Amp / Pre-Amp for Sonus Faber Serafino

Stereo5 we never said the Mcintosh amplifiers are bad just that they tend to favor warmth and punchyness over transparency.

Now we are not saying that your setup doesn't sound good, we are saying that there is a sound to Mcintosh that some people love and others don't.
 
We even said that we heard a Mcintosh setup that we liked, and we also adore the Golden Ear loudspeakers for what they do for their price range.

We would take a T+A 3100 HV integrated any day over the comparable Mcintosh amp and preamp. 

As per Gryphon vs T+A the Gryphon has a bit more slam the T+A tends to be a more organic and dimensional presentation two of the best high performance inegrated amplifiers out there today.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ 

George, we all are entitled to our opinions.

Well don’t come on with your first post and start personally attacking people, put up a technical argument instead


I thought you and your dead horse, were outta-here

You think because they are good with your very easy to drive Golden Ear speaker they are automatically going to be good also for the OP’s speakers?? Sorry your wrong.

For the Original Poster - If you are in or around Atlanta, there is a great dealer that can hook up and do direct comparisons between McIntosh and Gryphon with a pair of Serafino’s.  Let the sound be your decision point, not the debate which outlined here.

@ganeshgswamy  Have a listen to one of Jeff Rowlands amps. He has a model that will likely work very well with your speakers and your room size. If budget allows..listen to a model 825. There were a pair of 725s2's on the used market recently, they would also be a great match. 

OP, I currently have SF Amati Tradition that replaced the SF Serafinos.
For about 10 month I was driving Serafinos with latest Gryphon Diablo 300 integrated. Great integrated, dynamics, micro details, timber. But it requires careful cables match - especially power cables and speaker cables. When I had Gryphon I had top of the line  Shunyata Sigma speaker cables and the sound was if I can compare it like a very strong coffee, - too much meet on the bones overshadowed micro nuances and speed. It was mistake to have Sigma speaker and power cables with Gryphon and Sonus Faber. I had to sell Gryphon for the reason  that in case of any issues you can ship it only by freight - since it comes in the wooden box that has strange assembly - no problem for others but it was a bothering potential issue for me. Currently have pass int-250 that drives SF Amati Traditions and I love it. Why? Pas int-250 is very good, and I was able to find a great matching speaker cables  for it - Audience Front row, so synergy is very important. The Accuphase on 12/01 will start production of their reference integrated E-800. This will be very interesting integrated to hear. But unfortunately for many if us the Accuphase pricing is insane. In Japan it will cost around 10K here the msrp will 21k.