I'm Gustavo Villa a new member from Chile, after some readings I have been very impress for the overall level of knowledge shown in this forum, congratulations to all of you.
I posted this theme in hi fi choice forum but without the results I have seen in here, as an owner of the S300, and I did some research about it, and I want to confirm some of the thing that you previously posted..
The specifications are exactly the same, only the dumping factor is different, 100 for the NAD and 150 for the Tabu, all other are the same. As the post you mention says, the big difference is the transformers, hölmgren for the NAD, C core for the Tabu, also the looks of the cooling modules is different. But the amplification modules, the layout of them are terrible similar, the components are the same, sanken fets push pull for both, alp pot, same relays, etc., etc..
But the definitely test was 6 months ago, I brought the s300 to a friend's house who has a lot of experience in audio (he own sonic frontiers power 2, sf80, pre amps, cd players for the same manufactures, some bryston also and dalquist DQ30 speakers, an audiophile paradise), he had the opportunity to extensively test some gryphons gear from a fellow, associated with tannoy westminister speakers. After some warming up, he said, ââ'¬Å"S300 has exactly the same type of sound that I heard with the gryphons gearââ'¬Â. Type of sound because he heard two gryphons monoblocks class A, and the overall warm and sweet was of course different (better), but the mayor similarity was in soundstage, he told me that gryphons gear use to focus the singer in the middle of the stereo image that no other brand use to do (not even his own gear). He experienced the same thing in both auditions, then we open the top of the amp and the gryphon ââ'¬Å"way to do thingsââ'¬Â or ââ'¬Å"know howââ'¬Â was very easy to identify by him, he also said, ââ'¬Å"To my opinion there I no doubt about it, Gryphon has at least and incredible influence in the S300ââ'¬Â.
In my opinion the S300 has an incredible sound, but be aware that a warming up period of about two hours at least is absolutely necessary to really enjoy his possibilities, also for the type of sound, the s300 really need a warm CD player, of course S500 is the better match, but others can do a great job too, in my case I use a Creek CD53 with good results.
Many greetings from Chile
Gustavo Villa