveguide and U/D/D (Uniformly Directive Diffusion) into the One25A ensuring driver integration, eliminating cabinet diffractions and producing a uniform, even response through a broad frequency band.

Amphion believes that the beauty of passive speaker crossovers lies in their simplicity, which helps to maintain a high level of audio resolution. The One25A follows this design philosophy, but as an active speaker it is radically different. The design could be described as a line-level passive crossover, which is buffered with ultra-clean FET buffers. This gives the One25A the best of both worlds. The design also utilizes Amphion’s overload protection circuitry that’s kept separate from the audio signal path and it remains inactive until limiting is needed to ensure maximum resolution and safe user operation. Instead of placing the amplifiers and power supply inside the monitor, where they are negatively affected by physical vibration and magnetic forces of drivers, the electronic components are located on the exterior of the speaker and are well isolated from the enclosure to improve performance and allow for long life, easy serviceability and soffit mounting if desired. For room tuning and soffit mounting applications, Amphion has designed a proprietary 8-step low frequency adjustment boundary control (+/-7dB) allowing fine tuning the bass response when placing the One25A near boundaries. The adjustment is a smooth shelf-type curve mostly operating at frequencies below 150 Hz. The overall result offers an innovative, controlled monitor with speed, dynamics and emotional transfer users rely on from Amphion.

“Our job is to create a large clean window into sound that allows people to experience sound in a manner they have not been able to do before,” Hyvönen concludes. “All of this leads to a certain acoustic purity and immaterial feel that all Amphion products share.”

For more information about Amphion One25A, please visit: https://amphion.fi/products/one25a/.

Producer/guitarist Wayne Sermon and his bandmates in Imagine Dragons entered the studio with Rick Rubin to record their latest album after months separated by the COVID19 lockdowns. Although the in-person sessions were cathartic for the group, they also demonstrated how productive they had been in their separation when they arrived with dozens of completed songs that they considered among their best. The ability to work remotely and draw upon the feelings of isolation and longing gave the group a fresh, creative energy, and has resulted in Mercury – Act 1. As one of the driving creative forces in the group, Sermon relied on his well-stocked home studio and his Amphion Two18 and BaseTwo25 bass extension system during this process.

Chasing artistic simplicity

Although the band typically prefers to write in the room as a group, the challenge of writing remotely presented them with some new opportunities. For Sermon this was a way to put his evolving concepts of production and songwriting to the test, focusing on providing Imagine Dragons singer Dan Reynolds with the bare bones of a track that would summon up strong emotions in his performance. “I think when you are working on a track at home the temptation is there to really go big on the production — make it seem larger than it may require,” he explained. “What I’ve found though is that vocalists respond best to simple ideas that leave them room to really work. Some of my favourite songs of ours have started from places like this.”

Sermon says that his first love was always pop music, despite being a Berklee-educated musician with a grounding in jazz and ‘shred’ guitar playing. As the group has evolved, he has pushed himself to explore a sort of artistic minimalism —prioritised memorable melodies and relatable emotions in songwriting above all else. These concepts came to the fore when generating ideas for Mercury – Act 1, resulting in some of the most direct songwriting of the band’s career to date. “When we wrote ‘One Day’, the last track on the record, it really was just one of those songs that came out effortlessly in ten minutes,” he said. “It’s incredibly difficult to write a truly good, simple song, so when they do come out you have to learn to trust yourself and appreciate what’s happened because it’s so rare.”

“At the end of the day, my song-craft is really focused on providing the proper environment for the vocalist,” he continued. “I still love to shred and respect people who can do it well, but good melodies and lyrics are what connect you to the audience. Making sure that everything is in support of that in my writing and production is incredibly important, and that’s driven my approach to what I use to put these tracks together.

Clarity and inspiration

Many Imagine Dragons tracks start in Sermon’s well-stocked home studio. Working in Ableton, he uses a plethora of VSTs and plugins in addition to some of his favourite analog gear including the Roland Jupiter, Juno 106, and Yamaha CS60 synthesisers. To make the most out of his favourite mix of digital and analog gear, Sermon utilises an Amphion monitoring setup consisting of a pair of Two18s powered by a matching Amphion amplifier. “Amphion work so well because they have the right mindset for how frequencies should be presented,” he explained. “500 to 2-3k are the ‘money’ frequencies in most music — you can hear those no matter what device you’re listening on — so to get them with such clarity and balance has been a real game-changer. Once you can get those frequencies tuned in, they sound great everywhere.”

In addition to his Two18s, Sermon also uses the Amphion BaseTwo25 for a three-way full-range system. Although not traditionally a fan of subwoofers, Sermon has found this to be an effective way of controlling the lower octave while still feeling like a natural extension of his existing monitoring setup. “Subs have a way of not integrating very well and muddying up the imaging in a lot of monitor setups,” he said. “What’s great about BaseTwo25 is that the imaging is just as clear and allows you to be extra confident when mixing 80hz and down — super important when thinking about how mixes will sound on a car stereo.”

Although he still prefers working face-to-face with his bandmates in the studio, Sermon says that the effectiveness of his home setup has proven to be artistically inspiring. Being able to work quickly and efficiently has been a boon to the band’s songwriting, and ultimately helped Mercury: Act 1 achieve liftoff. “It’s been interesting how this process has influenced the art we’re making now — it’s really something that couldn’t be done twenty years ago,” he said.