Gryphon Scorpio S CD Player Review
REFERENCE AUDIO – WITHAM ESSEX
BOB’s Review Series – No 04 – Gryphon Scorpio S CD Player
Introduction – Welcome to Bob’s Review No 04 of the Gryphon Scorpio S CD Player. A ‘perfect union of the power of the lion with the grace of the eagle’ is how Gryphon describe their products on their websitewww.gryphon-audio.dk and I now have at home for review their latest Scorpio S CD Player. Gryphon, based in Denmark, are 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. Gryphon was founded in 1986 and really took off in 1993. They took their name from the famous creature of Greek mythology and which is engraved on the top of this CD Player.
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 for this purpose.
Technology – The Scorpio S uses an Asahi Kasei 4490EQ DAC Chip for processing the digital stream. The same chip is used in my Michi P5 preamp but whereas Michi use a single pair of these chips the Gryphon uses 4 pairs. The Scorpio S is a CD Player only, it doesn’t have any digital inputs nor a headphone output and won’t play SACD, which is a good thing for us CD enthusiasts because it means you are only paying for the one item you need. Can you, for instance, remember the last time you read a review of a headphone amp that wasn’t also a DAC or a DAC that wasn’t also trying to be a pre-amp. So, clarity and dedication to the single purpose must mean that Gryphon have spent money on design right where it is needed.
Gryphon always invest in top class casework and this is very evident in the Scorpio S. It is sleek in its blackness with a red Gryphon logo illuminating behind the centre display panel as soon as power is connected. The front panel has just 8 simple touch sensitive controls, no physical buttons here, that cover all normal CD functions of play, pause, stop, open etc. Just remember to touch the little dots above the actual legends otherwise nothing will happen. The display comes on in blue and gives you all the information you need, and a stylish remote control completes the operation set. The Scorpio S sits high on four tall recessed legs giving the impression that the player is floating. One of the reasons for this is that central underhung loading tray and the transport mechanism hangs low below the facia, reminiscent of the rear exhaust box on a BMW M2 Competition.
The Scorpio S only has a single pair of XLR Balanced analogue outputs, no RCA here, and a single digital output on BNC. £7,800 buys you a brand-new Scorpio S CD Player.
System Components – As usual my Michi P5 Pre-Amp and M8 Monobloc Power Amps feeding Marten Mingus Quintet speakers was used throughout the review with cabling mostly by Jorma with mains provision and protection by Nordost and IsoTek.
Performance – Gryphon always bias their products towards Class A operation and as this CD Player gets pretty warm during use, I wonder if they are using Class A in some way here as well. This is real high end silver disc playback which soon became evident when I started to spin discs. I started with ‘I Believe’ by Enigma on their ‘7th Sword’ CD and found the vocals by Racha Rizk did make me believe – in just how far digital playback has come since CD came to the UK in 1984. I still have a Toshiba XR-Z90 and a Marantz CD63 that I bought new that year, they were amongst the very first to arrive in the UK. They are both still working, boxed and as new, but comparing them with a modern-day player shows that age of design has not been good to them.
I have also used the Scorpio S in a full Gryphon system in one of our demo rooms including the Mephisto monobloc’s and their Pantheon speakers and it was a truly rewarding experience. Using it at home also didn’t disappoint and shows that the source is still a great dictator or what’s to follow in your audio chain. Perhaps not to the extent spoused in the 80’s but still it showed how important it is to get the source right.
Next up ‘Telegraph Road’ from Dire Straits 1996 remastered version of ‘Love Over Gold’ and what I heard was one of the best renditions of guitars and vocals at home from Mark Knopfler with open and engaging soundstage, bass slam and sparkling cymbals all playing as one. Moving on to Private Investigations the drums by Pick Withers and bass guitar by John Illsley were right there in front of me. If you’ve not heard any of Illsley’s solo albums I recommend giving them a try. Better in some regards to Mark Knopfler’s more recent solo albums which I find all start to sound a bit the same.
Finally, I listened to Wasted Time from the Eagles ‘Hell Freezes Over’ album and my time doing so wasn’t wasted. The Scorpio S reproduced every nuance of this track with Don Henley at his very best. I did in fact listen to many more CD’s, but enjoyment took over the need to write notes.
Summary – There are many high-end CD players to chose from and Nintronics have a fair share of them for you to listen to. The Scorpio S however stands apart from other one box solutions by reproducing music in your home that can only be bettered by those players costing even more money. Sure, the Esoteric two box P-05X/D-05X was in some but not all regards better but it is more than twice the price of the Scorpio S. I now wonder just what the Gryphon Audio Ethos CD player can add, at almost £30,000 I would hope that it adds something significant. I’ll report back if I ever get the chance to listen to it.
Well done Gryphon.
I hope that those of you taking the time to read my lengthy reviews have found this one interesting. Please contact me if you have any question or to listen to this and other equipment by Gryphon in our five dedicated listening rooms.
Thanks for listening.
Bob at reference Audio
www.referenceaudio.co.uk