Gryphon Audio Designs Antileon EVO Stereo Power Amplifier - The Antileon EVO from Gryphon of Denmark takes a no-compromise approach to pure Class A amplification, says Robert Harley.
Gryphon Audio Designs Antileon EVO Stereo Power Amplifier - The Antileon EVO from Gryphon of Denmark takes a no-compromise approach to pure Class A amplification, says Robert Harley.
Wow! Big move! Congrats. How do the Antileon Evo and the Zena compare with the 2100 series Boulders? Very very curious to read your listening notes when you get a moment! When does the new equipment arrive?
Was using 2160/2110 with innuos statement/rossini clock+dac onto magico m5. after 3 moths or so, i found i listened lesser and it all seemed too clinical. i guess new amp/pre shud be in about a month…
IMHO stick with Gryphon pre. I have tried latest Pandora and it is really good. Good flow, low noise, dynamic. If want to explore look at good SS preamps, like CH (more top to bottom) and Soulution (more bottom up). Maybe also Pass, like xp30/32. Gryphon amps have high gain, but low input impedance, therefore they are quite hard to drive by pure tube pre. I have direct experience with that. Thrax makes wonderful tube preamps, but Dionysis for example has high gain and volume control with not really fine steps. If can happen that you would be quite limited with volume settings if your speakers have relatively higher sensitivity. IMHO KR audio P 135 is an option. DHT with output transformers. Really good and quite affordable pre amp.
IMHO stick with Gryphon pre. I have tried latest Pandora and it is really good. Good flow, low noise, dynamic. If want to explore look at good SS preamps, like CH (more top to bottom) and Soulution (more bottom up). Maybe also Pass, like xp30/32. Gryphon amps have high gain, but low input impedance, therefore they are quite hard to drive by pure tube pre. I have direct experience with that. Thrax makes wonderful tube preamps, but Dionysis for example has high gain and volume control with not really fine steps. If can happen that you would be quite limited with volume settings if your speakers have relatively higher sensitivity. IMHO KR audio P 135 is an option. DHT with output transformers. Really good and quite affordable pre amp.
I like KR power amps but the pre amp is not good enough. Even a yamamoto, used at 1800 quid was quite better. For valve it DHT the Thomas Mayer 10y is excellent. There is also a 101d made in the UK which is very good..
The Soulution is great. Did you manage to compare with the CH pre? The pass is dynamically restricted, the high and low dynamic swings are curtailed, it is slower, and has a class A like flow sound which is a color. Same with the phono.
Having owned Gryphon for 11 years, we most often paired with them with CJ GAT or CJ GAT 2. However, we moved across to Robert Koda K15EX which is stunning in every way (and recently moved across to their SS pure Class A amps as well). Of the 3 preamps, our favorite was definitely the Robert Koda.
That said, the camps in my experience are split...many stick with Pandora or other Gryphon preamps. The other half have consciously stayed away from Gryphon preamps and gone out of their way to pair with a different maker.
IMHO stick with Gryphon pre. I have tried latest Pandora and it is really good. Good flow, low noise, dynamic. If want to explore look at good SS preamps, like CH (more top to bottom) and Soulution (more bottom up). Maybe also Pass, like xp30/32. Gryphon amps have high gain, but low input impedance, therefore they are quite hard to drive by pure tube pre. I have direct experience with that. Thrax makes wonderful tube preamps, but Dionysis for example has high gain and volume control with not really fine steps. If can happen that you would be quite limited with volume settings if your speakers have relatively higher sensitivity. IMHO KR audio P 135 is an option. DHT with output transformers. Really good and quite affordable pre amp.
IMHO stick with Gryphon pre. I have tried latest Pandora and it is really good. Good flow, low noise, dynamic. If want to explore look at good SS preamps, like CH (more top to bottom) and Soulution (more bottom up). Maybe also Pass, like xp30/32. Gryphon amps have high gain, but low input impedance, therefore they are quite hard to drive by pure tube pre. I have direct experience with that. Thrax makes wonderful tube preamps, but Dionysis for example has high gain and volume control with not really fine steps. If can happen that you would be quite limited with volume settings if your speakers have relatively higher sensitivity. IMHO KR audio P 135 is an option. DHT with output transformers. Really good and quite affordable pre amp.
I have thrax Dionysos and while I have to agree with the high gain, this is by no means a deal breaker for me, for what it brings to music. Very under-rated but ver musical, very big soundstage and adds right amount of tubiness to solid state system, giving a good balance. I was also considering Gryphon antileon Evo and its input impedance is higher (20 kohm) than my audia flight strumento no.4 mk2 (7.5 kohm). If thrax Dionysos (with output impedance of 150-400 ohm, as per the manufacturer) can drive my amp without flaw, it should not be a problem for AE. I am amazed at Thrax musicality every time I listen. I will at some point go to Gryphon Mephisto, but not change my preamp. Good luck.
If i upgrade from my Diablo 300 i'm also thinking about Antileon Evo paired with Zena or Thrax Dionysos.
I have auditioned the Dionysos paired with the Mephisto stereo and did like very much the presentation.
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