I listened to the Gryphon Diablo today , what an experience !


I just had an opportunity to audition  the Gryphon Diablo 300 at Evolution Home Theater. They have recently become the authorized Gryphon Dealer in Atlanta. First a little background.  I normally listen to my Sonus Faber Amati Tradition powered by a Plinius 9200. My music is from Tidal, played through a Cambridge  Audio Azur 851N network player or via my network hard drive. I thought that this combination sounded great and was very happy with my system until today when I heard the Gryphon.Although I expected some  improvement with Gryphon, I did not expect to be blown away by the amplifier, However after hearing the amplifier for the first time,  that is exactly what happened!The Gryphon 300 was set up to use the internal DAC with Tidal via a music server.  The speakers were the Sonus Faber Serafina’s. I had previous heard both the Amati’s and the Serafina’s  on MAC equipment and thought the Amati’s sounded significantly better on the MAC gear,When I listened today  and compared the music with my own system, I heard significant improvement with the Gryphon. The first thing I noticed was the pinpoint control the amplifier exerted on the speakers.  This was manifested by an extended frequency range with both improved  bass and treble. It seemed as though a veil or haze had been removed from the music with a marked increase in clarity, detail, and analytics.  Yet the amplifier showed no coolness or harshness and after listening for several hours to a variety of music (mostly jazz, classical, and rock) there was no evidence of fatigue. The soundstage was large, three dimensional and detailed.  It was an improvement over my Plinius in every way.It also changed the way that I look at my music system.  I used to think that it was all in the speakers and with great speakers all that was needed was a good amplifier.  I learned today that a great amplifier with very good speakers, can sound better than a good amplifier with excellent speakers.I can hardly wait until I can make the time to be able to demo the Gryphon in my own music room with my Amati speakers.
hemoncdoc

Showing 1 response by audiotroy

Some of you guys miss the pont of our posts which is to counter some of the ridiculous statements that people make. There is no best of anything at any price point, there are Vandy fans, Wilson fans, Magico, Rahido, Rockport fans which is the best of this list?

It is like comparing a BMW, vs an Audi, Mercedes, a Cadilliac, a Lexus, Infinit? All great but different cars.

We sell a very large number of audio products we actively display over 60 brands of audio products, and for us to say that brand x y or z is the best is ridiculous sure we have our personal favorites but these will change depending on what our clients are looking to accomplish.

There are many outstanding audio products that are all superb, what matters is system synergy, voicing, feature set to some degree styling, pride of ownership, resale and serviceablity.

We mention our T+A gear because it is a direct competitor to Gryphon and it is one of the best sounding products at the uber intergrated class which includes Gryphon, Dagastino, Vitus, Ch Precision, Thrax, Ypsion and some others.

Which one someone prefers will depend on the voicing of the product and the match with the person’s other components.

These are all world class components whose designs and execuation represent the best of the best, however you may be also pleased with some of the newer less expensive products from companies like Coda and Krell also companies like T+A have the reference class HV 3100 integrated at $23k with the lower R series intergrated at $12,500 having less power but still sounding fantastic.

We just put out a Krell Dac/preamp and the matching X300 amplifier and the Krell gear is scary good for the money is it as good as the T+A not quite but for $18k for a dac a preamp and a 300 watt amplifer it is a pretty good deal and the sound quality is really, really special.

The point is there are a ton of options that are worth exploring and this includes gear we sell and of course gear we don’t.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ dealers for T+A, Krell