Gryphon has undertaken a quest for absolute musical truth, remaining unconditionally faithful to the musical source. One of the most important lessons that Rasmussen learned as a painter is that too much of human perception is based on expectations, on what we think we know about things and not on what we actually see or hear.
In order to properly create the illusion of something real, we must first perceive the reality accurately and understand it in detail. This lesson is the philosophical cornerstone of Gryphon Audio Designs.
As the best possible reminder of the reality that the finest audio equipment must recreate and as an indispensable tool in the development of our products, Gryphon owns an extensive collection of first and second generation master tapes of studio performances in all musical genres recorded between 1956 and 1976 during the golden age of stereo recording. These tapes represent the closest approximation to live performance, which for Gryphon is the only reliable reference. No CD or LP comes close to these original recordings for dynamics and resolution. These recordings are a valuable tool that forces Gryphon engineers to work to a higher standard than designers who only have access to ordinary commercial releases.
Gryphon also works closely with a professional recording engineer whose concert recordings allow the frequent opportunity to attend a concert and then listen to the recording immediately after. With the concert experience fresh in mind as an absolute reference, the critical evaluation of home equipment takes on new dimensions, which are reflected in the exacting standards to which every Gryphon product is designed.
1978 was the year Peter Suchy and his team developed Clearaudio's first moving coil cartridges. The patented fully symmetrical design and the choice of a boron cantilever were pioneering approaches which guide others to this day – while Clearaudio continues to refine them. 'Made in Germany' at Clearaudio stands for the highest quality, using high-end materials and the perfect technical implementation of intelligent innovation. Every product in Clearaudio's portfolio is conceived and produced by highly skilled specialists and precision engineers in the science city of Erlangen.
Since its inception, Clearaudio has amazed music lovers in more than 80 countries worldwide with analogue playback devices that set new standards of audio reproduction and constantly raise the bar a little higher. The range now also includes – in addition to high-end turntables, tonearms and cartridges – phonostages, preamplifiers, class A power amplifiers, connectors, cables and audio racks plus a wide range of accessories for maximum listening pleasure. The company has also embraced music production and now creates Clearaudio's own audiophile recordings and lovingly supervised re-releases of legendary classical discs once produced for the world famous Deutsche Grammophon.
Passionate and specialised staff, the highest quality materials, skilful workmanship, uncompromisingly accurate design and ingenious production technology – all taking place in Erlangen, centre of science and location of the world-famous Friedrich-Alexander University. Our city shapes and influences our aspirations and expertise.
In close proximity to the Fraunhofer and Max Planck Institutes, our engineers and mechanics research future technology – for ever greater acoustic quality.
Under the Clearaudio banner, highly trained perfectionists with innovative imaginations help to make audiophile visions come true.
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GoldenEar’s founders, Sandy Gross and Don Givogue, and their engineering team, including head of engineering Bob Johnston, have literally hundreds of years of combined experience and have created or helped to create many of the world’s best-sounding and best-selling loudspeakers. We have joined together again to build our finest speakers ever. We call our newest loudspeaker company GoldenEar Technology because, in our industry, a “golden ear” is someone who hears exceptionally well. Because we do, the industry and audiophile press have consistently praised us over the years for our “golden ears” and all the many loudspeaker accomplishments that our unique talents have helped us to achieve.
The GoldenEar team fully utilizes all its combined experience to deliver more sonic superiority, with performance that is often unequalled in competitors’ speakers selling for three, four or five times as much as a comparable GoldenEar speaker. Most importantly, the signature GoldenEar sound is consistent through all of our loudspeakers, regardless of price.
Why? We hear very well and we care enough to set the same sonic goals for every loudspeaker we create, whether it is our least or most expensive. We don’t feel that having less to spend means that you are looking for lesser quality. We lavish the same kind of care, expertise and experience that is usually reserved for the highest-priced high-end speakers on every GoldenEar speaker that we create. We do it because we can – and because we know that you will enjoy and appreciate the result.
Pathos Acoustics was founded in 1994 by three Italian pioneers: Gaetano Zanini, Gianni Borinato and Paolo Andriolo, in the Italian city of Vicenza. A sophisticated city in northern Italy, famous for its great monuments designed by architect Andrea Palladio. The tradition of making something outstanding has continued since the days of Palladio. Today the focus in the area is on metal production, jewellery and fashion. This city still promotes innovation and invention just as it was used to at the time of Palladio. Pathos combines past, present and future, making hi-fi jewellery small monuments. Highly technological, and with designs and sound that leave no doubt – these products offers something absolutely unique.
Pass Laboratories, Inc. was founded in 1991 by Nelson Pass. Operating out of his shop at home, Pass developed prototypes of a single-ended Class A amplifier design. At the same time, he and Mike Burley were constructing an in-house machine shop with three home-built CNC milling machines with which to produce the amplifiers when the design was finished.
The first product, the Aleph 0, shipped in 1992. It was a mono-block design rated at 70 watts into 8 ohms, and was unique in using three gain stages of power Mosfets including a push-pull output stage biased by a big constant current source. The amplifier operated as single-ended Class A up to its 70 watt rating and in push pull Class A at higher wattage.
At this time, Nelson hired his next-door neighbor, Elena Tong, to help with producing the amplifiers, and she manages much of the company to this day.
A stereo version called the Aleph 0s followed after, along with a preamp called the Aleph P. A larger version of the Aleph 0 called the Aleph 1 shipped the following year, and was a mono-block rated at 150 watts.
In 2007 Pass Labs is applying the “.5” advances to the XA series of amplifiers, with the XA100.5, XA60.6, and XA30.5 shipping as of this writing. These revisions dramatically lower distortion and noise and also dramatically improved the performance of the amplifiers into low impedance loads.
Also in 2007, Desmond Harrington assumed responsibility as President of the company. Nelson and Wayne continue development work, Joe manages sales and marketing, and Elena and Kent English manage the rest of the company. All these people still like each other, and sit in the same office everyday. This way they can all can hear everything that’s going on, laughing about most of it.
Over the last three decades, MBL has played a major part in breathtaking developments in the worldwide audio sector. MBL accompanied and influenced the birth and growth of high-end audio equipment. Throughout the entire process, MBL was driven by its special goal: to be the cutting edge market leader in terms of technology and quality. There was a time when the “Radialstrahler” was only an idea on a sketch-pad. An idea that many people believed would not work, was turned into patent. Thirty years and countless awards later, thousands of audiophiles in the whole world are now closer to their beloved music than they had ever dreamt of.
MBL’s goal remains unchanged: developing the most advanced speakers and audio players worldwide plus the establishment of a standard above all competitors – with the highest possible demand on quality. Every single MBL component is man-made, from development and design to the manufacturing, testing and listening – from the idea to the finished product. It’s up to you, the music lover, to assess the result. Your judgement, your emotion when you listen to your favourite piece of music on one of our players, this is what counts at MBL. Let yourself be enchanted by music and the design of our music equipment – all our efforts are dedicated to music and to you.
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Since 1977 Burmester Audiosysteme has been manufacturing high-end audio components of unsurpassed quality. From the very beginning the objective has been to create a perfect blend of highest-quality sound, technological innovation and timeless design. Highly trained technicians assemble all Burmester components by hand in its Berlin factory. Because “Made in Germany” is a label that is taken very seriously by Burmester. Burmester’s research and development department constantly strives to not only keep up with the latest advances but to set its own trends and standards. From the first design sketch via a number of prototypes to the final product shipped from the Berlin factory: each component that bears the Burmester name has been developed in its entirety in-house. As an audio pioneer, Burmester has created a number of legendary components that have become icons of the high-end audio universe.
