OePhi

OePhi are a company based in Denmark who design and handcraft a range of loudspeakers and cables which offer incredible performance, precision and musicality.

OePhi’s tagline is ‘Timing is Everything’ and this accurately outlines OePhi’s goal with all of their products – to deliver impeccable time domain accuracy. They certainly do things quite differently to most in the audio industry and the results we have been getting from their products has been nothing short of exceptional.

Their primary loudspeaker range consists of 6 models ranging from £3950 to £12495, with a 7th reference flagship speaker at £24995, they are all designed to offer incredible bandwidth, ultra low distortion, delivering unrestricted dynamics combined with perfect phase-transition and time domain performance. They place emphasis on ensuring that their loudspeakers do not impede the signal or alter it in any way.

At their price points they are possibly the finest examples I have ever encountered of a loudspeaker which simply steps out of the way of the music.

My first experience with OePhi was at Munich High End 2024, I was well aware of their reputation but I did not have any hands on experience with them. A mutual friend introduced me to the founder, designer and owner of OePhi, Joakim Juhl, and I spent the best part of an afternoon listening to a selection of speakers in their room. Fast forward almost 12 months and after some extensive evaluation and forensic listening across my entire portfolio of electronics I’m absolutely thrilled to have OePhi onboard here at Audio Therapy.

OePhi loudspeakers are designed to not change or modify the musical signal, but allow it to pass through as faithfully and honestly as possible, they are one of the few loudspeakers that step out of the way of the music and they do not shape, colour or manipulate the signal in any way.

Joakim Juhl and his team have over 25 years of experience in developing their loudspeakers, designing crossover slopes, selecting drive units, components and creating acoustical and mechanical solutions in order to minimise their loudspeakers imprint on the final sound.

The Ascendence models are OePhi’s starting point, there is the Ascendence 2 standmount and the Ascendence 2.5 floorstander. Both models incorporate a SEAS tweeter which OePhi has rebuilt in-house to their exacting specification, the mid-bass drivers on these models are also from SEAS and like the tweeter they have also been modified to further enhance performance.

At their price points these 2 models offer incredible levels of transparency and resolution, their pace and timing is superb. The Ascendence 2 is priced at £3950, they are supremely capable given their price and relatively compact size. The 2.5 floorstander (£6495) offers essentially the same level of performance, but with far greater scale, weight and bass extension.

The Transcendence range follows on from Ascendence with 2 models, the Transcendence 2 standmount is £5495 and the Transcendence 2.5 floorstander which is £9495.

The Transcendence models use the same SEAS tweeter as the used in the Ascendence, but stepping up to this range the mid/bass drivers are from Purifi, a highly regarded drive unit manufacturer also based in Denmark, these brilliant drive units are used by several other brands including Kroma Atelier. OePhi do not use off the shelf Purifi drive units, they have been specified by OePhi without the polypropylene coating on them, this makes them lighter which in turn makes them faster and gives them greater agility.

As you make the switch from Ascendance to Transcendence you gain resolution and insight with greater resolution, dynamics, bass weight and textures. The Ascendence models are both wonderful speakers at their price points, but the jump in performance when you switch to Transcendence is quite obvious from the moment the music starts. They are wonderfully vivid and they deliver outstanding realism, they really throw the window wide open and let you hear right into a recording.  As a result of this some care and attention is needed over positioning to get them right, plus they respond magnificently as the system around them improves, they are a little harder to drive than the Ascendence, but that isn’t really an issue for the any of the amplifiers that reside in our demonstration room.

…for stone-cold realism and musical fluency, in my experience the Transcendence 2 has no peer in its price class or several above. In short, it’s left me questioning if it’s the most engrossing and irresistibly addictive small speaker I’ve ever reviewed

Above the Transcendence range there is Immanence, here we have another standmount and floorstander, the Immanence 2 and 2.5. They use the same Purifi mid/bass driver as the Transcendence range but these 2 models employ a large ribbon tweeter instead of the SEAS tweeter. The Immanence 2 are £8495 a pair and the floorstanding 2.5 are £12495 a pair.

Both Immanence models offer sensational performance for the money, delivering unhindered dynamics and almost endless resolution. They offer timing, coherency and realism like nothing else at their respective price points, the shift in performance with these 2 models is quite dramatic and something of an eye opener as several customers have already experienced.

The Immanence are more demanding loudspeakers than Ascendence and Transcendence, they are incredibly fast and open sounding and dispersion of the large ribbon tweeter means positioning needs some care and attention. Don’t assume that their optimum position will be where your current speakers are positioned.

Partnering electronics are critical also; Immanence can be ruthlessly revealing with realism and resolution take a big leap forward, they have been designed to have a flat response and they have not been manipulated to sound polite with certain frequencies, many speaker manufacturers engineer warmth and colour into a speaker to make them more forgiving, not so here, and this can highlight any deficiencies with the rest of your system and that includes the cabling as well.

The Ascendence, Transcendence and Immanence standmount models are all the same physical size and they are all 2 way designs. The floorstanding models from these 3 ranges the same applies, they are all the same size, however these models are 2.5 way designs.

OePhi’s flagship speaker is the Reference 3.5, this a 3 way design and one which is much larger than the other floorstanding models. It uses a much larger ribbon tweeter, along with a dedicated mid-range driver and 2 bass driver. You only need to take a glance at an image of the 3.5 to see how large this ribbon tweeter is.

The Reference 3.5 stands 12cm taller and is 20cm deeper than the other floorstanding model and when carefully set up in a room it offers unlimited levels of resolution and scale, incredible dynamics, they take the already superb performance from Immanence and build upon it in every way, a true Reference loudspeaker.

All OePhi loudspeakers are designed to allow you to hear right into the music and their presentation is best described as simply being correct, nothing added and nothing removed. They have an incredibly lifelike and honest presentation, and it’s fair to say that each of their models sounds nothing like other speakers that sit at similar price points.

In some systems this level of honesty can make the presentation a little stark, but in a well designed system, that is balanced and assembled with care this is never really an issue, and the results that can be achieved really do speak for themselves, but drop a pair of OePhi speakers into a system curated from random second hand purchases you will potentially be asking for trouble.

All of the OePhi loudspeakers are certainly worth the time and effort to ensure that they perform to their best and the rewards from them can be truly startling. The words boutique and artisanal are often overused in this industry, but they are 2 terms that really fit with OePhi and align with the vision of what they are trying to achieve as a brand, if you are looking for a new pair of speakers I implore you to explore what OePhi has to offer.