This thread has been in my head for the past 5 days however I have been out of town on a whirlwind tour with the 3 Amigos about which I will post later
Suffice it to say I have known Philip O'Hanlon for at least 15 years and I have always found that he represented fabulous brands and I have been to his house countless times and have heard many iterations of his system all of which have been superb. Last week however was a different story.
Until recently I find that most of my listening has been analog in nature (90%) and digital 10%
In fact the only digital that I was playing was Philip's demo disks. For those who know Phillip you know he releases a new demo diskevery year with #22 soon to be released. I know Philip's music by heart . I also know that when Philip invites me over to hear something special I always "do" hear something special
Philip was beaming ear to ear when he invited me to come over and hear the new Gpryphon Ethos a CD transport with an integrated DAC. I must admit that I was unprepared for what I was to hear
This new DAC plays Redbook CD but with the push of the remote it can play PCM up to 32 bit and push another button on the remote it can play DSD126. Add to that the DAC has 7 distinct filters that can be used to satisfy any listening pleasure
I was anxious to hear the songs on many of his demo disks that I knew so well
Philip was able to play all of the songs I wanted to hear via his server and Roon.
Redbook played without any of the whistles or bells was outstanding but when Philip switched to PCM 32 my ears lit up and finally when he switched to DSD 128 all in an instant the a/b test was a no brainer
I don't know which filter Philip was using at the time but both of us agreed that PCM 32 was superb which then compared to DSD128 which seemed to be just a little smoother and a little warmer.
There are countless permutations and combinations all of which can be instantly accessed from your seat with your remote
So here for me is the take away caveat which I shared with Philip and I will share here with the readers......in all of the times I have heard Philip's system last Sunday's audition will be forever etched in my ears and my mind. I had never heard his system sound as magnificent as it did
This Gryphon Ethos is truly remarkable and I think Philip has hit a home run.The large LCD screen was easy to read from the sitting position
The unit doesn't come inexpensive however.
MSRP on the integrated CD Transport and DAC is $40K USD
This very unit is at the moment the only one in the USA and will be shown at the upcoming Capitol Audiofest. If you are planning on attending this show I would encourage everyone to stop in and have a listen. You will be in for a very big treat
Suffice it to say I have known Philip O'Hanlon for at least 15 years and I have always found that he represented fabulous brands and I have been to his house countless times and have heard many iterations of his system all of which have been superb. Last week however was a different story.
Until recently I find that most of my listening has been analog in nature (90%) and digital 10%
In fact the only digital that I was playing was Philip's demo disks. For those who know Phillip you know he releases a new demo diskevery year with #22 soon to be released. I know Philip's music by heart . I also know that when Philip invites me over to hear something special I always "do" hear something special
Philip was beaming ear to ear when he invited me to come over and hear the new Gpryphon Ethos a CD transport with an integrated DAC. I must admit that I was unprepared for what I was to hear
This new DAC plays Redbook CD but with the push of the remote it can play PCM up to 32 bit and push another button on the remote it can play DSD126. Add to that the DAC has 7 distinct filters that can be used to satisfy any listening pleasure
I was anxious to hear the songs on many of his demo disks that I knew so well
Philip was able to play all of the songs I wanted to hear via his server and Roon.
Redbook played without any of the whistles or bells was outstanding but when Philip switched to PCM 32 my ears lit up and finally when he switched to DSD 128 all in an instant the a/b test was a no brainer
I don't know which filter Philip was using at the time but both of us agreed that PCM 32 was superb which then compared to DSD128 which seemed to be just a little smoother and a little warmer.
There are countless permutations and combinations all of which can be instantly accessed from your seat with your remote
So here for me is the take away caveat which I shared with Philip and I will share here with the readers......in all of the times I have heard Philip's system last Sunday's audition will be forever etched in my ears and my mind. I had never heard his system sound as magnificent as it did
This Gryphon Ethos is truly remarkable and I think Philip has hit a home run.The large LCD screen was easy to read from the sitting position
The unit doesn't come inexpensive however.
MSRP on the integrated CD Transport and DAC is $40K USD
This very unit is at the moment the only one in the USA and will be shown at the upcoming Capitol Audiofest. If you are planning on attending this show I would encourage everyone to stop in and have a listen. You will be in for a very big treat