Gryphon Diablo 300 and Salon 2

M

Makofkalaw

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Hello all. I have a smallish room, 15 x 18, 10’ ceilings, opening to a 45’ expanse across the home. I have been told by a dealer that the Diablo 300 is not a good match for my Salon 2’s, a claim that I am having a hard time accepting. He is trying to steer me to Luxman separates (c700u and m900u) arguing I need a high current amp for the Salon 2’s and the Gryphon is a mismatch.
He also shrugged off Levinson 536 monos as well, saying they will sound thin. Has anyone here heard the above pairings, and how do they compare?
 
I've heard an ML 534 stereo driving Salon 2s in a room about twice the size of yours at a dealer. No problem. I have a Diablo 300, and although I haven't heard it with Salons, I have a hard time believing they would be anything but excellent. Does your dealer, per chance, carry either Mark Levinson or Gryphon?

Mike has had experience with the Diablo and maybe the Salons and may wish to comment.
 
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately my local shop carries neither. I have read everything I can find online about the Diablo, and it gets nothing but glowing praise. I have never heard it though. As much as I would like to go the Luxman route, I really cannot afford to shell out that kind of dough right now for separates. I wanted to keep box count low, and go with an end game integrated. I simply cannot believe an amp that puts out 950 watts into 2 ohms could not drive the Salons adequately.
 
I was looking hard at the Boulder 866, and in fact missed one recently on agon. I like that the Boulder has streaming capability, again just a big question whether it could handle the Salons.
 
I used a hegel h360 thats rated at 250/425 with a 4000 damping factor and it couldn’t get those woofers woofin. The dealer was using the ML separates when I demoed the salon 2’s and when I came on this site asking for advice Mike posted on my thread 500 watts minimum! When I contacted REVEL via email I was told the same thing, 500 watts!! The gent that bought mine uses a couple MC601’s and says the clipping lights will start flashing when he gets rockin!!!
 
Yeah they are power hungry for sure. I had a pair of Bryston 28B SST 2 monos (1000w) monos on them for a while, and although they got the job done, I never warmed up to the Bryston sound.
 
From Stereophile's June 2008 Salon2 review:

"I drove the Salon2s with various solid-state amplifiers, including a Mark Levinson No.334 (125Wpc into 8 ohms), a Krell FPB-600c (600Wpc into 8 ohms), and Bryston 28B-SST monoblocks (1300W into 8 ohms). The ML No.334 demonstrated impressive dynamics, playing huge deep-bass transients from synthesizer music, sustained organ-pedal chords, and bass-drum notes at high volumes. The Krell FPB-600c seemed to have limitless deep-bass extension. And the Bryston 28B-SSTs drove the Salon2s to 105dB peak levels (at 8') with no evidence of distorting."
 
I remember that review, and it was probably why I bought the Bryston monos so many years ago. Interesting that he found the 334 apparently sounding good at 125 wpc!
 
If you look at the speaker positioning in that review, from memory they were 57" apart and something like 8' from the front wall that in hindsight made me wonder if I could have tried harder to get room support for bass response.
 
I have Studio2 and have used them with Levinson 531H mono, Mac MC452. Then i downsized to an integrated, Pass INT-150 to reduce box count. Now I am happy with the Pass INT-250. I would consider the beast Diablo
 
Q3Di said:
I have Studio2 and have used them with Levinson 531H mono, Mac MC452. Then i downsized to an integrated, Pass INT-150 to reduce box count. Now I am happy with the Pass INT-250. I would consider the beast Diablo
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I also have Studio2's, totally different animal than the Salon's. I drive mine with a pair of Pass X260.8's
 
I suspect your dealer is just trying to sell what he has.

I think Diablo would do the job.

My friend had Salons for a long time and I have heard them with several amps. First he had the 532h and it drove them fine in a large open room. I heard the Salons with the 536's and they do not sound thin at all and will make the Salons dance. However, ML doesn't have an integrated I'd recommend for Salon, even the 585 don't have quite a large enough power supply. It's not so much the power rating as the current and power supply.
 
Mr Peabody said:
I suspect your dealer is just trying to sell what he has.

I think Diablo would do the job.

My friend had Salons for a long time and I have heard them with several amps. First he had the 532h and it drove them fine in a large open room. I heard the Salons with the 536's and they do not sound thin at all and will make the Salons dance. However, ML doesn't have an integrated I'd recommend for Salon, even the 585 don't have quite a large enough power supply. It's not so much the power rating as the current and power supply.
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Confirming much of what I thought. I had actually been considering using a 585 as a “poor man’s” Levinson preamp driving the 536 or 534. Thanks for responding. For roughly the same 20k ish ballpark, I could do the Luxmans used. Or save a huge chunk and bite on a used Diablo.
 
Mine are basically 48 inches off back wall and 67 inches apart. They sound excellent in that room, even with a garbage front end.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about the Diablo overpowering the room vs the speakers. I think the speakers are much more apt to overpower your room. I wouldn't overlook a really good medium sized bookshelf speaker like a Harbeth or Tannoy. The speaker I have is superb in small to medium rooms. As you may have noticed I have the Harbeth Super HL 5+ 40th Anniversary speakers. I think they are just killer sounding speakers with great synergy with the Pass int 250and are perfection for small to medium rooms. BTW, the first time I heard a D300 it almost knocked me right out of my chair. Fabulous speaker. Although I ended up buying a Pass int 250, that D300 is a superb sounding amp. My room is 27' x 16' and the Pass int 250 just fit my particular application a little better. As I've said before, I love my int 250. But I wouldn't hesitate using the D300 in your room. It is a seriously great sounding amp. As I said, I would be more concerned about having too much speaker. But, that's my 2 cents.
 
I've seen some good prices for used 534 but they aren't always up for sale.

ML does have apreamp in the $10k range in their 5nnn series gear. Also, look at Bricasti, Brian the designer was with Levinson at one point, I believe during theMadrigal years. I have liked the gear I've heard.

Not the same type sound as Levinson, leaning more toward Gryphon in some aspects, the ATI amps will drive the Salons into the ground and very reasonable. I had a 3000 on my Revel F52's and thought the were going to launch into space. The 6000 series is Kessler's signature series.

Makofkalaw said:
Confirming much of what I thought. I had actually been considering using a 585 as a “poor man’s” Levinson preamp driving the 536 or 534. Thanks for responding. For roughly the same 20k ish ballpark, I could do the Luxmans used. Or save a huge chunk and bite on a used Diablo.
Click to expand...
 
bluegrassphile said:
I wouldn't worry too much about the Diablo overpowering the room vs the speakers. I think the speakers are much more apt to overpower your room. I wouldn't overlook a really good medium sized bookshelf speaker like a Harbeth or Tannoy. The speaker I have is superb in small to medium rooms. As you may have noticed I have the Harbeth Super HL 5+ 40th Anniversary speakers. I think they are just killer sounding speakers with great synergy with the Pass int 250and are perfection for small to medium rooms. BTW, the first time I heard a D300 it almost knocked me right out of my chair. Fabulous speaker. Although I ended up buying a Pass int 250, that D300 is a superb sounding amp. My room is 27' x 16' and the Pass int 250 just fit my particular application a little better. As I've said before, I love my int 250. But I wouldn't hesitate using the D300 in your room. It is a seriously great sounding amp. As I said, I would be more concerned about having too much speaker. But, that's my 2 cents.
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There is no chance of overpowering that room because I neglected to mention that the left side opens through double doors to a large adjacent room, and behind the listening position, the rear is open some 45’ across the downstairs of my home. Nothing but breathing room around them.
 
Makofkalaw said:
There is no chance of overpowering that room because I neglected to mention that the left side opens through double doors to a large adjacent room, and behind the listening position, the rear is open some 45’ across the downstairs of my home. Nothing but breathing room around them.
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That is a nice sized room. It opens up a lot of possibilities.
 
I've owned Salon 2's twice. I had Classe CAM 600's, Hegel, Pass and McIntosh.

I now own a Diablo 300 driving my Kharmas. I wouldn't sell your Salons without giving the Diablo a chance to drive them. I think the Gryphon sound would match up very well to the Salons

I'd love to hear your opinion if you do! Also,I've heard the Salons in a 10x10 room and they still sounded great.
 
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