Feel free to PM me as I don't want to derail this thread with speaker and speaker amp talk, but I figured I would it address it once since I've recently had a few people message me (on Head-fi and other forums) about Amphions and/or the LS50 in particular. I figured there might be more people in this thread that might be interested as they're typically maxed out with the GS-X and headphones and might be looking at speakers next.
To start off, I have zero experience with ELACs. However, the LS50 I've heard for extended period of time by myself in a decent room where I've heard other speakers and there is nothing wrong with the room. The rig consisted of PrimaLuna pre and power amps, Luxman power amps, PS Audio PerfectWave Mk2, NAD M51, M50, PS Audio Powerplant P10. I played around with different DACs, transport, all major music genres, and power amp combos to get a good baseline of how the speakers performed.
I went in looking to buy as I had heard only good things about them and they looked beautiful. They ended up sounding good, but it didn't feel natural and the sound was somewhat boxy. It just wouldn't gel with what I've come to expect in both headphones and speakers. Even the Q900 seemed better for pure casual purposes.
I thought it was the cabinet and driver size that resulted in my lack of preference with LS50's. I currently have the Amphion One15 with the Amphion amp and Amphion speaker cable. Unlike the LS50, the One15's are sealed and have a passive radiator at the back which moves in conjunction with the front driver. They're both the same size roughly. However, they sound worlds apart. In front of the Amphions, the LS50 sound broken. The LS50 simply doesn't make sense. The One15's are anything but boxy and these sound RIGHT. Far better resolution, better bass punch and extension, imaging is HD 800, no holes in the mids. My only other choice in nearfield is the ATC SCM20asl Pro Mk2. The One15's crossover is 1600 Hz which results in the mids being untouched.
Another benefit of the One15 is that they still sound really good in small and untreated rooms. Anssi, the designer of Amphion, really wanted these to be as little as room dependent as possible and it definitely shows. Hundreds of positive reviews from the pro community with nothing negative to say. (Same goes for the Dangerous Convert-2 I previously mentioned. 100% positive reviews about the Convert-2 from the mastering community and consistently coming at the top of its class from Apollo, Burl, Prism, Benchmark, Lavry.). It's definitely not hype at this point.
Here's a quick vid showing how the One15's in a studio sound relative to other monitors. Of course, it sounds different in real life listening to them, but even then you should be able to point out how the other monitors sound broken in the mids and top end compared to One15s. It definitely holds up with my experiences:
Another vid of Anssi talking about the Amphion systems and design philosophy. Worth the watch in general!
Regarding the LS50. A lot of people love them, some don't, some so so. I would audition it first hand to see where how they fit your expectations. Also, if you've heard other top systems from ATC, PSI, PMC, Focal, Barefoot, then your opinion will also vary. So your experience may vary based on your reference point. I've also had other friends tell me to whom I've suggested the One15 that currently or previously had the LS50 that they all prefer the One15 by a fair margin. You can google and will find a few comparison of LS50 and One15 and all way give the preference to the Amphion sound.
Alright, that's all from me on speakers. Back to the GS-X.
