Gryphon Mephisto Versus Gryphon Apex

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

I've spoken to Jay about Gryphon amps before. He hears/values attributes very differently than I do so I personally don't go by his opinions. Just my opinion.The Mephisto,to me, is a dry sounding amp with tremendous grip. It's a tool with a very specific purpose. For me the Evo, which is a newer generation, is a more natural sounding amplifier with better body and soul. Definitely not "dark" as some refer. Harleys review, I think, captures it well. I have not heard the Apex yet but will get to hear the monos soon. My friends say they are everything you could want in an amp. Hugely powerful. I'll let you know. They have Mephisto monos on Orions and Apex monos on XVX. They also have D'Agostino relentless on Lyra. It's going to be fun but I won't get there for a month or so.

Having owned Gryphon Reference One Monoblocks, Antileon signature Stereo, Evo Stereo, and Mephisto Stereo for my subjective opinion the Mephisto reigns supreme. All amps were good but for me the Evo was the best until it was replaced by the Mephisto which bested it on every level.
A friend preferred the Evo, being a little warmer in his system but he had that taste profile in general. I wouldn't call the Evo "dark" but it is not as neutral as the Mephisto which gets out of the way of the music and renders bass with effortless ease and articulation. Its an effortless authority rendering very natural and realistic bass, not imposing but rather musically visceral. Mids and highs are also superb
I have not auditioned Apex

 

[JiminGa]

Actually the Evo came out almost 10 years after Mephisto which debuted in 2011. Evo has more modern design and more power supply capacitance. Yes lots of people think the Mephisto is more neutral. I’ve spent lots and lots of time with Mephisto monos. I guess it’s personal taste. Can’t go wrong either way. Love Gryphon

 

[andromedaaudio]

I think we could see a mini Apex coming out
A Memphisto revision is long overdue i suppose.

 

[JiminGa]

I want a mini Apex and a one box Commander.

 

[andromedaaudio]

I want a mini Apex and a one box Commander.

Same here .
But i love the APEX too , who knows in the future .
WADAX front end .... end of the line

 

[JiminGa]

Love the Apex but I don’t need that much power and the size and form factor turns me off. 180 class A watts should do just fine

 

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

Yeh the weight is crazy heavy for the Apex. If Mephisto/s will drive just about anything, Its difficult to understand what engineering requirement dictated that Apex should be (?) double the weight. There will be injuries trying to manually handle both these amps but doubling down on weight would not seem to be an engineering triumph. Reducing the weight of the mephisto while improving performance would have seemed to be a better direction/goal.

 

[JiminGa]

The Apex isn’t a more powerful Mephisto. It’s a totally different beast. They tried to mate the sweeter upper frequencies of the Colloseum with the grip of the Mephisto in an even more powerful amp.

 

[LL21]

Having owned Gryphon Reference One Monoblocks, Antileon signature Stereo, Evo Stereo, and Mephisto Stereo for my subjective opinion the Mephisto reigns supreme. All amps were good but for me the Evo was the best until it was replaced by the Mephisto which bested it on every level.
A friend preferred the Evo, being a little warmer in his system but he had that taste profile in general. I wouldn't call the Evo "dark" but it is not as neutral as the Mephisto which gets out of the way of the music and renders bass with effortless ease and articulation. Its an effortless authority rendering very natural and realistic bass, not imposing but rather musically visceral. Mids and highs are also superb
I have not auditioned Apex

Fascinating to read. I owned the Gryphon Antileon Sterro (original, non Signature), Colosseum Stereo and Mephisto Stereo and certainly found the Mephisto to elevate remarkably above the original Antileon in all areas...particularly significantly greater detail, resolve, lower noise floor, lack of grain and sheer all out power. Where it bested the Colosseum was largely in its greater natural tonal qualities, as well as to a slightly lesser extent imho its lower noise, greater effortless detail and also a meaningful amount of more effortless drive.

Nice to see your views on Evo which I have not heard, and definitely look forward to hearing Apex at some point in the future.

 

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

Fascinating to read. I owned the Gryphon Antileon Sterro (original, non Signature), Colosseum Stereo and Mephisto Stereo and certainly found the Mephisto to elevate remarkably above the original Antileon in all areas...particularly significantly greater detail, resolve, lower noise floor, lack of grain and sheer all out power. Where it bested the Colosseum was largely in its greater natural tonal qualities, as well as to a slightly lesser extent imho its lower noise, greater effortless detail and also a meaningful amount of more effortless drive.

Nice to see your views on Evo which I have not heard, and definitely look forward to hearing Apex at some point in the future.

Yeh , while I never owned the Colloseum , I have heard it. Difficult to be sure without auditioning in my own home but the impression I got was that the Colloseum improved on the treble of the Antileon, or to put another way was not "dark". I think Mephisto is amazingly neutral to the extent that it makes recordings sound very different ie without a pervasive character of its own stamped on all recordings and by inference therefore, likely more true to the source. That and realism, even if we can't be sure what the "real" event sounded like (if there was one), it sounds 'like real' as matched to our experience of similar events.
Now, if Apex improves on that, then amazing. At some stage however the increment in SQ cannot come with a doubling of weight, Imagine an amp double the mass of Apex, you would need a crane to install it

 

[LL21]

Yeh , while I never owned the Colloseum , I have heard it. Difficult to be sure without auditioning in my own home but the impression I got was that the Colloseum improved on the treble of the Antileon, or to put another way was not "dark". I think Mephisto is amazingly neutral to the extent that it makes recordings sound very different ie without a pervasive character of its own stamped on all recordings and by inference therefore, likely more true to the source. That and realism, even if we can't be sure what the "real" event sounded like (if there was one), it sounds 'like real' as matched to our experience of similar events.
Now, if Apex improves on that, then amazing. At some stage however the increment in SQ cannot come with a doubling of weight, Imagine an amp double the mass of Apex, you would need a crane to install it

Agree with your impression of the Mephisto vs Colosseum having heard them in our system before upgrading from Colosseum to Mephisto. I have heard the Apex is a significantly more accomplished amp in terms of sheer resolution, ease and control. I suspect that to get the level of performance increase, it might be that they just decided to give the whole amp massively more capacitance (1 full farad per mono or per stereo amp) which naturally takes up space and weight and then continued to hone the rest of the design.

 

[KPC]

+1 Apex - heard them with Commander and Gryphon speakers at an audio show. Could easily be end-game if within budget.

 

[marty]

As a Mephisto monobloc pair owner, it is important to state that one should not underestimate the massive heat these amps generate. I have them located in a walk-in closet of sorts behind the listening room where my speakers are located. Simply put, they are friggin' space heaters! If they are in your main room, you better have industrial strength air conditioning becasue it will get sauna-like very easily. I can't even imagine the heat that two Apex mono amps generate. Unfortunately, it's a fact of life that genuine Class A amps like the Mephistos are inefficient and run hot, while pseudo class A or class AB amps may be far easier to handle in a listening room from a heat perspective. I have no complaints however about the Mephisto sound, which is formidable and gorgeous.