The Apex Stereo amplifier will set you back $99,000 (as will each equally massive Apex Mono, the Stereo's monoblock twin—double that for a pair). While not exactly budget-friendly, the Apex Stereo's price is competitive in the rarefied top-end audio…
search
Gryphon's founder, Flemming E. Rasmussen, endowed the Apex Stereo with a bold industrial design featuring several striking elements: large, smooth (fanned) heatsinks; massive, brushed-aluminum faceplates; robust spiked feet; and, with unabashed frontal prominence, the same triangular touchscreen seen on the Gryphon Commander preamplifier.
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid state, stereo power amplifier. Input: 2 balanced (XLR). Output: 2 pair custom gold-plated binding posts. Input impedance, balanced (20Hz–20kHz): 20k ohms. Output impedance: 0.015 ohm. Voltage gain: 31dB. Bandwidth: 0.3Hz–330kHz, –3dB. Max. input level: 1.16V RMS. Output power: 210Wpc into 8 ohms (23.2dBW), 420Wpc into 4 ohms (23.2dBW), 800Wpc into 2 ohms (23.0dBW), 1490Wpc into 1 ohm (22.7dBW). Power supply capacity: 1,040,000µF. Power consumption, high bias: <0.5W at idle.
Dimensions: 23.3" (593mm) W × 14.6" (371mm) H × 34.8" (886mm) D…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: OMA K3, Acoustic Signature Montana NEO, and J. Sikora Reference turntables, Schröder K3, Acoustic Signature TA-7000, Acoustical Systems Axiom, and J. Sikora KV12 tonearms; Lyra Atlas Lambda SL and Etna Lambda SL, Ortofon Anna Diamond and Ortofon Verismo, X-quisite ST, and Luxman LMC-5 cartridges.
Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi One SACD player DAC; Lynx Hilo A/D-D/A converter; Mac mini (Roon), Audirvana Digital Audio Player; Vinyl Studio software.
Preamplification: darTZeel NHB-18S, Gryphon Commander, Ypsilon MC-10L, MC-16L, and MC-26L…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Because the Gryphon Apex Stereo is big and heavy, I drove to Michael Fremer's place in deepest, darkest New Jersey with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system, digital and analog oscilloscopes, and test loads. I preconditioned the amplifier by operating it at 1/8 the specified power into 8 ohms for 20 minutes. At the end of that time, the temperature of the heatsinks was 113.6°F/45.4°C and that of the top panel 105.3°F/40.8°C. The bias was set at High for all testing.
The Gryphon Apex Stereo has only balanced inputs. The voltage gain at 1kHz was 30.85dB into 8…
Bowie: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Parlophone DBZS50 (LP). 2020/1972. David Bowie and Ken Scott, prods.; Ken Scott, John Webber, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Parlophone DBZS50 (LP). 2020/1972. David Bowie and Ken Scott, prods.; Ken Scott, John Webber, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was one of the first albums I ever purchased. A week before, an uncle had given me his old red Dansette record player; I used collected pocket money to christen it. After just one play, the 10-year-old me was blown away. But it wasn't just elementary school kids who loved this album, causing it to break into the top 30 US and UK album charts. This was the…
It seems as if I have been waiting for these all my life. Not in any existential sense, but in a literal, practical way: The arrival of the Blade Two Meta is the culmination of a lifelong fascination with KEF. As a teenager, I was introduced to founder Raymond Cooke and his innovative "race-track" woofer, Mylar tweeter dome, and Bextrene cones in Bud Fried's IMF Newsletter. Shortly thereafter, I commenced decades of building loudspeakers, mostly with KEF drivers, and, beginning with the 104 in 1973, pining for their Reference speakers. They always seemed to strike the right balance of…
Sure, these are foxtrots, most of them suitable for dancing, but they are sophisticated and fascinating. Each disc covers a different geographical area: Austria and the Czech lands; Germany; Central and Eastern Europe; France and Belgium. The composers and arrangers include many great names from the first half of the 20th century—Krenek, Martinu, Hindemith, Gieseking, Weill, Shostakovich, Saint-Saëns, Satie, Milhaud, Ravel, Ibert—and many of the pieces are adaptations of music from opera, concert, stage, and film. I loved them so much that I made them the playlist for a recent birthday party…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way "Single Apparent Source" loudspeaker in a bass-reflex enclosure. Drive units: one 5" Uni-Q (coaxial) driver with 1" aluminum dome with MAT HF, two 6.5" aluminum-cone bass drivers in force-canceling configuration. Crossover frequencies: 450Hz, 2.2kHz. Frequency response: 30Hz–45kHz (–6dB) free field, 33Hz– 35kHz (±3dB). Typical in-room bass response: 25Hz (–6dB). Impedance: 4 ohms (3.2 ohms minimum). Sensitivity: 86dB/2.83V/m. Recommended amplifier power: 50–400W RMS. Maximum output: 116dB (peak SPL @ 1m with pink noise). Harmonic…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal disc player, Custom Intel/Win11 music server running JRiver Media Center v29 and Roon, exaSound s88 Mark II, and Okto DAC8 PRO D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifiers: 3 Topping Pre90 preamps for buffer/line drivers.
Power amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, NAD C 298.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima2 Studio with IsoAcoustics Gaia I isolation feet. SVS SB-3000 subwoofer.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Coffee (USB). Analog interconnects: Benchmark Studio&Stage XLR-XLR, Kubala-Sosna Anticipation (…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system, a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone, and an Earthworks microphone preamplifier to measure the KEF Blade Two Meta's frequency response in the farfield. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield measurements. Because I perform the quasi-anechoic response measurements in-room, I usually place a loudspeaker's tweeter midway between the floor and ceiling, which equalizes the timing of the reflections from those boundaries. But because of the speaker's bulk, I wasn't able to lift it as high as I prefer. The presence of an early…