Gryphon Trident II
- Thread starter AJR
- Start date
Dreams are free! A speaker upgrade like that is a while away yet . I have my eyes on the M3s plus subwoofers or the Trident IIs. Am also thinking of moving apartments and a key consideration is music room size (current apartment is too small for either upgrade) so just thinking ahead.
Small-Medium size. 18 feet deep and very wide from one side (opens up from the lounge/listening room to an open plan dining and 2nd lounge area). Too small for Trident IIs or M6s but probably ok for M3s. But not enough room for M3s + sub woofers. Perfect size for my S3 mk2s.
AJR,
Speaking only for myself and my own experience...since i am always deal-driven (ie, big discounts, 2nd hand, etc), if i have had the opportunity in the past to pick up a pair of 'dream speakers' I have done so and worked them into the space.
Obviously, there are limits...but FWIW, i have never regretted having the big Wilsons even though the ceilings in our old place were a bit short. And today, they sound great having been 'freed up' with more space. But had I passed at that time...i am not 100% sure i would have been able to find these at the same price and in the same condition...possible, yes, but far from certain.
18' seems like a pretty good distance for the small dimension in a room. The Wilsons are designed for smaller rooms as well as bigger ones...it was one of David Wilsons big mantras...being able to reproduce the quality of sound he was striving for in multiple rooms...hence why they come with so many ways to adjust them.
That said, good setup even with fixed speakers can make a huge difference.
Speaking only for myself and my own experience...since i am always deal-driven (ie, big discounts, 2nd hand, etc), if i have had the opportunity in the past to pick up a pair of 'dream speakers' I have done so and worked them into the space.
Obviously, there are limits...but FWIW, i have never regretted having the big Wilsons even though the ceilings in our old place were a bit short. And today, they sound great having been 'freed up' with more space. But had I passed at that time...i am not 100% sure i would have been able to find these at the same price and in the same condition...possible, yes, but far from certain.
18' seems like a pretty good distance for the small dimension in a room. The Wilsons are designed for smaller rooms as well as bigger ones...it was one of David Wilsons big mantras...being able to reproduce the quality of sound he was striving for in multiple rooms...hence why they come with so many ways to adjust them.
That said, good setup even with fixed speakers can make a huge difference.
Thanks for that LL21.
How about this for a deal: a 2nd hand Pandora preamp (apparently 2 years old and in mint condition - the seller is a customer of my Gryphon dealer) for about the same price as a new Zena preamp.
Is very tempting!
But I also want to give my MSB Premier a decent try with the Antileon Evos. I have a hunch that if I decide to buy the Antileon Evo I will end up with the Pandora or Zena, but not for another 12 months or so, and that would depend on home auditioning to compare against the MSB. In the meantime I wanted to build up a war chest for a speaker upgrade.
The fun continues!
How about this for a deal: a 2nd hand Pandora preamp (apparently 2 years old and in mint condition - the seller is a customer of my Gryphon dealer) for about the same price as a new Zena preamp.
Is very tempting!
But I also want to give my MSB Premier a decent try with the Antileon Evos. I have a hunch that if I decide to buy the Antileon Evo I will end up with the Pandora or Zena, but not for another 12 months or so, and that would depend on home auditioning to compare against the MSB. In the meantime I wanted to build up a war chest for a speaker upgrade.
The fun continues!
Philip O Hanlon
Industry Expert
The House Of Gryphon, initial set-up was with the Diablo 300 driving the Trident II.
Pantheon & Trident. I'm 6' tall (1.85m) as a point of reference.
That's a v nice high powered class AB on the rear panel of the Trident II.
I had the opportunity last month to spend a day listening to the Trident II with the Diablo 300, Antileon EVO, Colosseum & Mephisto. Preamps were mainly the Zena but also the Pandora. Source was the Mikado CD player feeding the Legatto DAC.
Sonically, we are enjoying the Pantheons immensely and think that they are a bargain in high end terms; even in our large living / listening room, we have found the bass to be nicely textured with lots of definition & articulation. They throw a wide, three dimensional soundstage and will rock out when needed and disappear like mini monitors if properly installed. The most telling feature is their ability to convey emotion & passion; they can easily bring an adult to tears listening to an emotional performance (such as Pandora, my wife while listening to Foy Vance "It Burns"). If you turn up the volume in anger, for an iconic rock classic, such as LZ's "Whole Lotta Love" - we have measured 110dB at the listening chair, with the speakers just ambling along nicely. In contrast to the Vivid Giya G1 series 2, the Pantheon are richer & more musical sounding, while the Giyas are more resolute for listening to the recording. So do you want to listen to the music or the recording ?
Trident II; what do you get if you spend three times as much money as the Pantheon ? The cheapest Gryphon monoblocks are more than half the price of the Tridents, so that is a major consideration. The Tridents are a sealed enclosure, versus ports in the Pantheon. The Tridents are 3dB less efficient than the Pantheon as a result. Not having any ports, mean that the Tridents are easier to position in a room. With adjustable dampening & amplitude from the listening chair via remote control, means that the speakers are easier to dial in.
Trident II are extremely impressive both sonically & visually. Its a sealed cabinet, with tighter & more articulate bass than the Pantheon. Where the Trident differs from most of the competition is that it has a huge class AB amplifier bolted to the rear panel that drives the four woofers. The amp is rated at 500W RMS or 2,000W peak power. So the mids & highs are 95dB efficient, in reality you only need a good 20W amp to drive these; so an excellent 845 amp would do the trick, as would any of the Gryphon class A amps. So how does it sound ? No surprise that it sounds like a scaled down Kodo versus a larger Pantheon. I really like the Mundorf air motion transformer found in all the Gryphon speakers, wonderfully airey highs, the transition between all the drivers is absolutely seamless. The tonal texture is sophisticated enough to allow one to differentiate between a Guarneri or a Strad or a Hamburg Steinway versus a New York Steinway. Even the Diablo 300 had a wonderful relaxed presentation driving the Tridents, clearly we were listening to the low powered class A output of the Diablo 300 - effortless is what came to mind.
Personally, I hope to swing later on in the year, the Trident II with Colosseum monos with either walnut burl side panels or red leather with black stitching. More anon.
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