From my experience in terms of what I have access to test in my area (which is admittedly limited), Diablo 300 beats all separates at a similar price point. This includes McIntosh C2600/MC452, Bryston 4B3 with various preamps, and the Simaudio 600 integrated. I’ve tested other combinations in-store that were on my long-list before the shortlist gear mentioned above which I tested in-home. I also tried using the Simaudio 600i as a preamp to get a sense of what the 740p preamp might sound like. None of these configurations came even close to the Gryphon integrated in any particular area. Except, maybe, the Simaudio in terms of soundstage and detail, but performance was similar only in that one area. To me the Simaudio sounded dry, a bit analytical, had no drive and not a lot of bass, and didn’t engage me in a musical sense at all. Higher power Simaudio amplifiers would be better, but the overall sonic presentation didn’t appeal to me and sounded lifeless. When I tested all of this gear, I wanted to like them, and even with the Gryphon I wasn’t sure on my first audition. Now that I’ve gone through this process, I’m confident that overall the Gryphon is not even comparable to other options at its price or lower; it was so much more capable and makes it very obvious it is in a different class of gear.
Also, the consensus from many others say you would need to spend double the cost of the Diablo 300 to beat its performance. This includes Whitecamaross (OP of the "Long list of amplifier and my review of each" multi-year thread) who feels I’d need to go to the Luxman pre/pwr 900u system to beat the Diablo, and these are WAY more expensive. That dude has a ton of hands-on experience beyond what any reasonable hobbyist should have and he is worth listening to.
So yes, I am intentionally not giving weight to my concerns around service. And I don’t know that Gryphon has N.A. authorized repair, as I asked my dealer this and I got a bit of a fuzzy answer ("Gryphon engineers can walk technicians through diagnostics over the phone, and its possible that if only one module or board needs switching out that it can be done remotely"). To me it sounds like any real service will require shipping to Gryphon headquarters. In fact, even my dealer thought they had an issue with their previous demo unit (turned out the unit was fine) and they had to ship it back to Denmark. In short, I’m resigned to paying a lot in shipping should I require out of warranty service, and hoping that Gryphon continues as a business even without their original founder, which I think is more likely than not. Also, my dealer offered me a similar deal to the one Jetter referenced on Audiogon, on their demo Diablo which I tested. I considered this as they would include the DAC and phono modules which is a huge value, but in the end I don’t think I can get over two cosmetic scratches on their demo unit, even though they are minor. Also they have no history of the unit, it was simply provided as a "distributor demo". So I think I will be going with a new Diablo with the DAC module, instead of the demo option. The internal DAC module on its own performs so well, that this in itself warrants getting excited about!
