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Bryston 4B3 vs Mac MC462 vs Pass Labs X250.8, OR... GRYPHON Diablo 300?

Hi,
Over the next few weeks I am organizing in-home demo of  three pre/power amps for my B&W 803D2's, and will purchase whichever sounds best.  I will be testing the following gear, which is based on what's available where live:
-Bryston B173 / 4B3-McIntosh C47 / MC462
-Pass Labs X250.8, if I can get my hands on one (will probably use the C47 pre-amp to test with this)
The Gryphon Diablo 300 is also a candidate.  I've seen some strong comments from others that Gryphon is in another league compared to the others.
My question is, barring what sounds best to me during my auditioning, in general to most people would the Diablo 300 really beat the others in my list?  And, are there any material disadvantages to sound quality considering the Diablo is an integrated vs the other choices?  I don't really care about having separates, but sound is obviously important.
Secondly related to the Gryphon, there is only one Gryphon dealer that is even remotely close to me.  Should that dealer cut ties down the road, or go out of business, does anyone know how I might go about getting service for the Diablo should I require it at some point?  Is that a valid concern?  There are multiple Mac dealers near me so that would not be so much of a concern.

Thanks in advance for any feedback....


nyev
nyev OP
1,026 posts
 
DDafoe inna and cytocycle, thank you as well, that was very descriptive and helpful!

My dealer offered me a 6 month old demo Gryphon including both DAC and phono modules, for $19K (converted from my Canadian price to USD). The unit is currently back at Gryphon for analysis as they thought the unit had a fault. Apparently in the shop they were limit testing (sounds fun...) and they found the Gryphon clips very suddenly and dramatically compared with most amps when maxed out. After the shop thought something was wrong, Gryphon say they have tested the unit and found nothing wrong with it.

So for $19K USD I could purchase this demo unit with modules, or for $17K I could have a brand new unit without modules. Seems the new unit price is $1K higher than list price in the US for me.

Thoughts? I will not proceed without auditioning this and other options, but the Diablo is firmly at the top of my list.
inna
7,251 posts
 
If it were my call I would get brand new Diablo 300. However, I would probably choose to have separate tube phono stage and I would have no need for dac. But even if I needed both Gryphon phono and dac I would pay more and get new piece. At this price level I would not try to save a few thousand dollars.
As a side note, I don't understand what happened with that particular Gryphon unit at the shop, that story is unclear.
nyev OP
1,026 posts
 
Thanks inna I thought the story a bit odd too.  They said that amps have a standard behaviour when clipping and when they were driving the Diablo to the max for testing purposes in the shop the Diablo suddenly “fell off a cliff” unlike typical amps when they clip.  So they sent back for analysis and supposedly it is fine and working as intended.

Any Diablo 300 owners out there want to try independently reproducing this experiment?  Probably not, I’m guessing...

I was also leaning towards the brand new route.


inna
7,251 posts
 
Diablo's phono and dac are excellent, I just prefer tube phono stage, generally speaking. I also make recordings to tape from vinyl and like to go directly from phono to tape deck and not having to use tape outs, even Gryphon's, if I can help it.
Flemming Rasmussen, Gryphon chief designer, used to voice his equipment with master tape dubs of which he has a big collection. He knows how things should sound, oh yes he does.
I talked to couple of big time hard core tube audiophiles and they said that if they ever considered, as unlikely as it might be, transistor amp, that would almost certainly be Gryphon. This is a very high praise.
ddafoe
239 posts
 
@ddafoe: Did you step up from a Pass Labs 150.8 ?

I went from a SimAudio 600i to the Pass 250.8 + XP10 stack.
The 600i was amazing and much better value than the Pass pair. 
After trying a couple preamps I ended up with the 250.8 + 740P combo and felt that was another level up from the 600i.   Since the 740P lists for the price of the 600i, I suppose that should not be a surprise...

I'm tempted to try a SimAudio 860a with the 740P to see how that compares with the 250.8, but they don't come up used very often.

@nyev, if you are in Canada, keep an eye out for good deals on SimAudio separates or the 700i integrated.   I've been extremely taken back by the sound quality and over-all quality of the two SimAudio pieces I've had in my system...  

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