Gryphon Diablo 300
REFERENCE AUDIO – WITHAM ESSEX
BOB’s Review Series - No 26 – Gryphon Diablo 300 Integrated Stereo Amplifier
Introduction – Denmark, one of the three main countries collectively known as Scandinavia comprising the rather long and thin Norway, Sweden tucked in behind it and of course Denmark. But Scandinavia can sometimes also be said to include Finland just across the Gulf of Bothnia, and perhaps even the Faeroe Islands off the top of Scotland and even Iceland up a bit and left a bit from the Faeroe Islands. Why is all this important, well Denmark is home to many well-established manufacturers of high-end audio equipment such as Bang & Olufsen, Dali, Dynaudio, Gato, Borresen, Raidho, Copland and of course, Gryphon. Sweden also has its share including Marten Speakers, Jorma Design cables, Primare and Solid Tech.
All Gryphon products are designed and built in Denmark, where they were founded in 1986 and really took off in 1993. They describe their products as a ‘perfect union of the power of the lion with the grace of the eagle’ taking their name from the famous creature of Greek mythology. Gryphon is one of the few manufacturers who can supply a complete home entertainment system including source components, amplifiers, and speakers as well as the cables needed to connect them all together and furniture to sit them on. Gryphon was.
What sets them apart from many other designers in the audio world is their dedication to using master tape source material for internal reviews during the design and development process and they own many first- and second-generation tapes held specifically for this purpose.
Technology – Unlike their more upmarket amplifiers which run in pure Class A the Diablo 300 is a Class A/B amplifier specified at 300w in 8ohms, more than powerful enough to work with almost all loudspeakers in any sensibly sized domestic environment. It has 5 inputs, 2 on XLR and 3 on RCA including a less common these days tape in and out loop on RCA. It can accommodate within its casing a phono stage and a DAC module at the same time that can be specified at time of order or added at a later date as a dealer fit item. When the Phono module is added one of the RCA inputs them becomes dedicated to the Phono input which can be set internally for MM or MC operation. The DAC module comes with 2 BNC inputs plus one AES/EBU on XLR, a single optical input and USB. The amplifier also comes as standard with Left and Right Sub Outputs in addition to those mentioned above. It doesn’t come with any form of headphone connection.
The Diablo 300 comes in at £14,750, the DAC module adds £5,500 and the Phono module adds a further £2,000 (all at the time of writing) and can be specified at the time of placing an order or installed by us at a later date. Gryphon also makes a less powerful version of the amplifier called the 120 and this retails at £10,500 without DAC or Phono modules. The 300 measures 480mm x 235mm x 460mm (w-h-d) and weighs 38.1kg without additional modules.
On all their products Gryphon use the best speaker connectors I have seen anywhere, they are easy to use, sensibly spaced, can be locked down by hand and don’t come loose in use, something some other manufacturers should take note of. They accept banana plugs and spade connectors with ease. The front panel has a touch sensitive display with large volume display and touch buttons for on/off from standby (the main on/off switch being located under the front panel), mute, volume +/-, Input up/down, monitor and menu. The menu allows you to specify input names and a few other settings such start and maximum volume levels. Overall looks and build quality is second to none and even the supplied remote control is a work of art.
System Components – The Diablo 300 Integrated stereo amplifier replaced my Michi P5 Preamp and M8 monoblocs for the duration of the review and was fed from the hard drive of my Innuos Statement streamer/server and by streaming via Tidal/Qobuz into the Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro (MQA) DAC which was connected to the Diablo 300 via balanced XLR cables. As the review Diablo 300 had the DAC Module installed, I was also able to listen with the Innuos Statement directly connected to the Diablo 300 DAC via USB Cable. Speakers were my usual Marten Mingus Quintet.
Performance –I was prepared to expect something special from the Diablo 300 having heard it extensively in the showroom and I wasn’t disappointed. It does however take around 45 minutes to really come on song from a cold start.
A part of powering up any Gryphon product is waiting whilst it goes through an Initialisation stage for around 30-60 seconds during which time the unit tests its operating parameters before coming ready to use. This first time I noticed that a small blue LED was flashing on the left side of the front facia, and this continued for a couple of minutes after initialisation. This apparently is to do with charging the large capacitors ready for full use and also the capacitors in the DAC module if fitted. After a few hours use this amplifier runs fairly hot to the touch, because of its bias towards Class A although it is a Class A/B design, so good ventilation on all sides is necessary.
The Diablo 300 is a detailed and natural sounding integrated amplifier, and it’s powerful in its delivery and controls speaker drive units with an iron fist, essential for proper dynamic reproduction at whatever volume you choose. The 300 comes with maximum volume factory set at 42 but this can be increased or decreased by the user in the settings menu and is there for a reason, to protect your speakers and your hearing. I found that anything beyond 25 was loud and beyond 30 could only be listened to for short periods in my average sized room. Some of our customers do like to listen to music at very high volumes and Gryphon having regard to protecting your speakers and hearing have included this factory set level for very good reasons. I would however suggest reducing it to 35 if you are planning a party and want your speakers to survive the evening, unless you have very inefficient speakers.
Performance via my external DAC:
Playing music was a real pleasure after the initial 45-minute warm up period. ‘I Told You I Couldn’t Stop’ by Jacob Dylan was detailed, dynamic and did full justice to his vocals which are less gravely than his dad’s. I have lots of Shawn Mullins albums (CD not vinyl) and ‘The Ghost of Johnny Cash’ from Light You Up presented his distinctive voice with full emotion and power on this deep and dark track which, vocals are clearly something the Diablo 300 does very well.
As it also presents full and dynamic bass, with controlled and fast mids whilst maintaining a sparkling top end, what more can you ask for. It handles close miked vocals well where other amps can highlight the sibilance. Turning to something softer I listened to ‘Angel’ by Sarah McLachlan and the Diablo 300 realised all the emotion of her voice and the backing piano that I’ve not heard bettered before.
Turning to something more dynamic one of my favourite bass tracks (just for demo purposes, not for normal listening enjoyment) is ‘Confession’ by Alesso and here the Diablo 300 didn’t disappoint with deep, powerful room filling sound, only a bass addict would want to add a sub, but the Diablo 300 makes provision for subs for those into AV or two channel deep bass. I intended to listen to just one or two tracks from ‘Toy’ by Yello but ended up listening to the whole album such was the quality of replay via the Diablo 300 that just wouldn’t let me turn it off.
Today’s trend towards streaming is becoming ever more prevalent so it’s always good to see customers arrive with CD’s or Vinyl but these days streaming tends be used in most demos for ease of customer access to millions of songs. This does lead users towards playlists and track skipping but those of us of a certain age still see the romance and enjoyment of listening to whole albums, especially those ‘concept’ albums from the 60’s and 70’s so I played ‘The Wall’ by Pink Floyd and listened to the whole album, not just Comfortably Numb, and what an experience it was powered by the Diablo 300 holding my attention for the full 81 minutes. The drum rolls on ‘Hey You’ were especially rewarding.
Performance via the On-Board DAC Module:
The DAC Module currently sold by Gryphon for use in the Diablo 300 is one of the superb ESS Sabre chips. I find them to be slightly brighter sounding than those from competing AKM but not as bright as some of those made by independent designers. The one currently used by Gryphon according to their website is the ESS 9018 which tops out at 384kHz. ESS more recent chips are the ESS 9028 Pro and ESS 9038 Flagship which goes to 768kHz and supports full MQA decoding. The 9038 has better DNR at 140dB Mono (135 for the 9018) and 132dB for the 8 channels this DAC uses (129dB for the 9018.
It’s not just the technology that makes a good sound it’s also how the manufacturer implements the technology in their products. I connected a CD Transport to the Gryphon DAC module, and it performed extremely well, and I felt the internal DAC module was easily capable of holding its head high amongst similarly priced competition. It doesn’t support MQA at this time.
Conclusion – Great Integrated amps are a plenty these days and purchasers have a wealth of manufacturers to look to when seeking the best options to meet their needs in terms of aesthetics, performance in their system, size, build quality, reputation and of course price. Those needs differ for everyone and something I might like and would be happy to live with may not be your first choice or even in your top ten. So how to decide which model to go for? I feel quite certain that in the last 5 years amplifiers, speakers, CD players and streamers have made significant steps forward in all those areas but especially their ability to present the highest quality sound reproduction, build quality and desirability. Never has it been possible to have so much performance in the home from a one box solution and Gryphon, along with a few other manufacturers, seem to have found the Mojo that separates the good from the seriously good. Don’t expect modern day equipment will sound the same as a 20 year old system, it has moved on, and the Diablo 120 and 300 deserve to be on anyone’s shortlist for integrated amplifiers in this price bracket. They are truly remarkable amplifiers.
Bob – Team Reference Audio