Popular Post AmusedToD Posted January 1, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 1, 2018 Recently switched from a Simaudio Moon I-7 to a Gryphon Diablo. Had a Naim Supernait in the past with a Naim HiCap DR PSU. IMHO, the Naim can’t compete with the Moon or the Gryphon, but it’s also much cheaper than both. Going from the Supernait to the Simaudio Moon I-7 RS (predecessor to the 700i) brought resolution, better extension at both ends of the frequency spectrum, and a general sense of refinement that the Naim wasn’t able to provide, while still retaining excellent precision and timing (albeit with less slam). And now, going up to the Gryphon Diablo is like going to a Naim on steroids - super powerful, extremely fast, with tremendous authority and grip when driving even difficult low sensitivity speakers. But unlike Naim, the Gryphon gives you high resolution and a sense of refinement, with absolutely ZERO fatigue. I find this feature to be the most important for me (as I would get listener’s fatigue with both the Supernait and the Moon I-7 after just a few hours of digital playback). When compared to the Moon I-7, the Diablo is a complete opposite in terms of character. It’s extremely powerful, with an unbelievable slam and total control of the speakers. But it’s also darker sounding and more relaxed, even though is can sound “raw” from time to time, depending on the material. The Moon is more open, brighter, even analytical, creates a holographic soundstage, but is pretty “anemic” in the lower registers. No cable could help in this regard. It does work well with Dynaudio and similar somewhat “darker” sounding speakers. So with my TAD ME1 speakers and in my setup, the Gryphon Diablo made one hell of an impact, a much bigger difference in sound than upgrading the source. I also learnt a very important lesson there: get the speaker - amp combo right and do not spend money on other stuff (including DACs and cables) until you get proper synergy there. The amp-speaker setup is 3/4 of the sound. MikeJazz and EMMM 2 Link to comment
AmusedToD Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 8 minutes ago, MarkS said: Gryphon Diablo is superb and best many separates of equal and higher cost. Do you have the dac board installed or a separate dac? I have the dCS Paganini DAC. Link to comment
AmusedToD Posted January 3, 2018 Share Posted January 3, 2018 2 hours ago, MetalNuts said: I am using Gryppon's Diablo 300. It is the best Integrated I have. I forgot about the specs and it has enough power to drive my Magico S1 MK2 and that is what I need. Some may consider pre-amp and power amp superior than integrated but IMHO it all depends on the quality of the equipment itself and the matching between the pre and power. General speaking, the price of pre + power is more than an integrated. Since I believe in different cables will have an impact on the SQ, an integrated save me a lot on the extra power cable, interconnect, it is a plus to me. However, I do not prefer to have the dacs, phono etc installed on an integrated, I prefer to have them external in their own individual chasis. Which DAC are you using? Link to comment
AmusedToD Posted January 3, 2018 Share Posted January 3, 2018 24 minutes ago, MetalNuts said: Esoteric N-05 in the meantime but will soon upgrade to N-01. Cool. Which cables do you use? Link to comment
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