CD/SACD-проигрыватели и транспорты — Gryphon Audio ETHOS

The Ethos is a top-loading CD player and D/A processor made in Denmark by Gryphon Audio Designs. Exterior design is by Flemming E. Rasmussen and the electronics are by Tom Moller. It arrived in 2020 as the first new Gryphon CD player since the end of 2013, and its US price was USD 39,000. The disc mechanism sits under an arched aluminium lid lifted by a tonearm-like arm, on a delta-shaped chassis of milled aluminium with a polished acrylic base.

Key specs that matter

Two ESS Sabre ES9038PRO 32-bit chips do the conversion in dual-mono form, one per channel, each holding eight converters in dual-differential coupling. Nominal output is 4.3 V on XLR and 2.15 V on RCA, with 30 ohm output impedance. Gryphon quotes A-weighted noise below -120 dB, THD+N of 0.007% and a range of 0 to 120 kHz at -3 dB. Digital inputs are USB, a balanced 110 ohm AES/EBU on XLR and a 75 ohm S/PDIF on BNC, and an AES/EBU output on XLR carries the transport signal. USB accepts PCM from 44.1 to 384 kHz and DSD64 to DSD512. The player does not read the high-resolution SACD layer or decode MQA. The unit measures 480 x 173 x 453 mm and weighs 13.7 kg, with power draw under 0.5 W in standby and 39 W at most.

Engineering and use context

Disc reading relies on a StreamUnlimited Blue Tiger CD-Pro 8 S from Austria, optimised for 16-bit, 44.1 kHz Red Book discs. Incoming PCM can be converted asynchronously to 384 kHz or turned into DSD128, and the owner chooses among ten digital filters - seven for PCM and three for DSD. Its analogue output circuit runs in Class A with discrete parts, direct coupling and no negative feedback, and no capacitor sits between converter and output socket. Each analogue channel has a custom 32 VA toroidal transformer and a 20,000 uF capacitor bank, and a 12.5 farad super-capacitor supply feeds the USB module. Temperature-compensated crystal oscillators hold 5 ppm accuracy. Circuit boards use four layers with 70 micron copper traces, and constrained layer damping plus Gryphon Atlas adjustable feet deal with vibration. A vacuum fluorescent display with touch buttons handles operation.

Pairing

With its high balanced output level, the Ethos can drive a power amplifier through a preamplifier with some attenuation to spare, and XLR runs suit Gryphon's balanced preamplifiers. The USB input lets a computer or network streamer use the converter, and the AES/EBU output can send disc data to an external DAC.

Alternatives

Gryphon offers no other disc player, so the Ethos has no alternative from the same brand.