Gryphon Diablo 120 and 300

Integrated, ideally around £9k, the lower the better.

The C-10X is not listed in the official Luxman site. Perhaps it’s not up to date.

I wish I had more rooms to set up at least 2 if not 3 systems. Currently there’s only one room to set up the main system. There is another room to set up a 2nd system but it’s not ideal due to limited placement options, and the system sounded poor no matter how I place the speakers in the room. For this reason the system was untouched for about a year now.

If I move to a new place in the future, it will need to have enough “good” rooms to set up at least 2 systems. For me, 2 systems would be ideal, 3 is the max if I can manage.

It’s been on the Japanese official site since the start of the year. They have a top end streaming transport now too.

A secondhand vitus sia025 could also be worth a listen, should be able to find one under £10k.

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I remember reading that review by JVS :grinning:

@ryder I have the Aesthetix Mimas. Fabulous amp. Should be in your price range even though it’s made in the usa

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That is truly a weird combination.
I had the new D’Agostino S250MxV amplifier on home demo running direct into dCS (no preamp). It was impressive however ultimately not for me (although I did like it quite a bit).

There are some mixed opinions on the D’Agostino preamp (after all he is not really known for his pre’s)
A fellow Naim friend whose ears I trust found the Gryphon to be a bit dark.

Gryphon, dCS, D’Agostino - that is quite a mismatched stew imho.

As I am experimenting with removing my 552 pre and going direct from source (dCS) into amplifier (many Naim guys on the dCS forum are doing the same) - if I did not already own my 500 amplifier and was starting from scratch I would take a
dCS>D’Agostino over dCS>500

*with that said the 500, some 20 years on, remains highly competitive to this day

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Why hold onto those old amplifiers? Consider selling the Naim and Luxman to allocate more funds towards a top-tier amplifier. Find one so exceptional that you won’t even think of returning to your previous equipment. Assuming your Duke 2 has untapped potential, quality speakers will only benefit from an upgraded amplifier.

They are not that old actually. I have other plans for the surplus gear. Anyway I’m saving up for the ultimate. :grin:

Have you listened to the SIA-025mk2 and RI-101? Both amps are said to sound quite different. In a review which compared all the top integrateds RI-101, SIA-025mk2 and SIA-030, these are some of the key points:-

So the 101 to 025 move is most definitely a pronounced character and presentational change. I have had some customers actually prefer the RI-101 on account of it’s greater perceived sense of punch and articulation. We can probably best summarise by saying that the 101 has a cleanliness, an openness and sense of invisibility which marks it out as as something extremely special whereas the SIA-025 has a very different delivery and if you are a fan of the way it does things then quite simply nothing else will do. Well, nothing apart from of course, the new beastie, the [SIA-030]. As you may have guessed then, and to cut to the chase, the SIA-030 essentially marries the best bits of both 101 and 025 and then adds a whole ton of extra resolution, stability, purity, control and musical insight.

I have compared them directly, but i have at different time heard them both, but not sure now which version off the RI-101 amp it was.
But did have the sia025 on home demo against my 500 kit, and it certainly gave it a run for it’s money, it did things differently, with plus and minuses for both.
I now have the sia030.

Just try one if you can against the others, and see how it goes, but the sia025, and sia030 are certainly very good, and punch way above what you would expect an integrated amp to do.

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D’Agostino Integrated would be one of my Favorites. Along with the amazing VAC, Ayon Audio Triton Evo, maybe the Bolder 866, Zanden.

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