Ok, first of all I need to elaborate a little bit on the reason why I went from the Mephisto to CH P, as otherwise things may be pulled out of their context. I had started with a complete Gryphon set-up, except for CD Player/DAC for which I choose the CH P CD/DAC combination, which I already had prior to the Gryphon purchase. One day for some reason the fuse in the power supply of the Gryphon Pandora pre-amp blew, and as I had no spare fuses at home, I had to order. Now, where I live (Surabaya/Indonesia) certain items may not be as easy to get as where you guys live, so I had to wait for the new fuses to arrive. That initiated me to connect the C1 DAC directly to the Mephisto, as I thought that would be a good temporary solution. Indeed it was...in fact it was the start of the big change to come after that. It did sound so much more open, crisp, transparent that I couldn't believe my ears... Not that the Pandora isn't a good pre-amp, but only at that time I realized that it wasn't the best possible with a decent margin. That made me decide to inquire about the L1/X1 combination. My dealer made me an offer, in fact made me two offers, one for the L1/X1 combination, and one for a L1/X1/M1 combination, he would take back the Pandora and the Mephisto, so the investment was not that extreme. I wasn't that sure about changing the Mephisto, as I was actually deeply impressed by the abilities of that amp, however...due to the very interesting offer on hand, I bit the bullet and went for the complete CH P set-up. Of course, upon arrival of the CH P equipment (the Pandora/Mephisto had gone by that time already) I couldn't wait to install and listen.... I did sound really good...but...it did sound different in a way I was sometimes longing for the previous sound. Again, difficult to say exactly what it was, may be the Mephisto was a tiny bit more "musical", may be the CH P was a tiny bit "darker", I don't know, all in all...I had doubts...not 100% sure I had made the right decision. That was the main reason for me to implement the upgrade from the M1 to M1.1. In fact, I again bit -another- bullet, and decided to go mono, so I ordered the upgrade set, and a second new M1.1 as well. The upgrade set came in first, so the M1 was changed to M1.1 This does make a real audible change indeed, the differences have been described in many reviews online. In general I do agree with what others hear, the main difference for me however is that the transparency (To my ears, with my speakers, in my room) did improve significantly. Dynamics became a bit better as well. Now, how does this compare to the Mephisto, well, again to my ears etc it convinced me that even though different, it was now at a comparably level of satisfaction. I could live at peace with this change. Not too long after that I received the new M1.1 so I could go mono, that did improve just another tiny bit, adding to better dynamics. Specially when playing at somewhat elevated loudness, the ease to maintain the dynamics is almost frightening, making me smile time after time. So, this is how I came to the change from Mephisto to CH P M1.1 It clearly did not originate from the fact I didn't like the Mephisto or so. It's more the result of circumstances and other factors. I know I could happily live with the Mephisto. I did read that other members felt that the CH P was a little darker...I kind of disagreed, however, later I realized that I have my mid/high adjusted +1 Db (possible to do at the backside of the Pendragon ribbon tower, and also I have the Bass towers at - 1,5 Db. Other people may not have the ability to adjust, and that may be why they are hearing the somewhat "darker" CH P. I will also never know how well the CH P M1.1 would do it's job when replacing the build in Gryphon Power Amps, I also have no intension to find out. I'm really satisfied with how the Gryphon Power Amps perform in the Bass Towers. So based on my experience I can summarize that changing a Mephisto (stereo) to a CH P M1, I would not recommend, changing a Mephisto stereo to CH P M1.1 Stereo is a "maybe", depending on personal preferences and hearing. Changing a Mephisto stereo to two CH P M1.1 mono's yes definitely. I have not heard the Mephisto mono's, but I'm quite sure that that would again become a very close match. All I'm saying here is that both the M1.1 and the Mephisto are very good amps, there are differences, but you need to hear those yourself. Don't depend on others' opinion. I sometime hear people saying that one is 'much better' that the other...it only makes me smile....I have had both the Mephisto as the M1.1 for an extended period of time, and believe me even though slightly different none of them is "much better". It will depend on your hearing, personal preferences, other equipment in the chain, room acoustics and so on. Speakers may also play a huge role, as not all speakers will be able to reveal the often tiny differences... I'm sorry that I can't really indicated on a scale from 1-100 where these two amps would be positioned, it would also not make any sense to do so... Even if I range one at 97, and the other at 98, other listeners could rate exactly the other way around. I hope that where you live, you can have an opportunity to hear both amps extensively, and only after that you can make up your mind. other factors may also come into play, such as dealership nearby and so on... (sorry, this became a long story, but as several people have asked about my motivation regarding the change from Mephisto to M1.1, I felt the need to elaborate a bit further)
Cheers, Han