Gryphon Audio Designs Factory Tour
by Jeff Fritz

There are few companies in high-end audio that project more of their founder’s personality than Gryphon Audio Designs. Years of attending and reporting on the High End show in Frankfurt -- and as of this year, Munich -- have resulted in numerous meetings with Flemming Rasmussen, the designer of all the Gryphon products and co-owner of the company. Each time we met, the tall, imposing man was dressed in black from head to toe, yet he was affable in his demeanor. It is not by happenstance that this persona has been transferred to Gryphon’s products. In fact, the massive black acrylic-and-aluminum Antileon Signature amplifier that recently spent time in my system could be the electronic incarnation of Mr. Rasmussen himself. The design flair that you see in the Gryphon components is quite distinct, as is their sublime sound.

It was with great anticipation that my wife Andrea and I traveled from Munich, Germany to Aarhus, Denmark to tour Gryphon Audio Designs. Arriving in Aarhus around 10:00 PM on a Thursday night, we enjoyed the extended sunlight of the Danish evening as we walked through a bustling restaurant section. For those not familiar with Denmark’s geography, its northern location affords a good hour and a half more daylight than our home in North Carolina -- and the locals take advantage of it.

The next day we were escorted from our seaside hotel, which overlooked an active commercial shipping port, to Gryphon’s facilities by Rasmussen’s business partner of five years, Valdemar Boersting. The short ride gave me a chance to inquire as to what makes Denmark such a thriving home for so many high-end audio manufacturers. Boersting stated that Denmark has very few natural resources, so the country has had to rely upon the people’s talents to thrive economically. The Danes’ high-end-audio tradition is rich in engineering prowess as well as old-world craftsmanship. Melding these two strengths with a healthy dose of aesthetic sensibility from Rasmussen’s former career in industrial design has created some of the most striking components in all of high-end audio.

Early stages

Rasmussen began designing audio components in the late 1970s with, of all things, a speaker connector. This small banana-plug-type device was the impetus for a business that also included the distribution of other audio brands throughout Denmark. After the introduction and surprise success of Gryphon’s first actual electronic component, the Head Amp, other products followed. The business model gradually moved away from distribution and into the areas of design and manufacturing. The Gryphon namesake and symbol -- a combination of the eagle with its grace and strength, and the lion with its power and agility -- became synonymous with the company, and a brand was born.

Gryphon Audio Designs began marketing its own products officially in 1985. Gryphon's second component, a phono stage, followed the Head Amp, which was then followed by the third, a full-featured preamp. The line expanded considerably throughout the years, though the Gryphon name is probably most famous today for class-A power amplifiers. The company currently produces 35 products, which include all manner of audio components and speakers -- at numerous price points for each -- along with accessories and furniture.

The tour

Entering the Gryphon facility gave me a snapshot view of the company’s history. A virtual Gryphon museum is located literally right through the front door. The large room showcases one of everything the company has ever produced. Along with examples of those very first products are components such as the long-discontinued Reference One mono amplifiers, the DM100 stereo amplifier, and the more recent Cantata loudspeaker.

An amplifier subassembly.	Another subassembly, this time undergoing testing.
Service manager Niels Madsen testing a Callisto 2200 integrated amplifier.	This speaker connector was the first product Flemming Rasmussen designed.
The back of the machined-aluminum tweeter housing for the Poseidon loudspeaker.	Lots of Gryphon products awaiting shipment to lucky owners.

Dominating the room, however, was the newest Gryphon creation, the two-tower-per-side, four-way Poseidon reference loudspeaker. This system is quite a beast. One tower per side contains a bass section powered by its own built-in 1000W amplifier, which is then coupled to another enclosure that houses the midbass drivers, midranges, and tweeter. Although quite physically imposing with its nearly 2000-pound shipping weight, the striking finish makes the speaker visually appealing. The particular Poseidons I heard were finished in a man-made real-wood veneer. Huh? Man-made wood? The side panels on the towers are interchangeable and almost infinitely customizable. In this instance they were made from several different wood species laminated together and then crosscut to reveal a unique hybrid grain. The result is like that of no naturally occurring wood veneer, although it is all wood. This one-of-a-kind veneer only existed within the minds of the designer until brought to reality for this speaker. Other finish options include such varied materials as carbon fiber and aluminum. The price of the Poseidon is $130,000 USD per pair.

You might expect my next stop to be in the woodworking shop that cranks out the Poseidon's massive cabinets, or maybe a room with a CNC machine ripping through the Antileon’s aluminum chassis parts. It will then surprise you to find out that Gryphon does none of its own manufacturing. That’s right -- the construction of each Gryphon Audio Designs product is outsourced to a Danish company that specializes in one sort of manufacturing or another. Rasmussen maintains that the company is able to offer a much wider range of options to customers by taking this approach. What is present in the Gryphon facilities, and is arguably even more important, is the design and engineering talent. Gryphon personnel perfect each product in the design stage before it leaves the premises to be manufactured elsewhere.

Repair work is done onsite, and I can tell you that there isn’t much of it. I only saw a handful of products either under repair or ready to be shipped out. All new Gryphon components are shipped with a protective film covering them, and I was impressed to see a repair technician applying this film to a unit that was about to go on the bench. The people at Gryphon take care to protect each product -- whether new or well broken in by the owner. There were racks of raw parts and product subassemblies for such repair work, as well as a large shipping and receiving room full of finished Gryphons about to depart for around-the-world journeys.

My tour ended with an interesting discussion of Gryphon’s master-tape collection. It seems that many years ago Rasmussen became the proud owner of a number of recordings thought lost years before. Through the years these tapes have helped in the design of Gryphon products by serving as a pure source to the original session. Pure recordings help make pure products, Rasmussen would say; Gryphon Audio Designs products, though thoroughly engineered, are fine-tuned by ear. Their musical prowess was confirmed by…

Listening to the Poseidon

A system comprising the Antileon Signature amplifier ($24,000), Sonata Allegro preamplifier ($12,500), Mikado CD player ($11,000), Poseidon loudspeakers, and the company’s own cabling and equipment rack was set up and ready to play as my visit concluded. Although the music was not familiar to me, what I heard from the sweet spot of the Gryphon listening room was strikingly impressive. The Poseidons displayed incredible transient attack, visceral bass and ample detail, all melded into a musical whole. I could not help but imagine how they would sound in my own room. Having heard quite a number of super systems in my day, I came away impressed by the sheer musical nature of the sounds being produced by this massive stereo system, and I couldn’t think of a better way to end my tour of Gryphon Audio Designs.

• Go Back

To find out more about Gryphon Audio Designs, visit www.gryphon-audio.dk.