Amphion Helium2 loudspeaker cherry

The Helium² is a small, two-way, rear-vented satellite sporting a 1" titanium-coated aluminum-dome tweeter and a 5.25" Nomex-cone woofer, the drive-units custom-tailored for Amphion by Audax and Peerless, respectively. All of Louhivaara's designs share two key design parameters.

First, all Amphion models have fairly low crossover points, set below the critical hearing range of 3–5kHz. Thus, according to Amphion, all the frequencies to which the ear is most sensitive are produced by the tweeter. Moreover, because the wavelength of the Helium²'s crossover point of 1.5kHz is greater than the distance between the ears, having a crossover set to that frequency should improve a speaker's imaging—again because only the tweeter handles all frequencies above that point, the range in which the human ear is most sensitive to directional amplitude cues. In addition, the tweeter's low moving mass is designed for faster transients and lower distortion. Finally, the woofer, relieved of handling upper midrange frequencies, is able to produce cleaner, tauter sound.

Second, all Amphion tweeters incorporate a proprietary tweeter waveguide that uses Amphion's Uniformly Directive Diffusion (U/D/D) technology. This waveguide is designed to attenuate all frequency areas evenly as the listener moves off-axis, thus optimizing the speaker's dispersion. Amphion claims that their speakers' responses in anechoic chambers and real listening rooms are very similar. This should mean that Amphion speakers will perform well even in acoustically challenging rooms.

The Helium² is available in Black or Silver for $1000/pair; add $250/pair for Finnish Birch or Cherry. I thought my Birch review samples, with light gray grillecloths, looked stunning, the total effect understatedly elegant. As usual, I set the Amphions on my trusty 24" Celestion Si stands loaded with sand and lead shot.

A new sound
As I finished up my listening sessions, I pondered what makes a component a "classic." I decided that a classic is musically satisfying, exhibits no meaningful flaws, and possesses strengths that one would normally find only in more expensive components. By this definition, my Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridge and Creek 5350SE integrated amplifier are classics. The Amphion Helium² is another. And the three together are dynamite.