NAD S300 integrated = Gryphon Tabu Century?

Wonder if Gryphon would agree with you on that point...

http://www.gryphon-audio.dk/content/gryphonstory.asp

 

Laurie,

An absolutely excellent post and something I have recently been arguing (without too much joy} on the Mana Forum.

 

Lawrie

would you care to enlighten us on the culprits? please?

Based on your comments about the Silverline series, I assume you've heard them. Have you actually heard the S300? If so, would you say that it's a reasonable amp for £1500 and therefore, the Gryphon was overpriced. Or would you say that the Gryphon was fairly priced and the NAD is a £3K quality amp selling for half the price.

Reason I'm interested is that I've found a s/h S300 for a rather good price (but can't get to hear it).

atb

reg

 

Perhaps they have only just come to the UK, Henry. They are quite well known on the Continent. For example, all the big German magazines carry adverts for German hi-fi stores, separated into geographical regions, and I have seen some dealers advertising Gryphon for some years. I think they have somewhat of a cult following.

 

Hi Paul, why bother arguing on the Marco forum? I appreciated your eye for historical Balkan character detail with the ZM chit-chat, but the Ministry of Truth will not allow any uncomfortable-ness from the not-past to be mentioned.

You mentioned it once and didn't get away with it.

What Big Brother can't see is how amusing it looks to outsiders like me. Everything's nicey-nicey with a sprinkling of saccharine, then - oops! - no it's not after all. Great entertainment.

Oh, and briks are great, don't forget.

Cheers,

James

PS I used to have a NAD 3020, then I foolishly sold it. The Pioneer A400 is a similar giant-killer. Wrong badge for the discerning gent, though.

 

I haven't heard the S300 myself but I would say the latter statement is true. My friend (the one who brought up the similarity original) will be bringing the one he's been auditioning to my place next week but he has been completely blown away by it. He rates it better than a SimAudio i-5, Krell KAV-400xi and pretty much every other integrated at the £3K price level that he's heard

The Gryphon Tabu Century (on which the S300 is "based") was consistently rated by reviewers (mostly on the continent) as one of the best integrateds they'd ever heard.

Michael.

 

Mike I had the Callisto 2200, great amp all round , just not enough forward momentum for Wm, else top stuff, The larger mono blocks are Euro-Krells without the 'krelliness' but sodding big, an excellent manufacturer.

 

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of hearing the NAD,I was walking around when I heard this lovely,real as life sound,whats that I thought,it sounds so good,I was amazed when I saw it was the NAD silverline combo and to be honest i was token back how good it was,and how it was reviwed with a boomy overblown bass,well i couldn't hear it,and you would think you was listening to something more exspensive,so to get one cheap and good condition is a bargin,it one of the nicest integrateds ive heard for sensible money,and ia built like a tank.

My brother in law has the famous NAD 3020,which to me always sounded good on vinyl,but so dull through cd,strange.

 

Hi James,

You are cruel to our poor efforts sir. I was going to say that the Mana Forum has Vuk's pictures as a USP but the Moral Minority seem to want to put a stop to that too.

You are right about the old Pioneer A400 but you do have to have the right speakers for it. The experts always reckoned that Townsend Gastonbury's were the dogs bollocks with that amp, but I never got to hear the combination. Still, my little Dynaudios sounded more than OK with it, don't you think?

Waiting for Tanker to surface and a Water Witch lunch, jealous?

 

Tanker could sleep for England. Agree about moral minority, Mr Pig being a fine example. See my comments in Chat section for how he should be dealt with.

Water witch lunch - good idea. Bugger.

Yes the Dyn's were more than tolerable with the Pioneer.

 

Hey Anopax

I've just seen your post dude. I could enlighten you on the culprits but the last time I tried to do some 'enlightenment', a few people on this forum choked on their cornflakes and some irrational behaviour followed, therefore I'll pass on that one.

Yes, I have heard the Silverline series (and also the Gryphon amp). The first time I heard the Silverline components was at a dealer's showroom and they were partnered with Dynaudio speakers (similar to the dem that Paul Duerden described). The sound was stunning and I had to gulp when I discovered that that the combo making such fine sounds were from NAD as the room also housed the likes of Mark Levinson, Audio Research, Transcriptor turntables, etc. I had heard a few NAD components before and they sounded nothing like the Silverline series. As Adam has described, the voices and instruments were lifelike and the music just drew me in. As I already had a system I was happy with, I did the next best thing. When a friend was looking for a new system, I took him to the same dealership and he was blown away by the sound. A weekend home audition convinced him that he had to go for both the top range Silverline CD player and the S300 amp as they work so well together. Perhaps, through synergy or something else, the Silverline series gel very well with Dynaudio speakers. It could be that the Silverline series are tested with Dynaudio speakers as they are both made in Scandinavia. Suffice to say that my friend now has Dynaudio floorstanders to partner the NAD combo.

As to whether the Gryphon was “overpriced and the NAD is a 3K quality amp selling for half priceâ€Â, all I can say is that the Gryphon and NAD amps had different target buyers. The Gryphon was aimed at brand conscious audiophiles who wanted to be different and did not mind paying for the priviledge so Gryphon priced the amp accordingly. NAD also have their target buyers – music lovers on a budget who just want to enjoy the music. Given, their target market and brand image (non-audiophile), it would have been crazy for them to price the S300 at GBP 3K. So the amp was sensibly priced at around GBP 1500 (around the Primare A30.1 mark – did I say Primare??) to entice NAD fans to move up in the range and to encourage new music lovers into the fold. Note my use of the words audiophiles and music lovers as the two are a breed apart.

As I stated earlier – image is everything and image sells. Scandinavians are fond of recycling and do it very well (read between the lines ). If you can get hold of the Gryphon amp, then audition it against the NAD S300 and if you can tell the difference in their sounds, then you have better ears than I do because when we tried it, it was hard to tell them apart. Also, if or when you do this, get a friend to do all the hard work like swapping between amps etc whilst you listen and only listen - preferably without seeing the amps. It's your money!!




Enjoy the music,

Lawrie.

 

Lawrie,

AFAIK you will find that Dali speakers are the "connection"

 

I think Stumblin uses silver line kit and has said very positive things about it in the past.

I'm quite sure that a Celestion deMO I heard was using silver line kit. Infact, I think several auditioners were using it for their deMOs!

 

One of the posters here mentioned Silverline goes well with Dynaudio (my speakers) I checked the site for a straight power amp and find they make an S200 but it doesn't have twin toroidal transformers as per the S300. Is this a detraction?

 

John, I think the S300 is in a different league to the S100+S200 combo

Michael.

 

Jon,

Id say its an indication that the S300 works in dual mono, while the S200 does not. Using seperate power supplies for each channel cleans things up and gives you more of everything normally. IME.

Cheers
Chris

 

Well, as much as I've always said "I only buy with my ears" it's still very gratifying to see my choice justified in this way. I didn't know any of this when I bought, so my trusty ears have served me well!

I got my S300 for a measly £1100 and S500 for £900 (both brand spanking, polysterine all over the floor new), don't you just hate me?

Quite frankly it is the best kit I've ever heard, though those that follow my posts will know that I don't spend too much time in demo rooms or shows. I just listened to it and decided that it was worth the outlay (in fact I didn't have my wallet with me that day, so used a friends credit card so I could take it away immediately!).

The ultimate 'trust your ears' advert I feel.

 

Well stumblin, you'll like this then: I sent an e-mail to NAD asking them:

Couldn't hurt I thought. I just expected to receive a standard marketing spin response that didn't say anything of substance. What I got was not that at all :

So - loosely based on the Tabu and superior in performance! I guess they woulnd't say it was worse

Interesting that they admit the link though.

Michael.

 

Only just seen this thread, the Nad Silverline S300 is a fantastic piece of kit, the only problem I've found was that no-one ever had one to demo whenever I reccomended it to people. The S100/200 were very very good too, although I've only heard these a couple of times.

With 1500 quid to spend, I'd be hot on the trail of one (probably of a secondhand one ), and for me, things like the Primare A30.1 paled into insignificance against the NAD.

Cheers

 

Just to add, in case there was any confusion, that the person who sent me the e-mail did sign their name but it was me who edited it out

Michael.