Experience with Tannoy Westminster Royal Gold Reference

Yes Melbguy1, i totally got your point, and totally agree that MSRP don't reflect the actual and full musical quality of an amp. So far, all subjectively, my Coincident Frankenstein 300B MkII beat anything i have heard in pure musical terms, at any price, and may remain better in same terms over the Gryphon, but we all know they do not have enough control over the Westminsters.
My few main points and logic just is:
1- don't really want to wait till next year, and don't even know what price the SM-103 will be - no good prices available when new stuff comes on the market - often we have to wait one or two more years to get good deals.
2- Mephisto Solo is already preferred by many over the Vitus MP-M201, which are actually the Masterpiece of Vitus and easily better the SM102.
3- It seems reasonable to think that the Vitus SM103 to come will not beat their flagship MP-M201, or would the SM-103 become the flagship?
4- Jeff Fritz of SoundStage magazine reviewed the Mephisto stereo in 2013 and preferred it over the MP-M201, and he's reviewed quite some good amps so far.
5- I very recently wrote to him to verify, and he told me that he would go for the Mephisto without hesitation over all the others, except for the Boulder 3050 which is his preferred ($200,000!!)
6- The Pass Xs300 make unanimity in US, and apart from SoundStage, no one got to review the Mephisto Solo, so no real final opinion available in the US.
7- European shops and consultants that sell both Mephisto and Xs300 (about same price) prefer the Danish amps by a large majority.

Have you actually listened to the Mephisto solo, and on which preamp and speakers?

hddg, First of all, Is Jeff Fritz and this loyal followers the "many" people to which you refer who prefer the Mephisto solo amps over the Vitus MP-M201 mono’s? Lol! I like Jeff, but let’s just say you only have half the story. There is a very specific reason why JF doesn’t review or praise any Vitus products, but I’m not going to go into that here. Let’s just say that his views on Gryphon vs Boulder are not objective.

Re: The release of the SM-103 monos, yes they incorporate much of the Masterpiece series technology, but also some new technology which is now being ’filtered up’ to the MP series. Hence the Masterpiece series will still remain VA’s flagship line.

Pass XS series is good, but they are not on the same level as Vitus or Gryphon.

No I have not personally heard the Gryphon Mephisto solo amps. Nor have you heard the Vitus SM-102 monos or MP-S201. But we can agree MSRP does not dictate how musical an amplifier may sound in a given setup.

I am not a follower of Jeff Fritz, or not really anyone for that matter. I was not born yesterday, and very well know that reviewers may have interests here and there, if not their own good taste.
As said in my introduction, i take things all over the whole wide world, with as much discernment as possible, then i make a synthesis of it and get my end result, which in any case is not the best, but just maybe one of the best possibilities!!!
Everyone's sensible opinion counts, and I again thank you most sincerely for having helped me a lot in that project. You made me think and progress. We agree on very much the same things in the end anyway, and even if it was not the case, we can agree to disagree, even more so for the sake that we all love a good music with the best possible sound.
Enjoy life and the music!

HDDG 10-14-2016
My preamp output impedance is 500 ohms, would an amp input of 10K ohms be fine??

The Coincident Statement Line Stage has transformer coupled outputs, and no capacitors in the signal path.  Therefore it will avoid the large rise in output impedance at deep bass frequencies that occurs in most tube preamps due to the use of a coupling capacitor at their outputs, which can result in the deep bass rolloff Dover referred to earlier if power amp input impedance is low.

However it is conceivable to me that other adverse sonic effects might occur, at least to a slight degree, if the CSLS is loaded with a low impedance such as the 10K input impedance of the Gryphon Mephisto Solo.  So I would suggest contacting Mr. Blume of Coincident and asking what minimum load impedance he would recommend for use with the CSLS.

Good luck.  Regards,
-- Al

hddg, if you pick up the pair of Mephisto amps up FS on the ’Gon right now, you will do very well. They are great amps as I said & will sound great for many years to come. I just had to correct some apparent misconceptions about Vitus amps which I know are equally, if not even better engineered than the Gryphon amps & have equal merit depending on one’s tastes and equipment of course.

JF runs a business, and as you correctly pointed out, some reviewers ’get in bed’ with manufacturers for what I would describe as mutual back scratching. Nuff said. Enjoy the Gryphons!