NAMM 2023: Amphion's first 3-way monitor in 25 years might have been worth the wait, but is it worth the cost?

NAMM 2023: Amphion has announced an incredible looking – and costing – studio monitor at NAMM 2023 in the form of the One25A. This is its first 3-way active monitor in 25 years.

The Finnish audio company is well-known as a maker of great hi-fi speakers, but has also long been involved in studio monitor design. Its speakers are championed by many great engineers and producers – including Jacquire King, Josh Gudwin, Mike Dean and Finneas O’Connell – but also those with big pockets, as most of these speakers don't come cheap. The latest Amphion One25A costs close to $15,000 (but that is for a pair).

Don't forget that you do get 25 years of research baked into that figure as well. Amphion says that the compact construction includes enough space to keep the bass and midrange drivers completely isolated to provide more clarity, and that the baffle around the mid-range driver has been designed to be acoustically symmetrical for more precise imaging. There’s also a hexagonal bass cabinet design which helps cut down distortion, so the bottom end should be rich but still precise. It sounds like here are clearly some fine design innovations here. 

However, the most interesting question surrounding this launch is why it's taken Amphion so long to come up with a 3-way active speaker after designing 2-way (or passive) speakers for so long? The reason – we think – is simply because the 2-way ones were and are so good, and adding another driver wasn't previously seen as a priority.

Amphion CEO Anssi Hyvönen explains: “It must be remembered that One25A’s active 3-way high-resolution filter is simply a natural progression from the active 2-way filters that we have utilised in our Base systems since 2015. Our design philosophy has always been results- not technology-oriented. So, we use whatever approach we feel works best for a certain product.”

You can learn more about Amphion’s ranges here and get more of the latest NAMM news from our NAMM 2023 main page.