xDSD Gryphon: birth of a ‘head-fi’ legend

[applesnowleo]

The usb cable make a big diference on the sound, unfortunately for now I only have the IFi cables with usb-c on both ends that appear to sound best but they are short as hell. The other usb-c cables I have are normal basic cables, I ordered a audioquest Carbon, but will take weeks to arrive.

I have an audioquest diamond but is the normal usb cable for desktop dac’s, and the Carbon should be enough to connect to the iPad.

 

[531412]

The usb cable make a big diference on the sound, unfortunately for now I only have the IFi cables with usb-c on both ends that appear to sound best but they are short as hell. The other usb-c cables I have are normal basic cables, I ordered a audioquest Carbon, but will take weeks to arrive.

I have an audioquest diamond but is the normal usb cable for desktop dac’s, and the Carbon should be enough to connect to the iPad.

A digital cable can not sound Just check how digital data transfer works.
But if you think so, do not forget to burn it in

Back to topic:
@iFi audio the Gryphon is dangerous!
Yesterday, I was listening at -20db with my HE1000V2. Today, I wanted to use my IEM. I thought I am smart and changed the volume on the Gryphon in advance from -20db to -60db. I plugged in my IEM but have not put it in my ear yet. I pressed the Play Button and the Gryphon jumped back to -20db and almost destroyed my 2000+ EUR IEM. But it could have been even worse if I had it in my ear.

I am not sure if this can have consequences for you if someone will damage his ears because your devices operates that strange.

I think I will sent it back. I like my IEM and would like to keep them healthy. And even more important, I would like to enjoy music in the future as well and need my ears.

Really really sad, because the rest of the device is really nice. A really good product which can just do everting. Additional to that, it looks and feels great . But this f*ck*nh volume issue is a No-Go!
Please let us know if this is something which can be fixed via firmware or if this is not possible due to the volume technology which is used in the Gryphon

 

[Johnfg465vd]

So, got my gryphon. It sounds good. Is it as good as the idsd signature? No. The idsd signature is more detailed, wider, and has better bass response. It will also run demanding headphones better. The gryphon sounds better than m11, go blue or xcan, but does not sound better than the idsd signature. It's more portable for sure, so can get more use. I used it at the gym today and it was great, but not sure I want to spend ,$600 so I get better gym sound. To run my ananda, or even ier z1r, the signature just sound better. Period. So, different uses. I can't take my signature to the gym, but I can use it on a plane just fine. In fact, I did use it on the plane this past week. I have it set up with a TCL phone and double sided tape. Thats likely good enough for me, but I'll play with it for a couple more days.

Nice to know the Signature is better than Gryphon in sound quality, I was starting to regret skipping the Gryphon and sticking with my Signature a little bit.

I decided to give RU6 a try and wait for iFi to fix all the issues with the Gryphon.

 

[Tachikoma]

Starting to think it was a blessing in disguise I haven't had the chance to use my Gryphon.

 

[MarkParity]

I am not sure if this can have consequences for you if someone will damage his ears because your devices operates that strange.

I think I will sent it back. I like my IEM and would like to keep them healthy. And even more important, I would like to enjoy music for in the future as well and need my ears.

I've written the same thing at least twice, I'm really surprised iFi continue to ship Gryphons, especially in the US where somebody could "take iFi to the cleaners" over this bug. I'm just waiting for someone to post iFi's Gryphon broke my Vision Ears ERLKÖNIG Limited Edition <insert any other $5000+ IEM here>.

I hope you have more luck returning yours than I did, iFi really didn't want to take it back and stalled for so long I gave up in the end. I will live with it (after the volume fix if it ever happens) or sell it to some other mug owner.

 

[MarkParity]

BTW I should probably clarify that Gryphon is by no means unusable for me and is still a brilliant DAC/AMP. For now just stick with the Line In and SPDIF inputs that don't have any kind of crazy maximum volume bug.
PLEASE FIX MQA OVER SPDIF THOUGH @iFi audio. SORRY FOR SHOUTING, THIS IS SO YOU HEAR ME!!!!!

There is a short mute/pop/click at the start of every track while the DAC sorts itself out, I can't believe the MQA people would allow this, perhaps I should report it to them directly and see what they say?

 

[MalinYamato]

The usb cable make a big diference on the sound, unfortunately for now I only have the IFi cables with usb-c on both ends that appear to sound best but they are short as hell. The other usb-c cables I have are normal basic cables, I ordered a audioquest Carbon, but will take weeks to arrive.

I have an audioquest diamond but is the normal usb cable for desktop dac’s, and the Carbon should be enough to connect to the iPad.

-- the transmission is digital and buffered -- if a package is lost or a bit in a package is off (distorted), it is retransmitted. Thus, you may use a USD 10 USB cable. In digital transmission, frames are checked by something called CRC by the receiving end and if it does not match, retransmission of that particular frame is requested. Analog transmission is different because the receiving end does not know if the signal is wrong or not, thus requiring better quality and insulated cables.

 

[MalinYamato]

BTW I should probably clarify that Gryphon is by no means unusable for me and is still a brilliant DAC/AMP. For now just stick with the Line In and SPDIF inputs that don't have any kind of crazy maximum volume bug.
PLEASE FIX MQA OVER SPDIF THOUGH @iFi audio. SORRY FOR SHOUTING, THIS IS SO YOU HEAR ME!!!!!

There is a short mute/pop/click at the start of every track while the DAC sorts itself out, I can't believe the MQA people would allow this, perhaps I should report it to them directly and see what they say?

WHAT! how can you get MQA by SPDIF in??? that is a great news for us as I belived we could only get MQA through XMOS inside USB.

 

[MarkParity]

WHAT! how can you get MQA by SPDIF in??? that is a great news for us as I belived we could only get MQA through XMOS inside USB.

I know its good isn't it, a great feature and it just works! I set Tidal to passthrough MQA un-decoded, fixed volume output, exclusive mode.

Gryphon has a full MQA decoder, I guess you know that already. The SPDIF signal must be internally routed through the XMOS chip and decoded too.

I assumed that was correct behaviour for this device, but it may be a bug too, in which case decoding from SPDIF may get "fixed" too in a future firmware release and we will lose this function.

Edit:

Actually MQA over SPDIF should be fully supported, its in the first post at the top of this thread.

Quoting @iFi audio so please fix the pop/click/mute at the start of an MQA track over SPDIF, you said its a feature, BTW if its any consolation S/W testing at the company I work for is very poor too. I will be logging a ticket with your support desk shortly too.

"MQA – the hi-res streaming codec, as used by Tidal’s ‘Masters’ tier – is also supported through the USB and S/PDIF inputs, with full decoding of MQA files up to 384kHz. This means that the full ‘three unfold’ decoding process is performed internally, as opposed to only the final unfold in the manner of an MQA ‘renderer’. Globally, MQA has become an important consideration for any comprehensively equipped DAC; for Tidal Masters subscribers, the xDSD Gryphon is a great way to make the most of the superior sound of which this streaming service is capable."

 

[MalinYamato]

I am using Zen CAN Signature V2 HFM as an amplifier (Gryphion as a DAC) and it somewhat sounds a bit better, perhaps only the placebo effect.

 

[MarkParity]

I am using Zen CAN Signature V2 HFM as an amplifier (Gryphion as a DAC) and it somewhat sounds a bit better, perhaps only the placebo effect.

Whatever sounds best to you, its all good.

IMHO I would probably put the Pi a bit further away rather than stacking it for RFI reasons, but your rig, your setup...

 

[531412]

what, even sicker.

Gryphon was set up to -30db in advance. IEM (just Apple EarPods for testing reasons because I will not destroy my expensive IEMs) is plugged in. I connected it with my MacBook where I have never used the Gryphon before. I pressed on „Play“ and it jumped to +6db Turbo Mode !!!!!! what! I am pretty sure that I would have damaged my ears heavily with IEM in my ears.

@iFi audio you must do something here immediately!

 

[MarkParity]

what, even sicker.

Gryphon was set up to -30db in advance. IEM (just Apple EarPods for testing reasons because I will not destroy my expensive IEMs) is plugged in. I connected it with my MacBook where I have never used the Gryphon before. I pressed on „Play“ and it jumped to +6db Turbo Mode !!!!!! what! I am pretty sure that I would have damaged my ears heavy with IEM in my ears.

@iFi audio you must do something here immediately!

Mine does that too over USB input, so I don't use USB anymore for now, see my post above. I've literally been saying that from about the 16th November when mine first did this.

I agree iFi should have already put out a fix for this, after a very quick test to make sure its fixed and contact all registered owners directly with an urgent warning to not use the USB input before upgrading the F/W.

Can you use the SPDIF input until we have a fix? (I don't even trust Bluetooth at the moment as it also can suffer from volume jumps but not as bad as the USB input) SPDIF sounds very, very good by the way to me.

 

[applesnowleo]

Happly I Am not suffering much with the volume issues, but this should be a priority for IFi, why is that taking so much time for them the correct the issue, makes no sense.

We will soon see some one with damaged IEM or an ear destroyed. The IEM could be replaced but the audition never more.

 

[Capunk]

Happly I Am not suffering much with the volume issues, but this should be a priority for IFi, why is that taking so much time for them the correct the issue, makes no sense.

We will soon see some one with damaged IEM or an ear destroyed. The IEM could be replaced but the audition never more.

I almost blow my eardrums along with 2020 Solaris when I demo gryphon in shop.
Sudden jump to +6dB turbo mode is *** annoying!