2. amps-preamps
  3. 190681-178394

Gryphon Diablo 120

I’ve been running tube amps in my primary system in my living room for the past few years. When I first heard a tube amp, I was hooked, and thought they were going to be with me for life. 


However, a few months ago something shifted and I found myself not feeling engaged with the music in the same way. The music was feeling slow, distant, and lacking emotion. A voice inside told me to look into a solid state amp for a change of pace. 
 

I was fortunate to find a used (store demo) Gryphon Diablo 120, which arrived today. I’ve only been listening for a few hours, but over the moon happy with the sound of this integrated. It delivers a rich, detailed, nuanced and incredibly musical presentation. The sound stage is wide and engrossing. Imaging is wonderful too. I’ll continue to make observations over the next few days and report back. I think I might finally be close to getting off this audio equipment merry-go-around with this Gryphon integrated. 

For reference, I do also have a Luxman 590axii in my office and this Gryphon easily out performs it in my opinion. 
 

Other components in my system with the Gryphon Diablo 120: 

Innuous Zenith mkiii 
Merason DAC1 mki
Cardas Clear rca interconnect 

 

Speakers - QLN Prestige 3 


Power cables: 

Kimber Kable Palladian PK-10 connected to amp 
Lessloss connected to Dac 
Cardas clear connected to innuos 
Puritan 156 Conditioner with their Ultimate Cable 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 


 

 

 


 

 

128x128bluethinker
bluethinker's avatar
bluethinker OP
178 posts
 

@swede58 - Agreed. They truly are! 
 

Impressions after one day. The Pursuit of Perfect Systems review (I’ll find and link it here) is pretty spot on. There is a subdued, almost dark, treble which takes a little bit of getting used to. I think I like it because it avoids ever being bright, but it is definitely a different treble energy than I’ve ever heard before. 
 


 

 

zlone
657 posts
 

Full hijack mode now, I am curious what speakers you replaced with the QLN’s. 

grislybutter
2,997 posts
 

elephant here, still waiting for those photos cheeky

bluethinker's avatar
bluethinker OP
178 posts
 

@Grisleybutter - I’ll work on it this weekend. Not sure why, but the virtual system feature hasn’t worked when I tried uploading in the past. I’ll try to get it up by end of day tomorrow! 

@zlone - Before purchasing the QLN speakers, I demoed multiple Harbeth, Proac, Triangle, Spendor, Dynaudio, Vanderstein and Coherent speakers. There are so many variables to consider from accompanying amp, room, cables, front end, etc. Aside from the Coherent speakers, all demos were in audio stores. Before I even knew about the QLN speakers, after the auditions noted above, I purchased the Dynaudio Heritage Speakers, which I still own. The Dynaudio Heritage specials are bookshelf speakers, so not quite a fair comparison with the QLN Prestige 3.
 

I still swap them into the system for a couple of months in the year for a change of pace. They are fantastic speakers and I don’t want to sell them. They’re wonderful, but just not as complete of a speaker as the QLN prestige 3. 

The more I have gotten into this hobby, I understand the importance of system marching. What amp would you use to drive the QLN Prestige 3? 

 

zlone
657 posts
 

Thanks, it sounds like you did your homework. I would use a Coda #8 which should drive them handily. You can check out my virtual system. I am using KEF Reference One’s now and I really like them, but heard QLN’s at AXPONA this year and was smitten.

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