After a few hours and lots of testing I've got some solid impressions to share. Compared to many reviewers I like to keep things short and simple. This missile is going to be of the shootout variety. Gear includes Fiio BTR5, Ifi iDSD BL, Sony WM1A and of course the xDSD Gryphon. Headphones are the Campfire Solaris OG, K712 (Balance modded) & HD660S. I've owned some pricey TOTL headphones however the K712 has been my main go-to due to it's enjoyable and competent performance. I have no financial incentive to pull any punches. I also have no connection to any vendors. With that said I really appreciated the service Bloom audio provided in my purchase of the xDSD Gryphon.
Let's start with fit and finish. The display is gorgeous. The status lights are not overwhelming and the finish is very premium. Much preferred over the fingerprint magnets that are the original xDSD and xCAN. I love the 4.4mm&SE in/out on the back. Optical in and the sheer plethora of things this device can do. From an aesthetic standpoint this is top shelf. The PCB layout is a thing of beauty as well. The engineering of this device seems incredible. The end result has some mixed feelings with me however.
The Gryphon's signature is more neutral leaning with a hint of warmth. It's fast yet not sibilant. I think it's a rather nice balance however I will start with the obvious "Birth of a Head-Fi legend" as being an overstatement. It's a great device with great sound. It's a jump over the xDSD&xCAN but if you are going to reach for that star it needs to be a complete knockout in every department. My listening impressions were with the unit powered up before connecting to USB (both BL and Gryphon) and only connecting the data transfer cable.
Let's start strong and that is with full sized headphones. The Gryphon drove my 660S and K712 beautifully from the 4.4 port. SQ was ABOVE the iDSD BL and BTR5, only tailing the WM1A (Which is firmware modded) which has a nicely tuned sound signature. I was actually impressed the Gryphon outperformed the iDSD BL as it made the BL sound a little hazed in comparison. The Gryphon retains the engagement factor too. It doesn't have the output power which wasn't needed in the case of my headphones so no loss there. This thing is like an iDSD BL with better clarity and a hint less warmth. I was seriously impressed and the bluetooth performance excels too. I was able to discern between USB/BT though. I wasn't surprised the WM1A pulled ahead in sound quality. In detail they were equals but the WM1A has such a nice tuning from Sony. I can see some people preferring the Gryphon though, so YMMV. SQ for full sized headphones finished as so WM1A (down to preference) > xDSD Gryphon > iDSD BL > BTR5 (This was flat and uninspiring). This is an impressive performance by the Gryphon. There is a caveat to iDSD BL vs Gryphon though. The iDSD BL is more euphoric and forgiving. It's just flat out enjoyable. If you are one who wants to constantly be toe-tapping the BL may suit you better. I game as well so the Gryphon has some attraction there for it's speed and neutrality.
****THIS PART IS EXCLUSIVE TO 4.4BAL****
Things took a strong spiral downwards when the Solaris OG came out though. The hiss scale goes as follows xDSD Gryphon >> WM1A >(slight) iDSD BL > BTR5 -- this is without IEmatch. Enabling IEmatch on the first setting with iDSD BL made it just about silent but SQ took a little hit. Second setting added more veil. The Gryphon's IEmatch 3.5mm impacts the BAL output and 4.4MM setting is like extreme on the BL. 3.5 IEM didn't sound quite right so I figure this was not meant to be used for the BAL port. Still, IEmatch extreme & 4.4 squashes the dynamic ability and really killed the sound for me. I did some demoing without IEmatch and it was just too noisy on the Gryphon and too low in the pot for the BL. The BAL output from the rear is pretty quiet though, but the SQ wasn't much of a step up. In all testing with the Solaris the Gryphon finished back of the pack. I think Ifi is using IEmatch as a crutch to have the device managable and this to pulls Gryphon from the stars. Keep in mind though, the Solaris is incredibly sensitive so your less than sensitive IEM may work fine without the IEmatch and if so this device would be a knockout for you. In terms of sound quality with Solaris OG things ended up as so: WM1A > iDSD BL > BTR5 > Gryphon. The BTR5 does much better with IEMs as far as SQ goes, still a little veil though.
So, we've got some great and...well not so much. Unfortunately I don't know if the Gryphon will really have a place in my stable because my hopes was for it to be a device that could do everything - as it is advertised right? I LOVE that it outperforms the BL for my full sized cans and it's a great upgrade for my laptop setup in that regard. This performance alone made me think it's a keeper. It's really that good! As soon as that high noise floor reared it's ugly head (This floor was still present after switching to BT) on the Solaris OG I was set back to reality. The sound wasn't bad, I could live with it - but it was inferior to the BTR5 with incredibly sensitive IEMs with IEmatch engaged. Another positive is that it didn't get hot when charging/listening at the same time. So there is that..
****EDIT**** Hiss is significantly better from the SE output with IEMATCH off, slightly less than WM1A on 4.4. DO NOT USE BAL for sensitive IEM is my suggestion. From 3.5mm the unit sounds better ******
I'd rank the 3.5mm performance xDSD Gryphon>WM1A>iDSD BL>Fiio BTR5 - I like the 4.4 on the WM1A much better than 3.5 which is why the Gryphon pulls ahead in this scenario. All things considered, WM1A holds the top spot.
*BONUS* As a DAC at 0DB into my 2ch system the Gryphon was quite pleasing and detailed. I thought this may be a weaker point of the Gryphon going into this but I was proven wrong. It's quite capable as a DAC.