Let me introduce myself and my system, now that everything is ready. My name is Eckhard or Ecki for my friends. I am originally from Berlin but live since 5 years in Cape Town, South Africa. I spend many evenings reading and enjoying a jazz trio playing "live" in my living room. I was a long time Burmester fan, but have moved on to Gryphon this year.
We tried to integrate the system into a custom build music wall with plenty of storage for CDs, where the cables are (mostly) hidden. The rectangular blinds hide the cables and provide the structural rigidity for the shelves.
Here are all the cables nicely laid out.
As the mono amplifiers have two sets of output terminals each, I use two pairs of speaker cables to connect the speakers (In Akustik Air Reference).
Behind the bottom blind is a little DB board. The power amplifiers and the power conditioner are directly connected (by an electrician!) to this DB board.
When it is all set up, it looks neat and clean (besides my CDs of course that tend to always be untidy). The wife acceptance factor is high, despite the "Star Wars" look of the amplifiers.
Here are the components and some thoughts on them.
Sources:
I use the Gryphon Ethos CD player and the Aurender N30SA as sources. I had one of the first S10 in Europe and I am a fan since. Although I occasionally stream with the N30SA, I mainly play locally stored music, always in critical listening mode. The Ethos is an excellent sounding DAC too and I found AES sounding by far better than USB between these components. If in future I want to buy another DAC, the Ethos delivers the CD stream via AES turning it into a reference CD transport. The Ethos is a gem for any owner of an extensive CD collection. I never heard CDs sounding that good. I can not distinguish a CD from a local Aurender file - unless of course it is a high resolution recording playing from the Aurender. It sounds clearly better to do the upsampling in the Ethos rather than in the N30SA.
I found that the Ethos and the N30SA benefit a lot from excellent power cables. I use Isotek EVO3 ASCENSION cables for the sources and an In Akustik Reference Silver AES cable.
Amplifier and preamplifier:
The Gryphon Pandora is build as two mono preamplifiers. The power supply comes in a separate case that contains 3 power supplies, two for the right and left channel actual preamplifier unit and one for the display and the volume control. There are two Isotek EVO3 ASCENSION cables necessary. Tara Labs "The Muse" XLR cables connect the Ethos, the Pandora and the Antileons.
The two Gryphon Antileon mono amplifiers have a rich, warm class A sound and they make music just come alive in front of you. They get terribly hot and the whole system consumes a bit over 2.000W per hour. But it surrounds you with music that is just in the room, not anymore connected to the speakers. The Antileons get their power from Gryphon VIP Reference power cords directly connected to the breaker box.
Speakers:
The KEF Blades sound wonderfully neutral and disappear within the room. They don't want to be further apart than 3 meters. The power and bass they emit is surprisingly deep and full, given the petite form. The rest of my system can drive a much more potent loudspeaker. At some point in the future I will probably upgrade my speakers.
Power Conditioner:
I have a Gigawatt Evo4 power conditioner for the sources and the preamplifier.
I hope you enjoyed my little virtual tour.
Music is the best!
Cheers,
Ecki
Component placement:
Bottom left: Gryphon Pandora power supply
Bottom right: Gigawatt Evo4
Middle left: Aurender N30SA dirty unit
Middle right: Aurender N30SA digital unit
Top left: Gryphon Pandora
Top right Gryphon Ethos CD player
We tried to integrate the system into a custom build music wall with plenty of storage for CDs, where the cables are (mostly) hidden. The rectangular blinds hide the cables and provide the structural rigidity for the shelves.
Here are all the cables nicely laid out.
As the mono amplifiers have two sets of output terminals each, I use two pairs of speaker cables to connect the speakers (In Akustik Air Reference).
Behind the bottom blind is a little DB board. The power amplifiers and the power conditioner are directly connected (by an electrician!) to this DB board.
When it is all set up, it looks neat and clean (besides my CDs of course that tend to always be untidy). The wife acceptance factor is high, despite the "Star Wars" look of the amplifiers.
Here are the components and some thoughts on them.
Sources:
I use the Gryphon Ethos CD player and the Aurender N30SA as sources. I had one of the first S10 in Europe and I am a fan since. Although I occasionally stream with the N30SA, I mainly play locally stored music, always in critical listening mode. The Ethos is an excellent sounding DAC too and I found AES sounding by far better than USB between these components. If in future I want to buy another DAC, the Ethos delivers the CD stream via AES turning it into a reference CD transport. The Ethos is a gem for any owner of an extensive CD collection. I never heard CDs sounding that good. I can not distinguish a CD from a local Aurender file - unless of course it is a high resolution recording playing from the Aurender. It sounds clearly better to do the upsampling in the Ethos rather than in the N30SA.
I found that the Ethos and the N30SA benefit a lot from excellent power cables. I use Isotek EVO3 ASCENSION cables for the sources and an In Akustik Reference Silver AES cable.
Amplifier and preamplifier:
The Gryphon Pandora is build as two mono preamplifiers. The power supply comes in a separate case that contains 3 power supplies, two for the right and left channel actual preamplifier unit and one for the display and the volume control. There are two Isotek EVO3 ASCENSION cables necessary. Tara Labs "The Muse" XLR cables connect the Ethos, the Pandora and the Antileons.
The two Gryphon Antileon mono amplifiers have a rich, warm class A sound and they make music just come alive in front of you. They get terribly hot and the whole system consumes a bit over 2.000W per hour. But it surrounds you with music that is just in the room, not anymore connected to the speakers. The Antileons get their power from Gryphon VIP Reference power cords directly connected to the breaker box.
Speakers:
The KEF Blades sound wonderfully neutral and disappear within the room. They don't want to be further apart than 3 meters. The power and bass they emit is surprisingly deep and full, given the petite form. The rest of my system can drive a much more potent loudspeaker. At some point in the future I will probably upgrade my speakers.
Power Conditioner:
I have a Gigawatt Evo4 power conditioner for the sources and the preamplifier.
I hope you enjoyed my little virtual tour.
Music is the best!
Cheers,
Ecki
Component placement:
Bottom left: Gryphon Pandora power supply
Bottom right: Gigawatt Evo4
Middle left: Aurender N30SA dirty unit
Middle right: Aurender N30SA digital unit
Top left: Gryphon Pandora
Top right Gryphon Ethos CD player
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