Gryphon vs. McIntosh

I can't understand what you like about Tabu. I am serious, i have heard it to.
I can say one thing i noticed with Gryphon gear though, i have had 4 units myself. I tried Nordost cables and that was a match no other cable came near.
Continuum 500 and MA7000 is not about musical and/ or not.
C-500 opens up a depth the MA7000 will not. It offers air and resolving power that MA7000 do not. Also, it has much more power and control. The MA7000 looks very good, but it is not as good as C-500. Even Backes & Müller used this amp as reference when building active speakers. Thiel uses C-500 with 3.7. If it was un-musical i don't think the guy who bought it would say it was the best he had used with his Revel Saloon.
I know many hear class D and that is like a bad word.
Perhaps the latest Hypex modules or the finished products they sell are good to. It is completely other prices than typical High end price tags. People should look more in to the studio realm. There are many very very good things making High end pricing a bit bizarre.

My only issue EVER with Gryphon was their ethnocentric view of Americans and the consuming American public.
These views were by and large, so it seems second hand information (inasmuch as I could glean from conversations with personnel including Rassmussen).
Having dealt with international sales and distribution, up to and including creating international distribution for my own company, I recognize it to be a slippery slope with cultural differences...couple that with agenda laden distribution types in the mix and the view of a buying public could be a daunting set of information to deal with.
A really bad review by the American Press sort of hijacked whatever hopes of successful distribution there may have been...so we in the US have been without these magnificent products essentially since their inception.
A personal note...in 2003 Gryphon had a distributor in NY...I forget the name...I called, acting as an agent for purchase...my friend who I was representing was wildly wealthy and wanted the best, so I reccommended Gryphon...and the distributor laughed at the idea that I would call and attempt to purchase what amounted to $40K to $50K worth of electronics so quickly, not understanding my background with THIEL and having sold Gryphon in my own retail store for several years...but instead of being helpful, they were dismissive and not the least bit professional...one call in particular having reached the American Distributor at 4:00 in the local tavern on a weekday, drinking away the afternoon.
So...one could point fingers at the American buying public, the American Press, OR Gryphon, for their abysmal choice for distribution....I chose the latter.

None of this changes the marvelous character and sound of this product...it was/is, simply the best I've ever heard...and nothing I've heard is remotely close.

Good listening,
Larry

Roxy54,
You must immediately surrender your 'audiophile crazy' card, asking a question like that.

Larry

Good listening, and LOL

After a weekend in peace and serenity I'm back for some more interesting discussion here. Thanks for additional comments guys.

As far as the myth of dark character for Gryphon Tabu. I would say that is not correct if I correlate this with your description of dark and what I heard through Gryphon. I would say that Gryphon Tabu had and exceptional well amount of air, very well defined edges and body of the instruments, very dynamic and seductive sound which is with high energy but not aggressive at all. I would hard to say if that is NEUTRAL but sure I would say it was NATURAL to me and enjoyable as music was all around me. Experience that I had with a relatively very cheap system at that time was memorable and was not repeatable in experience and pleasure of enjoyment of the music. Other components that I used on that time while testing Gryphon Tabu were the following: Canton Venton 807DC, Marantz CD53 (old entry level CDP), Nordost Red Dawn ICs and Nordost Super Flatline Gold MKII.
Soon after that experience I bought second hand MF A308 Dual Mono integrated but I did not achieved the same pleasure as with Gryphon. Also changed CDP for MF Nuvista. In 2010 I also upgraded speakers for Anthony Gallo ref 3.5, where there were a lot of improvement and different presentation of music but still I carry that reference magic moments when the music just emerged and that was I think the blame to Gryphon Tabu. Control and body of the singers and organic body of the instruments struck me the most.

About Gryphon reservation towards USA market something is mentioned on 6moons review and I sense some bad experience Gryphon company had in the second half of 90s. More to read is here: http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/gryphon/1.html

What is interesting to point here is that we can identify also NAD's attachment to Gryphon and very interesting background. Is here the answer to the development of NAD S300? I think it goes well together if we look the years when NAD S300 was released (1998).

But if I return back to the topic I have a question that is also rather fairly often said for McIntosh gear. "McIntosh sound" often said but not so often discussed what that can be? What kind of sound is that? How do you compare it towards Gryphon? I guess from your answer now is that it is not so deeply involving and does not reveal all the details that e.g. Jeff Rowland Contiuum 500 does?! I'm just guessing this from your answers. I think that McIntosh is not only about the look as I still see a lot of very happy users who found its sound very lush McIntosh. Does McIntosh offer too much forgiveness?

Thanks for great discussion,
best, del.