Gryphon Athena User Manual

Athena

Owner´s Manual

Table of Contents:

Introduction....................... 3

The Gryphon....................... 3

The Man.............................. 4

Made in Denmark............... 4

Musical Objectives............. 4

The Gryphon Master Tape

Collection............................ 5

Design Principles................ 5

Exterior Design................... 7

Manufacture and Assembly. 8

Using Your Gryphon.........

AC Voltage.......................... 8

Burn-in and Warm-up.......... 8

Balanced Connections....... 9

Choice of Cables................ 9

Care and Maintenance....... 9

Unpacking........................... 9

Installation........................... 10

Powersupply........................ 10

Front Panel & Remote Functions 11

Menu functions................... 11

AC Fuses............................ 16

Warranty.............................. 17

Introduction

Welcome to the global family of
proud owners of fine audio com­ponents from Gryphon Audio
Designs of Denmark. Your new
Gryphon unit has been painstak­ingly designed to re-create the
sound of live music taking place
in its original recorded space.
Every Gryphon product is
designed to cater to the needs of
the most discerning music
enthusiast with sumptuous
styling and superb user-friendli­ness which elevate it above the
mundane world of con­ventional audio compo­nents.

As audiophiles, the
members of the
Gryphon design team are con­stantly reminded to keep their
priorities straight. We are not
involved in “hi-fi” for its own
sake, but strictly as a means to
an end, in the service of our life­long love of the live music expe­rience in all its sonic and emo­tional glory.

Our higher goal is to bring to the
listener a “You-Are-There” sen­sation. In taking up this chal­lenge, the Gryphon designers go
back to basics to analyze the
essential nature of the live music
experience. For us, an aware­ness of soundstaging, ambience

and concert hall dimensions are
necessary components.
Dynamics and an unambiguous
sense of instrument location
even in the loudest passages
are also high priorities. To
achieve these objectives,
Gryphon products offer excep­tional speed and agility along
with seamless coherence in the
time domain.

Since 1985, Gryphon Audio
Designs has quietly gone about
the business of creating fine
home audio components. We

know that you will appreci­ate and enjoy the benefits
of our accumulated expe­rience and share our abid­ing passion for music.

The Gryphon

In Greek mythology: A fabled
creature, half-lion and half­eagle, combining the power of
the “King of Beasts” with the
grace of the “King of Birds”. The
guardian of the source of gold
and protector of the Dionysian
cup of infinite wealth.
In the real world: An acclaimed
Danish audio engineering com­pany employing cutting edge
technology and common sense
in the pursuit of the purest musi­cal experience. We feel that the
gryphon is an appropriate sym­bol for our high sonic goals.

3

The Man

Gryphon Audio Designs is the
brainchild of Flemming E.
Rasmussen and the fulfillment of
a lifelong dream to allow the
purest essence of the live music
experience to be recreated in the
home environment.

Rasmussen holds a degree in
painting and graphic arts from
the Aarhus Art Academy,
Denmark. During his studies,
Rasmussen developed close
relationships with the local music
community and designed many
LP covers and concert posters.
After graduation, he taught pho­tography and painting and
designed textiles, before found­ing 2R Marketing, which quickly
became Denmark’s leading High
End audio import company.

Gryphon Audio Designs was
founded in 1985 as an offshoot
of 2R Marketing, The first prod­uct, the now legendary Gryphon
Head Amp, grew from a one-off
spare time project developed
only for the designers’ own home
systems. Although the Gryphon
project was initially strictly a
hobby, not an actively pursued
commercial venture, demand
generated by reviews and word­of-mouth led to the formal estab­lishment of Gryphon Audio
Designs as a separate corporate
entity.

Following the immediate suc­cess of the Gryphon brand, all
import business was phased out
in 1993, so that Rasmussen
could dedicate his efforts entire­ly to Gryphon.

Made In Denmark

Every product from Gryphon
Audio Designs is designed and
built in Denmark. This is much
more than just a geographical
fact. It is also a seal of approval,
a stamp of quality. Living in a
region with no natural resources
(no oil, coal, precious metals,
etc.), the Danes have learned to
rely on their quick wits and
skilled hands. Innovative tech­nology, beautiful craftsmanship,
pride in one’s craft and a keen
eye for attractive design are
some of the long-standing
Danish traditions which are dis­tilled to their finest essence in
every unit that bears the
Gryphon name.

Musical
Objectives

While scientific method and
sophisticated technology play an
important role in our electronics
design work, at Gryphon we
never lose sight of the fact that
the keen ears of an experienced
listener are the most crucial “cal-

The Gryphon Head Amp 1985

4

Flemming E. Rasmussen painting 1967

ibration tools.” Therefore, every
Gryphon product exists for one
simple purpose: to bring the user
closer in the never-ending quest
for a more natural and convinc­ing musical illusion.

Every Gryphon design has been
built to cruise effortlessly through
even the most demanding musi­cal passages, regardless of vol­ume level, with a musical pres­entation defined by supreme
articulation and immediacy, sub­tle dynamic shading and razor­sharp focus. Refinement and
delicacy are combined with
power and authority for a natu­ral, involving listening experi­ence.

The Gryphon
Master Tape
Collection

In the Gryphon listening rooms,
we are fortunate to possess a
unique library of more than
1,000 original master tapes of
recordings made during the
Golden Age of studio engineer­ing from 1956-1976.

Unlike conventional commercial
releases, our master tapes cap­ture the dynamic contrasts and
subtle inner harmonic structure

of the musical event, forcing us
to work to a higher standard in
our efforts to maintain the integri­ty of the original musical per­formance.

Design Principles

With state of the art technical
equipment and some of the
finest minds in the audio engi­neering field at our disposal, the
Gryphon brand name continues
to define the highest audiophile
standards of subjective and
technical performance.
The dual mono configuration
radically eliminates any possibil­ity of crosstalk or other interfer­ence between channels and pro­vides infinite channel separation
which contributes to the ability to
create space, focus, depth and
transparency.

Because the electrical power
coming out of your wall fluctu­ates wildly in terms of voltage
and distortion, Gryphon incorpo­rates heavily regulated multi­stage power supplies that act as
effective mains conditioning fil­ters. Displays and control circuits
are fed by a separate power sup­ply to isolate any digital noise
artifacts and effectively prevent
them from contaminating the sig­nal path.

Gryphon is located in beautiful tranquil
surroundings.

5

While the printed circuit boards
in more conventional audio prod­ucts utilize conductor tracks a
mere 35 um thick, Gryphon
employs at least 70 um traces of
the highest purity.

Beginning with our very first
product, “The Head Amp” all
Gryphon products have featured
extremely wide frequency band­width, because the ability to
reproduce ultra-sonic frequen­cies with no difficulty ensures lin­ear phase across the audible fre­quency range.

The implementation of circuits
with wideband frequency
response is a painstaking
endeavor in which the actual lay­out and ground pattern of the PC
boards are crucial to the
achievement of superior sonic
performance with no loss of
inherent stability.

Wideband frequency response
ensures the high slew rate
essential to the realistic handling
of the ultra-fast transients which
routinely occur in live music and
is crucial in recreating the natu­ral decay of musical instruments.
Wide bandwidth also improves
phase characteristics, for more
correct soundstaging and imag­ing.

All Gryphon designs are realized
with an absolute minimum of
negative feedback, which when
present in large amounts can
actually increase TIM distortion.
All Gryphon preamplifiers are
designed with zero, or extremely
low, negative feedback.
Gryphon power amplifiers apply
negative feedback judiciously for
improved linearity and band­width.

Gryphon research into the detri­mental effects of magnetically
induced distorted (MID) has led
to the elimination of magnetiz­able materials wherever possi­ble. To eliminate the effects of
stray magnetic fields, non-mag­netic materials are employed
throughout, with the unavoidable
exception of the transformer
shield box.

The mechanical design of the
cabinet and assembly methods
are all carefully calculated to
ensure minimal resonance,
either through the use of
mechanically grounded high
mass or decoupling. Vibration­sensitive components, capaci­tors in particular, are thus guar­anteed a non-resonant environ­ment.

The heavy, thick chassis offers a
vibration-proof environment for
the sensitive electronics inside

6