You may think CD is dead. Yes, CD sales are down but the world of high performance CD playback is alive and kicking and as the line from the song says ‘now it’s all or nothing’. Poor quality CD players are almost fully replaced by mainstream music services such as Spotify or Tidal. However, high performance players from the likes of Rega, Bel Canto, MOON and Gryphon are providing CD playback that is a full rival for any other source of music.
The sleek lines, low profile and stylish blend of metalwork and high-gloss acrylic in the exterior design of the Gryphon Ethos CD player can only begin to hint at the sophisticated technology concealed within as Gryphon Audio Designs again takes up the challenge of creating the definitive combination of CD transport and digital-to-analogue converter.
Gryphon Audio Designs have stood for major innovations throughout the digital era with an acclaimed series of CD players that, perhaps more than most, deserve to be described as integrated transport/DAC’s.
In the once crowded, but now nearly vacant field of CD player design, the Gryphon story began with our very first digital source component at the close of the previous millennium. In 1998, The Gryphon CDP-1 CD player introduced the world to the sonic improvements offered by 88.2 kHz asynchronous sample rate conversion, the world’s first implementation of this advanced technology, now ubiquitous in digital audio.
Never willing to rest on our laurels, the Gryphon Adagio, successor to the CDP-1, was launched in 2001, taking digital musicality to the next level with asynchronous 24-bit/96 kHz sample rate conversion. After further refinement of this technology in the Gryphon Mikado, released in 2003, the implementation of 32-bit/192 kHz upsampling in the acclaimed Gryphon Mikado Signature represented another giant leap forward, once again breaking new ground and laying out a path for others to follow
The first Gryphon separate digital-to-analogue converter, Kalliope, was universally praised in the world audio press.
“Kalliope reproduces music in all its harmonic richness, giving free rein to voices and instruments, well differentiated with a fluidity that is exemplary.” Haute Fidelité, March 2015.
The Gryphon Ethos remains faithful to the brand’s signature sound of great musical distinction, achieving a veritable musical alchemy with fast transient response and consistent tonal accuracy, regardless of the selected listening level. Perfect harmony alongside often contradictory parameters such as fluid handling of melody and rock-solid positioning in the stereo image is extremely rare, making the Gryphon Ethos an even more remarkable accomplishment, as manufacturers surrender to uninformed consumer pressure to deliver all-in-one “universal” audio and video disc playback.
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