Gryphon Pandora Preamp
REFERENCE AUDIO – WITHAM ESSEX
BOB’s Review Series - No 82 – GRYPHON PANDORA PREAMPLIFIER
WHAT’S IN A NAME
What’s in a name? I was pondering this when setting up the Gryphon Pandora Preamp in my home system for review. Everyone knows that from Greek legend Pandora had a box, and she opened it, right? Well apparently, it was a jar, but that’s not important right now because if you are wondering why Gryphon named this preamp the Pandora then it’s probably because she is often referred to as being ‘all gifted’ which I guess that’s appropriate for a high-end preamp, especially one from the Gryphon stable. According to legend Zeus instructed Hephaestus to create Pandora as the first human woman (although I expect Eve would have something to say about that) and the Gods endowed her with numerous talents including beauty, grace, charm and harmony but from Apollo she was given the gift of music which seems pertinent here. When she gave in to temptation and opened her jar, despite being forbidden to do so, she released all the evils of humanity in the form of 100 plagues on mankind, except for Hope which remained in the Jar.
It wasn’t long ago that seemingly all audio manufacturers were naming their products after Greek Gods although that tendency seems to have died down a bit these days. It can’t be easy to keep coming up with unique and identifiable names for products and car manufacturers have perhaps the hardest job of all coming up with names that are sensible, easily identify the car and manufacturer and do so all around the world without causing unintentional offence. Whilst pondering the Pandora name I was in a traffic jam on the way to work behind a big Mercedes SUV called an AMG – GLC 43 which, not being a Merc driver, didn’t mean anything to me. But those of us of a certain age when seeing ‘GLC’ will automatically think of the Greater London Council not a great big Merc, perhaps it was Ken Livingstone’s company car. Can you imagine being at a dinner party with friends who are discussing the cars they have or have owned and having to say yours is an AMG -GLC 63, and then having to cope with all the blank looks, except of course from little Ken sitting in the corner wondering why everyone was talking about his car.
Naming a product therefore is clearly fraught with difficulty and danger, get it wrong and you might alienate some of your customers, get it right and if the product is good enough it might go down in the history books or even become a household name, like Hoover for example. Did Gryphon get it right when they named this preamp the Pandora and is it truly all gifted? Let’s find out.
THE PANDORA PREAMP
Gryphon describes the Pandora as a four-box preamp, which I suppose it is because it comprises separate left/right channel power supply units and left/right control units that just happen to be connected to form a two box PSU / Controller solution. Pursuing this separate L/R channel separation the Pandora has twin mains inputs on the PSU unit, one for each channel using standard C15 mains connectors. The two separate boxes are connected via three umbilical cables, two 6 pins ones for the L/R analogue power supply and one seven pin one for the digital control interface, each cable is 1250mm long so placing them on different shelves is not a problem. It is a pure Class A device with 3 inputs on high quality XLRs, one on RCA plus RCA Tape input and output on RCA. It has two pairs of XLR outputs to enable bi-amping if needed. In addition, following Gryphon tradition it has 12v power triggers for connection to other devices and twin Green Bias connectors. It can be fitted with an internal Legato phono board or, if you have an external Legato phono stage it can provide power to it from separate outputs on the PSU box.
Unlike other Gryphon preamps and integrated amps, the Pandora has a large rotary volume control in the centre of the control unit which runs on a ball race for added feel. It is not a powered volume control, but it can of course be operated by remote control. The Pandora has twin 90,000 uF capacitor banks, more than many a power amp has. Upon first turn on, if you already own the Essence preamp you will wonder why it is so quiet. This I soon realised is because the Essence volume can be set from zero to 45 whereas the Pandora can be set from zero to 85, so 22 on my Essence is around 40 on the Pandora for similar volume levels. Each box measures 480mm wide x 130mm high and 400mm deep and together weigh 17.5kg. Each box has two round feet at the front and two long spokes at the rear so stacking is not recommended.
CONNECTIONS
My current system comprises the following equipment:
- Gryphon Essence Power Amp
- Gryphon Essence Pre-Amp
- Gryphon Ethos CD Player /DAC
- Gryphon 3.10 PowerZone
- Innuos PheonixNet Ethernet Reclocker
- Innuos Statement NG Streamer
- Ideon Absolute Time USB reclocker
- Magnum Dynalab MD 106 Triode FM Tuner
- REL Carbon Special Subwoofer
- Marten Coltrane Tenor 2 speakers
- All leads with the exception of two power leads are by Jorma, those other two are by HB Laboratories, a new UK start up company.
All the above electronics sit on a 7 shelf Gryphon StandArt stand.
PERFORMANCE
Before we get to how it performs let’s get the cost out of the way. At £32,500 without the internal Legato phono stage module, it is twice the price of my Essence preamp and half the price of their more recent two box Commander preamp. The onboard Legato phono module, should you decide to include it will cost you an additional £8,950. Being a two-case unit, it takes up more space shelf and although it can be stacked, I wouldn’t recommend it because those rear spikes will easily mark the unit below. Heat is not an issue for siting the Pandora, the PSU box doesn’t even get warm, and the preamp box only gets mildly warm. My Essence Pre runs warmer.
Being a four-box preamp in a two-box case the stereo separation is, as you would hope and expect, truly amazing, resulting in an almost three-dimensional sound stage. More than once, I looked behind me thinking my wife had entered the room to ask me something. I’m aware that many audiophiles don’t believe a separate active preamp, let alone one as expensive as the Pandora is an essential part of a system and they are often content using either a passive preamp or just the volume control on their streamer or DAC. All I can say is please try one and once you have you won’t go back, they are after all the beating heart of any system. The Pandora brings an added sense of analogue sound to digital music, not by reducing detail or by muddying the sound, they just seem to tame it somehow and all in a good way.
I listened to a variety of music whilst I had the Pandora in my system and one of the first tracks I played, having let it warm up for a few hours was ‘Will You Still Love Me’ by Carole King, a live version featuring James Taylor from a concert on 18 June 1971 (the best year in music history) on Tidal 16 Bit/44.1kHz, standard CD quality. Although it’s the vocals on this track that really draw you in on an emotional level it was the backing instruments, especially at the start of the track, that made me sit up and listen presenting as open, airy, spectacular and totally engrossing.
Another live recording I played was ‘The Sound of Silence’ by Paul Simon from a concert in June 2011, again on Tidal 16 Bit/44.1kHz and despite him playing in front of thousands of fans it seemed like he was playing just for me, intimate as only Gryphon knows how. What the Pandora offers over the Essence preamp is a greater appreciation of the rhythm, timbre and general openness of reproduced sound, and of course greater enjoyment to everything you play.
The Pandora excels with all music genera, but I found it especially good with electronic music where its amazing stereo separation panders to electronic music’s use of left/right imaging. Anything from Kraftwerk or The Human League was better than I have heard elsewhere. Its ability to define image, hold spot on beat and timing and deliver tight and controlled dynamics is what sets this preamp apart from many others. I also listened to the 2009 album by Club For Five called ‘You’re The Voice’ on which they have a version of Dire Straits ‘Brothers In Arms’. It a great track worth seeking out and the Pandora delivered the vocals with rich tonality, ambience and emotion.
CONCLUSION
The Gryphon Essence preamp is an outstanding performer, but the Pandora is in a different league, not unrecognisably so but enough to make you want to keep it and trade in your Essence. Like all good pieces of equipment, you appreciate it most when you have taken it out of your system. This performance remember is with the Essence Power Amp and not as Gryphon intended the Pandora to be used with a their Antileon or Mephisto power amps and perhaps it wouldn’t be a common pairing with the Essence power amp because of price. But that’s what I have so that’s what I used for this review and believe me I didn’t want to give it back. During the time I had the Pandora at home my brother called in for a listen, he has a similar system to mine with a Gryphon Diablo 333 amplifier, Innuos Zenith streamer and Marten Miles 5 speakers and he said it was not only the best he had heard my system but the best system he has heard to date, high praise indeed. I had to agree with him on the first point but not the second because he hasn’t yet heard the Commander and Apex monoblocs by Gryphon which for those fortunate few who can afford £250k just for amplification is something rather special.
Going back to Apollo who gave Pandora the gift of music it sems to me that it was a gift well given. It’s a very special gift and one that I don’t have, not being able to pay any musical instrument but I can listen to others on recorded music in my home and for that the Pandora Preamp is something rather special. Is it better than my Essence preamp? Well, yes, it is but only if you can afford it in which case it’s a no brainer, buy it if you can but if the Essence is at the limit of your spending, as it is mine, the Essence won’t disappoint.
January 2025
Bob – Team Reference Audio