The CD is dead? Long live the CD with the Gryphon Ethos

[Solartiger]

Last weekend everything changed ...

I think it was about 2012 when I bought my first digital player, the Aurender S10. I plugged it with a digital cable into the Burmester 089 CD player to use the DAC of the 089. A comparison with music that I had on the Aurender and as a CD showed the Aurender sounded much better than the CD transport.

Being a collector at heart, I still bought CDs - but not so much. I tried to get everything as a digital file, if possible in high resolution. Often I couldn't resist and boxes by Genesis, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis etc. were added to my collection frequently. But fact was, CDs got less and less playing time in favour of files.

I since upgraded my Aurender to the new N30SA top model and bought a new DAC, the Brinkmann Nyquist 2. With the N30SA, over 2 TB of digital music and streaming with Qobuz, my CD player was playing maybe 1 or 2 CDs per month.

And then last Saturday my friend Achim came over with the Gryphon Ethos CD player & DAC. We compared the DAC of the Gryphon Ethos against the Brinkmann Nyquist 2 (the Ethos is fuller, the soundstage is much bigger), the Aurender N30SA to the DAC connection with an AES cable vs USB audio (AES sounds much better).







The real sensation happened when we played a CD. It was just sensational. I never heard a CD sounding so good. I can not tell if it is a CD or a 44.1 16 bit file playing. The optics and handling of the CD player, in particluar closing the lid, reminds me of a turntable.

After playing a lot of CDs over the weekend I noticed how much I missed this. Of course it is more convenient to just click on some songs to play them. But taking out a CD, putting it on, taking out the booklet to read - it has a certain old school feel that I enjoy a lot.



My Burmester 089 and the Brinkmann Nyquist 2 will leave the house, the Ethos stays here. The Ethos is connected with the Aurender N30SA with an In-Akustik Referenz Digital-2404 pure silver AES cable.

For those of you with a big CD collection I can recommend trying the Ethos.

Kind regards,
Ecki

[bart]

Hello Ecki, Gryphon make wonderful gear.
Their electronics are top notch.
The fact it beats the Brinkmann says enough...

[FreddieFerric]

Now I'm really feeling ancient. The OP says taking out a CD to play and reading the booklet is like old school.

I am, however, pleased to read that you really like the Gryphon player. As Bart said, they make sensational gear. Does it also support SACD?

[Solartiger]

Does it also support SACD?

No, the CD transport supports only standard CDs.