Gryphon Mephisto Stereo

[howiebrou]

Howie, it's very hot in HK

 

[Scott W]

My Colloseum Monos would switch off after a couple of hours, presumably from over-heating.

I have never had my Colloseum shut down because of overheating. I wonder if something else may have caused the shutdown, ie a faulty temperature switch. I have had my amp on for 10 hours straight, mostly running in high bias and while it was hot and the fans were running I had no issues. I have actually had other gear that was much hotter.

 

[howiebrou]

I have never had my Colloseum shut down because of overheating. I wonder if something else may have caused the shutdown, ie a faulty temperature switch. I have had my amp on for 10 hours straight, mostly running in high bias and while it was hot and the fans were running I had no issues. I have actually had other gear that was much hotter.

Perhaps, but it was many years ago so that bird has flown. I did really like their sound though.

 

[Thieliste]

Hi Guys, this afternoon i went to my Gryphon dealer for a listen and i ended up being completely blown away by what he had prepared for me.
The system consisted of a pair of Wilson Benesch Resolution driven by Thrax Dionysos linestage, EmmLabs DV2 DAC and Gryphon Mephisto.
Never heard the Mephisto sing so well, the Thrax linestage is what made the big difference in the chain.
The Pandora was nowhere near as good as the Thrax.

 

[LL21]

Hi Guys, this afternoon i went to my Gryphon dealer for a listen and i ended up being completely blown away by what he had prepared for me.
The system consisted of a pair of Wilson Benesch Resolution driven by Thrax Dionysos linestage, EmmLabs DV2 DAC and Gryphon Mephisto.
Never heard the Mephisto sing so well, the Thrax linestage is what made the big difference in the chain.
The Pandora was nowhere near as good as the Thrax.

Fascinating to hear. Have read a lot of good things about Thrax. I also know many people who love the Pandora...but I have also heard (in my own personal experience so surely not a definitive statement) from more audiophiles who feel they have gone 'well beyond' the Pandora (after auditioning the Pandora plus others)...and going with other preamps. Of all the Mephisto owners I can think of...notoably more have NON-Pandora preamps than those who do.

I have never had the opportunity to hear the Pandora myself, so cannot say. But I could not be happier with the Robert Koda K15EX Superground.

Are you considering the Thrax pre and Mephisto combination?

 

[Thieliste]

Fascinating to hear. Have read a lot of good things about Thrax. I also know many people who love the Pandora...but I have also heard (in my own personal experience so surely not a definitive statement) from more audiophiles who feel they have gone 'well beyond' the Pandora (after auditioning the Pandora plus others)...and going with other preamps. Of all the Mephisto owners I can think of...notoably more have NON-Pandora preamps than those who do.

I have never had the opportunity to hear the Pandora myself, so cannot say. But I could not be happier with the Robert Koda K15EX Superground.

Are you considering the Thrax pre and Mephisto combination?

We did the Shootout between the Pandora and the Thrax both driving the Mephisto.
There was no contest the Thrax preamp brought the Mephisto to another level.

Not yet, this year i will build the system seen in my signature.
The Mephisto-Thrax combo could be considered for a future rig.

 

[LL21]

We did the Shootout between the Pandora and the Thrax both driving the Mephisto.
There was no contest the Thrax preamp brought the Mephisto to another level.

Not yet, this year i will build the system seen in my signature.
The Mephisto-Thrax combo could be considered for a future rig.

Got it. Thanks for that...very interesting to hear. I am glad to see more fellow audiophiles focusing on Gryphon. A great design that has been around for decades and always with a commitment to all-out assault quality. And it has also become shockingly lower-priced than many competitors who have started out of the gate at 5 figures and in some cases now start in the 6 figures (even for stereo amps) and comfortably into the 6 figures for monos.

 

[howiebrou]

Fascinating to hear. Have read a lot of good things about Thrax. I also know many people who love the Pandora...but I have also heard (in my own personal experience so surely not a definitive statement) from more audiophiles who feel they have gone 'well beyond' the Pandora (after auditioning the Pandora plus others)...and going with other preamps. Of all the Mephisto owners I can think of...notoably more have NON-Pandora preamps than those who do.

I have never had the opportunity to hear the Pandora myself, so cannot say. But I could not be happier with the Robert Koda K15EX Superground.

Are you considering the Thrax pre and Mephisto combination?

Thrax makes great sounding gear. FWIW, the Gryphon preamps are not considered in the same light as their power amps over here as well.

 

[LL21]

Interesting Howiebrou. Good to know about both Thrax and Gryphon. At this stage, I consider myself very blessed...and done with electronics, cables/isolation/power and main speakers for some time to come. The main focus today besides finetuning the setup which is yet to be done (waiting for a few months most likely for professionals to return)...is subs.

 

[LL21]

Hi everyone...just thought I would update this thread with my latest findings on the Gryphon Mephisto. As some fellow owners also use it with Torus Balanced Power, I am going to give my comments and welcome any others. Overall, my view of Gryphon Mephisto and Torus AVR series is that the combination should be 'required reading' for Gryphon Mephisto owners.

Yes, of course, that assumes a lot about someone else's power condition...where I can imagine some are well designed enough that having the Tours would not make a difference. I accept that.

In our case, we have dedicated wiring to the audio system, Furutech outlets and a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) somewhere out back which (marginally) may help. And the Torus AVR 16 has made a significant improvement with the Gryphon Mephisto where I would not now wish to separate them. I spoken with both Gryphon and Torus at senior levels directly before combining them to ensure our system's specs would be fine (they are).

I also conferred with a number of owners here who have this exact combination. And I have to say the upper bass detail and clarity is fantastic...but now so too are the ethereal, super-background elements of the mids and upper treble. Listening to the Grateful Dead Winterland '77 concert which is incredibly well recorded...and the sense of the live concert effect is really spectacular with the Torus in where it allows more detail/air/space into the music and the bass hit is more live. All thanks to the Torus.

One for Phil O'Hanlon to consider as he is the importer of Gryphon in N America where I imagine a great number of members are located.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Congratulations, Lloyd! I'm glad you have this all figured out!

Purely out of curiosity, what is the reason for not using a larger Torus? I see that the AVR 16 is only a few amps (220 VAC x 16 amps = 3,520 watts) above the maximum power consumption of the Mephisto stereo (2,650 watts). Why not use a Torus with much greater current capacity "head room"?

 

[LL21]

Hey Ron. Thanks...like many of my purchases over time, they are a combination of lots of research, listening...and patiently waiting for the bargain. There is no question that a bigger Torus would provide more headroom, but this particular unit was available at a steep discount with 2.5 years left on the warranty which Torus kindly confirmed to me in writing they would honor. And I had been on and off looking for probably 3-4 years.

Further, having added up the math of my system and spoken with both Gryphon and Torus HQ directly, they were both satisfied that not only would I not come near the stable output peak (at normal listening, the amps read around 5.1 amps...vs 16 amps stable max output), but that on top of that, the actual peak headroom is multiple times higher than that (7x - 10x or something crazy).

So I am currently using...something like...30%-35% of the stable output where the peak headroom is a further 7x - 10x higher or something.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I understand, LL21! Thank you.

 

[KeithR]

Congratulations, Lloyd! I'm glad you have this all figured out!

Purely out of curiosity, what is the reason for not using a larger Torus? I see that the AVR 16 is only a few amps (220 VAC x 16 amps = 3,520 watts) above the maximum power consumption of the Mephisto stereo (2,650 watts). Why not use a Torus with much greater current capacity "head room"?

Agree with Ron here. Seems out of spec to save just a few thousand for a $60k dual mono class A amp based system. Mephisto has tremendous current.

 

[LL21]

Agree with Ron here. Seems out of spec to save just a few thousand for a $60k dual mono class A amp based system. Mephisto has tremendous current.

Hi Keith. Your point is well taken...if I trip a circuit because I underpower the amp, that is just stupid. That said, at the moment, the meters suggest I am not even using 35% of the total stable capacity of the Torus. I am at 5.1amps of useage vs 16amps of stable peak output.

My wife downloaded a decibel monitor on her phone...at normal listening levels, the sound is around 45-50 decibels. At 'loud' (for us), it is still only 65 decibels stable (obviously instant peaks are louder...but not drastically).

If we start to see the amperage useage climb...I will go back to our Torus dealer...the good news is he deals a lot in Torus, and further the next level or 2 up is the same height and width...and only about 3 inches deeper so it could fit.