[electronicsdesign]

@MicrosPL Can you post a picture with the discoloration on these screws ? I wanted to answer, but not sure how bad it really is to give an answer.

As for the Signature vs Gryphon, my opinion is the most significant difference that one should consider is the higher output power of the Signature.
Meaning, if you are going to drive high impedance/low sensitivity headphones, the the Signature is the way to go.
In reagrd to the DAC chips, yes they both use the same DACs, but Signature has 2 of them instead of just 1 on the Gryphon.
What I would expect to see is a bit lower noise floor and lower distorsion. However the lower noise will probably be a benefit only in low gain modes.
This is confirmed by the fact Signature has an IEMatch function, with 2 positions, meaning you are likely going to need it.

Strictly as a DAC, I say don't expect a night and day difference between the 2, cause it's unlikely there is a huge one.
We have to take into consideration the placebo effect as well, as some might try to convince themselves it sounds so much better because it's a higher end device.
It happened to me when I compared the Gryphon to another DAC that has much lower noise and distorsion.
Initially, I had the impression the one with lower THD+N sounds so much better, there's just no comparison.
In reality, the more I listened side by side, the more I realised the differences are much more subtle than I intitially thought.

Then there is the output power thing: if we don't match the outputs when testing side by side, the louder one will ALWAYS give the impression it sounds much better. And you don't even need much, a few dB of mismatch in volumes is enough give the impression of a night and day difference.

P.S.: Yet another aspect is to choose a track that is recorded clean, cause many pieces of music have distorsion that is introduced intentionally to create effects and with such music it's hard to say if distorsion comes from the music itself, the DAC or the headphones.
Same with noise floor, many pieces of music have a relatively high noise floor, much higher than the DAC itself.

 

[zhuhang]

Feature request/reminder:

1. MUTE indicator

EDIT: Short-pressing is actually PAUSE/PLAY now. Are the gestures changed as opposed to the user manual?

Show blinking "MUTE" word during mute (by short-pressing volume knob), LED blinks with color same as before muting.
Or even better, has a tiny "mute" indicator or icon on top of screen.
Eg: Volume at 79, LED is green. Short press volume button, expect green LED to blink, with "79" becoming "MUTE".
Right now, this will only happen if we rotate the knob a few cycles until volume becomes 0 (blue color).

2. iEMatch indicator

3. Battery percentage indicator
- add setting to turn this on/off

4. Song information screensaver (artist + title), looping if text overflow - for USB/BT input mode
- add setting to turn this on/off
- shows screensaver after 5/10 seconds without interaction
- when song changed+codec type changed, show main screen (same behaviour as before)
- when song changed+codec type unchanged, stay in screensaver and update song information
- when any button pressed, return to main screen

 

[electronicsdesign]

I want to add a reminder myself (despite I said it before many times, but will say it again):

1. Add the option to have to volume displayed in dB
This can be either a setting in the menu (change from dB to percentage) or it can be available only when MIN filter is activated.

2. Add the option to change the screen brightness when set to OFF to both HIGH and LOW
To be clear what I am reffering to, now when brightness is set to OFF, it on LOW by deafult and cannot be changed to HIGH.
In older firmware versions (v1.22), depending what way you scrolled the menu (going from HIGH to OFF or from LOW to OFF),
you could change the brightness when OFF.

@zhuhang An IEMatch indicator would be nice, but I think that's not possible because there is no way for the microcontroller to know the switch position.
This is somthing that should have been done at the PCB design stage, but even then it would have been tricky since you can introduce noise from the
digital circuits into the analog part.

In regard to the battery percentage indicator, I would add another suggestion:
When battery is low, instead of displaying only one column of pixels (like in the picture attached), make the battery symbol flash.
This way it's more intuitive and it also looks nicer in my opinion, as displaying only one column of pixels looks like a bug, even if it wasn't intended that way.

 

[MicrosPL]

@MicrosPL Can you post a picture with the discoloration on these screws ? I wanted to answer, but not sure how bad it really is to give an answer.

Screws discoloration on the front:

Screws on the back:

 

[Josz27]

Screws discoloration on the front:


Screws on the back:

They look similar to mine =)

 

[camoto]

Interesting but my thought is that is most likely due to dissimilar metals in the screws and the Gryphon body coming in contact with one another AKA galvanic corrosion which is causing the fastener coating to chip away. Likely it's more prevalent on the front vs the back due to the greater contact surface with the aluminum vs the plastic. I wouldn't sweat it-- mine looks the same as well.

 

[electronicsdesign]

@MicrosPL
Yes, after careful inspection my unit also has some of that paint missing on front screws, but not as much as in your pictures.
It is mostly on the edges of the screw, not in the hole (despite screws were remove once).

I agree with what @camoto said about galvanic corrosion.

At the end of day, those screws on the Gryphon can be replaced with other ones or simply with silver screws (as those will remain the same regardless).

 

[nick97]

Hey guys, Any of you have experience using this device with a meze empyrean?? How is it? Plenty of power through the balanced?

 

[electronicsdesign]

The Gryphon is able to drive the Empyrean without any issues, especially on the balanced. Will work fine even on single ended.
I attach a screenshot with power requirements for the Meze Empyrean, however do note these are RMS values and cannot be compared with the peak levels in iFi's specs.
Nonetheless, the RMS power I measured on the Gryphon is signficantly higher than what you would need to drive these headphones.

 

[nick97]

The Gryphon is able to drive the Empyrean without any issues, especially on the balanced. Will work fine even on single ended.
I attach a screenshot with power requirements for the Meze Empyrean, however do note these are RMS values and cannot be compared with the peak levels in iFi's specs.
Nonetheless, the RMS power I measured on the Gryphon is signficantly higher than what you would need to drive these headphones.

I don't have much of an understanding of RMS power, But this is still exactly what I needed to hear I appreciate it!

 

[iFi audio]

Folks, it's our great pleasure to inform you that our xDSD Gryphon was awarded with the prestigious EISA award. It's our fourth

 

[panteraman]

Congratulations! Well Deserved!

 

[emilsoft]

I tried plugging in my Sony IERM7 into the 4.4mm line out - it sounds better to me - more honest, clean and direct; it doesn't have the bass bloat and slightly hazy/glare processed quality of the 4.4mm headout which can be fatiguing. Not all IEMs can work like this but the Sony don't have impedance dependency so they work quite well.

I've had a fair bit of ifi gear throughout the years - the problem is i find they focus on pumping the power out of the headouts too much in a small space, stick op amps and push the power beyond what is needed in tiny space, and this happens.. the ican micro SE had huge power but it was coupled with similar glare which increased the higher the volume, which made all the extra power unusable for me. I don't think the Gryphon needed so much extra power - it can drive most cans even high impedance Sennheisers like HD800 beyond comfort with half volume - i would have liked to see less outright power but more headroom, perhaps even discreet circuit. I think it's bit of a shame as I find the DAC implementation competitive, but it's marred by the headphone amplification which highlights it all with bit of a glare.. I find anyway.

 

[electronicsdesign]

it can drive most cans even high impedance Sennheisers like HD800 beyond comfort with half volume

I disagree with this statement. My Senheiser HD560S (120Ω) need a 90 volume to sound loud on the single ended port. For very loud I need to go even higher.
On tracks that are recorded close to 0dBFS, I can go to 80-85 volume, but below 80 volume is too low for me.
As for half volume (53), the 560S is barely audible at that volume. Only IEMs can be listened at 53, since they are much more sensitive.
For comparison my Fiio Q5s cannot drive these headphones at a decently loud level, even at maximum volume (on single ended).

Do keep in mind dynamic drivers do distort at higher SPL (especially in the bass, but harmonics from bass will bleed into the mids) and it is very
possible that what you hear is from the drivers themselves not from the amps. Planar magnetics (but not all of them) are much better at this aspect.

Have you compared the headphones with other DAC/amps ? If so, have you matched the volumes ?
I have compared the Gryphon with other even higher power DAC/amps and can say for sure the headphones start to distort at the same point and it's the
headphones drivers that are the limitation. Senheiser ones are not especially good at handling high SPL (most of them are usable until 110dB SPL or so).

As for discrete transistor amps, I do like the idea as a concept, however reality is you need quite a lot of transistors to achieve similar performance to
op-amps. ICs have the big advantage that all the transistors are matched and thermally coupled, which is hard to do with discretes.
Discrete ones are nice from a repairability point of view (as many op amps are custom made, including ones in Gryphon), from learning how circuits
work and so on, but from a cost-to-performance point of view, ICs do signficantly better.
Those that do such implementations usually choose simple circuits for low component count (for saving cost and PCB space) which don't perform as
good as op-amps. And it shouldn't be a surprise that a 15-20 transistor IC will do better than a circuit with only 6 transistors for example.

 

[Tachikoma]

I tried plugging in my Sony IERM7 into the 4.4mm line out - it sounds better to me - more honest, clean and direct; it doesn't have the bass bloat and slightly hazy/glare processed quality of the 4.4mm headout which can be fatiguing. Not all IEMs can work like this but the Sony don't have impedance dependency so they work quite well.

To me, it felt like the 4.4 mm headphone out compressed everything into a 2D plane. Everything feels much more 3D out of the line out.

I use the Gryphon exclusively for its line out now.