Gryphon Poseidon Owner's Manual

Owners Manual

The Gryphon Poseidon

Reference Speaker System

Version 1.0 August 2004

Content:

The POSEIDON Adventure

The Secret History of
The Gryphon Reference
Standard Loudspeaker System

Words by Flemming E. Rasmussen, CEO and
Founder of Gryphon Audio Designs

Nearly two decades have pas­sed since the first Gryphon
saw the light of day. It wasn't
a case of planned parenthood,
more an inevitable love child ­the fruit of a long-standing
love affair with music and
audio.

Gryphon embarked on a long
journey back then, made long
not by detours, but simply
because our destination is so
far away. I have always belie­ved that we experience music
with our hearts as much as
with our ears. For me, the ulti­mate test is very simple - the
music must reach out and
touch the heart. Looking back
over those twenty years, I
must confess that Gryphon
has always developed the
audio products that I perso­nally needed and wanted.
Nothing was ever built to
meet a demand defined by
market research. Some might
find that arrogant and per­haps it is, but I prefer to see it
as an honest approach, while
accepting that not everyone
shares my point of view.

Fortunately, the passing years
have proven that there is a
sufficiently large group of like­minded individuals around the
world who have come toget­her in this common quest.

I would like to take this oppor­tunity to personally thank all
of you who have shared this
journey with me.

Down through the years,
Gryphon has expanded from a
single Head Amplifier to
encompass the full audio
spectrum with the definitive
music playback system. This
didn't happen because we can
do everything ourselves, but
because we recognize quality
when we encounter it and
have the ability to assemble a
team of dedicated specialists
for each new project. The
Gryphon company - like its
products - is greater than the
sum of its parts.

There is certainly a family
resemblance across the
Gryphon range and by that we
mean more than mere tech­nology. We like to think that
Gryphon is not perceived as
Class A amplifiers, upsampling
CD players or silver cables,
but more as a degree of quali­ty, a sense of "rightness" that
brings it all home for you. And
you don't reach that place by
following your ears, only by
following your heart.

5

Flemming E. Rasmussen

Ry , Denmark August 2004

In responding to queries as to
why Gryphon took the major
step of expanding into the
field of loudspeaker design,
the temptation is to take the
easy way out with a flippant
reply like "Because it's there."
But the simple fact is that,
having earned a global repu­tation for unsurpassed excel­lence in amplification, it was a
natural evolutionary move to
broaden our scope and turn
our attention to the other links
in the audio chain.
eginning with source compo­nents, Gryphon designed the
world's first single-chassis CD
player with onboard upsamp­ling. The third generation of
this innovative technology, the
Gryphon Mikado, has won
numerous awards around the
world. The next logical step
was to apply the uncompromi­sing Gryphon take-no-priso­ners approach to the final link
in the chain. But this decision
was by no means made on the
spur of the moment.

In fact, the Poseidon adventu­re began nearly 15 years ago
with a chance encounter bet­ween Gryphon founder
Flemming E. Rasmussen and
Steen Duelund, a Danish mat­hematician who has dedicated
his professional life to loud­speaker theory.

Duelund's theories on con­stant phase in crossover net­works can be summed up in a
single statement: "All drivers
must be in phase at all times
at all frequencies." Following
this theoretical "Eureka," the
hard part then becomes
making that happen in a real
room with a real loudspeaker.

Initially on a strictly informal
basis, an in-depth exploration
was undertaken that would
take full advantage of
Gryphon's assembled experti­se and extensive experience
in design and manufacturing
to transform Duelund's theori­es into real-world products
with scant regard for such
minor details as pricing, parts
availability, prevailing attitu­des and preconceived notions.

Imperfect Drivers

The first step was to acknow­ledge that the greatest chal­lenge facing loudspeaker
designers was the simple fact
that dynamic drive units are
by nature fundamentally fla­wed and compromised. Many
driver designs defy all sound
design principles, because
they are the result of penny­pinching exercises under
heavy market pressure to deli­ver "acceptable" performance
at the lowest price. There is
little motivation to allocate
resources to making drivers
that are truly the best that
they can be.

In order for the mission, now
assigned the working title
Project 30, to succeed,
Rasmussen and his hand-pic­ked design team began from
scratch with driver design,
literally building by hand dri­vers with baskets that did not
introduce compression, hand­made multi-laminate cones,
exotic home-brew coatings,
adjustable wire suspension to
replace the conventional spi­der, heavy-duty magnetic sys­tems, ventilated pole pieces,
machined phase plugs and
special surrounds to optimize

5

Steen Duelund

Lars Matthisen

the transition between cone
and baffle. All edges were
beveled for a deliberate aero­dynamic profile. Double wiring
was employed on the cones to
ensure perfect symmetry. The
list of breakthroughs goes on
and on.

Every aspect of driver design,
assembly and function was
thoroughly investigated wit­hout prejudice and with scant
respect for received wisdom,
which often proved to be ill­founded dogma formulated by
individuals promoting their
own specific agendas.

The end result was drive units
with extremely low Q, high
power handling, no dynamic
compression and a linear pis­tonic range that pushed back
the limits of driver design.

In order to live up to the
uncompromising design goal
of perfect phase all the time at
all frequencies, the enclosure
incorporated a concave cur­ved front to form a direct ang­led, time-aligned system with
identical distance from the lis­tener to the acoustic center of
each driver.

The finished loudspeaker can
only be described as an open
window, utterly transparent to
the original recorded event
with equally remarkable dyna­mic headroom that re-creates
the true power and full weight
of live music, both in details
such as a drum rimshot and in
the effortless expansion of an
orchestral crescendo in a
large-scale symphonic piece.

Gone were the sluggishness

and "whitewashed" uniformity
typical of loudspeakers with
complex crossovers where
60% of the components are
dedicated to the thankless
task of compensating for the
basic imperfections of inferior
drivers. In such speakers, the
crossover becomes a virtual
"black hole," sucking up ener­gy instead of conveying it to
the drivers. The result is a
neat and tidy musical presen­tation with everything appa­rently in its place and a liste­ning experience that quickly
becomes tedious and uninspi­ring.

At this stage, a respected
German audio reviewer visited
Gryphon. In the Gryphon liste­ning room he auditioned
amplifiers using the usual
reference loudspeakers, a
well-known American full­range system. Suitably
impressed with what he heard
he happened to notice some
large enclosures concealed
beneath a sheet off to one
side. His curiosity aroused, he
persuaded Flemming to hook
them up for an off the record
listening session with the clear
understanding that this was
not a commercial product.

To make a long story short,
the reviewer had a memorable
experience and rumors quickly
began to circulate about a
mystery speaker that Gryphon
were keeping to themselves.

Despite the unique quality of
the project, Rasmussen deci­ded not to pursue it as a com­mercial venture, using the
loudspeakers only as a valued
tool in the company's electro-

5

nics development work. The
decision was based on the fact
that the many hand-tweaked,
non-standard components
involved made it a slow,
expensive and exceedingly
complex system to build. Too
many of its geeky, off-the-wall
solutions were conceived and
executed without regard for
the real world problems of
consistent, day-to-day pro­duction. Moreover, this was at
a time in the High End indus­try when electronics manufac­turers and speaker makers
politely played in their own
sandboxes, rarely invading
each other's turf. Today,
things have change considera­bly.

The Cantata Reference
Monitor System

By the millennium, Gryphon
had become firmly established
as a major international player
with a range of amplification
components and CD players
widely regard as among the
very best in the esoteric world
of High End audio. Gryphon
innovations included the worl­d's first single-chassis CD pla­yer with onboard upsampling
and critical system enhance­ments such as the acclaimed
Exorcist, the world's first sys­tem demagnetizer, as well as
a range of cables and acces­sories.

Still, demand for a Gryphon
loudspeaker continued to
grow, as distributors, dealers
and enthusiastic owners wan­ted to share in the great
secret. Electing not to fall into
the same trap as so many
others who rush to market
with a "me, too" loudspeaker

system in an attempt to cash
in on the goodwill of an esta­blished electronics brand
name, Rasmussen decided to
address an unacknowledged
problem that he had frequent­ly observed: Most audiophiles
select loudspeakers that are
simply too large to work well
in their room and wind up
fighting a losing battle against
room acoustics with inadequa­te tools. Rasmussen already
knew what they would have to
learn from bitter, expensive
experience: Not even the best
amplifier and room treatments
can turn things around once
you have installed the wrong
speaker in the wrong room.

(Remember, room correction
systems do not correct rooms,
they can only change amplifi­er performance.)

Driven by his decade-long
vision of a loudspeaker that
would finally get things right,
Rasmussen conceived the
Cantata to set new standards
for sonic performance in a
two-way system of modest
dimensions. With Steen
Duelund's theories as inspira­tion, acoustician Lars
Matthiesen was assigned the
task of translating those theo­ries into workable, practical
solutions. Rasmussen and the
Gryphon design team created
the product's conceptual and
physical framework, while
Rasmussen and Gryphon
chairman Valdemar Boersting
were responsible for final voi­cing of the Cantata. Exploiting
Gryphon's home court advan­tage in the field of electronics,
it was natural to incorporate a
high tech active Q control, a

5

Gryphon Cantata

concept introduced in the
1950's by Linkwitz and
Greiner, but never successfully
implemented.

The Cantata received a rave
reception from press and
owners alike, winning nume­rous awards, including
Product of the Year from UK
magazine HiFi+. Gryphon was
immediately accepted as a
loudspeaker manufacturer
and praised for tackling the
endeavor with innovative flair

- and no small measure of
bravery, as well.

With no false modesty,
Cantata is Gryphon's candida­te for world's finest loudspea­ker - if size matters - and was
released first because it was
felt to fill the greatest need.

The Return of Project 30

The development and, in par­ticular, the actual production
of Cantata with its innumera­ble tailor-made components
gave Gryphon valuable experi­ence and the courage to revi­ve and complete Project 30.
Auditioning confirmed that the
system had been well ahead
of its time. Equally important,
Gryphon's accrued experience
and good working relations
with driver manufacturers
now meant that the project
could be fully realized to an
even higher standard.

Special drive units would still
be required, but Gryphon's
unquestioned High End statu­re and the success of the
Cantata attracted the interest
of an internationally respected
Danish driver manufacturer
willing to build drive units to

Gryphon's strict specifications.
Jensen would manufacture
capacitors and inductors to
Gryphon's specifications. A
German manufacturer suppli­ed a surround that matched
the cone geometry. The list of
specialists involved continued
to expand.

As was once the norm in the
High End, Gryphon is still run
by enthusiasts able and willing
to take risks and push back
boundaries, not because the
marketplace demands it or
because anyone asked them
to, but out of sheer curiosity
as to what awaits them in the
uncharted territories where no
one has gone before.
Consequently, Project 30
began to grow in scope and
ambition.

Flemming E. Rasmussen once
said. "The reason we make
products is to finance our
research and development.
This is our true passion."

In the ten years that have
passed since the original
Project 30 prototype, there
have been other positive
developments that provided
much need encouragement.
High End audiophiles are rai­sing their standards as they
come to appreciate that natu­ral, undoctored, realistic
sound must always maintain
the integrity of the musical
performance without focusing
narrowly on details and wit­hout losing sight of the big
picture. A loudspeaker must
not be an instrument with its
own voice or an interpreter,
only a neutral conduit that lets
us hear what is there, no

5

Brainstormin

Poseidon Tweeter

Poseidon bass driver

more and no less, for better or
for worse.

This is the prime source of the
inspiration and motivation
that led to the ultimate loud­speaker system that would
soon be known as the
Gryphon Poseidon.

The Birth of Poseidon
Where Cantata is for those
times when size matters, the
Poseidon was to be the ulti­mate Statement, the definitive
full-range system to be part­nered with equipment and a
room truly worthy of such a
loudspeaker.

The Poseidon is a four-way
loudspeaker system consisting
of four separate enclosures,
all 199 cm tall, coincidentally
(?) the same height as Mr.
Rasmussen himself. The dis­tinctive grill design is courtesy
of Sonus Faber of Italy and is
used with their kind permis­sion.

The imposing cabinets are
built just down the road from
Gryphon by a woodworking
company specializing in cus­tom design work for recording
studios and musicians. Their
staff includes several musici­ans, who combine a perfectio­nist approach to their craft
with an open mind to untradi­tional solutions. Rasmussen
frequently tested the limits of
their open-mindedness as he
specified a time-aligned baffle
curvature, side panels that
come to a point midway and a
complex combination of MDF,
plywood, acrylic, aluminum,
PVA, Teflon, steel, bitumen,
felt, elastomers and Nappa.

The very different characteris­tics of these materials make
combining them in a single
seamless structure a formida­ble task, but the specific mix
was essential in preserving
the structural and aesthetic
integrity of an enclosure on
this grand scale.

Available side panel options
are limited only by the custo­mer's imagination and, possi­bly, his bank manager.
However, requests may not
include rain forest wood or
any endangered, restricted or
illegal materials.

Active Bass

Each bass tower houses eight
custom designed 8" drive
units and a built-in Gryphon
Class A/B power amplifier
capable of 1,000 Watts contin­uous output. For extended
headroom, peak power is
approximately 4,000 Watts or

4.5 horsepower. The amplifier
module incorporates sophisti­cated Q control circuitry to
fine-tune bass response and
additional features to ensure
ideal room interface. The bass
remote control allows adjust­ment of bass level, Q, low cut
and other parameters from
the listening position. The
bass module offers standby
mode and provides effective
driver protection via a com­prehensive non-invasive sys­tem that monitors all func­tions more than 100 times per
second.

In addition to the obvious
advantages of an active bass
system with purpose-built
amplification designed for
optimal operation with the

5

Prototype cabinet

Unless the baffle is curved,
distance to all drivers can not
be equal.

Unique transportation system
offers extreme protecting
during transport