Powerful Tube Amp for SF Strads?

Hi Downunder,

I am scheduled to audition Gryphon Antileon Signature and DM100 next Saturday. I have spoken with dealer who is familiar with all 3 (incl Colosseum). DM100 and Antileon Signature are supposedly very close (one A'goner who owns Signature also agreed).
Colosseum is apparently next generation..."Cleaner" according to Mihalis ("less dark") and also according to Gryphon Denmark. Overall, consensus appears to be Gryphon family sound is consistent...hugely powerful and analog. Good luck! Will post once I've heard.

Lloyd

Auditioned the CJ350 today...just to be thorough. Very powerful, impressive dynamic range but does not force its power thru the music...delicate passages just get louder while maintaining their delicacy. The music takes on more brilliance in its volume/dynamics as you crank the volume.

The bass notes (when called for) are very deep and the ability for the amp to maintain sustained and controlled power in those super-low registers is impressive.

The upper and mids were extremely well delineated and soundstaging quite open...but ultimately I missed the fullness of tubes. e.g., Things like handclaps were accurate (but it was that last 10%-15% of fullness that makes u feel like someone is in the room clapping) which was missing. And I really enjoy that fullness from great tubes.

Shane - I concur with your advice on CJ 350...and look forward to auditioning Gryphons next week.

Lloyd,
I understand you. But you are in trouble ... Gryphons is fantastic gear but does not have the fullness of tubes in my opinion. There is a way of making the premier 350 much fuller and more tube like - using the ART preamplifier, unhappily very expensive and nowadays difficult to get.
BTW, I only owned an ART series 2, never listened to a series 3.

Thanks Microstrip! Appreciate the warning! I am set up for the audition anyway, so it will be a good education for me. I am hopeful DM100 will be for me as I'm told its darker, more tube-like. We'll see! Will post!

Lloyd

Microstrip - I owned the cj prem 350 and I own the ART, even then it does not have the mids and upper frequency finese and roundness.

Lloyd, try not to have my comments at all sway you one way or the other - but very interested in your view's.

Anyway, back to Gryphon part 2. Please note that I have not used a fully balanced pre amp, let alone one of Gryphon's. The ART is SE and the Mac c2300 has balanced outputs but is not fully balanced, however IMO both these pre amps will be more forgiving that the Gryphon pre amps if not as potentially synergistic.

I have had the Antileon sig for 6 days now, and ran the unit in for 72 hours before listening.

The good and bad news. The Antileon does indeed sound more tubelike in comparison to the Colsseum, being not as transparent, a little darker sounding and not as quick. IMO it does not sound much like a great tube amp either. It sounds like a great SS amp.

The difference between my 2xMC2102's are that the tube amps present music as more of a whole, whereas the Antileon disects the stage more and has less back to front depth. The more you rurned up the volume, the more LOUD and fatiging cymbal crashes or lead guitar's were. It was not as if you could not hear them with the tube amps, you can, but the tube amps went loud in a more liquid, relaxed graceful manner

For me the Antileon is a great SS amp, but it is not a tube amp and does not really sound like one. It has tubelike qualities but is still SS. I have also heard tube amps where the designers have tried to make them sound SS and failed miserably IMO - eg ASL Hurricanes, ARC VM200's, cj 140's or VTL S400.

I still clasify the Gryphon Colosseum a fantastic amplifer and quite a lot better than the Antileon and EVERY other SS I have heard. It floats in air like no other SS amp, which is very musically kool.

I can see why some folks prefer SS over tubes - but for me the tonal weight, more relaxed liquid sound, bigger soundstage and overall easier to listen to qualities I guess makes me a tube man.

BTW, I run a REL StentorIII subwoofer connected at around 25hz and that certainly makes up for any lack of tube amp bass slam that I would normally be missing. In fact I find the sub an essential part of my musical enjoyment.

At this point I will just enjoy my McItosh 2xMC2102's, however I do have one other vintage amp trick up my sleeve that I might try.

cheers