[gLer]

Thanks for this and worthwhile considering - only issue I have and which is swaying me towards the ifi is the fact that a good % of my music is live recorded so not the best sound in the first place. So my thoughts were as a best of all options the ifi maybe the better fit.

I don't use an iPhone but Gryphon for me is more about use case. It's significantly more powerful than the Walkman, so if you need to drive full-size headphones, Gryphon is a better choice. I'd have said Gryphon's Bluetooth input offers great versatility and sound quality, but since iPhone is AAC only, it's not anywhere near as good as LDAC from an Android phone. Still, if you're listening casually, it's nice not to have wire Gryphon to your phone.

I haven't actually directly compared the SQ between Gryphon and the WM1Z, though I expect the Walkman will be superior technically and probably musically too. That said Gryphon is an outstanding sounding device, and at $600 an absolute bargain imo.

 

[MicrosPL]

@Sebastien Chiu , for my part, I would like to suggest adding the LDAC option fixed mode in 990kbps 44.1kHz 16-bit, so that you can listen to audio CD tracks "losslessly". (*) An even better option would be if Gryphon remembered the last bluetooth setup and connects to Android with the same parameters. At the moment I have to enter the development options after every Gryphon connection with Android and manually set 990kbps 44.1kHz 16-bit.

(*) Sony makes two major claims about LDAC. First, that its 990kbps top speed can maintain the maximum bit depth and frequency of 24-bit/96kHz Hi-Res audio files. Secondly, that the codec can transmit 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality files completely untouched.

Even if this is not entirely true, the loss of sound quality is practically inaudible in 990kbps 44.1kHz 16-bit fixed mode. Without this setting, the Gryphon displays 96kHz for each input audio track, so apparently the device is doing unnecessary upsampling.

 

[electronicsdesign]

Even if this is not entirely true, the loss of sound quality is practically inaudible in 990kbps 44.1kHz 16-bit fixed mode. Without this setting, the Gryphon displays 96kHz for each input audio track, so apparently the device is doing unnecessary upsampling.

I have noticed that is not always the case. When I use it with my phone, it does 96kHz sampling rate regardless of what I play.
I've recently tested it on a NW-A45 SONY DAP connected on Bluetooth (LDAC) and it does 44.1kHz in this case. It jumps to 96kHz when I play HiRes files.

Also, the jumping between the sample rates does not always occur smoothly. Sometimes it remains stuck to the old setting, redering crackling sound.
Stopping the file from playing and starting it again solves the issue.
So far I have tried 44.1kHz, 48kHz and 96kHz files on this DAP and it seems to change the sample rate accordingly.

 

[nioh]

@iFi audio @Sebastien Chiu
So I got my Gryphon just 2 days ago. I use it as a DAC with my PC.
Time to time, it just turns off and the sound is gone. I can see the "Off" displayed on the screen.
I have to turn it back on manually by pressing the Volume knob.

Connected as USB.

Anyone else have this problem ?
If this is one of those unsolved bugs then I must return it. This is not useable for me like this !

Edit: Using latest firmware and IFI USB driver. Battery is half charged.

 

[MarkParity]

Battery is half charged.

Which half is charged though? No seriously mine did that too, one of the cells in the battery was at 1.3V and wouldn't charge, the other was charging fine.

If it were me I would try fully charging it and then using it until the battery gets down to 20% for a few times and see if that improves things.

I took the drastic step of taking mine apart and charging the two cells in the battery separately (long story don't ask ) My unit has been fine for several months now so I'm a happy customer in the end.

 

[The1Signature]

I took the drastic step of taking mine apart and charging the two cells in the battery separately (long story don't ask )

honesty speaking, i heard the same issue from a friend and i may PM you. i would be interested how you solved this.

 

[MarkParity]

honesty speaking, i heard the same issue from a friend and i may PM you. i would be interested how you solved this.

It's all in this thread from the early few pages, I was an early buyer from the first batch. But yes feel free to PM me too.

Here is a picture of the battery all naked and the jumper wires I used to "fix" it.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/xdsd-gryphon-birth-of-a-‘head-fi’-legend.960502/post-16778770

 

[nioh]

Which half is charged though? No seriously mine did that too, one of the cells in the battery was at 2v and wouldn't charge, the other was charging fine.

If it were me I would try fully charging it and then using it until the battery gets down to 20% for a few times and see if that improves things.

I took the drastic step of taking mine apart and charging the two cells in the battery separately (long story don't ask ) My unit has been fine for several months now so I'm a happy customer in the end.

Thanks but if this is the case then I'd rather simply return mine and get a replacement. Still have 2 weeks for that.

 

[MarkParity]

Thanks but if this is the case then I'd rather simply return mine and get a replacement. Still have 2 weeks for that.

Perhaps you misunderstood me. I wasn't for one second proposing that you open up your unit, I was simply suggesting a few charge cycles full-nearly empty to attempt to condition the battery and balance the two cells to get maximum capacity and attempt to fix the display inaccuracy with regards to the battery level.

****PLEASE DON'T OPEN UP YOUR GRYPHON YOU WILL VOID THE WARRANTY. ****

Is that clear now?

 

[electronicsdesign]

@nioh I agree with what @MarkParity is saying. A few complete charge cycles should be done first. If it does power off without the BATTERY LOW message, it's a problem.
When using on PC, it's also recommended to turn on a Dual Charge Port feature, so it is charging when it's used. To me it seems to work off USB power once the
battery is fully charged (the lightning symbol disappears). Don't know if that is really the case, but I hope it is.

 

[nioh]

Thanks guys !
The question for me is what if couple of charge cycles don't fix this problem ?
I'd rather pay more and buy a functional device like the Sony WM1AM2.

Are we sure that this issue will be fixed with some charge and discharge cycles ?

I had a Shanling device once whose battery failed after a year. The device wouldn't work anymore because it always needs battery, won't work off power !
I don't want another 600$ dead device !

 

[nioh]

Perhaps you misunderstood me. I wasn't for one second proposing that you open up your unit, I was simply suggesting a few charge cycles full-nearly empty to attempt to condition the battery and balance the two cells to get maximum capacity and attempt to fix the display inaccuracy with regards to the battery level.

****PLEASE DON'T OPEN UP YOUR GRYPHON YOU WILL VOID THE WARRANTY. ****

Is that clear now?

So I charged it fully and then plugged it into my PC.
After about 20 minutes, it turned off again. I am playing a game so I can see when the sound goes mute.
Battery is full, the indicator is also showing full !

This is the worst 600 bucks purchase I have made in a long time.

@iFi audio Any solutions/ideas here ? I really don't want to return it if there is a fix for this.

 

[nioh]

I'm not sure why, but in firmware v1.45, the Gryphon will auto shutdown even while music is playing. I don't think this happened before, and it really doesn't make sense to force users to adjust volume every few minutes to keep it awake.

Can we have an option to tune the auto shutdown behavior? I'd like to be able to turn it off, or at least set a timer.

Did you find a solution to this? I'm having the same problem.
Does reverting to an older firmware solve this ?

Update: I downgraded to 1.43 and still the same.
Device auto shuts down after about 20 minutes even when sound is playing !

 

[Tachikoma]

I haven't encountered the problem since... but that might be because I've set the gryphon to charge on USB.

 

[electronicsdesign]

I did not have this problem: not with the older v1.22 firmware that it was shipped with, nor with the latest v1.45.
@nioh Does yours show OFF on the screen when it powers off or it just suddenly dies ?
My opinion is you should return it and exchange with new one if you really like the device.

There is something I would like to mention in regard to this battery thing though: mine was shutting down at ~20-25% level on the display when new. I initially thought this
was a firmware issue and the battery management wasn't working correctly. It seems to be better now, but still not perfect: at lower levels the charge seems to drop very quick and it happened to me that it shuts down when I am expecting it to still run for half an hour maybe more.