[rlw6534]

I now realise something. The 2 cells may be wired in parallel, not in series.
The stated battery capacity on the box is 3600mAh (which is exactly 2350mAh + 1350mAh shown in your pictures).

If the 2 batteries were to be wired in series however, you will only use 1250mAh from the large one, not the full 2350mAh (so the total capacity would be 1250mAh).
So what they're doing here is most likely the following:
1. They both discharge until the small one is fully depleted and will not supply current anymore (stopped by its own protection circuit);
2. When just the big one remains, that is when the charge will drop faster, since it's only one that supplies current;

In this case, relying on the cells' own protection cicuits is the only way (I can think of) to use them in parallel and not fully discharge the small one.
However, I think the firmware should be adapted so it displays the charge a bit more accurately (especially after the small one is discharged).

Mine does last 4-5 hours (rough estimation, may be a bit more actually) at pretty loud volumes, so I think the cells are just fine.

Batteries wired in parallel will stay naturally balanced because they have to operate at the same voltage (cathode connected to cathode and anode connected to anode). Essentially they will provide current proportional to their capacity. In this example for a 0.1 amp draw the small battery will provide (1250/3600) or 0.0347 amps and the larger 0.0653 amps. That can't discharge separately without complex circuitry to vary the voltage on each cell.

 

[MarkParity]

Batteries wired in parallel will stay naturally balanced because they have to operate at the same voltage (cathode connected to cathode and anode connected to anode). Essentially they will provide current proportional to their capacity. In this example for a 0.1 amp draw the small battery will provide (1250/3600) or 0.0347 amps and the larger 0.0653 amps. That can't discharge separately without complex circuitry to vary the voltage on each cell.

Yes that is the case I agree, but does the protection circuit play a part in the discharge of two parallel cells I wonder?

Either way the battery is a poor design IMHO. I left the separate "jump start" charging wires connected and just under the end cap should I need to access them, I haven't had to so far though and its been several months now.

iFi reassure us by saying that battery replacements will be available for a long time but what about outside of warranty battery replacements, its going to get expensive quickly, or be a nice little earner for iFi depending on your perspective.

 

[rlw6534]

Yes that is the case I agree, but does the protection circuit play a part in the discharge of two parallel cells I wonder?

Either way the battery is a poor design IMHO. I left the separate "jump start" charging wires connected and just under the end cap should I need to access them, I haven't had to so far though and its been several months now.

iFi reassure us by saying that battery replacements will be available for a long time but what about outside of warranty battery replacements, its going to get expensive quickly, or be a nice little earner for iFi depending on your perspective.

Yeah, it's a bit of a mystery how your cells got so far out of balance in a parallel circuit. I wonder if the protection circuit is per battery or common?

 

[MarkParity]

Yeah, it's a bit of a mystery how your cells got so far out of balance in a parallel circuit. I wonder if the protection circuit is per battery or common?

I assumed its one per cell, under the Kapton tape, I say "assume" because I didn't disassemble the battery any more than removing the outer black covering. I guess its this sort of thing.

 

[KaiFi]

The only thing that's really been annoying me about the Gryphon lately is the way that no matter whether you have volume sync on or off, using it with a streaming service (Tidal, Qobuz) causes the MacBook speakers audio to go to 100% every time. So I turn off the Gryphon when I'm done listening to music and go to play a YouTube video through the laptop speakers and the volume is maxed out. Don't know why it has to happen, doesn't happen with the Zen DAC, but happens every time with the Gryphon. If that one issue could be solved, this would be just about perfect for laptop listening.

 

[Shape77]

The only thing that's really been annoying me about the Gryphon lately is the way that no matter whether you have volume sync on or off, using it with a streaming service (Tidal, Qobuz) causes the MacBook speakers audio to go to 100% every time. So I turn off the Gryphon when I'm done listening to music and go to play a YouTube video through the laptop speakers and the volume is maxed out. Don't know why it has to happen, doesn't happen with the Zen DAC, but happens every time with the Gryphon. If that one issue could be solved, this would be just about perfect for laptop listening.

I haven't this issue with Windows 10

The only thing that's really been annoying me about the Gryphon lately is the way that no matter whether you have volume sync on or off, using it with a streaming service (Tidal, Qobuz) causes the MacBook speakers audio to go to 100% every time. So I turn off the Gryphon when I'm done listening to music and go to play a YouTube video through the laptop speakers and the volume is maxed out. Don't know why it has to happen, doesn't happen with the Zen DAC, but happens every time with the Gryphon. If that one issue could be solved, this would be just about perfect for laptop listening.

Just for record, I haven't this issue with Windows 10.

 

[KaiFi]

I haven't noticed the issue with Windows 11 either. It seems to just be a Mac problem.

 

[SonicFade]

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.

So, AAC isn’t as good quality BT signal? I have an iPhone.. could one just buy a cheaper android device That is 5.1 and use LDAC from that? Would it be worth it?

Also, does anyone know if the gryphon has a class A amp?

 

[electronicsdesign]

Yeah, it's a bit of a mystery how your cells got so far out of balance in a parallel circuit. I wonder if the protection circuit is per battery or common?

Maybe the cells didn't get out of balance, but were like that to begin with due to poor quality control. This combined with a long time between production and installing them in the devices may have caused such issue. The good news is the problem doesn't seem to be that common.

I think it's more likely that the protection circuits are per cell, given the 2 cells are of different capacity. Otherwise there is a risk that the small one can over discharge.
Even so, to me it seems a poor design, as the small cell is likely to go into a deeper state of discharge every cycle, wearing faster than the big one.

Also, does anyone know if the gryphon has a class A amp?

Given the high output power, I'm inclined to believe the amps are class AB. A class A amp would be too inefficient, especially with low impedances (which require more current), rendering very poor battery autonomy and a lot of heat. And then they would market such a thing, I'm pretty sure of that !

 

[SonicFade]

Maybe the cells didn't get out of balance, but were like that to begin with due to poor quality control. This combined with a long time between production and installing them in the devices may have caused such issue. The good news is the problem doesn't seem to be that common.

I think it's more likely that the protection circuits are per cell, given the 2 cells are of different capacity. Otherwise there is a risk that the small one can over discharge.
Even so, to me it seems a poor design, as the small cell is likely to go into a deeper state of discharge every cycles, wearing faster than the big one.


Given the high output power, I'm inclined to believe the amps are class AB. A class A amp would be too inefficient, especially with low impedances (which require more current), rendering very poor battery autonomy. And then they would market such a thing for sure, be convinced of that !

That’s kind of what I thought, on the marketing front

Edit: I realized that the mojo is class A. This must mean it has higher impedances?

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Does anyone know if the Gryphon can act as a Bluetooth emitter using LDAC ? I have a wireless earbuds but I assume I cannot use the iFi Gryphon as Bluetooth emitter , only as receiver… is that true?
Thanks!

The Gryphon can not act as an emitter - only a reciever.

Maybe. The Gryphon sounds great and quite versatile with the bluetooth, bass boost, presence, and gobs of power. I just hate the iPhone functionality and find connectivity really spotty and frustrating. I notice quite a big jump up in detail retrieval compared to my iFi Hip DAC so your music should sound really nice with the Gryphon.

Thanks for the love! We appreciate it.

For all of it's benefits, being team Apple can be quite annoying for audio.

I understand as a user who recently switched from being PC/Android his whole life!

@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.

Hi there, happy to forward your request along to our development team and see if this is something we can do.

@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.

Hi there,

Does the issue still occur after you drained your battery, and did a hard reset?

Please open a support ticket with us if the issue still occurs after the fact; https://support.ifi-audio.com/

The only thing that's really been annoying me about the Gryphon lately is the way that no matter whether you have volume sync on or off, using it with a streaming service (Tidal, Qobuz) causes the MacBook speakers audio to go to 100% every time. So I turn off the Gryphon when I'm done listening to music and go to play a YouTube video through the laptop speakers and the volume is maxed out. Don't know why it has to happen, doesn't happen with the Zen DAC, but happens every time with the Gryphon. If that one issue could be solved, this would be just about perfect for laptop listening.

Is your firmware up to date? What version are you currently on?

 

[electronicsdesign]

Edit: I realized that the mojo is class A. This must mean it has higher impedances?

I was reffering to the impedance of the headphones used, not the output impedance of the amp itself.

Class A amps are usually used in combination with high impedance headphones: like 300ohm or 600ohm ones.
Those are going to require more voltage than current, rendering the class A much more efficient than in the case of low impedance headphones (like 32ohm).

Where have you read the Chrod Mojo uses a class A amplifier ?

 

[SonicFade]

I was reffering to the impedance of the headphones used, not the output impedance of the amp itself.

Class A amps are usually used in combination with high impedance headphones: like 300ohm or 600ohm ones.
Those are going to require more voltage than current, rendering the class A much more efficient than in the case of low impedance headphones (like 32ohm).

Where have you read the Chrod Mojo uses a class A amplifier ?

Hmmm. I may have misunderstood or mid-read something. I’m not for sure that it is Class A

 

[ecodr]

@iFi audio Could you please comment on the issues users are experiencing with the 4.4mm balanced HP output in this thread.

I am a potential purchaser but do not want to buy this device if there are known issues with the device.

Can someone point me in the direction of issues which other users have experienced please.

 

[Shape77]

Can someone point me in the direction of issues which other users have experienced please.

I have no issue with the 4.4 balanced output and I use only it.