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That said, these speakers will never sound as saturated as the Harbeth M40.1. No chance. The Krypton³ has the stronger more direct and detailed treble and the same can be said for its lower midrange. I know full well that the Harbeth shifts the tonal balance downward and that its bass is boosted by a few decibels. Hence its meaty midrange which suits me just fine. The Amphion showed everything with greater precision and selectivity to be more accurate to the ‘letter’ of the recording. At the same time it was not as faithful to its spirit if you will. Since here we are talking about absolute high-end, this is more matter of taste than criticism. But I would be unfair to you and me if I did not confess that I liked the particular midrange saturation effect of the Harbeth better. At the moment it’s actually my most important aspect for any speaker to possess.


There was another element which seems absolutely unique to the Amphion. I've heard it a few times with lesser models from the same maker but never this clear and tangible. This had to do with the soundstage. Reading descriptions of the Krypton³ and company philosophy, we can’t help but notice three elements which constitute the brand’s distinguishing features. The first is affordable pricing. We already talked about how this doesn’t really apply to the Krypton³. The second is the quest for absolute fidelity to the recording. Here the Krypton³ behaves like a small studio monitor, albeit with the kind of bass the latter will never have. The third is space. This speaker is designed for maximum time coherence and its controlled dispersion makes for reduced handicaps from personal room acoustics. The most important design goal was probably a more linear dispersion progression through the full audible range. Here we arrive at the improved D'Appolito configuration, lossy midrange chambers, proprietary midrange diaphragms and tweeter wave guide. It all adds up to spectacular results but not as one might imagine. These speakers don’t cast cubits of space on either side. At first it seems as though the soundstage were squeezed between them in fact, with nothing happening beyond. If so the speakers need to be moved outward, then some more until we face a window opened onto an almost disturbingly natural reality. It will simply always remain between the speakers. The further apart they move, the wider this virtual space gets.

Regardless of positioning efforts, the Amphion displays beautiful focus and coherence from the start. 3D duplicates small monitors, oomph and drive suggest a big speaker. Then there are sounds which usually elude us or blur behind us or to our sides. The Krypton³ not simply shows those clearly but develops them as a kind of holographic wrap around us. These anti-phase effects are strong and clear, not at all veiled. I never heard anything like it from two speakers. Even 5.1 systems—or 7.1 while we’re at it—can’t show it this naturally or spectacularly.


Conclusion. The Krypton³ is Amphion's crowning achievement - not a pearl or pride but the crown. Although they cost a lot, compared to top speakers from other makers except perhaps Harbeth and Spendor they are relatively inexpensive. They are beautifully made and backed by a real flesh-and-blood personality with a solid footing in engineering and a clear vision. Their sound is spectacular, extremely precise and devoid of colorations and annoying outline flickers plus strong saturated bass. It is a true monitor without conditions. Its general colour is more fresh than mature. The lowed midrange is not as saturated as what’s above and below. Selectivity is phenomenal, resolution very good. When properly positioned, the soundstaging will embarrass the vast majority of multi-channel systems no matter how many channels are harnessed. This is true bona-fide high-end: properly engineered, not imagined or claimed.


Design. The Krypton³ is a powerful floor-standing passive speaker. It’s a three-way four-driver vented design. Each driver covers an about 3.5-octave range which is often considered the most optimal solution. The tweeter is a 25mm titanium dome loaded into a wave guide of the same diameter as the vertically bracketing midrange units. Their crossover frequency is reportedly lower than usual to help typical D'Appolito interference problems for horizontal and vertical symmetry with the exact acoustic center on the tweeter axis. The midrange drivers are manufactured jointly by Seas and Amphion. Seas provides baskets and drive systems, Amphion manufactures the 200mm paper/papyrus membranes embossed in a special machine to form their characteristic concentric ribbing. Anssi claims that these drivers behave as though being half their actual diameter whilst maintaining the advantages of larger transducers. These three drivers form the upper D'Appolito array. The dome tweeter from Norway’s Seas sports a sealed chamber visible through the bass-reflex vent around back and is crossed over at 1.600Hz. The midrange driver chambers developed by Amphion form triangular-shaped cavities tapered towards the rear. These chambers vent to the sides through a hole pattern which mimics the chamber’s shape. These cavities are damped on the insides. This particular aperiodic loading generates a cardioid dispersion pattern for superior room integration. The midrange units operate in parallel from 160 – 1.600Hz.

The 254mm/10" woofer with aluminium diaphragm sports a thick rubber surround and very large double magnet and is mounted on one cheek for mirror-imaged pairing so the user has the choice of woofers in/out placement. To simplify construction, each cabinet features an MDF-sealed woofer hole on the empty side too. The speakers are manufactured in a beautiful factory near Kuopio co-owned by Amphion. From the inside the woofer magnet rests on a specially designed support to couple firmly to the enclosure and the driver is loaded through a port located between the midrange chambers. The enclosure sports complex bracing and foam-rubber damping. The single pair of speaker terminals is made of Palladium-coated pure copper. The internal wiring is proprietary silver-plated ultra-pure copper in 240-strand bundles. A separate run of silver improves grounding. The woofer connects with two parallel leads. The crossover network is assembled on a PCB and mounted to the speaker terminal plate which I couldn’t unscrew. The stock photo shows polypropylene capacitors and air coils. The cabinetry is gorgeously finished in natural veneers, with grilles on either cheek to cover the woofer and the sealed hole on the opposite side. Amphion’s Krypton³ is a fantastically built beautiful solid speaker with a number of patents under its belt.

Specs as provided by the maker:
Design: 3-way, ported
Tweeter: 1'' Titanium + wave guide integrator
Mid/woofer: 2 x 8" paper/papyrus
Woofer: 10'' aluminium
Crossover points: 160Hz and 1.600Hz
Impedance: 4Ω
Sensitivity: 89dB
Frequency response: 22 – 30.000 Hz (+ / -3 dB)
Recommended amplifier power: 25 - 300W
Dimensions (H x W x D): 1370 x 240 x 470mm
Weight: 72kg
Finish: white and black paint or natural birch and walnut veneer
opinia @ highfidelity.pl
PS: My meeting with Anssi Hyvönen during this year's Warsaw Audio Show was a big experience for me. It confirmed everything I’d already known through e-mail exchanges and assumptions based on listening to his top speaker. He is a very warm wise man who pursues his passions and goals in ways that won't hurt anyone, be that his employees or nature. Without overusing it, 'good' would probably be the word to briefly describe the man. This can be felt listening to his speakers headed by the Krypton³. Precise and linear frequency response; phenomenal soundstaging and insight into the recording as if one were sitting in the recording engineer’s room – these are the main features fortified by an inner harmony and consistency that keep the sound from being clinical and bright. The Amphion Krypton³ thus featured in my magazine's year-end award listing in the loudspeaker category where it shares honors with the Ardento Alter, Dynaudio Confidence C1 Signature, Harbeth M30.1 and Monitor Audio Reference MR4 [click on the above graphic to see all the winners in all the product categories - Ed.].
Amphion website