Усилители мощности моно — Gryphon Audio Apex Mono

The Apex Mono is the single-channel version of the Apex, which Gryphon Audio Designs describes as its flagship power amplifier, developed from experience gained with the Antileon EVO and Mephisto models. It is designed and manufactured in Denmark, and two cabinets form a stereo pair with a combined weight of 404 kg. Each chassis measures 593 mm wide, 371 mm high and 886 mm deep.

Key specs that matter

Each unit delivers 225 W into 8 ohm, 450 W into 4 ohm, 880 W into 2 ohm and 1,690 W into 1 ohm on either 115 V or 230 V mains. Output impedance is 0.010 ohm, gain is +31 dB and bandwidth reaches from 0.3 Hz to 330 kHz at -3 dB. Balanced input impedance is 10 kOhm between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. Maximum consumption is 3,700 W per amplifier, while idle draw is 1,000 W on the High bias setting, 660 W on Mid and 320 W on Low, with standby below 0.5 W.

Engineering and use context

On the High setting the full rated output is pure Class A, while Mid gives 100 W of Class A with the rest available as Class A/B, and Low keeps the circuit ready without warm-up for non-critical use. Bias changes alter only the Class A range, not the total power, and an automatic Green Bias function can set the level via a control link. Every chassis holds 64 high-current bipolar output transistors, two custom 2,000 VA toroidal transformers and more than 1 farad of capacitance, so a pair totals 128 transistors and 2,080,000 uF. The driver stage has its own supply fed from separate transformer windings, output devices are locally decoupled with ZN film capacitors, and display and control circuits run from an independent transformer and linear supply. Global feedback is zero, DC coupling uses servo circuitry, and input wiring is Gryphon Vanta single crystal solid core silver and gold cable. High-current traces on the boards are 105 micrometres thick. The Nordic Noir enclosure uses constrained-layer damping and non-magnetic materials, and front touch buttons handle bias, mute and an indicator check, with warning lights for temperature, DC/HF and AC faults.

Pairing

Inputs are balanced only, on gold-plated Neutrik XLR sockets, and a pass-through XLR allows the signal to be looped onward. Proprietary speaker terminals take spades, bananas, bare wire or a mix of these. Each unit has two AC inlets, and an indicator warns if their polarity differs. A 12 V DC link switches the amplifiers together with the rest of a Gryphon system, and firmware updates load from a USB stick.

Alternatives

The Gryphon Apex Stereo shares the same chassis as a two-channel power amplifier, rated at 210 W per channel into 8 ohm.